Abstract: This paper discusses the evolution of online access to legal doctrine and some of the factors underlying the writing, production and dissemination of legal doctrine in England and Wales with some reference to the USA. This involves a discussion of legal doctrine in the context of scholarly legal writing. It includes a discussion of the activity as well as the product: the nature of the communities which primarily produce the legal writing classed as doctrine and the drivers for their behaviour. The nature of the ongoing transition from print production and distribution to online availability in a wide variety of models and the impact of the change of form on the content is also considered. This is a pre-print of a chapter submitted for inclusion in a volume to be published by Giappichelli provisionally titled l'accesso e la ricerca di dottrina giuridica: nuove prospettive edited by Sebastiano Fato and Ginevra Peruginelli.