Law Commons^™

Analysis Of Freedom Of Information For Its Effect On Society, Considering The Arab Spring, Paul D. Callister, Kimberlee C. Everson

Paul D. Callister

2011, the year of the Arab Spring, presents a unique opportunity to look back and study how the relative freedom and development of information environments affect stability in nations throughout the Middle East and world. Such study raises interesting questions about whether freedom of information and speech are ultimately stabilizing influences for society in terms of loyalty, violence and political unrest—questions all the more important as societies face the onslaught of the internet, mobile devices and cell phones. Are non-democratic regimes “better off” by monopolizing and controlling the flow of information over new information channels? Are democratic societies, particularly developing …

The Metacognitive Imperative, Paul D. Callister

Paul D. Callister

This book chapter elucidates why metacognition is a seminal pedagogical principle of legal research instruction and information literacy. This begins with a holistic definition of metacognition as the ability to assess, not only the result of a research activity, but the schemata, including the processes leading to the result; and then relating this to other concepts and principles applicable to legal education. It then explains why students’ development of metacognitive abilities is an imperative to legal information literacy and other signature pedagogies currently under development. The relationship of metacognition to the pedagogical underpinnings and objectives of the Carnegie Report is …

Time To Blossom: An Inquiry Into Bloom’S Taxonomy As A Means To Ordered Legal Research Skills, Paul D. Callister

Paul D. Callister

Within law librarianship and legal education, there has been far too little scholarly engagement on the underlying pedagogy at the heart of legal research instruction. To correct this deficiency, law librarianship needs to open a dialogue and should consider adapting Bloom’s Taxonomy as a common schema for a collaborative effort. This paper was initially presented at the "Conference on Legal Information: Scholarship and Teaching," held at the University of Colorado Law School on June 21-22, 2009, as part of its Boulder Summer Conference Series. It follows the author's own recently published challenge to law librarianship and legal research instructors to …

Thinking Like A Research Expert: Schemata For Teaching Complex Problem-Solving Skills, Paul D. Callister

Paul D. Callister

The difference between expert and novice problem-solvers is that experts have organized their thinking into schemata or mental constructs to both see and solve problems. This article demonstrates why schemata are important, arguing that schemata need to be made explicit in the classroom. It illustrates the use of schemata to understand and categorize complex research problems, map the terrain of legal research resources, match appropriate resources to types of problems, and work through the legal research process. The article concludes by calling upon librarians and research instructors to produce additional schemata and develop a common hierarchical taxonomy of skills, a …

Books Above The Throne: Geopolitical And Technological Factors Exalting Textual Authority In Seventeenth-Century England, Paul D. Callister

Paul D. Callister

Actualization of the rule of law necessitates more than the enumeration of individual rights and the careful articulation of divided powers, but the presence of an information or media environment conducive to such rule. Specifically, in the case of seventeenth-century England, it is the ascendancy of the printed book, as characteristic of the information environment, that effectively establishes a limitation on royal power.

The article applies geopolitical, temporal, and technological factors of “media theory” to seventeenth-century England in order to understand the effects of the information environment upon legal institutions and government. It considers factors such as the textuality of …

Identity And Market For Loyalties Theories: The Case For Free Information Flow In Insurgent Iraq, Paul D. Callister

Paul D. Callister

When monopoly control over the flow of information is lost, the unavoidable consequence is destabilization. Information flow through a society can be understood as a market - not a market exchanging cash for goods, but loyalty for identity. Hence the market is called the Market for Loyalties - so labeled by an economics of information theory first developed by Prof. Monroe Price, of Cardozo Law School, and Director of the Howard M. Squadron Program in Law, Media and Society, to explain government regulation of radio, TV, cable and satellite broadcasting.

In post-invasion Iraq, Saddam Hussein lost or monopoly control over …

Law's Box: Law, Jurisprudence And The Information Ecosphere, Paul D. Callister

Paul D. Callister

For so long as it has been important to know “what the law is,” the practice of law has been an information profession. Nonetheless, just how the information ecosphere affects legal discourse and thinking has never been systematically studied. Legal scholars study how law attempts to regulate information flow, but they say little about how information limits, shapes, and provides a medium for law to operate.

Part I of the paper introduces a holistic approach to “medium theory”—the idea that methods of communication influence social development and ideology—and applies the theory to the development of legal thinking and institutions. Part …

Beyond Training: Law Librarianship’S Quest For The Pedagogy Of Legal Research Instruction, Paul D. Callister

Paul D. Callister

The paper (I) outlines the nature and extent of the dissatisfaction with legal research instruction and demonstrates that the problem predates computer-assisted legal research, (II) presents the history of the debate (focusing on a heated exchange between advocates of a “process-oriented” approach and proponents of the traditional, “bibliographic” methods), and (III) presents the requisite elements of a satisfactory pedagogical model, discussing various issues surrounding each of these elements.

In part III, the paper proposes that a complete pedagogical model requires (A) an identifiable and fully understood objective in teaching legal research (which objective must distinguish between the kinds of research …

The Internet, Regulation And The Market For Loyalties: An Economic Analysis Of Transborder Information Flow, Paul D. Callister

Paul D. Callister

As the Internet has gained prevalence, attention has turned to its regulation. Indeed, regulation proves to be a unique and complex problem, given the Internet's lack of traditional borders and boundaries. Highlighting possible avenues of regulation, the author discusses neo-classical economic theory, specifically Monroe E. Price's "market for loyalties" theory. Although originally applied to the regulation of broadcasting, the author contends that the "market for loyalties" theory can also be applied to the Internet. Building on Professor Price's pioneering analysis, the article extends the theory to examine market elasticity's effect on the loss of monopoly control over information flow (as …