"Women Suddenly Scarce Among Justices' Clerks"

An article in the NY Times (8/30/2006) by Linda Greenhouse
addresses the declining numbers of female clerks in the U.S.
Supreme Court. Greenhouse reports that only 7 of the 37
clerkships went to women for the 2006-7 term.

The article has been reprinted in the Feminist Law
Professors Blog, and the topic is being widely
addressed on the blawgosphere. For example, see:

Supreme Court Clerkships and Women's Opportunity
Georgetown Law Faculty Blog (8/30 2006)

Systematic Gender Disparities in Legal Clerks Recruitment
Women's Rights Employment Law Blog (8/31/2006)

Supreme Court Law Clerks: Where Are the Women?
Underneath Their Robes (8/31/2006)

A post that appeared in July that was cited by
Greenhouse in the Times article:

Why So Few Women Supreme Court Clerks?
Volokh Conspiracy (July 7, 2006)

The Art of Checking Your Laptop as Luggage

Are you concerned about checking your laptop as luggage
on your next flight? According to Wayne Rush at
eWeek.com (8/17/2006), your chances of getting your
laptop back intact "aren't exactly great." In his article,
Rush goes on to offer a number of practical suggestions
for improving your chances. Included in the article is a
slide show of protective carrying cases.

Hat tip to Robert Ambrogi on LawSites.

New on Google Scholar: "Related Articles"

The Official Google Blog (8/22/2006) announces
a new feature on Google Scholar that automatically
determines which articles in the Google Scholar
repository are most closely related to articles retrieved
in your search. You can see a list of these articles by
clicking the "Related Articles" link that appears next
to each result. The list of related articles is ranked
primarily by the degree of similarity to the retrieved
articles.

Law School Faculty Quality: Who is Up and Who is Down Since 2003

In Spring, 2003, Brian Leiter posted the
reputational surveys of leading legal scholars.
On Tuesday's Brian Leiter's Law School
Reports, Leiter posted changes to the surveys
between the Spring 2003 rosters and the expected
fall 2006 rosters. The list aims to include only
tenure-stream non-clinical faculty who are primarily
in law (e.g., hold tenure in law); adjuncts and
emeritus faculty are excluded. Schools are listed based
on their faculty quality rank in the 2003 survey.

Leiter's comments about which schools have lost or gained
ground (overall and in specific subject areas) follow the
summary of changes.

Dalai Lama to Speak On Law and Social Change at UB Law School

The University of Buffalo announced today
that the His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama will
speak at the Law, Buddhism and Social Change
conference to be held at the UB Law School on
September 20-21.

At the conference, the Dalai Lama will "publicly share
for the first time his thoughts on how religion,
particularly Buddhism, can influence law and bring
about social change...in an intimate two-hour
discussion between the Dalai Lama and legal
practitioners and scholars from around the world."

The conference is being organized by the Baldy Center
for Law and Social Policy and the UB Law School.
It is being offered in conjunction with the Dalai Lama's
visit to UB, Sept. 18-20. For more information, go to
http://www.law.buffalo.edu/baldycenter.

New From GlobaLex

GlobaLex (Hauser Global Law School Program
at NYU) announces the following new legal
research articles on its web site:

The Bulgarian Legal System and Legal Research

An Introduction to the Czech Legal System
and Legal Resources Online

A Guide to Legal Research in Israel

Uganda's Legal System and Legal Sector

Research Guide on International Health Law

InSite: Highlighted Resources

InSite, Cornell Law Library's online current awareness
service, has released its August 28 issue. Described
in this current release are the following web resources:

*Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
*Fostering Results (Children and Family Research Center
at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
*Jobs with Justice
*National Obscenity Law Center
*Selfhelpsupport.org (legal self help)

Teaching Law Students with ADD/ADHD

The Law Librarian Blog (8/24/2006) offers
excerpts from the abstract of a timely article
by Robin A. Boyle entitled, Law students with
Attention Deficit Disorder: how to reach them,
how to teach them (39 J. Marshall L. Rev.
349-383 (2006). [Westlaw]).

The article describes the common learning-style
traits of ADD students and offers suggestions
for non-traditional teaching strategies that can
help students with diverse learning styles.

7th Circuit Adds RSS Feeds To Opinions & Arguments

Bonnie Shucha at WisBlawg (8/23/2006) tells us that
the 7th Circuit is now offering opinions and audio oral
arguments via RSS feed. It is the first federal court of
appeals to do so. The Seventh Circuit's Web site makes
a combination of feeds available: an RSS feed of opinions
to read on your computer, and RSS feeds of arguments
as a standard audio MP3 podcast and an i-Tunes
optimized audio podcast.

You can find more information here.

New York Law School’s Center for International Law Launches Iran Project

The New York Law School has announced that its
Center for International Law has initiated an Iran
Project in collaboration with global security think
tank Network 2020. According to an August 23
press release, "the Iran Project will assess the impact of civic
organizations and nongovernmental organizations on
democracy and development in Iran. It also plans to
organize a high-level summit between U.S. and Iranian
nongovernmental leaders in a neutral third country."

Science & Law Blog: New on the Law Professor Blogs Network

Science & Law is the newest addition to the
Law Professor Blogs Network. According to
blog editor David L. Faigman (University of
California, Hastings), Science & Law is "directed
at the intersection of science and law. Its focus
concerns the integration of applied scientific
research and the substantive law. It thus is not
limited by subject area, on either the law or science
side of the ledger. Topics of interest, therefore,
include everything from mass toxic torts to fingerprint
identification."

Other Science & Law blog editors are David H. Kaye
(Arizona State), Michael J. Saks (Arizona State), Joseph Sanders
(University of Houston), and Edward K. Cheng (Brooklyn).

Call for Papers: Food, Law, and Culture Panel

The LawCulture blog (8/21/2006) reports that
Chris Buccafusco, a graduate student in the History
of Culture program at the University of Chicago,
is putting together a panel at on Food, Law and
Culture for the Annual Law, Culture and Humanities
conference to be held in March 2007 at Georgetown
Law Center.

The blog post lists possible panel topics, including (but
not limited to) government regulation of food and
alcohol, last meals, farm subsidies, animal rights,
and dietary laws in various cultures.

The deadline for submissions is October 15, 2006.

Coast to Coast Podcast: Asia as the New Frontier

In this week's Coast to Coast podcast, Robert Ambrogi and
J. Craig Williams discuss doing business in Asia with two
lawyers who have first-hand experience.
You can listen or download the podcast from Ambrogi's
LawSites blog (8/21/2006).

Geoffrey Stone on ACLU v. NSA

The University of Chicago's Geoffrey Stone
applauds Judge Anna Diggs Taylor's August 17
decision declaring President Bush's NSA
surveillance program unlawful (and colleagues
let loose in the comments) on the
University of Chicago Law School Faculty
Blog (8/18/2006).

Class Action Claims Law School Unfairly Dismissed Students with Low Averages

An article in the National Law Journal (8/16/2006)
reports that a "former law student has filed a federal
class-action lawsuit against St. Thomas University School
of Law Miami, claiming that it is illegally accepting and
then expelling more than 25% of its first-year class to boost
its flagging bar pass rates."

The article goes on to address another claim in the lawsuit
that St. Thomas is "violating its own policy of a mandatory
grading curve that calls for 15% of all grades to be lower than
a C+ [because] far more than 15% of first- and second-year
students receive grades that put them on academic probation."

ABA Launches Litigation Podcast

Robert Ambrogi (LawSites, 8/17/2006) reports that
the American Bar Association's Section of Litigation
has launched a podcast, Litigation Podcast: Tips & Tactics
for the Practicing Trial Lawyer. The first episode,
Managing Privilege, discusses real-world situations
involving privileged communications. The podcast
is also available through iTunes.

11 Canadian Universities Decline to Participate in Canadian Version of U.S. News Rankings

In his blog, Brian Leiter (Brian Leiter's Law School
Reports, 8/16/2006 - originally posted on 8/14)
excerpts an article from the CBC News web site
of 8/14 that states that 11 Canadian
universities will not participate in this year's Maclean's
rankings survey (the Canadian version of the
U.S. News survey) because of "concerns about the
methodology and the validity of some of the measures."

The comments following Leiter's post speculate
on the reasons for the dissension and why U.S.
universities haven't followed suit.

International Terrorism: Threat, Policy, and Response

The United States Department of State Foreign
Press Center has posted a August 9, 2006 CRS
Report entitled, International Terrorism:
Threat, Policy and Response (PDF) on its web
site.

The site also links to a number of other timely CRS
Reports on the Middle East, including:

Israel: Background and Relations with the United States.
Updated July 26, 2006 (PDF)

Israeli-Arab Negotiations: Background, Conflicts, and
U.S. Policy. Updated July 25, 2006 (PDF)

Lebanon. Updated July 24, 2006

Syria: U.S. Relations and Bilateral Issues.
Updated July 27, 2006 (PDF)

José E. Alvarez on "Understanding International Law"

Jose Alvarez, president of the American Society of
International Law and executive director of the
Columbia University Law School’s Center on Global
Legal Problems, addressed the role and limitations of
international law in a recent webchat sponsored by the
United States Department of State, Bureau of
International Information Programs.

A transcript of the web chat, which took place
on August 8, may be found on the USINFO web site.

Online Compendium of States' Open Meeting Laws

The Law Librarian Blog (8/14/2006) points us to
the Open Government Guide, a web resource
published by the The Reporters Committee for
Freedom of the Press. According to the site's
home page, "the Open Government Guide is a
complete compendium of information on every
state's open records and open meetings laws.
Each state's section is arranged according to a
standard outline, making it easy to compare laws."

You can browse by individual state, search the
full-text of the database, or compare a particular
issue across states.

Project on Defense Alternatives

The Project on Defense Alternatives at the
Commonweath University has added 800 links
to full-text articles and reports in the following
online libraries: Terrorism, Counter-terrorism, and
Homeland Security; Chinese Military Power; and
The Revolution in Military Affairs Debate page.
All PDA libraries can be accessed here.

According to the PDA mission statement, the organization
"has sought to adapt security policy to the challenges and
opportunities of the post-Cold War era. Toward this end it
promotes consideration of the broadest range of defense
options. Central to its mission is the development of
"transitional security policy," which would serve to create
conditions favorable to the advent of regional and global
cooperative security regimes." More information about the
PDA can be found on their web site.

Research Skills on the Bar Exam?

An an article in the May 2006 issue of The Bar Examiner
indicates that the National Conference of Bar Examiners
is investigating the need for and feasibility of testing legal
research skills and"is at the first stage in allowing the idea of
such an evaluation to germinate."

Hat tip to the Legal Writing Prof Blog .

United States v. Zacarias Moussaoui Trial Exhibits Online

The United States v. Zacarias Moussaoui trial exhibits
are now available online from the U.S. District Court, Eastern
District of Virginia web site. The site provides detailed
information about the contents of the collection and document
access.

New Legal Research Guides on GlobaLex

The Law Librarian Blog (8/2/2006) points us to
the following new online legal research guides
available from GlobaLexis (Hauser Global Law School
Program at NYU):

Researching Danish Law by Rasmus H. Wandall
Guide to Legal Research in Guatemala by Ana Cristina Rodríguez
A Guide to Legal Research in Russia by Arina V. Popova and Lev S. Solovyev
Vietnam Legal Research by Anh Luu

Untangling the Debate on Signing Statements

On the Georgetown Law Faculty Blog (7/31/2006) a
group of legal scholars and lawyers who have served
in the Office of Legal Counsel have written an extensive
and thought-provoking post about the debate
surrounding Presidential signing statements.

Specifically, the post questions certain
central conclusions of an ABA Report by a bipartisan
taskforce on presidential signing statements and the
separation of powers, suggesting that "the Report ...
may draw attention away from the truly serious problems
that the Bush signing statements [do] reflect."

Coast-to-Coast Legal Podcast: Highest Paid General Counsels

This week on Coast-to-Coast, co-hosts Robert
Ambrogi and Craig Williams interview Robin
Sparkman, editor-in-chief of Corporate Counsel
magazine, about the results of the
2006 GC Compensation Survey, charting
the compensation of the nation's 100 best-paid
chief legal officers.

Play or download the podcast here.

Podcasts & Web Videos of ABA Annual Meeting

The Legal Blog Watch on Law.com (7/31/2006)
tells us that, for the first time, the ABA will make
portions of its Annual Meeting available
through podcasts and Web video. For more information,
see the ABA News Annual Meeting Update web site.
The meeting, held this year in Honolulu, begins on
Thursday, 8/3.