Law Commons^™

The Bluebook At Eighteen: Reflecting And Ratifying Current Trends In Legal Scholarship, A. Christine Hurt

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Six Steps To A Smaller World: Finding International Law From Your Desktop, Jennifer Sekula

Library Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Have You Seen The New Library Bar?: Designing A Legal Research Toolbar, Jennifer L. Wondracek

UF Law Faculty Publications

It seems like more and more people today are selecting their legal research results based on ease of access rather than the completeness of the results. After hearing one too many third-year law students say "I researched my entire paper on Google," I set off to create a tool that would satisfy both the desire for speed and the need for complete and authoritative research results. The tool is a legal research toolbar that integrates into a web browser and provides constant and quick access to library-sanctioned websites and databases. This paper walks readers through the design process of the …

Legal Writing Triage: Self-Edit To Solve The Most Common Style Problems, Robert S. Anderson

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This article addresses one of the most common style problems in legal writing: subject-verb issues that produce confusing or overlong sentences. It then prescribes a simple approach to curing the problem in quick, step-by-step fashion.

Legal Research And Legal Education In Africa: The Challenge For Information Literacy, Vicki Lawal

Starr Workshop Papers (2007)

This paper analyses legal research within the context of legal education in Africa, it examines some of the challenges of electronic legal research in view of the influences of online legal electronic resources and Computer Assisted legal Research (CALR) and the importance of information literacy in addressing some of the issues raised especially with regards to undergraduate legal education.

How To Present Web-Based Legal Information: Towards Library Web 2.0, Sasha Skenderija

Starr Workshop Papers (2007)

The World Wide Web has rapidly evolved from a technological into a social medium. Web 2.0 has become a metaphor for the distributed and decentralized collaboration networks on a global scale. With the recent trends of new media development, the sources available have reached a critical mass resulting in an unprecedented information overload. The urgent challenge to all information professionals, in this case law librarians, is no longer availability and direct provision of resources, but rather the filtering and highlighting. As an example of the utilization of Web 2.0 values, the Cornell Law Library (CLL) recently re-launched its website. The …

Keynote Address: Remarks At The Workshop On Tapping Into The World Of Electronic Legal Knowledge , Muna Ndulo

Starr Workshop Papers (2007)

Professor Muna Ndulo of Cornell Law School presented the keynote address at the 2007 Starr Workshop, “Tapping into the World of Electronic Legal Knowledge.” The workshop took place at Cornell Law School October 7-10, 2007 and was co-sponsored by the Starr Foundation, New York University Law Library, and Cornell Law Library.

Professor Ndulo addresses the topic of new information technologies and their importance to legal research and teaching.

U.S. Law And Legal Research, Pat Court

Starr Workshop Papers (2007)

This presentation on the basics of U.S. law offers a general outline of the fundamental sources of U.S. law. With a foundation in the three branches of government and the laws, court decisions, and regulations that flow from them, the speaker demonstrated free and fee-based electronic resources frequently used for legal research. The focus is on Westlaw, LexisNexis, PACER the Public Access to Court Electronic Records), GPOAccess, and the official U.S. Supreme Court web site. While the web has made it possible for universities, governments, courts, and others to put user-friendly law on the web for free, the most extensive …

Demand For Electronic Legal Information At The University Of Botswana , Kgomotso F. Radijeng

Starr Workshop Papers (2007)

The advent of technology has changed the way legal research is conducted. The study looks at the availability of electronic legal information at the University of Botswana, perceptions of the university legal community about such information, challenges affecting access to electronic legal information and recommended solutions to those challenges. The paper also looks at the contribution that the library can make in alleviating the challenges and addressing the different perceptions by the legal community.

Bringing Light To The Halls Of Shadow, Richard J. Peltz-Steele

Faculty Publications

Appellate judges operate in the shadows. Though they don’t see it that way. “We are judged by what we write,” said U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. True too, court proceedings and records are presumptively open to the public. The West Wing of the White House is certainly not so vulnerable to public scrutiny, and the backrooms of legislative chambers are famously smoke-filled. Yet the parts of court activity that we see and hear seem only to whet our appetite for the rest of the process. In this Preface, the author introduces the subject of the journalist and the court, …

Survey Of Cooperation Among Clinical, Pro Bono, Externship And Legal Writing Faculty, Susan Wawrose, Sarah E. Ricks

School of Law Faculty Publications

Recent surveys by a committee of the Legal Writing Institute (LWI) show that many legal writing faculty around the country are engaged in exciting and creative collaborations with their colleagues in clinics and in externship and pro bono programs. Faculty from these different programs work together around course and curriculum planning, on large and small teaching initiatives, and on scholarship. Whether the proper metaphor for this type of collaboration is collision or something more constructive, the inspiring fact is that these collaborations are taking place.

Two Educator Perspectives On Legal Research Methods, Ellen Boegel, Marissa Moran

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Creating Online Tutorials: Five Lessons Learned, Lauren M. Collins

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

In the fall of 2005, two librarians, a legal research and writing program director, and an instructional technologist at Wayne State University received a grant to create online tutorials introducing novices to the basics of legal research. Tutorials were planned on subjects that the library and the legal research and writing program had traditionally covered jointly via library workshops, coordinated with classroom instruction for first-year law students. Since the mission of the law library is to support campus-wide activity and to assist members of the general public with legal research needs, the content of the tutorials was designed to serve …

Road To Legal Writing Paved With Attention To Reader, Kathleen Elliott Vinson

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

Writers need to write for their reader, not themselves. Writers should think of their reader when drafting any document. Writers should be kind to their readers by being clear, concise, thorough and precise. This Article discusses ways writers can guide their reader throughout a document and make their points explicit and obvious.

Rebooting The Approach To Teaching Research: Embracing The Computer Age, Carrie Teitcher

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

And Your Point Is? Write Directly, Robert S. Anderson

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This article suggests two strategies for making your writing more direct: (1) make the reader a promise to be direct in the introduction of your piece; and (2) keep that promise by organizing the material to match the preview provided in your introduction and adopting a style that does not waste words.

From The Treasurer: Aall Funds Initiatives, Joyce Manna Janto

Law Faculty Publications

Report of AALL financial status at the end of FY 2005-2006.

Legal Information Management In A Global And Digital Age: Revolution And Tradition, Claire M. Germain

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This article presents an overview of the public policy issues surrounding digital libraries, and describes some current trends, such as Web 2.0, the social network. It discusses the impact of globalization and the Internet on international and foreign law information, the free access to law movement and open access scholarship, and mass digitization projects, then turns to some concerns, focusing on preservation and long term access to born digital legal information and authentication of official digital legal information It finally discusses new roles for librarians, called upon to evaluate the quality of information; teach legal research methodology; and be advocates …

Neutral Citation, Court Web Sites, And Access To Authoritative Case Law, Peter W. Martin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In 1994, the Wisconsin Bar and the Wisconsin Judicial Council together urged the state’s supreme court to take two dramatic steps with the combined aim of improving access to state case law: adopt a new system of neutral format citation and establish a digital archive of decisions directly available to all publishers and the public. The recommendations set off a firestorm, and the court deferred decision on the package. In the dozen or so years since those events, the background conditions have shifted dramatically. Neutral format citation has been endorsed by AALL and the ABA and formally adopted in a …

From The Reference Desk To River City: A Bibliography Of The Writings Of Robert C. Berring, Frank G. Houdek

Publications

Professor Houdek documents the prolific and eclectic body of work of Robert C. Berring, including the books, chapters, articles, and assorted other materials he has written to date on subjects ranging from law libraries and legal information to legal research instruction and Chinese law and history.

Suggestions On How To Conduct Empirical Research: A Behind-The-Scenes View, Robin A. Boyle, Joanne Ingham

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

The conference theme of empirical research at the 2006 Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting, held in Washington,D.C., indicated an interest on the part of doctrinal and skills professors to conduct their own studies. The conference title, Empirical Scholarship:What Should We Study and How Should We Study It?, along with the plentiful workshops on the topic, evidenced the acceptance in the academe of empiricism.As a researcher noted, “Empirical legal scholarship … is arguably the next big thing in legal intellectual thought.”

Assisting legal writing professors with their growing interest in conducting empirical studies, the authors presented at the …

Looking Backward: Richard Epstein Ponders The “Progressive” Peril, Michael Allan Wolf

UF Law Faculty Publications

In "How Progressives Rewrote the Constitution," Richard Epstein bemoans the growth of a dominant big government. How Progressives should receive a warm reception from the audience, lawyers and laypeople alike, who view the New Deal as a mistake of epic proportions. For the rest of us, significant gaps will still remain between, on the one hand, our understanding of the nation’s past and of the complex nature of constitutional lawmaking and, on the other, Epstein’s version of the nature of twentieth-century reform and Progressive jurisprudence.

The Rhetoric Of Symmetry, Karen Petroski

All Faculty Scholarship

References to the concept of symmetry have appeared in judicial opinions, advocacy efforts, and scholarly commentary throughout American legal history. But for every legal writer who invokes the concept as a logical or moral ideal, there is another who dismisses it as a formalistic distraction or an arid illusion. What is more, although legal writers virtually always use the term “symmetry” as if its meaning were self-evident, in fact they have used the same term to refer to a variety of distinct concepts, each with its own ambiguities.

Best Brief, 2007 Intrastate Moot Court Competition, Tully T. Blalock, Cameron D. Hawkins, David L. Pilson

Competition Materials

ATHENS, Ga. - The University of Georgia School of Law recently captured the 2007 Intrastate Moot Court Championship when it bested a team from Georgia State University for the win. Every year, each law school in the state fields two teams in the competition.

Second-year students Tully T. Blalock, Cameron D. Hawkins and David L. Pilson comprised the winning team, while another Georgia Law team of second-year students James E. Butler, Rachel D. Horton and Catherine D. Runion advanced to the semifinal round. Both groups were coached by third-year students Lauren L. Mock and Glenn T. Singleton.

The winning team …

E-Etiquette: Thoughtful E-Mail Correspondence, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Dear Readers: This is an example of a traditional business letter. The salutation above is formal; it starts with "Dear" and ends with a colon. The body uses edited prose that follows standard capitalization and punctuation rules. A complimentary closing, "Sincerely," serves as the conclusion.

Comments On The Comments, Robert S. Summers

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The paper replies to Bix and Soper (Bix 2007; Soper 2007). Bix’s paper raises methodological questions, especially whether a form-theorist merely needs to reflect on form from the arm-chair so to speak. A variety of methods is called for, including conceptual analysis, study of usage, “education in the obvious,” general reflection on the nature of specific functional legal units, empirical research on their operation and effects, and still more. Further methodological remarks are made in response to Soper’s paper. Soper suggests the possibility of substituting “form v. substance” of a unit as the central contrast here rather than form v. …

Third Best Brief, 2007 Aba National Appellate Advocacy Competition, Shunta R. Harmon, Leslie B. Horne, Rebecca M. Thornhill

Competition Materials

The ABA Law Student Division's National Appellate Advocacy Competition (NAAC) emphasizes the development of oral advocacy skills through a realistic appellate advocacy experience. Competitors participate in a hypothetical appeal to the United States Supreme Court. The competition involves writing a 40-page brief as either respondent or petitioner and then arguing the case in front of the mock court. This year the teams argued the case McCarthy v. United States, a fictional appeal, to the Supreme Court.

Second-year students Shunta R. Harmon, Leslie B. Horne and Rebecca captured the regional championship and third best brief. Third-year student Stephen A. Shea and …

Best Brief, 17th Annual National First Amendment Moot Court Competition, Bret Hobson, Lauren Mock

Competition Materials

From First Amendment Center News Release:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The team from George Mason University School of Law won the 17th Annual National First Amendment Moot Court Competition today at the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University.

Recognized for “best brief” in the competition were Bret Hobson and Lauren Mock of the University of Georgia School of Law; and for “best oralist,” Ryan Faulconer of the University of Virginia School of Law.

The competition this year focused on a hypothetical case involving commercial speech, specifically attorney advertising. Teams of student advocates from 35 law schools argued both sides of complex …

Navigating “Social Networking” Tools: Blogs, Wikis, Rss Feeds And Beyond, Elizabeth Geesey Holmes

Presentations

What are “social networking” tools, and why should lawyers care about them? Wikipedia, itself built on social networking software, notes that social networking refers to a category of Internet applications to help connect friends, business partners, or other individuals together using a variety of tools. These applications, known as online social networks are becoming increasingly popular. This phenomenon is also known as Web 2.0. Jack Maness, a librarian at University of Colorado at Boulder, defines it as, “not a web of textual publication, but a web of multi-sensory communication … a matrix of dialogues, not a collection of monologues. It …

Rebuilding The Profession: Recommendations For Librarians Interested In Becoming Academic Law Library Directors, Frank G. Houdek

Publications

Based on papers presented at a 2005 workshop for individuals interested in becoming academic law library directors, this article begins by exploring the duties of academic director jobs -- administrative skills and faculty responsibilities -- before examining how to build credentials in preparation for such jobs. It concludes by focusing on the skills and knowledge needed to interview for director jobs.