PrawfsBlawg: The Bar Exam Should Be Abolished

Daniel Solove , Associate Professor of Law at George
Washington University Law School, argues on PrawfsBlog
that the bar exam should be abolished.

According to Solove, the bar exam "does not test on actual
law used in legal practice, but on esoteric legal rules, many
of which are obsolete, and most of which are of absolutely
no value to a practicing attorney or to anyone for that
matter."

New Edition of Bluebook Now Available

The 18th edition of The Bluebook is now available for
purchase. The law library has multiple copies on order
for its reference and reserves collections.

Is it the same old Bluebook? The publisher's promotional
materials claims that the new edition features "a bold
new look and a colorful, user-friendly design."
Read more here.

Computer Gadgets for Legal Pros

Brett Burney (Legal Technology Support Coordinator
at Thompson Hine in Cleveland, Ohio and a regular
product reviewer for Automated Lawyer and
Law Office Computing Magazine) highlights new
gadgets for computers in his new article,
Making Use of an Idle Laptop / Expand your
Laptop's Horizons / Put your Desktop on Laptop,
on LLRX.

In his article, Burney reviews the Kensington
Expansion Dock with Stand, Microsoft's
Wireless Optical Desktop Comfort Keyboard,
and MaxiVista, an application that turns a laptop
screen into an extension of your desktop screen.

State Bar Pres.Testifies Against Higher Bar Pass Score

The NYSBA web site has published the testimony
of NYSBA President Kenneth G. Standard against
raising the passing score on the New York bar
exam. Standard's remarks address the Board of
Law Examiners proposal to raise the passing
score from 660 to 675.

According to Standard, “the [NYSBA] has two
primary concerns about the increased passing
score: the lack of any demonstrated connection
to competence and the potential serious damage
to diversity…"

Century Foundation Resources

From the Law Librarian blog, 5/25/2005:

"The Century Foundation conducts public policy
research and analyses of economic, social, and
foreign policy issues, including inequality, retire-
ment security, election reform, media studies,
homeland security, and international affairs.

The Century Foundation's site provides news,
access to publications and press releases, and
links to its many projects. The websites for the
Foundation projects provide similar information.
Equality & Education
Health Policy Watch
Immigrationline
Homeland Security
Security and Peace Institute
The Social Security Network"

Business & Human Rights Resource Centre

From Cornell Law Library's InSite current
awareness service, 5/23/2005:

"The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
(BHRRC) is an international, non-profit organization
working in collaboration with Amnesty International
sections and leading academic institutions.
BHRRC’s mission is to promote greater awareness
and informed discussion of important issues relating to
business and human rights. The Resource Centre’s
website covers over 1800 companies, 160 countries,
and more than 150 topics in an online library which
includes a wide range of materials published by entities
such as non-governmental organizations; companies and
business organizations; the United Nations, intergovern-
mental organizations; governments and courts;
policy experts and academics; social investment analysts;
and journalists. Visitors may browse the collection by
category... Each document link consists of a brief
abstract and important bibliographic information, such as
the date of original publication and author name."

"Frequently Cited Treaties" Web Site

Mary Rumsey, Foreign, Comparative & International
Law Librarian at the U. of Minnesota has developed a
web page listing frequently-cited treaties. The site
is organized into the following broad topic areas:
General International Law; Human Rights Law;
Environmental Law; European Union; Trade &
Economic Law; Criminal Law; Intellectual
Property Law; and, Abbreviations & Sources.

Complete citations are provided for each treaty.

The Lighter Side of the Law: In Loco Veritas

Sean Carter, a lawyer, stand-up comedian and
author of, If It Does Not Fit, Must You Acquit?
Your Humorous Guide to the Law, has started
a new web site. In LocoVeritas is a parody site
similar to The Onion, but with an emphasis on the
law and legal news.

Among the features is "Pick The Fake Story,"
in which Carter presents four outrageous stories
from the legal news, only one of which is fake.

Summer BarclayBlog

The BarclayBlog will continue to be updated during the
summer months. If you are a current subscriber and
do not wish to receive email updates over the summer, let
me know and I will temporarily remove your name
from the list, then reinstate you in August.

Researching Medical Literature on the Internet Update

Gloria Miccioli, International Librarian for the Washington,
D.C. firm of Jones Day, has updated Researching Medical
Literature on the Internet on LLRX.

The source covers governmental open access as well as
commercial databases, journals and text books,
medical search engines and visual materials, and
information for physicians.

Leiter Calls for Articles for His Legal Theory Journal

Are you interested in publishing an article on
legal or political theory in the Cambridge University
Press journal, Legal Theory?

Co-Editor Brian Leiter announces in his
blog today that "[editors] can actually guarantee
publication of accepted articles within six months
or less. Articles that pass initial screening review
by the editors go out to two referees, and we
provide those reports to authors, both those whose
pieces are rejected, and those whose pieces are
accepted."

Additional information and instructions for submission
may be found on Leiter's blog.

Top Schools by LSAT Scores

U. of Texas Law Professor Brian Leiter has
compiled a list of the top 25 law schools based
on LSAT scores.

There are two lists. The first ranking looks at the
top quarter of each class; the second ranks schools
by the mid-point LSAT (that is, the mid-point
between the 25th and 75th – a figure Leiter says is
"more reliable than the medians, which are not
reported to the American Bar Association."

OSU Law Working Papers

The Law Librarian Blog (5/18/2005) has posted
new papers in the Ohio State University Moritz
College of Law Working Paper Series, part of the
bepress Legal Repository.

GlobalLex: NYU Resource on Int'l &, Foreign Legal Research

GlobaLex, published by the Hauser Global Law
School Program at NYU, is an electronic legal
publication dedicated to international and foreign
law research.

"Information and articles published by GlobaLex
represent both research and teaching resources
used by legal academics, practitioners and other
specialists around the world who are active either
in foreign, international, and comparative law
research or those focusing on their own domestic
law . The guides and articles published are written
by scholars well known in their respective fields."

The resource is particularly helpful for guidance in
foreign research not readily available elsewhere, e.g.,
research in Nigerian legal information or Moldavian law.

Harvard Law Student Newspaper Report on Women & Minorities in Legal Journals

According to the The Harvard Law School RECORD
(4/28/2005), women and minorities are "staggeringly
underrepresented" in legal journals. The article
specifically addresses issues at Harvard, but presents
supporting data from other schools to substantiate
their argument.

Copernic Desktop : PC Search Engine

Copenic Desktop, a free desktop search engine similiar
to Google Desktop (but with many more features) allows
you to "search your entire hard drive in less
than a second to pinpoint files, e-mail, music or pictures."

Copernic was ranked top in a benchmark study (pdf)
conducted by the University of Wisconsin E-Business
Institute.

Federal Judiciary Updates Map of Court Websites

From the Federal Judiciary: Each Judicial Circuit,
District Defined in Newly Posted Map - "A new map
delineates each of the 12 regional judicial circuits and
94 judicial districts within them. Clicking on the map
will lead you to the web sites of the federal courts in a
particular circuit or district."

JURIST Legal News Ticker Feed Added to BarclayBlog

The JURIST Legal News Ticker is now
available as a continous feed on the
BarclayBlog (top of the screen).

Check here frequently for breaking
legal news and -0f course - BarclayBlog
postings.

Fair Use Issues, Plagiarism & Copyright Resources

From the Law Librarian blog, 5/13/2005:

"David Dillard (Temple) has published a selection
of resources about fair use, plagiarism and related
copyright issues from a variety of viewpoints."

US Government RSS Feeds

From the BeSpacific blog, 5/12/2005:


Note: RSS is a method of summarizing the news
and information from a website that can be easily
read by many news readers or news aggregators.

"From FirstGov.gov, this U.S. Government RSS Library
webpage aggregates links to a wide range of resources,
including news releases, press briefings, transcripts, reports,
advisories, statistics and technical documents, in one easy
to use location, providing content on the following topical areas":

Agriculture RSS Feeds
Consumer RSS Feeds
Cyber Security RSS Feeds
Data and Statistics RSS Feeds
Education RSS Feeds
Federal Personnel RSS Feeds
Forest RSS Feeds
Health RSS Feeds
International Relations RSS Feeds
Military RSS Feeds
Science RSS Feeds

NYU Public Law & Legal Theory Working Papers

The Law Librarian Blog of 5/10/2005 has
posted the table of contents, abstracts
and some general information about the
NYU Public Law & Legal Theory Working
Papers, part of the NELLCO Legal Scholarship
Repository.

A New Way to Remember Passwords

From InterAlia, 5/9/2005:

"Here's a nifty way to generate tough-to-break
passwords without remembering them: use this
Password Generator. All you have to do is remember
one password. Here's how it works: whenever you
visit a site that requires a password, just head to the
password generator, type in your master password
and the URL of the site you're trying to access.
It generates a strong password designed specifically
for that site. The next time you visit the site, you only
have to go back to the password generator, type in the
name of the site, and your password automatically
appears.

If you need a more visual description of how this works,
check out this screencast."

SEC to Commence Release of Disclosure Filings

According to an SEC press release of 5/9/2005,
"will begin the process of publicly releasing comment
letters and response letters relating to disclosure filings
made after Aug. 1, 2004, and reviewed by the Division
of Corporation Finance and the Division of Investment
Management...Comment letters and response letters
relating to reviewed disclosure filings will begin to be
released individually on a filing-by-filing basis through
[the]EDGAR system at www.sec.gov. The process will
commence with some of the oldest eligible filings, but as it
continues, letters will be released no earlier than 45 days
after the review of the disclosure filing is complete."

For additional information, please contact John Heine,
Deputy Director, SEC Office of Public Affairs, at (202) 551-4123.

International Law Blogs

International Law Blog: Opinions
and Links on Int'l Law (Harvard)

"Its subject-matter is International Law writ
large: the discipline of IL as such, its theory,
politics, and practice; the relation of IL's blueprints
to the social reality(ies) it aims to constitute, etc."

International Trade Law & Policy

Covers WTO and other international trade legal
and policy issues from a practitioner's perspective.


Opinio Juris

A newcomer "dedicated to reports, commentary, and
debate on current developments and scholarship in the
fields of international law and politics."

Journalists Guide to the Courts

From the BeSpacific blog, 5/3/2005:

"A Journalist's Guide to the Federal Courts is intended
to be a resource for news reporters assigned to cover
proceedings in appellate, district or bankruptcy courts....
The Guide explores the Federal District Courts,
Bankruptcy Courts, and the Federal Appellate Courts."

Law Library to Hold NY Legal Research Program

The Barclay Law Library is pleased to announce
its 2005 NY Legal Research Program for summer
associates and College of Law students taking
summer courses and clinics.

This free half-day research program addresses
research skills in three key areas of New York
practice – case law, statutory law and secondary
sources - and offers valuable insights on the
practical and economic aspects of legal research
in law firms.

The program will be offered three times.

Wednesday, June 1 12noon - 4pm
Thursday, June 2 9am - 1pm
Friday, June 3 9am - 1pm

All sessions will be held in MacNaughton Room 104.

If you are interested in having your summer or
clinic students attend, please email me with
a list of students and dates of attendance.

Drexel Law Planning Co-op Program

From the Law Librarian Blog, 5/3/2005:

"Drexel University hopes to open a law school by
fall 2006. If the school's Board of Trustees approves
the plan, the University will submit a proposal to the
Pennsylvania Department of Education for provisional
approval.

Co-op Program. There are now five law schools in
Philadelphia, but Drexel's would be unique in taking a
cooperative approach, in which students alternate
academic work with two six-month work assignments,
officials said.

Drexel plans to offer the Juris Doctor as its principal
degree, along with a master of laws degree (LLM) and
a master of legal studies in various fields."

Click here for more.

CNN Article : Supreme Court Reviews Solomon Case

CNN reports today that the US Supreme Court will
consider whether colleges and universities may bar
military recruiters from their campuses without fear
of losing federal funds.

New Tech Law Prof Blog

The Tech Law Prof Blog is the newest member
of the Law Professor Blog Network. The blog's
editors are Jonathan Ezor, Assistant Professor of
Business, Law & Technology & Director, Institute
for Business, Law & Technology at Touro Law
Center and Michelle Zakarin, Assistant Professor
of Legal Methods at Touro Law Center.