BarclayBlog

Law Library announcements, legal research updates from around the world, new and interesting research resources and web sites of interest to the faculty at the Syracuse University College of Law. Note: For easy navigation, right click on hyperlinks to open links in a new window.

Thursday, March 31, 2005

Delicious! A Better Way to Manage Web Bookmarks


Del.icio.us is a internet bookmarking manager
that allows you to add web sites to a personal
collection of links, organize those links by keywords,
and share your collection of links with others.

Unlike traditional web bookmarks, del.icio.us
is 'social.' For example, you can easily share
a list of web sites with students and invite
students to add links to the page. You can
also view collections of links compiled by
other del.icio.us users and subscribe to the
lists you find interesting.

Del.icio.us is a free service, but you must
register to access it. You can learn more
about del.icio.us on their web site .


Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Supreme Court Rules Title IX Protects Whistleblowers

From Jurist Paper Chase, 3/29/2005:

"The AP is reporting that the Supreme Court has ruled
that the Title IX gender equity law protects
whistleblowers who claim discrimination by
academic institutions.

10:45 AM ET - In Jackson v. Birmingham Bd. of Ed.,
02-1672, the Court extended whistleblower protection
to those alleging discrimination at academic institutions."

Read the Court's full opinion [text, PDF], including a
dissent by Justice Thomas.

US Report on Human Rights Record. 2004-2005

From the BeSpacific blog bySabrina I. Pacifica, March 29, 2005:

"From the State Department today: 'The Supporting Human Rights
and Democracy: The U.S. Record 2004 - 2005 report is submitted
to the Congress by the Department of State in compliance with Section
665 of P.L. 107-228, the FY 03 Foreign Relations Authorization Act,
which requires the Department to report on actions taken by the U.S.
Government to encourage respect for human rights.

This third annual submission complements the longstanding Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2004, and takes the next step,
moving from highlighting abuses to publicizing the actions and programs
the United States has employed to end those abuses.' [navigate from the
site as linked above to each section of the report, each of which is
available in PDF]."

City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of N. Y.

The United States Supreme Court has ruled on
the City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of N. Y.,

The judgment of the Court ofAppeals for the Second Circuit
(337 F. 3d 139) was reversed, and the case was remanded for
further proceedings, with Justice Stevens dissenting.

City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of N. Y.

The United States Supreme Court has ruled on
the City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of N. Y.,

The judgment of the Court ofAppeals for the Second Circuit
(337 F. 3d 139) was reversed, and the case was remanded for
further proceedings, with Justice Stevens dissenting.

Monday, March 28, 2005

New Horizons: Resources for International Competition Law Research

LLRX has just published New Horizons: Resources
for International Competition Law Research.

The web guide, authored by Jean Wenger, Government
Documents/Foreign & International Law Librarian
at the Cook County Law Library, includes
general publications, international organizations,
regional entities, national competition authorities
and international cooperation, national laws and
commentary, recent cases, and secondary source
material.

Legislative History of the Civil Rights Commission

From the Law Librarian blog, 3/28/2005:

"The U.S. House Judiciary Committee has just published,
in PDF format, the Legislative History of the Civil Rights
Commission. The legislative history includes: Committee
Reports; Congressional Record; Court Opinions: and, News
Articles. Click here for PDF download."

Civil Procedure Stories: Briefs & Such

From Cornell Law Library's InSite current
awareness service, 3/28/2005:

" Civil Procedure Stories - Briefs and Such" is the web
companion to the text, Civil Procedure Stories.
Edited by Cornell Law School’s KevinClermont and
published by Foundation Press, Civil Procedure Stories
offers a behind-the-scenes look at fourteen Supreme
Court cases that are part of a basic course in civil procedure.
Each case is addressed in a separate chapter. The website
supplements each chapter of the text with PDF documents,
audio files, and image files. Supreme Court records and
briefs, transcripts, lower court opinions, correspondence
and other documents are made available in PDF. For
several of the cases, the site offers audio files of the oral
argument. Other items include maps, deeds, photographs,
and even a political cartoon."
There is no registration or fee requirements for access
to the materials on this site.

Law School Symposia Web Site

Professor Rick Bales at the Salmon P. Chase College
of Law at Northern Kentucky has compiled a list
containing information on current and upcoming
law school symposia.

For each listing, there is a brief description of the
symposium, date and location, contact information
and a link to the sponsoring institution's law review
web site.

Schiavo Case Resource - Miami Ethics Programs

Submitted by Thomas French, 3/24/2005:

"This site collects policy and legal materials related to Terri
Schiavo, a Florida woman who has been in a persistent
vegetative state since 1990 and who has been the focus
of an ongoing end-of-life legal case. This site "features a
timeline of key events, a selected bibliography, Web links
(including religion and faith-based resources) and streaming
video of conference presentations on the case."
From the University of Miami Ethics Programs-Schiavo
Case Resource web site.

Thursday, March 24, 2005

Schiavo Case Documents on Findlaw

Findlaw has developed a special site for
the Schiavo case. The site includes links
to legal documents (organized chronologically),
information about the lawyers in the case, and
links to relevant web resources.

Web Resources on Advance Directives

As a result of increasing interest in advance
directives because of the Schiavo case, the E Law Library
web log has posted a list of web resources, including
new items, articles, and web sites on living wills
and durable powers of attorney for health care.

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

New SSRN Download Rankings--by Scholar, and by School

Law Professor Brian Leiter (LeiterReports,
3/23/2005) reports that The Social Science Research
Network has published two new rankings of both
schools and individual scholars by the total number
of downloads their papers have received from the SSRN
site.

The rankings of downloads-per-school are on the SSRN
site (you must be an SSRN subscriber to view this material).

Leiter provides the top 25 in total downloads in the last year
(which is how the SSRN data initially appears) on his blog,
together with his personal insights about the limitations of the
rankings.

Contracting & Organizations Research Institute

From Cornell Law Library's Insite, 3/23/2005:

The Contracting and Organizations Research Institute
(CORI), a project of the University of Missouri-Columbia,
is dedicated to promoting academic research in the area of
contract law by creating a knowledge base of contracts,
contracting resources, and information on organizational
governance.

CORI's digital library contains over 25,000
contracts, most of which are executed agreements made
available in public disclosure filings or have been filed with
a regulatory agency.At present, the majority of documents
have been drawnfrom filings with the SEC's EDGAR
Database. CORI also offers a series of research and working
papers hosted bythe Social Science Research Network.

Visitors must register to search the CORI database.
Registration is free."

Monday, March 21, 2005

The Critical Infrastructure Information Resources

From the Law Librarian blog, 3/17/2005:

"The Critical Infrastructure Information Resources site,
researched and designed by Alba Lucero Villa with Christopher
Simpson at the American University School of Communication,
...provides relevant documents issued by the White House,
several federal agencies, GAO, CRS, state legislation, and
public policy groups."

New to Blaws? Pathfinder on Blawgs from Akron Law

Lynn Lenhart, a librarians at the University of
Akron Law Library, has published a
pathfinder on Law Weblog-Blawgs on the library's
web site. More than a list of blawgs, the page provides
a blog glossary, examples of blawgs, links to aggregators,
directories and blog search engines, and articles about
blogs and blogging.

Law Professor Hirings in 2004-2005

From the E Law Librarian weblog, 3/13/2005:

The Legal Theory Blog has compiled an unofficial list
of new professors hired at law schools in the 2004-2005
hiring season. An entry level hire is defined as "someone
hired from a non-tenure-track position (e.g. a VAP) to a
tenure-track position." Source: CrimProf Blog (13 March 2005)

Friday, March 11, 2005

New Blog on Open Access to Law Reviews

From the Law Librarian blog, 3/10/2005:

The mission of the new Open Access Law blog, which
is edited by four law professors, is:

""to share information, resource, ideas, and commentary
about open access to law review articles. The idea behind
open access is to provide scholarly material free to all.
This blog is about one very small element of the grander
program, that is making law reviews open to all.."

Find Law School and Legal News in a Single Web Source

From JD2B Blog, March 10, 2005

"Greg smith launches JurisNovus.com, a syndicator/aggregator
of news and blog headlines relating to law school and the law.

An aggregator is a web portal which brings together multiple
news and content sources into a single page.

According to the site description, "Juris Novus presents
headlines from relevant sources to bring together
the most up to date happenings in the online law space."

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

ABA Makes First Proposal for Law School Technology Standards

From the Law Librarian Blog, 3/9/2005:

"The ABA just released proposed changes to
Chapter 7 (Facilities) of the Standards for Law Schools.
For the first time there is a proposal that the standards
include a specific section dealing with technology."

You can read the proposed language for section
704, with interpretations, on the Law Librarian Blog post.

Northwestern Professor Argues that Law School Exams Don't Test Legal Skills

Steven Lubet, Professor of Law at Northwestern
University, has recently published an article entitled
Artificial Intelligence on Law.Com in which he
argues that "Law school tests and bar exams
reward skills that are largely disconnected from
everyday lawyering."

Velvel on National Affairs

Lawrence Velvel, Dean at the Massachusetts School
of Law, has started a blog to voice his personal
opinions on national affairs. Comments are welcome.

Sources on Database ID Theft Scam

From the BeSpacific (Law & Technology News) blog
by Sabrina I. Pacifica, March 4, 2005:

Law Librarian Sabrina Pacifici has compiled a collection of
significant primary and secondary information associated
with the ChoicePoint ID theft scam. Sources include
news stories about ChoicePoint and the SEC's investigation
of the company, ChoicePoint 8-K Filing with the SEC and
federal legislative initiatives on information security.

Friday, March 04, 2005

Come Blog with Us! Workshop on How to Create & Use Blogs

Please join us for COME BLOG WITH US! HOW TO
CREATE AND USE BLOGS.

Two very special guests will join me to share their
expertise. Collin Brooke, Assistant Professor and
Director of the SU Graduate Writing Program, will
discuss how he uses blogs in his classes. Amy Archambault,
Instructional Technology Consultant with University
Faculty Academic Computing Support Services, will be on hand
to answer your technical questions and inform you how
FACSS can assist you with creating your blog.

The session will be held:
Thursday, March 10 from noon - 1pm
Room 104 MacNaughton Hall

Light refreshments will be served

Thursday, March 03, 2005

Famous Trials Database

From the E Law Librarian weblog, 3/3/2005:

Professor Doug Linder's (University of Missouri-Kansas City
School of Law) Famous Trials database must be a true labor of love.
He has been working on it since 1996. Professor Linder claims it
is "the Web's largest and most visited collection of original essays,
images, and primary documents pertaining to great trials..."

Finding Blogs on Legal Topics

From the E Law Librarian weblog, 3/3/2005:

"Diane Murley at SIU Law Library's Law Dawg Blawg
posts an excellent overview of how to find blogs on any
legal topic. Diane hits a home run with her selection and
description of useful blog directories, aggregators, current
awareness services, and webrings."

Student Distraction in Wireless Classrooms

Wisconsin Professor of Law Ann Althouse dismisses colleagues'
concerns over distractions of wireless access in law school
classrooms - and colleagues and law students post replies -
in an Althouse blog post of 3/2/2005.