Law School Visiting Professor List

Dan Filler at the Faculty Lounge Blog (4/21/2008)
has posted a list of who is visiting where for the 2008-
2009 academic year.

2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

The United States Department of state has released
its 2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.

"What Can You (Legally) Take From the Web?"

According to an article in the IEEE Spectrum (April 2008),
it's not always easy to know what you can take
from the web without violating copyright law.

According to the article, "what you take, why you take it,
who you are, and what technology you use are at least good
starting points for ascertaining what you can and cannot legally
take from the Web." But what about fair use? The article's
author Kirk Teska warns us that "fair use is not a pretty picture,
because there are no absolutes...what people think is fair use often
is not, and new technologies only muddy the waters further."

Hat tip to Ron Jones at Law X.O.

Lawyer2Lawyer Podcast: Polygamy and the Law

From Robert Ambrogi's LawSites (4/27/08):

"The raid of a polygamist compound in West Texas has raised
difficult and troubling issues concerning the interplay between
the state, religion and the rights of children, women and families."

On this week's Lawyer2Lawyer podcast, Ambrogi discusses these
events with Betsy Branch, a family-law attorney who is serving
as attorney ad litem for several children in the West Texas case, and
lawyer and social critic Wendy Kaminer, who has written about the
civil liberties aspects of the case at the thefreeforall.net.

Download the MP3 file.
Listen in Windows Media.

"Which Undergrad Majors Do Best on the LSAT?"

Brian Leiter answers the question here.
You might be surprised.

Google Digging into "Invisible Web" for Expanded Search Results

Did you know that you are unable to access billions
of pages of information through normal web searches?
Now the gurus at Google are digging deeper into this
so-called "invisible web" (also called the "deep web"
or the "hidden web.")

According to the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog,
Google is experimenting with new technology to "lead search
engine users to documents that would otherwise not be easily
found in search engines," such as the contents of specialized
databases.

UC Berkeley Library's Congressional Research Tutorials

Cornell Law Library's InSITE current awareness
service for 4/21/2008 brings our attention to the
video tutorials on congressional research prepared by
librarians at the University of California (Berkeley)
library.

Tutorials include: how to find bills from 1989 to
present (Thomas), how to find a report (LexisNexis
Congressional), how to find debates from 1873 to present
in print (Congressional Record), how to find debates from
1989 to present online (Thomas), and how to contact your
federal representatives (Senate and House web pages).
The videos run between 2 - 5 minutes each.

National Lawyers Guild Calls for Dismissal of Boalt Hall's John Yoo

The National Lawyers Guild has called on Boalt
Hall to dismiss professor of law John Yoo, the
co-author of the infamous Department of Justice
legal memoranda on the United States' use of torture
in interrogating enemy combatants.

The NLG press release of 4/9/2008 states that
"John Yoo should be disbarred and he should not be
retained as a professor of law at one of the country's
premier law schools. John Yoo should be dismissed from
Boalt Hall and tried as a war criminal."

To see how the legal blogs have responded (pro, against
and on the fence), see the Legal Blog Watch post of
4/15/3008.

Skadden, Arps to Help Minorities Enter the Law

The New York Law Journal (4/16/20008) reports
that the firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
has launched a $9.6 million Honors Program in Legal Studies
at the City College of New York to help more minorities enter
the practice of law. According to the article, the program
will eventually encompass a "two-year curriculum of course
work and seminars to complement the school's range of under-
graduate academic majors."

Lawyer2Lawyer Podcast: The Case for the Federal Shield Law

Co-hosts J. Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi discuss
journalists' privilege and the federal shield law pending
in Congress on this week's Lawyer2Lawyer podcast.
Joining them are:

Lucy Dalglish, a lawyer and executive director of the
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Geoffrey R. Stone, the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service
Professor and former dean at the University of Chicago Law School

Joel Kurtzberg, a partner with the firm Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP
who frequently represents reporters and news organizations

U. of Chicago Blocks Students' Access to the Internet

The New York Lawyer (4/16/2008) reports that
University of Chicago Law School Dean Saul Levmore
blocked student "access to the Internet in classrooms last
month to help them concentrate on course instruction."
According to the article, the Dean has received
inquiries "from about 10 other law schools" interested in
implementing similar restrictions.

The full article is reprinted on the Out of the
Jungle Blog (4/16/2008).

John Adams and the Boston Massacre Trial of 1770

If you enjoyed HBO's series on John Adams,
you may be interested in the Library of Congress'
digital exhibit on the Boston Massacre Trial of 1770.
Adams served as counsel for the defense in the trial
in which eight British soldiers were accused of murder
during a riot in Boston on March 5, 1770.

The full text of the documents can be viewed as PDF
documents and the online images can be clicked to enlarge.

Antonin Scalia to Appear on April 27 "60 Minutes"

From the Blog of the Legal Times (4/8/2008):

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia will be featured on
the CBS News show "60 Minutes" April 27 in connection
with the publication the next day of the new book he has
co-authored, called Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading
Judges.

New Rochester Law School?

An article in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle
(4/9/2008) addresses St. John Fisher College's
possible plan to develop a law school in downtown
Rochester, N.Y. Sen. Joseph Robach (R-Greece)
is quoted as saying that a total of between $7 to $9
million dollars in capital funding will be necessary
to launch the project. The college is expected to get
$2.25 million in state funding should it decide to
move forward with the new law school.

Live Demo's on HeinOnline's YouTube Channel

Now you can access live demos of HeinOnline's excellent
"how to" tutorials on the new HeinOnline YouTube channel.
The current feature is a video on How to Find an Article
in the Law Journal Library.

Of course, you can also read and print out the tutorials
from the HeinOnline Weblog.

Free Collection of Video Interviews on the International Law Video Library

The wonderful online International Law Video Library
provides free videoclips of interviews with international law
scholars and practitioners. For example, there is an
excellent video interview with International Court of
Justice Judge Rosalyn Higgins, who addresses the history,
jurisdiction, procedure and judges of the
Court. The collection also features "site visits" of locations
relevant to international law.

Current topics include:

- Peaceful Settlement of Disputes
- International Criminal Law
- Disarmament
- International Human Rights Law
- International Humanitarian Law
- Inter-Governmental Organizations
- Non-Governmental Organizations
- Theories, Perspectives, and Concepts

The Library was officially launched in 2006 with funding
provided by Queen's University of Belfast.

Hat tip to the Law Librarian Blog.

FBI Releases 2007 Internet Crime Report

The FBI announces the release of the 2007 Internet
Crime Report. According to the press release, "the
Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received
206,884 complaints of crimes perpetrated over the
Internet during 2007. Of the complaints received,
more than 90,000 were referred to law enforcement
around the nation, amounting to nearly $240 million
in reported losses. This represents a $40 million
increase in reported losses from complaints referred to
law enforcement in 2006. All complaints received by IC3
are accessible to federal, state, and local law enforcement
to support active investigations, trend analysis, and public
outreach and awareness efforts."

Hat tip to Law X.O.

Google Advanced Search for More Precise Results

Did you know that Google has an Advanced Search
that allows you refine your Google searches for more
precise results?

The Advanced Search template (which can
be accessed from a link on regular Google) allows
researchers to search for or exclude specific
terms and phrases and restrict results by a number
of factors, including language, file type, usage rights,
domain, and more. For example, using the Advanced
Search mode, you could find information on Chinese
legal research, excluding Taiwan, in English on
openly accessible web sites from educational
institutions (domain = .edu).

The Advanced Search Tips on the web site provide
explanations and examples.

Foreign Law Database: Global Legal Information Network (GLIN)

From the GLIN home page:

"The Global Legal Information Network (GLIN) is a public
database of official texts of laws, regulations, judicial decisions,
and other complementary legal sources contributed by governmental
agencies and international organizations. These GLIN members
contribute the full texts of their published documents to the
database in their original languages. Each document is
accompanied by a summary in English and, in many cases in
additional languages, plus subject terms selected from the
multilingual index to GLIN. All summaries are available to the
public, and public access to full texts is also available for most
jurisdictions."