Legal Writing and Research Commons^™

A Planet By Any Other Name…, Kimberly Kessler Ferzan

Michigan Law Review

In case you haven't heard, Pluto isn't a planet anymore (and maybe it never was). In grade school, we all memorized the planets, giving little thought to what made something a planet besides revolving around the Sun and being part of some familiar mnemonic. However, scientific discoveries about Pluto and other parts of space led scientists to question Pluto's planetary status and ultimately, to strip Pluto of its standing among the planets. This leads to the inevitable question-what is a planet?-which turns out to be a more difficult and fascinating question than one might think. The Pluto Files grapples with …

Our Not-So-Great Depression, Craig Green

Michigan Law Review

A Failure of Capitalism by Richard Posner is not a great book, and it does not pretend to be one. Posner summarizes the economic crisis of 2008-09 and considers proposals to reduce current suffering and avoid future recurrence (p. xvi). But when the book's final edits were made in February 2009, it was still too soon for authoritative solutions or full accounts of what had happened. Instead, Posner wrote a conspicuously contemporary-and thus incomplete-description of the crisis as it looked to him at the time (p. xvii). Now one year later, readers may need a reminder about the value of …

The Price Of Conflict: War, Taxes, And The Politics Of Fiscal Citizenship, Ajay K. Mehrotra

Michigan Law Review

This Review proceeds in four parts, paralleling the chronological organization of War and Taxes. It focuses mainly on the book's analysis of the leading modern American wars, from the Civil War through the global conflicts of the twentieth century, up to the recent war on terror. Part I contrasts the tax policies of the Union and Confederacy during the Civil War to show how the Lincoln Administration was able to overcome Yankee resistance to wartime tax hikes to wage a war against a Southern Confederacy that resolutely resisted any type of centralized taxation until, of course, it was too late. …

Forecast For The Future: Emerging Legal Technologies, Carol A. Watson

Continuing Legal Education Presentations

Begins by discussing technologies that are currently available on the web that can reduce office overhead. Also highlights current general technology trends and still-developing technologies. Concludes with a list of frivolous gadgets to provide food for thought about the coming prospects of technology.

Great Resources For The Great Recession : Useful Business Sources On The Internet, Wendy E. Moore

Continuing Legal Education Presentations

Explore 48 business websites, drawn from governmental, non-profit, and commercial information resources, that provide good examples of the types of information sources available to meet Internet business research needs.

"Gotcha!" Investigative Tools On The Web, Suzanne R. Graham

Continuing Legal Education Presentations

Free or low cost online resources exist to assist lawyers doing investigative research, but assessing the quality of the information remains challenging.

Wrangling The Web: Advanced Tools For Effective Internet Searching, Anne E. Burnett, Wendy E. Moore

Continuing Legal Education Presentations

Describes how to conduct effective Internet searches for legal information with a focus on advanced Google tools, but also includes Bing, Wolfram|Alpha, Legal Research Engine at Cornell, DocStoc and Scribd.

Where Have All The States Gone: Growing Research Resources, Sharon Bradley

Continuing Legal Education Presentations

Provides assistance with finding current and authoritative information about legal matters in each of the fifty states at the state and local level. Includes guidance on finding case law, administrative codes and regulations, state and local codes, legal forms, and court dockets.

Briefing Cases: Session On Copyright Law, Lynn Mclain

All Faculty Scholarship

This handout contains the decision from Walt Disney Productions v. Air Pirates, 581 F.2d 751 (1978), suggested elements for how to brief a case in general, and an example brief for the Air Pirates case.

Scorn Not The Sonnet: In Search Of Shakespeare's Law, Jeffrey G. Sherman

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Expected: Creating And Sustaining Relationships For Your Institutions, Claire M. Germain

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In this day of upheaval in the library and information world, many law librarians have found ways to reaffirm their value to their parent organizations. They have created and now sustain relationships for their institutions—law schools, law firms, government entities, and other organizations—because they have the common good of the institution in mind and are there to stay. The purpose of this article is to inform, inspire, celebrate, and provide concrete examples for other libraries to follow. Library initiatives can lead to benefits for the institution that are larger than the library itself. They also reinforce the value of the …

Beyond The Expected: Creating And Sustaining Relationships For Your Institutions, Claire M. Germain

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Do Liquidated Damages Encourage Breach? A Psychological Experiment, Tess Wilkinson-Ryan

Michigan Law Review

This Article offers experimental evidence that parties are more willing to exploit efficient-breach opportunities when the contract in question includes a liquidated-damages clause. Economists claim that the theory of efficient breach allows us to predict when parties will choose to breach a contract if the legal remedy for breach is expectation damages. However, the economic assumption of rational wealth-maximizing actors fails to capture important, shared, nonmonetary values and incentives that shape behavior in predictable ways. When interpersonal obligations are informal or underspecified, people act in accordance with shared community norms, like the moral norm of keeping promises. However, when sanctions …

Pining For Sustainability, Timothy M. Mulvaney

University of Richmond Law Review

In the legal academic community, there are significant positive signs demonstrating attention to sustainable practices, from course offerings to many day-to-day operations. Scholarly research also reflects this positive trend. Much of this recent scholarship assesses sustainability-focused regulatory and normative efforts to address the impacts associated with a warming planet in marked detail, and there is an additional plethora of writing on the many topics beyond the changing climate that raise sustainability questions.

Legal Citation Without Fear, Maureen Cahill

Presentations

Presentation by Maureen Cahill, Student Services Librarian, as part of the library's Lunch-n-Learn series.

http://www.law.uga.edu/lunch-n-learn-series

Preserving A Racial Hierarchy: A Legal Analysis Of The Disparate Racial Impact Of Legacy Preferences In University Admissions, Kathryn Ladewski

Michigan Law Review

Many public and private universities around the country employ legacy admissions preferences in order to give children of alumni special consideration in the admissions process. Such preferences disproportionately benefit white applicants at the cost of their nonwhite counterparts, because past generations of college students were less diverse than today's applicant pool. However, universities argue that their legacy preferences are justified because they assist in alumni fundraising efforts. This Note presents a statistical analysis to argue that legacy preferences are prohibited by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because they have a discriminatory effect on minority college applicants and have not …

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.

Statutory Interpretation In The Age Of Grammatical Permissiveness: An Object Lesson For Teaching Why Grammar Matters, Susan J. Hankin

Faculty Scholarship

This article uses an unpublished case interpreting New York’s animal cruelty law as an object lesson to teach why grammar matters. In People v. Walsh, 2008 WL 724724 (N.Y. Crim. Ct. Jan. 3, 2008), the court’s interpretation of the statute turned, in part, on the serial comma rule (sometimes called the “Oxford comma” rule). The court followed a mandatory approach to interpret the statute’s meaning, even though most contemporary grammar and style books make such use of a comma optional. One of the many benefits of using a case example to teach why grammar matters is that it focuses students …

Boulder Statement On Legal Research Education: Signature Pedagogy Statement, Legal Information Conference Attendees

2010 Conference (Boulder)

No abstract provided.