Legal Writing and Research Commons^™

Front Matter

Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

Front Matter includes Masthead, advisors, and Table of Contents for the Intercultural Human Rights Law Review Volume 9 (2014).

Government Internet Resources: Federal, State And Local, David E. Matchen Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

This presentation discusses the basic outlines of federal legal research as well as state and local legal research. Discussion of state and local legal research is limited to Maryland, but many states have comparable systems.

College Students And State Voter Id Laws: Can I Vote In The State Where I Attend College? I Have A Student Id Card, Tracey Carter

Law Faculty Scholarship

Presidential debates are purposely held on college campuses because it is well-known that college students are a large voting population who often serve as leaders when it comes to political activism and community involvement. Moreover, when students leave home to attend college, some of them want to vote in their college towns. In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court in its 1979 landmark decision in Symm v. United States held that students have the constitutional right to register and vote where they attend college. However, despite the Symm’s decision and other constitutional protections, college students also have to be knowledgeable about …

Menu Labeling: The Unintended Consequences To The Consumer, Ellen A. Black

Law Faculty Scholarship

Why are Americans, along with the rest of the most populous nations, more overweight than twenty or thirty years ago? Most nutritionists and scientists agree that the answer is complex and multifaceted, with genetics, exercise, and diet all playing at least a partial role. Americans, for the last thirty years, have been reportedly eating out at restaurants more frequently than they have been eating at home; as a result, the restaurant industry has been blamed, in part, for the rise in obesity, based upon the presumption that more calories are consumed at restaurants than at home. Yet determining the underlying …

Reality Over Ideology: A Practical View Of Special Needs Voucher Programs, Elizabeth Adamo Usman

Law Faculty Scholarship

In many school systems across the country, children with disabilities are not receiving the education that they are entitled to by law and need in order to reach their full potential. Although there are certainly triumphant examples of school systems that have succeeded in supporting students with special needs, there are unfortunately far too many examples of neglect, misunderstanding, and, ultimately, failure across the country. Into this struggling system emerges an expanding and difficult challenge that only adds further pressure. Due to the growing numbers of children diagnosed with Autism and the level of expertise required to deal with many …

Resolving The Great Divide In Pregnancy Discrimination, Lynn Ridgeway Zehrt

Law Faculty Scholarship

The Supreme Court granted certiorari on July 1, 2014, in the Fourth Circuit case of Young v. United Parcel Service, to resolve a fundamental disagreement between the federal courts of appeals over the extent to which employers are required to provide reasonable accommodations to pregnant workers under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978. Prior to granting certiorari, the Supreme Court invited the Solicitor General to submit an amicus curiae brief providing the position of the United States. It was the opinion of the Solicitor General that the Fourth Circuit “erred in holding that petitioner failed to establish a prima facie …

Twenty Years Of Compromise: How The Caps On Damages In The Civil Rights Act Of 1991 Codified Sex Discrimination, Lynn Ridgeway Zehrt

Law Faculty Scholarship

This article takes a novel approach and reexamines the legislative history surrounding the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 with a central focus on exploring the issue of capped damages. Part I begins by briefly contrasting and summarizing the diverging remedies available under 42 U.S.C. § 1981 and Title VII. The article then shifts in Part II to an examination of the political climate and legislative history that forged the enactment of the 1991 Act, paying particular attention to the debate surrounding damages. This history reveals that many members of Congress had a discriminatory motive in capping damages …

Influences Of The Digest Classification System: What Can We Know?, Richard A. Danner

Faculty Scholarship

Robert C. Berring has called West Publishing Company’s American Digest System “the key aspect of the new form of legal literature” that West and other publishers developed in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Berring argued that West’s digests provided practicing lawyers not only the means for locating precedential cases, but a “paradigm for thinking about the law itself” that influenced American lawyers until the development of online legal research systems in the 1970s. This article discusses questions raised by Berring’s scholarship, and examines the late nineteenth and early twentieth century legal environment in which the West digests were …

Rife With Latent Power: Exploring The Reach Of The Irs To Determine Tax-Exempt Status According To Public Policy Rationale In An Era Of Judicial Deference, Amy L. Moore

Law Faculty Scholarship

Using the case of Bob Jones University v. United States as a springboard, this article contends that the IRS has the legal authority to revoke the 501(c)(3) tax-exempt statuses of any institution that the IRS deems to be in violation of public policy. The first step to such an expansion might be to apply to private, religious universities that practice discrimination in areas other than race (e.g. gender and sexual orientation). This article traces the background and analysis of the Supreme Court decision in Bob Jones and how the Court left the door open for the IRS to make other …

The Quest For Finality: Five Stories Of White Collar Criminal Prosecution, Lucian E. Dervan

Law Faculty Scholarship

In this symposium article, Professor Dervan examines the issue of finality and sentencing. In considering this issue, he argues that prosecutors, defendants, and society as a whole are drawn to the concept of finality in various ways during criminal adjudications. Further, far from an aspirational summit, he argues that some outgrowths of this quest for finality could be destructive and, in fact, obstructive to some of the larger goals of our criminal justice system, including the pursuit of truth and the protection of the innocent. Given the potential abstraction of these issues, Professor Dervan decided to discuss the possible consequences …

Finding The Lost Involuntary Public Figure, Jeffrey Omar Usman

Law Faculty Scholarship

This Article begins in Part I through observation of the beginning and development of the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence on the constitutional limitations imposed upon defamation actions under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Part II of the Article then briefly sets forth the constitutional framework that the Supreme Court imposed in 1974 on defamation actions in Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. The Article then addresses in Part III how the pressures of the First Amendment have eroded the structure that Gertz built. In doing so, Part III specifically explores the expanding definition of who constitutes a public official …

Creating And Teaching A Specialized Legal Research Course: The Benefits And Considerations, Erika Cohn

All Faculty Scholarship

This article outlines the author's experience creating and teaching a specialized legal research course. It includes the reasons for offering such a course, tips for selecting a topic and developing a syllabus, getting the course approved, creating student interest, developing a teaching plan, and evaluating the course.

Hiding In Plain Sight: "Conspicuous Type" Standards In Mandated Communication Statutes, Mary Beth Beazley

Scholarly Works

Professor Beazley defines the concept of mandated communication statutes in this examination of typeface, language, and the mind's ability to comprehend certain syntax. This article has a simple premise: when a government mandates written communication, it should present the mandated communication in a way that speeds comprehension. When communication is so important that the government is mandating the words and the presentation method, the writer and not the reader should not bear the burden of making sure that the information is comprehensible. In other words, the reader should not have to work to decipher the information; the writer should work …

Not Just For Scouting Anymore: Digital Badges For Legal Research Skills, Alcasid Hannah, Susan David Demaine, Catherine A. Lemmer, Benjamin J. Keele

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Morris L. Cohen: A Bibliography Of His Works, Camilla Tubbs

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Writing (And Reading) Appellate Briefs In The Digital Age, Mary Beth Beazley

Scholarly Works

In this essay, Professor Beazley briefly reviews a slice of the voluminous research about how human beings read digital as opposed to paper text. In particular, she discusses studies of knowledge workers (defined to include those who use or generate knowledge in their work)4 and those who engage in active reading (defined as a reading process that includes nonsequential reading, searching a text, comparing texts, annotating, bookmarking, and the like).She concludes by making suggestions for legal readers, legal writers, courts, and database providers as to how best to accommodate the process of digital reading.

Libguides, Blog Posts, And Articles, Oh My!, Marie Stefanini Newman, Taryn L. Rucinski

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

“Publish, publish, publish!” is a piece of advice commonly offered to students by career services departments in law schools across the country. Student publications typically take the form of law review or bar journal articles or perhaps competition submissions; however, with the advent of accessible Web 2.0 technologies, publishing has evolved to encompass all sorts of content, styles, lengths, and audiences.

The Pace Law Library approach has been mostly electronic in nature and incorporates into Pace’s advanced legal research courses portfolio pieces such as student-authored research guides, blog posts, and bar journal articles. Moreover, student notes that satisfy the school’s …

Visual Clarity In Contract Drafting, Karin Mika

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

No abstract provided.

Solving Your Ethical Conundrums: Researching The Rules Of Professional Conduct, Joyce Manna Janto

Law Faculty Publications

Ms. Janto provides a practical guide to researching issues of attorney professional responsibilities using both print and online resources, emphasizing Virginia rules and decisions.

Virginia Cle Sources: Important Practitioner Tools For Forty Years, Gail F. Zwirner

Law Faculty Publications

Observing the 40th anniversary of the Virginia Law Foundation, Ms. Zwirner highlights some of the foundation's continuing legal education publications of frequent value to practitioners.

This article focuses primarily on the deskbook sources that are the go-to materials in many subject areas for Virginia practitioners. The publisher offers all these sources on CD, USB, or downloads. The titles include the forms that practitioners savor as good starting points for their clients’ needs. These forms account for many reference desk success stories for practitioners who rely on Gouldman’s Virginia Forms and are disappointed when that group does not provide the specificity …

Law Libraries And Options Galore, Gail F. Zwirner

Law Faculty Publications

Ms. Zwirner outlines some of the challenges facing the researcher in deciding which resources to use in pursuing information, and makes a case for the continued value of professional law librarians' insight and experience for assisting in these pursuits.

Websites With Free Legal Information, Patricia Morgan

UF Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

W&L Law Fall Scholarship Celebration 2013, Nora V. Demleitner

Library Events

On November 14, 2013, the Washington and Lee Law Library hosted a first-of-its-kind Fall Scholarship Celebration. The event took place in the Law Library's main reading room from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

On display were dozens of scholarly articles, books, chapters, and amicus briefs authored by the W&L Law faculty and student body during 2012 and 2013, with hundreds of additional works accessible online through the Scholarly Commons institutional repository.

Faculty, librarians, staff, and administrators mingled with law students over hors d'oeuvres and wine to peruse the formidable scholarly output of the W&L Law community. Spouses, alumni, faculty from …

Web-Scale Discovery And Federated Search, Valeri Craigle

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

In stark contrast to the library card catalogs of old, today’s library search interfaces offer much more than one-dimensional, item-specific searching. Users are now engaged in a process of discovery in which they are empowered to control not only the sources of content being searched, but also the context into which information is delivered, and the platform onto which information is synthesized. By eliminating the barriers to information discovery, law libraries can position themselves as true partners in this process, defining their mission in new ways, and providing critical services in an ever-complex information ecosystem.

Take A P.A.S.S. On Your Next Legal Document, Melissa N. Henke

Law Faculty Popular Media

In this column for Kentucky Bar Association's magazine (B&B - Bench & Bar), Professor Henke suggests that writers to contemplate: Purpose, Audience, Scope, and Stance. The goal is to improve the legal writing of practicing lawyers.

Global Health And Human Rights: Legal And Philosophical Perspectives; The Right To Health In International Law, Erika George

Faculty Scholarship

John Harrington and Maria Stuttaford (eds). Global Health and Human Rights: Legal and Philosophical Perspectives. New York: Routledge, 2010. Pp. 232. £85 (pbk £24.99). ISBN: 9780415479387.

John Tobin. The Right to Health in International Law. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. Pp. 440. £74. ISBN: 9780199603299.

Two recent publications present a defence of the right to health as it is articulated in international law and also provide insights into the array of impediments to realizing the health right. Despite a perceived conceptual lack of coherence and a limited appreciation of its relevance among health care professionals identified in …

From The Editor: Passing The Torch, Janet Sinder

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Something Bad In Your Briefs, Richard H. Underwood

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In a profession heavily driven by writing, plagiarism is an ethical issue that plagues the legal community. The legal profession generally views plagiarism as unethical, but often sends mixed messages by condemning it in some settings, but not others. In this short Commentary, Professor Underwood discusses the ethical implications of plagiarism in legal writing.

A Third Semester Of Lrw: Why Teaching Transactional Skills And Problems Is Now Essential To The Legal Writing Curriculum, Karin Mika

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The article advocates including drafting and transactional courses in Legal Writing programs to better prepare students for practice. The article also advocates teaching various upper level skills courses so that students learn "soft skills," such as dealing with clients and understanding their personal legal needs.

Whittling: Drafting Concise And Effective Appellate Briefs, Brian K. Keller

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

No abstract provided.