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, August 30, 2007

Biker Law Blog

Yup. There is a blog devoted to Biker Law. Norman
Gregory Fernandez (biker and lawyer) "created this
site to provide information to the motorcycle and biker
community." Topics include biker and motorcycle legal
articles, news, links, safety tips, personal injury, and more.

Fernandez, who isn't shy about expressing his opinions,
keeps things lively with lots of graphics, videoclips, and
thought-provoking posts.

Commission of Civil Rights' "Affirmative Action in American Law Schools"

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has released
Affirmative Action in American Law Schools (PDF).

The Law Librarian Blog (8/30/2007) has posted
the report's recommendations from the executive
summary. The same post provides an abstract
of the National Bureau of Economic Research report,
Evidence about the Potential Role for Affirmative Action
in Higher Education (PDF).

Law and Technology Podcasts

In his latest LLRX article (8/27/2007), Roger V. Skalbeck
(Associate Law Librarian, Georgetown Law Library) brings
our attention to a selection of law-related podcasts. His
emphasis is on technology policy, law, and web development

Monday, August 27, 2007

Two Courts Offer Digital Audio Recordings Online

The Administrative Office of the Courts announced
in a press release of 8/6/2007 that the U.S. District Court in
Nebraska and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern
District of North Carolina will make some digital audio recordings
of courtroom proceedings available on the Internet. The U.S.
District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the U.S.
Bankruptcy Court in Maine, and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for
the Northern District of Alabama are also planning to participate
in the pilot project.

The audio files are accessible through the Public Access to Court
Electronic Records (PACER) system.

"Navigating the Law Review Article Selection Process"

Leah M. Christensen and Julie A. Oseid (both at the
University of St. Thomas School of Law) have written
a report describing their study on what factors student
editors consider most important when making law review
article selection decisions.

The report, available on SSRN, "examines how law review
editors at all levels of the law school 'tier' system weigh the
importance of author credentials, topic, format, and timing of
an article submission in making their selection decisions."
In addition to describing the survey results, the article
provides commentary from the student editors about their
selection process and provides suggestions for new law professors
planning to submit articles for publication.


Friday, August 24, 2007

ACS ResearchLink -"Connecting Law Students and Lawyers Committed to Justice"

From About ACS ResearchLink:

"ACS ResearchLink collects legal research topics submitted
by practitioners for law students to explore in faculty-supervised
writing projects for academic credit. Topic authors will receive a
copy of the resulting student papers, which ACS will also post in a
searchable online library. By connecting law students and faculty
with the research needs of public interest organizations and advocates,
ACS ResearchLink will become an increasingly comprehensive and
powerful engine for change, while also enhancing the relevance and
influence of student academic scholarship."

The first round of papers on ACS ResearchLink topics will be
submitted following the Fall 2007 academic semester and be
available for searching in early 2008.

For more information:

How ACS ResearchLink works
Why lawyers and law students should participate
For Law Professors with students confronting research & writing requirements
FAQ
Contact: ResearchLink@ACSLaw.org.

Sexual Orientation and the Law: New Blog on the Law Professor Blogs Network

The Sexual Orientation and the Law Blog is a new
member of the Law Professor Blogs Network.
The blog is hosted by Sara R. Benson, Visiting Assistant
Professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, and
William B. Turner, Visiting Assistant Professor at Emory
University School of Law.

Recent posts include:

Sexual Orientation Meets Contracts and Torts
Finstuen v. Crutcher -- Interstate Adoption Recognition

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

UCSC's Open Archive of Congressional Proceedings

Metavid (University of California at Santa Cruz) "seeks to
capture, stream, archive and facilitate real-time collective
[re]mediation of legislative proceedings. Metavid makes
use of entirely free and open source software and video
codecs to make both the footage and the architecture of the
site available, accessible and recontextualizable."
(About Metavid)

The service uses public domain video feed from C-SPAN
to generate video archives of congressional floor proceedings.
It can be searched by keyword or speaker name and can be
browsed by date or popular prior searches.

Hat tip to beSpacific (8/20/2007).

Posner and Vermeule: Online Symposium on "Terror in the Balance"

Eric Posner and Adrian Vermeule are defending their
book, Terror in the Balance, in an online symposium on
Opinio Juris. In his opening remarks (which can be found
on the University of Chicago Law School Faculty Blog)
Posner describes the book: "Most of this work goes after
the Bush administration for violating civil liberties; after
Congress, for giving Bush what he wanted; and after the
courts, for (with a few exceptions) standing out of the way."

Web Resource Reviews on Cornell's InSite

The August 20, 2007, issue of Cornell Law Library's
InSite current awareness service reviews the following
web resources (click on the link above for the reviews
or click on the links below to access the resources):

Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930

ISEA International Energy Treaties

Institute for Judicial Studies: Judicial Reports

Karamah: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights

National Law Center for Children and Families

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

National Lawyers Guild Launches Blog

The National Lawyers Guild has launched a new
blog to improve access to their press releases and
reports. The organization is "dedicated to the need
for basic and progressive change in the structure of
our political and economic system. Through its members--
lawyers, law students, jailhouse lawyers and legal workers
united in chapters and committees--the Guild works locally,
nationally and internationally as an effective political and
social force in the service of the people. "

Legal Conference Watch

The Gallagher Law Library at the University of Washington
School of Law has created Legal Conference Watch, a blog
that keeps law faculty up to date on upcoming law-related
conferences.

According to the site, the list will be limited to programs that
are at least a day long and will not include continuing legal
education programs or local bar association meetings. Emphasis
will be on American and Canadian conferences, with a selection
of foreign conferences.

If you are hosting or know about an upcoming conference that
would interest law school faculty, please send a link or basic
information to: Mary Whisner, Reference Librarian, at
whisner@u.washington.edu.