Legal Writing and Research Commons^™

The Importance Of Teaching Statutes, E. Joan Blum

E. Joan Blum

No abstract provided.

Η Κύπρος Στα Δύσκολα Μονοπάτια Της Αλήθειας Και Της Συμφιλίωσης», [Cyprus Confronting The Difficult Pathway Of Truth And Reconciliation], Nicos Trimikliniotis

Nicos Trimikliniotis

[In Greek] This paper is an attempt at approaching the issue of truth and reconciliation in Cyprus in a way that draws upon both the international as well as the local struggles and traditions, in an effort to critically integrate the knowledge, experiences and allow for reflectivity. What follows is a brief sketch of a more extensive paper which reflects upon the means, goals and ultimate objectives in a manner that is open-ended and non-exhaustive to contribute towards a debate on a subject that has not received its due attention . The paper draws upon some of the debates over …

Rethinking Reconciliation And Cooperation With View To Reunification In Cyprus: Challenges For Citizens, Political And Social Actors, Nicos Trimikliniotis

Nicos Trimikliniotis

Concept The conference aims to initiate a dialogue between the two communities on the concept as well as the potential for reconciliation and cooperation in Cyprus today: at a time when working groups and technical committees are engaged in a dialogue preparing the ground for the face to face meeting between the leaders of the two communities, academics, researchers, activists and concerned citizens cannot stand by and watch; they need to find ways to constructively engage in the debate over the future of Cyprus and contribute to building trust, communication and understanding between the two communities. The conference proposes to …

Implementing Bepress' Digital Commons Institutional Repository Solution: Two Views From The Trenches, Carol A. Watson, James M. Donovan, Pamela Bluh

Institutional Repository Supporting Materials

Librarians from the University of Georgia Law Library and University of Maryland Law Library will discuss their experiences implementing Digital Commons' institutional repository product. Issues to be considered includes... - Creating a business plan to persuade law school administrators to establish an institutional repository -- how to justify the expenditure, distinguishing Digital Commons from SSRN, choosing Digital Commons rather than an open source solution - Obtaining content for the repository -- promoting the repository, building buy-in from contributors, establishing content policies, determining types of materials to be included in the repository, self-archiving versus mediated archiving - Copyright permissions -- appending …

Tercer Congreso Nacional De Organismos Públicos Autónomos, Bruno L. Costantini García

Bruno L. Costantini García

Tercer Congreso Nacional de Organismos Públicos Autónomos

"Autonomía, Reforma Legislativa y Gasto Público"

U.S. Supreme Court Interviews On Effective Legal Writing – Part I, Robert S. Anderson

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This column begins a three-part discussion of legal writing interviews given by eight of the nine sitting justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. This first part explores the two aspects of good legal writing that were the most often mentioned by the justices during their interviews: clarity and conciseness.

Searching And Researching Archives, Matilda Arvidsson

Dr Matilda Arvidsson

In this presentation I juxtapose two web pages, analyzed as archives: the Gertrude Bell archives (http://www.gerty.ncl.ac.uk/), and the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) of Iraq official web page (http://www.iraqcoalition.org/regulations/).

Following Jacques Derrida and Ann Laura Stoler, I argue that these archives should be researched not as sources of knowledge, but rather as the structuring and production of knowledge of law and colonial power. Researching law and colonial power in this way the similarities and dissimilarities in structuring the two archives as specifically online archives are analyzed in the presentation, pointing at the ways in which documents, texts, data is provided, presented …

What's In A Name? A Gen Xer And Gen Yer Explore What It Means To Be Members Of Their Generations In The Workplace, Lauren M. Collins, Elizabeth A. Yates

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

In the NextGen Librarian's Survival Guide by Rachel Singer Gordon, the author cites several reasons this time is different than times before in librarianship. Those that are most relevant to law librarianship include:

• Flattening workplace hierarchies and participative management increase the input of newer librarians in workplace decision making

• New technologies require changing skills that affect attitudes toward the integration of those technologies into our daily work

• Outside pressures, such as the prevalence of the Internet, impose a need for librarians to continually prove our relevance and improve relations with younger patrons

• The much talked about …

Do's, Dont's, And Maybes: Legal Writing Punctuation—Part I, Gerald Lebovits

Hon. Gerald Lebovits

No abstract provided.

“If The Answer Is Outsourcing, What Is The Question?”: Managing Externalization Of Library Services Ten Years After The Tempest - A Review Of The Literature, Mikhail Koulikov

Mikhail Koulikov

No abstract provided.

Using Open Access To Increase Personal Internet Presence, James M. Donovan

Institutional Repository Supporting Materials

Discusses ways to raise internet profile by taking advantage of open access scholarship opportunities

Teaching In Practice: Legal Writing Faculty As Expert Writing Consultants To Law Firms, Kathleen Elliott Vinson, E. Joan Blum

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

As experts in the pedagogy and substance of legal writing, full-time legal writing faculty who serve as writing consultants to law firms help fill an increasing need for training and support of lawyers. In addition to providing a direct benefit to lawyers and their firms, this practice benefits the legal academy by providing fresh ideas for teaching and scholarship. This article discusses generally the practice of legal writing consulting in law firms by full-time legal writing faculty. The article provides background in theory and practice, addressing why law firms seek outside consultants for this type of training and support and …

Review: Voices Of American Law: Us Supreme Court Cases Meet The 21st Century, Lauren M. Collins

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Review of documentary series Voices of American Law (Thomas B. Metzloff & Sarah Wood, producers)

Sovereignty As Discourse, Robert L. Tsai

Faculty Scholarship

This is a review of Howard Schweber's book, "The Language of Liberal Constitutionalism" (Cambridge University Press, 2007). Schweber argues that "the creation of a legitimate constitutional regime depends on a prior commitment to employ constitutional language, and that such a commitment is both the necessary and sufficient condition for constitution making." I critique the power and limits of this reformulated Lockean thesis, as well as Schweber's secondary claims that, for constitutional language to remain legitimate, it must increasingly become autonomous, specialized, and secular.

Answering "Now What?" How To Find And Interview For Your First Law Library Job., Katherine Marsh, Nathan Preuss

Katherine Marsh

No abstract provided.

Empirical Legal Research: The Next Big Thing For Law Librarians?, Darla W. Jackson

Darla W. Jackson

No abstract provided.

Brief Amici Curiae Of Iowa Professors Of Law And History, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Faculty Scholarship

This case calls upon the State of Iowa to reaffirm its historic commitment to protecting the equality and individual liberties of all of its citizens, including its lesbian and gay male citizens. It requires this Court to interpret Iowa’s unique constitution with due respect for both text and tradition. The case must be analyzed against the backdrop of Iowa’s leadership and courage in the areas of civil rights and family law, and the willingness of its judiciary to uphold constitutional mandates in the face of efforts to legislate prejudice and discrimination.

Plaintiff-Appellees seek nothing more than to share in the …

Proof Brief Of Professors Of Family Law And Jurisprudence As Amici Curiae In Support Of Plaintiff-Appellee, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Faculty Scholarship

The plaintiffs in this case met their burden of demonstrating the irrationality of Iowa’s statutory exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage. They did this, in part, by presenting social science research regarding the irrelevance of sexual orientation to parental ability and the psychological and social well-being of children raised by same-sex parents. In addition to arguing that the marriage exclusion is irrational, the plaintiffs also alleged that the exclusion should be subject to heightened scrutiny because it violates the fundamental right to marry and discriminates on the bases of gender and sexual orientation. Amici agree that the exclusion of same-sex …

The Torture Of Sami Al Arian, C. Peter Erlinder

C. Peter Erlinder

No abstract provided.

Legal Writing: Did Harvard Get It Right?, Laurel Currie Oates

Mercer Law Review

For most law students, there is a moment when, in frustration or exhaustion, they throw up their hands and scream, "There must be a better way." While many of the cases in the casebooks are interesting, learning the law one case at a time seems, at best, inefficient, and at worst, just plain stupid. Wouldn't it be much easier, and better, if law schools used the same pedagogy that is used in many other disciplines: reading assignments, lectures, and exams that test whether students have learned the information set out in those textbooks and lectures?

When students question law school …

Readability Studies: How Technocentrism Can Compromise Research And Legal Determinations, Louis J. Sirico Jr.

Working Paper Series

One way to determine whether consumers understand a document is to use a readability formula to assign it a score. These formulas calculate readability by counting such variables as the number of words and syllables in a passage or document. The idea of readability formulas has been defined as “an equation which combines those text features that best predict text difficulty. The equation is usually developed by studying the relationship between text features (e.g., words, sentences) and text difficulty (e.g., reading comprehension, reading rate, and expert judgment of difficulty).” Even though readability formulas are mechanical and imperfect, they are easy …

Why Re-Invent The Wheel? Utilize Appellate Court Briefs Databases, Emily Janoski-Haehlen

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Ownership Delusion: When Law Libraries "Buy" Electronic Documents, Are They Getting More, Or Simply Paying More?, Simon Canick

Faculty Scholarship

This article explores the issues surrounding electronic document ownership in academic libraries. It discusses the guidelines of AALL with regard to licensing electronic materials, and how it measures up to what vendors are willing to offer. The author takes a critical stance on who benefits from the electronic document ownership agreements.

More Than Just Law School: Global Perspectives On The Place Of The Practical In Legal Education, James Maxeiner

All Faculty Scholarship

Foreign experiences remind us that legal education is not just law school. They inform us that we should seek for ways not just to integrate theoretical and practical teaching, but to assure that our students or our graduates get real experience with practice. The assumption that law schools are the exclusive place for preparation for the profession of law is bad for students, bad for bar, bad for law schools, bad for the legal system and bad for society. We should look to see what we can do best and should encourage other institutions to do what they can do …

Who Killed Benazir Bhutto? Why Not Ask Charlie Wilson... Or George Bush?, C. Peter Erlinder

C. Peter Erlinder

No abstract provided.

Implementing Plain Language Into Legal Documents: The Technical Communicator's Role, Peggy Bivins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis discusses the benefits of using plain language in legal documents and the role technical communicators can play to help implement plain language. Although many definitions for plain language exist, it is best described as reader-focused communication that presents information in a manner that makes it easy for a reader to find, understand, and use the information. Plain language facilitates comprehension by using shorter, less complex sentences; active voice; and common words. All these elements aid in processing and understanding information, especially unfamiliar concepts. Laypeople, unversed in the law, frequently have difficulty understanding traditional legal writing. The complex sentences, …

Alabama, Timothy L. Coggins

Law Faculty Publications

A report on the state of Alabama's authentication of online legal resources, the first update was recorded in 2007.

Policy And Methods: Choices For Legislatures, James Maxeiner

All Faculty Scholarship

The legal methods through which one adopts and implements policy decisions profoundly affect the compatibility of policy implementation with democratic legitimacy and legal certainty of the rule of law. Indeed, the choice of legal methods can be as important as the formulation of the policy itself. While a good choice of methods will not heal a bad policy, it can help assure that a less-than-perfect choice of policy can be more forcefully realized than otherwise, it can also help improve the policy choices made and help protect democratic legitimacy and the rule of law. While deficiencies in legislation or in …

Using A Wiki To Increase Student Engagement In Administrative Law, David I.C. Thomson

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Administrative law is one of the courses students love to hate. This is particularly true in schools where Admin is a required course, since many students in the class would not take it otherwise, and gripe about being forced to. The problem with Admin law – for both the teacher and the student – is that it is such a vast topic that teaching it in a manner students can comprehend is diffi cult. When I was asked to teach Admin law last year, I looked at this as a challenge, rather than a burden. Because I am fairly comfortable …

Concurrence, Posner-Style: Ten Ways To Look At The Concurring Opinions Of Judge Richard A. Posner, Robert F. Blomquist

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.