Law Commons^™

The Attorney Signature Block On A Brief: A Jumping-Off Point For Discussing Ethics, Heidi K. Brown

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Persuasive Visions: Film And Memory, Jessica Silbey

Faculty Scholarship

This commentary takes a new look at law and film studies through the lens of film as memory. Instead of describing film as evidence and foreordaining its role in truth-seeking processes, it thinks instead of film as individual, institutional and cultural memory, placing it squarely within the realm of contestability. Paralleling film genres, the commentary imagines four forms of memory that film could embody: memorabilia (cinéma vérité), memoirs (autobiographical and biographical film), ceremonial memorials (narrative film monuments of a life, person or institution), and mythic memory (dramatic fictional film). Imagining film as memory resituates film’s role in law (procedural, substantive …

Hitting The Wall As A Legal Writer, Elizabeth Fajans

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Open Access To Legal Scholarship: Dropping The Barriers To Discourse And Dialogue, Richard A. Danner

Faculty Scholarship

This article focuses on the importance of free and open access to legal scholarship and commentary on the law. It argues that full understanding of authoritative legal texts requires access to informed commentary as well as to the texts of the law themselves, and that free and open access to legal commentary will facilitate cross-border dialogue and foster international discourse in law. The paper discusses the obligations of scholars and publishers of legal commentary to make their work as widely accessible as possible. Examples of institutional and disciplinary repositories for legal scholarship are presented, as are the possible impacts of …

The Public Speaks: An Empirical Study Of Legal Communication, Christopher R. Trudeau

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Not Your Parents' Law Library: A Tale Of Two Academic Law Libraries, Julian Aiken, Femi Cadmus, Fred Shapiro

Faculty Scholarship

As academic law libraries continue to face the inevitability of a rapidly changing landscape which includes a new breed of digital users with sophisticated technological needs, it remains to be seen what libraries will look like in years to come. It is certain that libraries as we know them today will have changed, but to what extent? An ability to remain adaptable and to anticipate the evolving needs of users in a dynamic environment will continue to be key for libraries to remain relevant, and even to survive, in the 21st century; vital to this endeavor will also be an …

Deals And Dispute Resolution: Teaching Research Skills In A Short-Term Simulation Class, Karen Westwood

Faculty Scholarship

My colleague, Reference Librarian Jean Boos, and I were invited to participate in planning a Deals and Dispute Resolution class atWilliam Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, and we were told that the instructors wanted to require the students to research their issues. Our challenge was to come up with a meaningful research experience that wouldn’t devolve into a treasure hunt for the students.

In a situation where the timeframe and setup of a course don’t lend themselves to in-depth research skills instruction, librarians can still fully participate and add value for students. In our experience, this course …