Legal Writing and Research Commons^™

Chapter 5: Administrative Law, Gail F. Zwirner

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Low Cost Alternatives For Legal Research: Using Casemaker And Loislaw, Emily Janoski-Haehlen

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Clarion Call Or Sturm Und Drang: A Response To Pierre Schlag's Lecture On The State Of Legal Scholarship, David R. Cleveland

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Precedent And Justice, William D. Bader, David R. Cleveland

Law Faculty Publications

Precedent is the cornerstone of common law method. It is the core mechanism by which the common law reaches just outcomes. Through creation and application of precedent, common law seeks to produce justice. The appellate courts' practice of issuing unpublished, non-precedential opinions has generated considerable discussion about the value of precedent, but that debate has centered on pragmatic and formalistic values. This essay argues that the practice of issuing non-precedential opinions does more than offend constitutional dictates and present pragmatic problems to the appellate system; abandoning precedent undermines justice itself. Issuance of the vast majority of decisions as nonprecedential tears …

Judicial Opinion Writing: An Annotated Bibliography, Ruth C. Vance

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Mobile Legal Research: Do We Need An App For That?, Roger V. Skalbeck

Law Faculty Publications

A month after the conference, Thomson Reuters launched the WestlawNext iPad app. Current marketing touts mobile access to WestlawNext that is suitable on four major smartphone platforms. At right is a screen shot from the native iPad app as well as WestlawNext in Apple's Safari browser. The iPad app does not let you send documents to your Kindle, and in fact does not let you download or print items directly, as shown in the highlighted screen element in each.

Using this as a starting point, below I suggest arguments for and against using apps for mobile legal research. The focus …

Authenticating Digital Government Information, Timothy L. Coggins

Law Faculty Publications

The quotation above from St. Clair v. Johnny's Oyster & Shrimp, Inc., a 1999 US federal district court case, captures a perception of the trustworthiness of digital information that over ten years later is, in many instances, still uncomfortably close to reality. It raises two important questions with which governments providing online information and users of that information must grapple: Is digital government information reliable and trustworthy? Has the government entity providing digital information online taken the care necessary to ensure its authenticity? This chapter presents a historical perspective of authenticity of government information, provides definitions of significantterms and phrases …

Saving Some Green: Free Resources On Environmental Law, Suzanne B. Corriell

Law Faculty Publications

Environmental legal research often requires examining federal, state, and local laws, in addition to understanding science and technology. While there are many print and subscription-based resources available for a fee, websites also can help you navigate the laws and stay current with environmental news, and legal and scientific developments.

The Pennsylvania Law Record (1879-1880), Joel Fishman

Law Faculty Publications

The Pennsylvania Law Record is another short-lived legal periodical/ newspaper published in Philadelphia for slightly over a year between June 3, 1879 and June 29, 1880.

Celebrating 600 Volumes Of The Pennsylvania State Reports: The Official Reports Of The Supreme Court Of Pennsylvania (1845-2009), Joel Fishman

Law Faculty Publications

During the first week of November 2009, Volume 600 of the Pennsylvania State Reports was published, 165 years following the publication of the first volume in 1845.

Universal Citation And The American Association Of Law Libraries: A White Paper, Timothy L. Coggins

Law Faculty Publications

This white paper is a collaborative endeavor of many individuals, including members of the American Association of Law Libraries and its Digital Access to Legal Information Committee (DALIC), formerly the Electronic Legal Information Access & Citation (ELIAC) Committee. First, Justice Yvonne Kauger introduces the topic by identifying the groundbreaking steps taken by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Law librarians Carol Billings and Kathy Carlson next provide a detailed and comprehensive history of citation reform and the American Association of Law Libraries' leadership and involvement in the issue. They also summarize the citation reform steps taken in selected jurisdictions. Finally, John Cannan, …

Follow The Money! What Are You Spending On Research Sources? Part Iii: Teaching Old Resources To Do New Tricks, Shannon Kemen, Emily Janoski-Haehlen

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Local Rules In The Wake Of Federal Rule Of Appellate Procedure 32.1, David R. Cleveland

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Tribute To Mary Lawrence, Ruth C. Vance

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Another Early Pennsylvania Legal Periodical: Journal Of Jurisprudence (1821), Joel Fishman

Law Faculty Publications

In 1821, John Hall published the Journal of Jurisprudence, "a new series of The American Law Journal." It is sometimes cited under the former title or as volume seven of the American Law Journal^l that was the first law periodical published in the United States. The new volume had 542 pages, divided into three issues of 136, 136, and 270 pages. Mathew Carey & Son, one of the leading Philadelphia printers of early, nineteenth-century Philadelphia,² was the printer of the Journal. In antebellum Pennsylvania, Philadelphia served as a major printing center,³ hosting a number of …

Arkansas, Timothy L. Coggins

Law Faculty Publications

An update to the 2007 State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources.

Coke, Selden, Hale And The Oxford English Dictionary, Joel Fishman

Law Faculty Publications

Most readers will of course recognize the names of Edward Coke, John Selden and Matthew Hale as three of the most important judges/lawyers of the seventeenth-century England. Coke is widely known for his role as Chief Justice of King's Bench in the reign of James I and opposition leader in Parliament to Charles I as well as the author of Coke's Reports and the Institutes of the Lawes of England (4 vols. 1628-1644). John Selden was the major legal historian of his age and also a member of the 1628 parliament (and for whom the Selden Society is named after). …

Should You Use It? Tips On Authenticating Online Legal Sources, Emily M. Janoski-Haehlen

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

One Person's Junk, Another Person's Treasures: Dissolving A Small Law Book Collection, Gail F. Zwirner

Law Faculty Publications

Decisions to eliminate a book collection occur for various reasons, including retirement, downsizing a home library, or a sweet deal from an online vendor. Law librarians regularly receive inquiries about the purchase or donation of used law books. Many times these calls originate in a law school’s development office after an attorney school seeks his or her law school’s advice on eliminating a significant career investment. An attorney may turn to a law firm librarian for advice as well.

Helpful Resources For Handling A Domestic Relations Case, Emily M. Janoski-Haehlen

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Draining The Morass: Ending The Jurisprudentially Unsound Unpublication System, David R. Cleveland

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Overturning The Last Stone: The Final Step In Returning Precedential Status To All Opinions, David R. Cleveland

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Court Reporters Of The Supreme Court Of Pennsylvania, Joel Fishman

Law Faculty Publications

Traditionally, appellate courts in all states have published the reports of the highest and intermediate courts.¹ In recent years legal historians have written on the history of court reporting and court reports.² Many famous judges and lawyers throughout the country gained important reputations for their reporting. As court reports became more commonplace, however, the review of these reports lessened. Throughout the nineteenth century the development of court reports received attention from the legal community through reviews in many of the leading periodicals of the day. By 1900, few individual state reports were reviewed in the periodical literature. Reports …

A Failed Legal Periodical/Newspaper Of Mid-Nineteenth Century Pennsylvania: Olwine's Law Journal (December 29, 1849 To May 18, 1850), Joel Fishman

Law Faculty Publications

In reviewing the history of Pennsylvania legal periodicals, Olwine's Law Journal has one of the shortest publishing histories covering less than five months from late December 1849 to mid- May 1850.¹ The newspaper was published weekly on Saturday in quarto size, in twenty-one issues over the six-month period. Each issue consisted of eight pages, consecutively paginated, with 168 pages in the entire publication. Isaac Wayne Olwine (1827?- 1863) was the editor of the newspaper and served as Deputy Prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, whose father Anthony was prothonotary at the time.

Legal, Factual And Other Internet Sites For Attorneys And Legal Professionals, Timothy L. Coggins

Law Faculty Publications

This listing of Internet sites for legal, factual, and other research presents a variety of sources for attorneys, law students, law librarians, and others who use the Web. Initially developed for an Advanced Legal Research course and a continuing education session for legal assistants and paralegals, the listing includes sites for primary authorities, both federal and state, as well as URLs for other types of information such as names of possible expert witnesses and biographical and background information about individuals.1

The Power Of Collaboration: Worldcat's Copyright Evidence Registry, Roger V. Skalbeck

Law Faculty Publications

One of the underlying obstacles to reproducing older books is that there's no central place to look for information about what is protected by copyright and what may have passed into the public domain. Responding to this need, OCLC recently introduced a new system for tracking various copyright details for published books. The new service, still in beta, is called the WorldCat Copyright Evidence Registry (CER). It could be a very valuable resource for recording and sharing copyright status information.

Going Beyond Google: Researching News Online, Emily M. Janoski-Haehlen

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Early Pennsylvania Legal Periodical Journal Of Law, 1830-31, Joel Fishman

Law Faculty Publications

There has been much written on the history of legal periodicals, especially academic law reviews, but the early history of legal periodicals in the United States has only received cursorily review in two older articles.¹ Frederick Hicks lists forty-eight periodicals published in antebellum America, of which twelve were published in Pennsylvania, four before 1831, including no. 1 (American Law Journal, 1808-12), no. 6 (Journal of Jurisprudence, 1821), no. 11 (United States Law and Legal Intelligence, 1829-31) and no. 14 ( Journal of Law, 1830-31).² This article will review this last periodical …

The Harvard Law School Notebooks (1939-1942) Of George Means Heinitsh, Jr., Joel Fishman

Law Faculty Publications

In the mid-1980s, the Allegheny County Law Library received the Harvard Law School student notebooks of the deceased attorney George M. Heinitsh, Jr. from his daughter. I had never received a donation like this before and thought it might be worth keeping because of the Harvard connection and the total amount of books (27).