Legal Writing and Research Commons^™

Copyright And Research In Google Book Search, Benjamin J. Keele

Library Staff Publications

Many researchers—even trained professionals—often use the Google search engine to begin searches for information. Google’s many products enable researchers to search public websites, scholarly articles, and even patents. One vast area of information not yet thoroughly indexed by Google is print books. Google Book Search (also at times referred to as Google Books, Google Print and Google Library Project) is the company’s effort to digitize and index the world’s print literature.

Lost In Translation: Linguistic Minorities In The European Union, Nirvana Bhatia

Human Rights & Human Welfare

“A nation without a language is a nation without a soul,” declares a Gaelic proverb. Indubitably, language is a product of national identity; it preserves heritage, reflects societal beliefs and values, and expresses a cultural spirit. The current international human rights regime, however, does not recognize an individual’s right to language choice; instead, it promises freedom from linguistic discrimination. The implications are not quite the same and, as a result, states have successfully repressed minority populations by controlling their language options. The European Union in particular—with its panoply of languages—demonstrates an inconsistent approach toward linguistic minorities; it attempts to promote …

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, …

New Crimes And Punishments: A Case Study Regarding The Impact Of Over-Criminalization On White Collar Criminal Cases, Lucian E. Dervan

Law Faculty Scholarship

Over-criminalization takes many forms and impacts the American criminal justice system in varying ways. This article focuses on a select portion of the over-criminalization phenomenon by examining two types of over-criminalization prevalent in white collar criminal law. The first type of over-criminalization discussed in this article is Congress’s propensity for increasing the maximum criminal penalties for white collar offenses in an effort to punish financial criminals more harshly. The second type of over-criminalization addressed in this article is Congress’s tendency to create vague and overlapping criminal provisions in areas already criminalized in an effort to expand the tools available to …

Re-Evaluating Corporate Criminal Liability: The Doj’S Internal Moral Culpability Standard For Corporate Criminal Liability, Lucian E. Dervan

Law Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the common law respondeat superior test for corporate criminal liability and proposes that it be expanded beyond the current two prong test to encompass a third prong regarding moral culpability. Further, this article supports this proposal by noting that the Department of Justice has already incorporated a moral culpability element into its analysis of corporate criminal liability through application of the Department’s Principles of Federal Prosecution of Business Organizations. While some might argue that one should be satisfied that the Department of Justice has seen fit to implement a new corporate criminal liability standard on its own …

Pearson V. Callahan And Qualified Immunity: Impact On First Amendment Law, David L. Hudson Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

An essay on Pearson v. Callahan and its impact on First Amendment Law.

The Surprising Lessons From Plea Bargaining In The Shadow Of Terror, Lucian E. Dervan

Law Faculty Scholarship

Since September 11, 2001, several hundred individuals have been convicted of terrorism related charges. Of these convictions, over 80% resulted from a plea of guilty. It is surprising and counterintuitive that such a large percentage of these cases are resolved in this manner, yet, even when prosecuting suspected terrorists caught attempting suicide attacks, the power of the plea bargaining machine exerts a striking influence. As a result, a close examination of these extraordinary cases offers important insights into the forces that drive the plea bargaining system. Utilizing these insights, this article critiques two divergent and dominant theories of plea bargaining …

American Prison Culture In An International Context: An Examination Of Prisons In America, The Netherlands, And Israel, Lucian E. Dervan

Law Faculty Scholarship

In 2004, British authorities arrested Abu Hamza al-Masri, an Egyptian born cleric sought by the United States for his involvement in instigating terrorist attacks. As authorities prepared to extradite him in July 2010, the European Court of Human Rights issued a stay. According to the court, al-Masri’s claims that maximum-security prisons in the United States violate European human rights laws prohibiting torture and degrading treatment warranted further examination. Regardless of the eventual resolution of the al-Masri case, the European Court of Human Rights’ inability to summarily dismiss these assertions demonstrates something quite troubling. At a minimum, the court’s actions indicate …

Information Warfare And Civilian Populations: How The Law Of War Addresses A Fear Of The Unknown, Lucian E. Dervan

Law Faculty Scholarship

Imagine a civilian communications system is being temporarily relied upon by an opposing military force for vital operations. If one launches a computer network attack against the communications system, the operation may disable the opposing force’s ability to function adequately and, as a result, prompt their surrender. The alternative course of action is to launch a traditional kinetic weapons attack in the hopes of inflicting enough casualties on the troops to induce surrender. Given these options, the law of war would encourage the utilization of the computer network attack because it would result in less unnecessary suffering. But is the …

Overcriminalization 2.0: The Symbiotic Relationship Between Plea Bargaining And Overcriminalization, Lucian E. Dervan

Law Faculty Scholarship

In discussing imperfections in the adversarial system, Professor Ribstein notes in his article entitled Agents Prosecuting Agents, that “prosecutors can avoid the need to test their theories at trial by using significant leverage to virtually force even innocent, or at least questionably guilty, defendants to plead guilty.” If this is true, then there is an enormous problem with plea bargaining, particularly given that over 95% of defendants in the federal criminal justice system succumb to the power of bargained justice. As such, this piece provides a detailed analysis of modern-day plea bargaining and its role in spurring the rise of …

Defining International Law Librarianship In An Age Of Multiplicity, Knowledge, And Open Access To Law, Richard A. Danner

Faculty Scholarship

Many law librarians are experts in international law and legal research. The concept of ‘international law librarianship’, however, encompasses something more than a field of study in which a group of experts practise their profession. In the broader sense, the idea suggests a common calling, similar interests, and goals shared by librarians with a range of specialties beyond international law, working in all types of law libraries. What commonalities create and sustain the concept of international law librarianship? This paper suggests that they can be found in: law librarians’ common need to respond to the ‘multiplicity’ of information sources facing …

Student-Edited Law Reviews And Their Role In U.S. Legal Education, Daniel H. Foote

Articles

>p>For well over a centur y student-edited law reviews have been a major vehicle for publication of scholarship on law in the United States. At those law reviews, students bear responsibility for nearly all aspects of the publication process, including the vitally important task of selecting what works will be published. Criticisms have been raised over various aspects of this system, but they have not stemmed the rise of student-edited law reviews. Today, such law reviews are firmly entrenched as a central feature of the U.S. legal system; and, facilitat­ ed by advances in technology, the number of student-edited …

At Ease: A Primer For Legal Research Related To Military Law Issues, Darla Jackson

Other Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Getting Law Students Into The Law Library: The University Of Michigan Succeeds With A Plan, Jennifer L. Selby

Law Librarian Scholarship

The goal of the University of Michigan Law Library's Awareness Campaign was to raise the consciousness of law students about the many ways in which librarians here can help them succeed as students now and as lawyers later. We sought to increase the number of students using the library. We wanted to get them physically into the library, and, once here, we wanted to increase students' use of the library's services: reference and circulation services, research consultations; our multitude of web-based resources, including our online research guides, book sts, and tutorials; group study rooms, etc. Not onl did we strive …

Make Your Life Easier: Free Online Productivity Tools And Resources, Kincaid C. Brown

Law Librarian Scholarship

CiteGenie works primarily for caselaw and Internet resource research but is experimenting with the ability to add citations for statutes and regulations. CiteGenie provides a number of formatting options and allows you to choose citation rules for a particular state, use parallel citations, remove star-pagination marks from quoted texts, and personalize abbreviations. This tool is easy to use; when researching in Firefox, select CiteGenie from the right-click menu and a pop-up displays the copied text and citation to be pasted.

Legislative Intent And Legislative History In Michigan, Kincaid C. Brown

Law Librarian Scholarship

Determining legislative intent is one of the key roles that the judicial system plays in Michigan, and legislative history can be a useful tool for evaluating the intent of the legislature when enacting a law. However, legislative history resources can be difficult to gather and some resources may not be persuasive in Michigan courts. This article provides a brief description of the Michigan legislative process, the court’s view of using legislative history to determine legislative intent, and a list of Michigan legislative history resources.

Is Legal Scholarship Out Of Touch? An Empirical Analysis Of The Use Of Scholarship In Business Law Cases, Michelle M. Harner, Jason A. Cantone

Faculty Scholarship

Commentators have observed two apparent trends in the use of legal scholarship by the judiciary. First, judges now cite law review articles in their opinions with less frequency. Second, despite this general decline in the invocation of legal scholarship, judges now cite articles in specialty journals with more frequency.

Some commentators attribute the apparent decline in the courts’ use of legal scholarship to the increasingly theoretical and impractical nature of that scholarship. A few studies even suggest that the increasing use of specialty journals by the courts reflects the gap between the content of legal scholarship in general law reviews …

Michigan Rulemaking, Virginia C. Thomas

Library Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

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.

Commas And Colons And Semicolons - Oh My! 10 Rules To Remember, Diane B. Kraft

Law Faculty Popular Media

In this column for Kentucky Bar Association's magazine (B&B - Bench & Bar), Professor Kraft provides ten helpful grammar rules for commas. colons, and semicolons.