Guide to Port Databases Online

In light of news about a Dubai company's bid to take
over U.S. port operations currently run by a British firm, the
beSpacific blog (2/23/2006) has posted a list of port databases
available on the web. The list covers both U.S. and global ports.

New Blog : Feminist Law Professors

Ann Bartow (South Carolina School of Law) has created a "web log
community for feminist law professors" entitled Feminist Law Professors.

Thanks to the InterAlia blog (2/24/2006) for the tip.

This Week's Coast to Coast Podcast : Trial of Saddam Hussein

This week's Coast to Coast podcast topic is the Trial of Saddam
Hussein. Joining co-hosts Robert Ambrogi and Craig Williams to
discuss this topic is Simone Monasebian, chief of the U.N. Office of
Drugs and Crime. She formerly served as principal defender of the
Special Court for Sierra Leone and as a trial attorney with the U.N.
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Office of the Prosecutor.

Coast to Coast weekly legal news podcasts, produced by the Legal
Talk Network, are available to listen to in Windows Media format
or to download in MP3 format. The show's RSS feed is available here.

Index to University Sponsored Open Access Repositories to Journals and Research Materials

The BeSpacific blog (2/22/2006) points us to the
DSpace Wiki 's alphabetical listing of college and university
sponsored searchable, open source repositories, from around
the world. The list encompasses institutions' digital
research collections on a wide range of topics, including
bioethics, economics, history, the arts, information science,
and law. Examples include Cornell Law School's
repository of faculty papers and Ohio State University's
American Indian Studies collection of reports, papers
and conference proceedings.

An open access resource (OAR) may contain formal publications,
such as digital copies of journal articles or books as well as informal
publications, such as presentations, working papers, or course lecture
notes. Check individual repository web pages for details.

"Green Bag" : A Different Kind of Law Journal

Robert Ambrogi at LawSites (2/22/2006) shares his discovery
of Green Bag, which describes itself as "an entertaining journal of
law." Here you will animated -- and annotated -- bobbleheads
of Supreme Court Justices, a study of the relative senses of humor
of the Justices, and Brett H. McGurk's insights acquired during five
months as associate general counsel to the Coalition Provisional
Authority in Baghdad.

A print subscription is $35; a selection of articles and a bookstore
of titles from Green Bag Press are available on the web site.

Resignation of Harvard President Summers

Brian Leiter (Leiter Reports, 2/21/2006) comments
on the resignation of Harvard President Lawrence
H. Summers and links us to academics' blog reactions
and to Summer's resignation letter. According to Leiter,
Summer's "unlovely bedside manner" lost him the support of
Harvard faculty.

Related Stories:

Harvard Crimson: Summers Resigns
Boston Globe: Summers to Step Down, Ending Tumult at Harvard
CNN.com : Harvard President Stepping Down

ExpectMore.gov : How Well is Our Government Performing?

The LibrarianInBlack blog (2/21/2006) brings our attention
to ExpectMore.gov, a web resources created by the White House
Office of Management and Budget about the success and
performance of various federal programs. Programs either rate
as "Performing" (72% of total) or "Not Peforming" (28% of total).
Within each rating category, you can see all the programs with that
rating and also see the details about each assessment.

LibrarianInBlack points out that only 15% of those in the "Performing"
category were rated at the top level, Effective, and 24% of the 28% that
were ranked as "Not Performing" were so labeled because the organization
lacked goals or data.

Westlaw RegulationsPlus

Westlaw announces RegulationsPlus, a new enhancement
that expedites and expands research in federal regulations.
Highlights include:

*The CFR Center: New links above the search box available when you
access the CFR database

*The new RegulationsPlus Index for CFR: Familiar structure of print
index with power of electronic navigating

*Notes of Decisions: Provides short summaries of Fed Cases back to 1938
that interpret your regulation

*KeyCite history, Yellow flag: Westlaw has added a
yellow flag which alerts you if an agency has published a proposed
amendment

*RegulationsPlus links tab: Dynamic links for Fed Regs provides
immediate access to cases, statutes, Federal Register, agency opinions
or decisions and other documents

Protecting Minority Voters: The Voting Rights Act, 1982-2005.

The National Commission on the Voting Rights Act
has released, Protecting Minority Voters: The Voting
Rights Act, 1982-2005 [PDF]

The report, which was spearheaded by the Lawyers' Committee
for Civil Rights Under Law, collects research and testimony
from voters in an effort to encourage lawmakers to renew
provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that will expire in August
2007.

An article today in the Houston Chronicle summarizes the report's
findings:

*Polling places and voting hours in minority neighborhoods are routinely
changed shortly before elections.

*Election officials were found to have illegally purged voter lists and
refused to translate election materials for citizens who are not fluent
in English.

*Voters and advocates complained to federal officials about unfair
election practices more often between 1982 and 2004 than between
1965 and 1982, data compiled from Department of Justice records show.

Criminal Justice / Mental Health Consensus Project

From Cornell Law Library's InSite
current awarness service (2/20/2006):

"Coordinated by the Council of State Governments (CSG),
the Criminal Justice / Mental Health Consensus Project
(the Project) is a national effort to help policymakers at all
levels, as well as those in the criminal justice and mental health
professions 'improve the response to people with mental
illness who become involved in, or are at risk of involvement in,
the criminal justice system.'

In addition to providing the text of the Project Report, the
website provides other resources including information on
programs, significant national projects, and technical assistance.
Profiles of programs are organized into a database that can be
searched or browsed, and users may limit their searches by
jurisdiction, issue, and other parameters."

Guantanamo Detainees Report [UN CHR]

The United Nations report on Guantanamo detainees
(full title: Situation of detainees at Guantanamo Bay,
Report of the Chairperson of the Working Group on Arbitrary
Detention, UN Commission on Human Rights, February 16, 2005)
is available on the JURIST Gazette web page.

The White House response:
Press Briefing by Scott McClellan, February 16, 2006

A Guide to the NSA Eavesdropping Debate

The Librarians' Index to the Internet (LII, 2/16/2006)
brings our attention to A Guide to the NSA Eavesdropping Debate,
available on the National Public Radio web site. The site includes
a collection of articles that provide background about
"Senate held hearings Feb. 6 [2006] on the National Security
Agency's domestic wiretapping program." Topics include an overview
of NSA warrantless domestic wiretapping, a timeline of "Wiretaps' Use
and Abuse," and summaries of legal arguments (pro and con) from the
White House and the Congressional Research Service.

Worldwatch Institute Issues "2006 State of the World Report"

The beSpacific blog (2/13/2006) highlights the
2006 State of the World Report from the Worldwatch
Institute. This year's report places special focus on China
and India, examining "the global impact as these two nations
join the United States and Europe as major consumers of resources
and polluters of local and global ecosystems."

The Worldwatch Institute is an independent research organization
that works for an "environmentally sustainable and socially just
society."

Email Reminders from "Hassle Me"

HassleMe is a site that will send you reminder e-mails at
irregular intervals to remind you about tasks you need to
complete. Examples of popular hassles mentioned on the
HassleMe web site include: "Call your mother"and "Go to the
gym." You set the number of days between reminders.

ABA Orders Law Schools to Engage in Racial Preferences in Admissions and Hiring Contrary to Law

The TaxProfBlog (2/12/2006) references an interesting
op-ed (Affirmative Blackmail) by David E. Bernstein (George
Mason) that appeared in the weekend Wall Street Journal
about the controversial new ABA Accreditation rules.

The TaxProfBlog post also links to additional comments by Bernstein,
to reactions in other blogs, and to the:
Proposals for Final Revisions of Standards 210-212 and Associated Interpretations
Mark-Up of Standards 210-212 and Associated Interpretations

Justice Breyer Serves Coffee to Other Justices!

The University of Chicago Law School invited their recent Schwartz
Lecturer, Justice Stephen Breyer, to give an informal luncheon talk
for faculty and students. Among other topics, Breyer discussed "the
relationship between him and his clerks, what it's like to be the newest
guy in the weekly conference for all these years, and how many times
he's had to get coffee for the other Justices because of it. "

The podcast and instructions for listening are available
at the University of Chicago Law School Faculty Blog
(2/14/2006).

New From GlobalLex

GlobalLex, the electronic legal publication dedicated to international
and foreign law research published at NYU School of Law, has added
the following new guides:

Religious Legal Systems: A Brief Guide to Research and Its Role in
Comparative Law by Marylin Johnson Raisch.

A Research Guide on International Sports Law by Amy Burchfield.

Finnish Law on the Internet by Sami Sarvilinna.

Performing Legal Research: the Moldovan Experience by Mariana
Harjevschi and Svetlana Andritchi. (A thoroughly revised update
to the article previously published on May 2005.)

Thanks to the Law Librarian Blog (2/13/2006) for the update.

"Fraud Update" Tracks Anti-Fraud Actions

Robert Ambrogi (LawSites, 2/10/2006) points us to a
new web site, Fraud Update, operated jointly by Florida
State University College of Criminology and Criminal Justice
and St. Thomas University School of Law. The site "tracks
government actions throughout the United States against fraud
and other practices that victimize consumers, businesses and
government..., provides consumer alerts, and tracks relevant
legislation and rule-making."

S.U. College of Law Sponsors Two New Journals on SSRN

We are pleased to announce two new journals hosted by Syracuse
University College of Law faculty on the Social Science Research
Network (SSRN.) Both journals provide a forum for posting both
completed works and works in progress.

The Housing & Community Development Law journal is edited
by Deborah Kenn, Professor of Law and Director of the Community
Development Law Clinic, & Robin Paul Malloy, E.I. White Chair and
Distinguished Professor of Law, Sr. Associate Dean, and Director of
the Working Group on Property, Citizenship, and Social Entrepreneurism
(PCSE). The journal addresses law, legislation, and policy related to
affordable housing and community development. It addresses various
state and federal programs, case law, public and private efforts at
community revitalization, and systemic problems of housing segregation.
Registered users may browse abstracts and papers here.
To subscribe (free of charge), click here.

The Insurance Law, Legislation and Policy journal is
edited by Aviva Abramovsky, Assistant Professor of Law &
Robin Paul Malloy, E.I. White Chair and Distinguished Professor
of Law, Sr. Associate Dean, and Director of the Working Group
on Property, Citizenship, and Social Entrepreneurism (PCSE).
The focus of the journal is theoretical, empirical and critical examina-
tions of insurance law, both public and private. The journal covers
concepts of private insurance doctrine defined broadly, and
regulatory interests, public insurance programs, and the interplay
of insurance law -public and private- with the broader legal
structure.
Registered users may browse abstracts and papers here
To subscribe (free of charge), click here.

Barclay Law Library Launches Updated Faculty Services Web Page

The H. Douglas Barclay Law Library has launched a completely
revised and expanded Services to Faculty web page. The new
page provides more detailed information about the Law Library's
services to Syracuse University College of Law faculty in a
format designed for easy access to : descriptions of services;
electronic forms; materials from Law Library programs for faculty;
and links to University and other web sites of interest.

Also new on the site are links to PDF versions of the Law Library
Services to College of Law Faculty guide and the Law Library
Services to Adjunct Faculty guide.

Judicial Activism: Power Without Responsibility? - Justice Breyer

Justice Stephen Breyer delivered the 2006 Schwartz Lecture on
"Judicial Activism: Power Without Responsibility?" this week at
the University of Chicago Law School. A link to the podcast and
instructions for listening and subscribing are available from the
University of Chicago Law School Faculty Blog (2/8/2006).

Institute of Politics Opens Up Video Archive to the Public

From the Law Librarian Blog (2/8/2006):

"The Institute of Politics (IOP) at Harvard's Kennedy School
of Government announced that video footage of nearly thirty
years of public addresses and panel discussions held in the
John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum is now available on the IOP’s website."

The video archive offers speeches by prominent political speakers
from 1978 to the present. A FAQ, transcripts and a search engine
facilitate use of the collection.

Leiter Reports : Links on the Cartoon Incident

Brian Leiter (Leiter Reports, 2/7/2006) points us to
several interesting blog posts (by philosophy and science
faculty) and news articles about the derogatory cartoons that have
inflamed the Muslim world.

"Coast to Coast" Podcast on Diversity in Law

This week's Coast to Coast podcast topic looks at Diversity
in Law. Joining co-hosts Robert Ambrogi and Craig Williams
to discuss this topic are Veta Richardson, executive director
of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, and Ron S. Jordan,
founding principal of Carter-White & Shaw.

Discussion this week focuses on "whether progress has been made
since 1999, when the chief legal officers of 500 large corporations
agreed to push their outside law firms to hire more minorities and
women."

New Look for U.S. Dept. of State Web Site

The BeSpacific blog (2/5/2006) brings our attention
to the redesign of the United States Department of State
web site.

A Department press release describes the redesign:

"The new design streamlines the number of content sections
from nine to four: Issues and Press, Travel and Business, Youth
and Education, and About the State Department. The redesigned
homepage will feature the main news story of the day, along with
other important news. The homepage also will provide easy access
to information about Secretary Rice, multimedia resources, and
interactive options for users to subscribe to state.gov content
as well as quick links to key topics in each of the website sections.

In addition to state.gov homepage updates, the banner of the
new design will link to the top news story, daily press briefings,
and other news from anywhere in the website. Enhanced search
capabilities will allow users to search individual sections of the
website, rather than the entire site... www.state.gov continues to
keep pace with new technologies (enhanced content management
system, podcasts, RSS news feeds, listservs, etc)."

Law Library of Congress "Trial of Saddam Hussein" Web Site

The Law Library of Congress' Trial of Saddam Hussein
website is "intended to provide the viewer with essential
information related to the relevant trials. It will also set
out a selection of reference materials that will further explain
important aspects of the trials."

Materials are organized on the site under the following categories:

Introduction
Background
Historical Context
Tribunal
Present Prosecution
Future Prosecution
Legal Process
Related Resources

Links to the texts of documents are included, where available.
Note the disclaimer: "In making this selection, the Law
Library of Congress does not endorse or attest to the authenticity
of any such referenced materials or information."

How to Use Google for Tech Support

Cindy Chick at LawLibTech (2/5/2006) has discovered
a clever way of using Google to locate technical support
information on the web.

Says Chick: "I just type the text of [an] error message into
the Google search box, and keep my fingers crossed that
I'll find some other poor slob who had the same problem
AND found the solution." Chick goes on to say that "a Google
search can kill two birds with one stone, as it will also pull up
entries from the Microsoft Knowledgebase, an excellent
resource for help with Microsoft applications."

Westlaw & Lexis Student Representatives' Schedules

For Syracuse University College of Law readers:

This is a reminder that you can access contact and
scheduling information for Westlaw and Lexis student
representatives on their law school web sites.

Westlaw:
http://lawschool.westlaw.com/aam/aampage.asp?PSchoolID=0&task=aam&resetschool=true&schoolid=164#SRH

Lexis (you must log in to access):
http://www.lexisnexis.com/myschool/myschool.asp?sc_id=403

These pages also provide training information and contact information
for the Account Managers.

Barclay Law Library February New Materials List Available

The February 2006 New Materials List is now available on the
Barclay Law Library's web site. It contains new book, journal,
and audio-visual titles received in December 2005 and January
2006. The materials are now available for use by patrons at the
Law Library.

Each month, the Barclay Law Library publishes this list to alert
library patrons to new materials. A news item is posted on the
Law Library main web page when the list is available. Current
and previous lists can also be accessed from the Publications and
SUMMIT Catalog web pages.Although the lists contain location
information, please check the SUMMIT Catalog to confirm location
and item availability. Some new items may be temporarily found
on the New Book display or the Atrium Casual Reading display
-- both located on Floor 3 of the Law Library.

"Five Ways To Keep Your Google Searches Private"

The BeSpacific blog (2/01/2006) brings our attention
to a timely article on how to keep your Google searches
private.

This quick guide by Alexander Wolfe (in Informationweek.com
2/1/2006) offers four easy steps for protecting yourself
from outsiders who may seek to uncover private information
about your Web browsing habits.

"Coast to Coast" Podcast on Tort Reform

This week's Coast to Coast podcast topic is tort reform in 2006.
Joining program co-hosts Robert Ambrogi and Craig Williams
to discuss some of the critical issues in tort reform this year
are Laurie Beacham, communications director for the
Center for Justice and Democracy, and Tiger Joyce, president
of the American Tort Reform Association.

An archive of all past shows is available here. All shows are
available to listen to in Windows Media format or to download
in MP3 format. The show's RSS feed is available here.

BarclayBlog Recogized by JURIST's Bernard Hibbitts

We are pleased and proud that JURIST Publisher
and Editor-in-Chief Bernard Hibbitts has selected
the BarclayBlog for his Editor's Blogroll. It is an
honor to be recognized by the founder of
what Technology Source calls “probably the best
educational portal on the Internet today.”

Thanks for the recognition, Bernard.

"Information Asymmetries and the Rights to Exclude" Podcast

On January 24, Lior Strahilevitz, Assistant Professor of Law at the
University of Chicago, presented the 2006 Ronald Coase
Lecture in Law and Economics, "Information Asymmetries
and the Rights to Exclude." The Coase Lecture is given annually
in honor of Ronald Coase, faculty member at the University of
Chicago Law School since 1964 and winner of the 1991 Nobel
Prize in Economics. The lecture in his honor is given annually by
a member of the Chicago Law School faculty and is geared towards
a first year law student's level of understanding of the discipline.

You can access the lecture as a podcast from the University of
Chicago Law School Blog. The blog's teaser should entice you:
"If you'd like to learn more about what this esoteric title has to
do with Ted Williams, the 1951 Giants, and big beefy bouncers
named Dmitri, you'll want to listen in here."

SU College of Law to Host Expert Panel on Presidential Power and Surveillance

Syracuse University College of Law will present “All Means
Necessary--Presidential Power, Warrantless Surveillance
and Terrorism,” a forum on presidential powers to be held
on Feb. 6 at 4 p.m. in Grant Auditorium.

The panel discussion will feature nationally recognized experts
from SU's College of Law and Maxwell School who will address
presidential orders of warrantless surveillance of persons in the
United States by the National Security Agency, executive
authority, congressional statutes and resolutions. Speakers will
provide legal, security and civil liberty overviews, as well as the
constitutional and political implications of the policy.

The Hon. Thomas Maroney LAW'63, professor of law, will moderate.
Members of the panel include Bill Banks, Laura J. and L. Douglas
Meredith Professor of Law and Director of the Institute for
National Security and Counterterrorism; David Crane LAW'80,
Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law and former Chief
Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone; David Driesen,
Angela S. Cooney Professor of Law; Alasdair Roberts, Associate
Professor in the Maxwell School and Director of the Campbell
Public Affairs Institute; and Bill Wiecek, Congdon Professor of
Law and Professor of History in The College of Arts and Sciences.

If you would like additional information, please contact
Jacyln Gross at: 315-443-9534 or jgrosso@law.syr.edu.