Law Commons^™

Fastcase Features: A Quick Guide For Former Casemaker Users, Baylee Suskin

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No abstract provided.

Against The Wind: James Boyd White And The Struggle To Keep Law Alive, Todd M. Stafford

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No abstract provided.

Westlaw’S Key Number System, Aamir S. Abdullah

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No abstract provided.

Hunting And Gathering On The Legal Information Savannah, Susan Nevelow Mart, Adam Litzler, David Gunderman

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This article asks, what is it like for novice researchers to research real-world legal problems using four platforms: Bloomberg Law, Fastcase, Lexis Advance, and Westlaw? The study findings produced some surprises, as well as some clear implications for teaching legal research.

7 Everyday Useful Westlaw Tips. Plus, Bonus Trick List!, Aamir S. Abdullah

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No abstract provided.

Researching Colorado Employment Law, Jill Sturgeon

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No abstract provided.

Introduction To The Symposium: The Stakes For Critical Legal Theory, Elizabeth S. Anker, Justin Desautels-Stein

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No abstract provided.

A Novel Response: How Law Libraries Adapted To The Pandemic, Aamir S. Abdullah

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No abstract provided.

A Grammar Of Legal Thought, Derek H. Kiernan-Johnson

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No abstract provided.

De-Democratizing Criminal Law, Benjamin Levin

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No abstract provided.

From The Courtroom To The Classroom: How A Litigator Became A Transactional Drafting Professor, Amy Bauer

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No abstract provided.

A Reconsideration Of Copyright's Term, Kristelia A. García, Justin Mccrary

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For well over a century, legislators, courts, lawyers, and scholars have spent significant time and energy debating the optimal duration of copyright protection. While there is general consensus that copyright’s term is of legal and economic significance, arguments both for and against a lengthy term are often impressionistic. Utilizing music industry sales data not previously available for academic analysis, this Article fills an important evidentiary gap in the literature. Using recorded music as a case study, we determine that most copyrighted music earns the majority of its lifetime revenue in the first five to ten years following its initial release …

The Architecture Of Drama: How Lawyers Can Use Screenwriting Techniques To Tell More Compelling Stories, Teresa M. Bruce

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Hollywood writers have a secret. They know how to tell a compelling story—so compelling that the top-grossing motion pictures rake in millions, and sometimes billions, of dollars. How do they do it? They use a simple formula involving three acts that propel the story forward, three "plot points" that focus on the protagonist, and two "pinch points" that focus on the adversary. The attached Article argues that lawyers should build their stories in the same way Hollywood writers do. It deconstructs the storytelling formula used in movies and translates it into an IRAC-like acronym, SCOR. Attorneys who use SCOR will …

Inside The Black Box Of Search Algorithms, Susan Nevelow Mart, Joe Breda, Ed Walters, Tito Sierra, Khalid Al-Kofahi

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A behind-the-scenes look at the algorithms that rank results in Bloomberg Law, Fastcase, Lexis Advance, and Westlaw.

Bloomberg’S Points Of Law: Can They Compete With Headnotes?, Jill Sturgeon

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No abstract provided.

Book Review, Anna Spain Bradley

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No abstract provided.

The Consensus Myth In Criminal Justice Reform, Benjamin Levin

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It has become popular to identify a “consensus” on criminal justice reform, but how deep is that consensus, actually? This Article argues that the purported consensus is much more limited than it initially appears. Despite shared reformist vocabulary, the consensus rests on distinct critiques that identify different flaws and justify distinct policy solutions. The underlying disagreements transcend traditional left/right political divides and speak to deeper disputes about the state and the role of criminal law in society.

The Article maps two prevailing, but fundamentally distinct, critiques of criminal law: (1) the quantitative approach (what I call the “over” frame); and …

Dethroning The Hierarchy Of Authority, Amy J. Griffin

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The use of authority in legal argument is constantly evolving—both the types of information deemed authoritative and their degree of authoritativeness—and that evolution has accelerated in recent years with dramatic changes in access to legal information. In contrast, the uncontroversial and ubiquitous “hierarchy of authority” used as the cornerstone for all legal analysis has remained entirely fixed. This article argues that the use of the traditional hierarchy as the dominant model for legal authority is deeply flawed, impeding a deeper understanding of the use of authority in legal argument. Lawyers, judges, and academics all know this, and yet no scholarly …

Understanding The Human Element In Search Algorithms And Discovering How It Affects Search Results, Susan Nevelow Mart

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When legal researchers search in online databases for the information they need to solve a legal problem, they need to remember that the algorithms that are returning results to them were designed by humans. The world of legal research is a human-constructed world, and the biases and assumptions the teams of humans that construct the online world bring to the task are imported into the systems we use for research. This article takes a look at what happens when six different teams of humans set out to solve the same problem: how to return results relevant to a searcher’s query …

What A Technical Services Librarian Wants Their Library Director To Know, Georgia Briscoe

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Promoting the value of technical services librarians in the digital age.

The Potemkin Temptation Or, The Intoxicating Effect Of Rhetoric And Narrativity On American Craft Whiskey, Derek H. Kiernan-Johnson

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No abstract provided.

Researching Colorado Health Law, Kerri Rowe

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No abstract provided.

Results May Vary, Susan Nevelow Mart

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No abstract provided.

Tracking Colorado Legislation, Robert Linz

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No abstract provided.

Two Pedagogies In Search Of Synergy, Lisa Schultz, Susan Nevelow Mart

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Anyone who has taught a first-year legal research course understands the dilemma: How do we weave research skills into the writing program without sacrificing the quality or quantity of either discipline? In fact, it is difficult and time consuming to interweave any serious legal research instruction into a first-year writing course. What the students need to know is not just how to do a little case law research or how to find a statute: they need to also know how to formulate a research plan, how to evaluate a database, what kind of search works in different information environments, and …

Memorandum, Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. V. Colo. Civil Rights Comm., __ U.S. __ (2017): Legislative History Of Sb08-200, Matt Simonsen

Research Data

This legal Memorandum on the legislative history of a 2008 amendment to the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA) was researched and written by Matt Simonsen, J.D. Candidate 2019, University of Colorado Law School, and submitted to law professors Craig Konnoth and Melissa Hart. The Memorandum is cited in Brief of Amici Curiae Colorado Organizations and Individuals in Support of Respondents, Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, __U.S.__ (2018) (No. 16-111).

4 p.

"The legislative history primarily identifies two issues that SB08-200 was designed to resolve: (1) the need for dignity and access to justice for LGBT people and …

Master File, Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. V. Colo. Civil Rights Comm., __ U.S. __ (2017): Legislative History Of Sb08-200, Matt Simonsen

Research Data

This Master File of the legislative history of a 2008 amendment to the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA) was researched and compiled by Matt Simonsen, J.D. Candidate 2019, University of Colorado Law School, and submitted to law professors Craig Konnoth and Melissa Hart. The SB08-200 Master File is cited in Brief of Amici Curiae Colorado Organizations and Individuals in Support of Respondents, Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, __U.S.__ (2018) (No. 16-111).

449 p.

Data For The Algorithm As A Human Artifact: Implications For Legal [Re]Search, Susan Nevelow Mart

Research Data

These documents underlie and are cited in this empirical study: Susan Nevelow Mart, The Algorithm as a Human Artifact: Implications for Legal [Re]Search, 109 Law Libr. J. 387, 409 n.123 (2017), available at http://scholar.law.colorado.edu/articles/755/.

The ZIP file contains three files: one PDF document ("Tables for Charts 1-3"), and two SPSS files ("Data Archive" and "Syntax Archive" (SPSS version 24)). The "Syntax Archive" file may be viewed in a text editor (e.g., Notepad) as well as in SPSS.

Appendix B: The Algorithm As A Human Artifact: Implications For Legal [Re]Search, Susan Nevelow Mart

Research Data

This document, "Search Instructions for Algorithm Study," is an electronic Appendix B to, and is cited in, the empirical study: Susan Nevelow Mart, The Algorithm as a Human Artifact: Implications for Legal [Re]Search, 109 Law Libr. J. 387, 400 n.78 (2017), available at http://scholar.law.colorado.edu/articles/755/.

Introducing Govinfo: A New Source For Federal Government Documents Online, Erik Beck

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No abstract provided.