Transparency Int'l Issues Report on Global Judicial Corruption

Transparency International has issued its Global
Corruption Report for 2007. The report "brings together scholars,
judges and civil society activists from around the world to
examine how, why and where corruption mars judicial
processes, and to reflect on reforms and activism that help
remedy a corruption-tainted system."

The report includes:

* analysis of the causes of judicial corruption and its consequences,
including an exploration of the particular impact on women

*reports on judicial corruption in 35 countries

*evaluation of efforts to reduce judicial corruption

*recommendations for action against judicial corruption directed
at judges, political powers, prosecutors, lawyers and civil society

*a specially commissioned survey on citizens' experiences of
court corruption around the world

*the latest empirical research on judicial corruption

*detailed assessments of the state of corruption in countries
by national chapters of Transparency International and other experts

Hat tip to the Law Librarian Blog.

Library of Congress Makes Photos Available on Flickr Web Site

The Library of Congress and Flickr (a popular photo-sharing
web site) have launched a pilot project called The Commons to
make some of its vast collection of images accessible for viewing,
describing and commenting on by the public.

From the Library of Congress announcement:

"Out of some 14 million prints, photographs and other visual
materials at the Library of Congress, more than 3,000 photos
from two of our most popular collections are being made available
on our new Flickr page, to include only images for which no
copyright restrictions are known to exist.

The real magic comes when the power of the Flickr community
takes over. We want people to tag, comment and make notes on
the images, just like any other Flickr photo, which will benefit not
only the community but also the collections themselves."

Current collection on the Commons:

1930s-40s in Color
News in the 1910s

HeinOnline Tutorial on Searching by Author

You aren't alone if you have struggled with author
searches on HeinOnline. Author searches can be
challenging for a number of reasons - HeinOnline
indexes author names as they appear in the original copy
of a title/article; some author names may contain middle
initials and may be indexed differently, depending upon the
title; and, an author could be displayed in one or various formats.

The folks at Hein have come to the rescue with a succinct,
illustrated web guide to author searching in HeinOnline.
Share this one with your research assistant!

Lawyer2Lawyer Podcast: Social Networking and the Law

Robert Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams examine
Social Networking and the Law in their weekly
podcast on the Legal Talk Network.

Their guests include: Chris Carfi, co-founder of
business-networking company Cerado; Eric Goldman,
director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara
University School of Law; and Kara Swisher, co-executive
editor of All Things Digital.

Listen to or download the program at this page.

New Web Resource - The End of Slavery: The Creation of the 13th Amendment

HarpWeek has developed a web resource that explores
the "nation’s transition from slavery to freedom."

"The primary source materials for The End of
Slavery: The Creation of the 13th Amendment are taken
from the pages of Harper’s Weekly, the leading American
illustrated newspaper in the second-half of the nineteenth
century." The site includes editorials, feature stories, news items,
illustrations, cartoons, a poem, and an advertisement."

The site also features a timeline (1787-1865), commentary,
biographies, a glossary and a list of sources.

Hat tip to the Librarian's Internet Index, 1/24/2008.

National Crime Victims' Rights Week 2008 Resource Guide

"The Office for Victims of Crime has released the
2008 Resource Guide for National Crime Victims' Rights Week,
April 13–19, 2008. Developed to help communities promote
awareness of victim issues, this online guide includes camera
-ready art files, public awareness posters, the 2008 theme
DVD and screensaver, and more. The 2008 theme is "Justice
for Victims. Justice for All." (NCJ 220102)

Hat tip to beSpacific.

Interdisciplinarity, Multidisciplinarity, and the Future of the Legal Academy

Brian Tamanaha's recent post on Balkinization,
Why the Interdisciplinary Movement in Legal
Academia Might be a Bad Idea (For Most Law Schools),
has engendered a flurry of responses.

The Legal Theory Blog summarizes the blawgosphere
debate. The Law and Letter Blog has compiled a list of
responses to Tamanaha's original post.

Law Professor Requires Student Blogging

Mitchell Rubenstein (Adjunct Prof Blog) brings our
attention to the buzz surrounding Barry Law School
Professor Marc John Randazza's requirement that
students participate in course blogs.

According to Rubenstein, Randazza's syllabus states:

"Overall Participation will be 10 points (out of 100) for
class participation and 10 points for blog participation.
Exceptional participation in either department can make
up for some a deficiency in the other. So, if you are a “quiet
person,” you may want to hit the blog pretty effectively."

Comments following Rubenstein's post and comments
on other blogs (compiled by Joe Hodnincki at Law X.O)
offer stimulating discussion on the value of student
participation in Internet tools such as blogs and wikis.

When 'Web Presence' Creates Jurisdiction

In today's New York Law Journal online, Stephen M.
Kramarsky explores the increasingly complex jurisdiction
issues surrounding businesses' web presence.

Says Kramarksy: "a modern Web site for a company based
in Chicago might be designed in New York, coded in California,
supported in India, connected via a Virginia Internet service
provider and hosted on servers in the Bahamas (offshore hosting
being more and more common for both cost and privacy reasons)."

The author examines relevant New York law, concluding that
"given the endless variations in e-commerce models that are now
beginning to appear, and the legal consequences of fairly small
distinctions in defendants' situations, these cases make it clear
that careful, case-by-case analysis will be increasingly important
in Internet jurisdiction cases in the future."

Judges Guide to Keeping Secrets

Robert Timothy Reagan has written a guide for
the Federal Judiciary Center on how judges can
protect government secrets in the courtroom.

The handbook, entitled Keeping Government Secrets:
A Pocket Guide for Judges on the State-Secrets Privilege,
the Classified Information Procedures Act, and Court Security
Officers, "is designed to familiarize federal judges with statutes
and procedures established to help public courts protect
government secrets when courts are called upon to do so.
The guide provides information about the Classified Information
Procedures Act (CIPA), information security officers, and secure
storage facilities."

Hat tip to beSpacific.

Searching and Using Boolean Operators on HeinOnline

The HeinOnline Weblog features a tip sheet on how
to use boolean connectors when searching HeinOnline
databases.

A summary of this very useful tip sheet:

You can use boolean operators (AND, +, OR, NOT, -) in
the One-box and Advanced Search options.

Tip #1 - Boolean Operators must be all CAPITALS.
Tip #2 - A phrase must be enclosed with "quotation marks".

The tip sheet provides much more detail and illustrations.

New International & Foreign Legal Research Articles on GlobaLex

The following new legal research guides are now available
on GlobaLex:

Basic Guide to Researching Foreign Law (Mary Rumsey)

Libya’s Legal System and Legal Research (John L. S. Simpkins)

Overview of the North Korean Legal System and
Legal Research (Patricia Goedde)

South Korean Law Research on the Internet
(Hyeon-Cheol Kim and Inyoung Cho)

A Guide to the Lithuanian Legal System & Research
(Elona Norvaisaite)

HeinOnline Launches Live Online Help

The HeinOnline Weblog announces a new live help
feature. "This feature allows you to talk live with one
of our representatives via a secure chat room, and get
quick answers to your questions without having to wait
for a reply email or pick up the phone and call us."

The "Help" button can be found in the upper right hand corner,
on the welcome screen, and in the technical and training sections
of the home page. If a representatives is unavailable, the icon will
specify "Offline, click to email."

Best Practices for Legal Education Blog

The Best Practices for Legal Education blog was initiated
"(1) to create a useful web-based source of information on
current reforms in legal education arising from the publication
of Roy Stuckey’s Best Practices for Legal Education (PDF) and
the Carnegie Foundation’s Educating Lawyers; and (2) to
create a place where those interested in the future of legal
education can freely exchange ideas, concerns, and opinions.
The blog contributors and editor will attempt to document
and record the most recent innovations and academic
experiments accompanying the legal education reform
movement — and stimulate dialogue between and among
all sectors of the legal academy. "

The blog is sponsored by Albany Law School.

2007 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary

On 1/1/2008, Chief Justice Roberts released the 2007 Year-End
Report on the Federal Judiciary (PDF). In the report, he advocates for
salary increases for federal judges. Accompanying data on
judicial compensation may be found here.