Law Librarian Blog

Afghanistan: Post-War Governance, Security, and U.S. Policy

From the summary of the Congressional Research Service's Afghanistan: Post-War Governance, Security, and U.S. Policy (Updated September 10, 2007):

Assessments of the U.S. effort to stabilize Afghanistan are mixed. The political transition was completed with the convening of a parliament in December 2005, but since 2006 insurgent threats to Afghanistan’s government have escalated. In the political process, a new constitution was adopted in January 2004, successful presidential elections were held on October 9, 2004, and parliamentary elections took place on September 18, 2005. The parliament has become an arena for factions that have fought each other for nearly three decades to debate and peacefully resolve differences. Afghan citizens are enjoying personal freedoms forbidden by the Taliban. Women are participating in economic and political life, including as ministers, provincial governors, and parliament leaders.

In 2006 and 2007, the insurgency led by remnants of the former Taliban regime has escalated after four years of relatively minor violence. Contributing to the renewed violence is popular frustration with lack of economic development, official corruption, and the failure to extend Afghan government authority into rural areas. Narcotics trafficking is resisting counter-measures and funding insurgent activity. The Afghan government and some U.S. officials blame Pakistan for failing to prevent Taliban commanders from operating from Pakistan, largely beyond the reach of U.S./NATO-led forces in Afghanistan. U.S. and NATO commanders anticipated a Taliban 2007 “spring offensive” and moved to preempt it with an increase in force levels and accelerated reconstruction efforts, possibly contributing to a lower level – and changing texture – of combat than expected. However, the Taliban has responded by shifting toward the use of suicide bombings, kidnappings, and other tactics used by insurgents in Iraq. U.S. and NATO forces have also killed a few key Taliban battlefield leaders in 2007, and pro-Taliban insurgent leader Gulbuddin Hikmatyar declared a cease-fire with the government on July 19, 2007. U.S. and partner stabilization measures include strengthening the central government and its security forces. The United States and other countries are building an Afghan National Army, deploying a 39,000 troop NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) that now commands peacekeeping throughout Afghanistan, and running regional enclaves to secure reconstruction (Provincial Reconstruction Teams, PRTs). Approximately 27,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan, of which all but about 12,000 are under NATO/ISAF command. To build security institutions and assist reconstruction, the United States has given Afghanistan over $21 billion since the fall of the Taliban, including funds to equip and train Afghan security forces. Breakdowns are shown in the several tables at the end of this paper.

CRS Report on Post-Saddam Governance and Security in Iraq

New CRS Report via Think Progress:

"Some in Congress - as well as the Iraq Study Group - believe that the United States should begin winding down U.S. combat involvement in Iraq. Both chambers adopted a FY2007 supplemental appropriation to fund U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan (H.R. 1591) that would have set an outside deadline of March 31, 2008, for U.S. combat withdrawal if the President did not certify Iraqi progress on the "benchmarks." President Bush vetoed it on May 1, 2007, and subsequent bills mandating forms of withdrawal or combat reduction have not moved forward. Some observers say such legislation might see further action after the Administration's September 15 progress report, while others say some positive assessments of the "troop surge" might forestall immediate congressional action."  [RJ]

Friday Fun: Hey, I have a question

Fake patron, fake librarian, but how about that library policy!

CRS Report on Congress and the Internet

New CRS report via Open CRS:

"The relationship between Congress and the Internet is complex and multifaceted. Today, scores of technology measures are introduced in the House and Senate, influencing the work of nearly all congressional committees and Members and spawning the growth of a new array of interest groups. The Internet's influence is evident within and between the chambers of Congress. Despite widespread discussion about how the Internet will revolutionize legislative politics and policymaking, Congress usually reacts cautiously to the use of new technologies. This report explores how new technologies are introduced to Congress; discusses the impact of the Internet on two key centers of institutional power -- committees and political parties -- and provides a number of summary observations about the internet and congressional governance. This report will be updated only if warranted by new developments."  [RJ]

Taking Care of Treaties

George Washington University law prof Edward T. Swaine has deposited Taking Care of Treaties in SSRN. Here's the abstract:

There is little consensus about the scope of the President's powers to cure breaches of U.S. treaty obligations, let alone the influence of decisions by international tribunals finding the United States in breach. Such decisions do not appear to be directly effective under U.S. law. Treaties and statutes address questions of domestic authority sporadically and incompletely, and are suited to the task only if construed heroically; the President's general constitutional authority relating to foreign affairs is sometimes invoked, but its extent is uncertain and turns all too little on the underlying law at issue. Relying on either theory to cope with breaches, accordingly, risks distorting the positive law or vesting the President with a potentially boundless authority – or, in the alternative, risks a recurring gap between our international obligations and our domestic law.

The Take Care Clause affords a surprisingly well-tailored solution. Take care authority has been neglected in recent discourse, and not without reason. On the one hand, it is not obvious that it encompasses treaties, or licenses presidential authority beyond the capacity to ensure compliance within the executive branch; on the other hand, it smacks of unbridled executive power. These objections can be met. As the Article explains, the Take Care Clause includes treaties, including – critically – some treaties conventionally labeled as non-self-executing, and permits presidential authority beyond self-regulation. The text, case law, and practice further support the idea that this authority may be divested by the Constitution, by treaty, or by statute, and must satisfy additional criteria that guard against vesting the president with plenary lawmaking authority.

The Article explains how this theory applies to potential controversies involving compliance with the decisions of international tribunals (like those of the International Court of Justice, or arising under the WTO or the Law of the Sea Convention), legislative decisions by institutions like the Security Council (such as a resolution enabling war crime proceedings against former U.S. officials), and finally treaties that afford no recourse to international mechanisms. The result is a theory that reinforces congressional supremacy without requiring that treaty obligations founder upon it.

New Titles from the Brookings Institution Press

The Federal Budget, Third Edition
Politics, Policies, Process
Allen Schick

c. 320pp., Brookings Institution Press 2007
Paper Text, 978-0-8157-7735-9, $22.95 

Book Description: The federal budget impacts American policies both at home and abroad, and recent concern over the exploding budgetary deficit has experts calling our nation’s policies "unsustainable" and "system-dooming." As the deficit continues to grow, will America be fully able to fund its priorities, such as an effective military and looking after its aging population?

In this third edition of his classic book The Federal Budget, Allen Schick examines how surpluses projected during the final years of the Clinton presidency turned into oversized deficits under George W. Bush. In his detailed analysis of the politics and practices surrounding the federal budget, Schick addresses issues such as the collapse of the congressional budgetary process and the threat posed by the termination of discretionary spending caps. This edition updates and expands his assessment of the long-term budgetary outlook, and it concludes with a look at how the nation’s deficit will affect America now and in the future.

Blindside
How to Anticipate Forcing Events and Wild Cards in Global Politics
Francis Fukuyama, ed.

c. 198pp., Brookings Institution Press, 2007
Trade Cloth, 978-0-8157-2990-7, $27.95 

Book Description: A host of catastrophes, natural and otherwise, as well as some pleasant surprises—such as the sudden end of the cold war—have caught governments and societies unprepared in recent decades. September 11 is only the most obvious example among many unforeseen events that have changed, even redefined, our lives. We have every reason to expect more surprises in future.

Several kinds of unanticipated scenarios—particularly those of low probability and high impact—have the potential to escalate into systemic crises. Even positive surprises can pose major policy challenges. Contemporary policymakers, however, lack the understanding and the tools they need to manage low-probability, high-impact events. Refining our understanding and developing such tools are the twin foci of this insightful and perceptive volume, edited by renowned author Francis Fukuyama and sponsored by The American Interest magazine.

Organized into five sections, Blindside addresses the psychological and institutional obstacles that prevent leaders from planning for negative low-probability events and allocating the necessary resources to deal with them. Case studies pinpoint the failures—institutional as well as personal—that allowed key historical events to take leaders by surprise, and other chapters examine the philosophies and methodologies of forecasting. The book's final section offers a debate and two discussions with internationally prominent authorities who assess how individuals, communities, and local and national governments have handled low-probability, high-impact contingencies. They suggest what these entities can do to move forward in a period of heightened concern about both man-made and natural disasters.

How can we avoid being blindsided by unforeseen events? There is no easy or obvious answer. But we first must understand the obstacles that prevent us from seeing the future clearly and then from acting appropriately. This readable and fascinating book is an important step in that direction.

Yale Law Allows Military Recruiters

From the N.Y. Times: "For five years, Yale Law School has fought to restrict military recruiters from its job fairs because of the Pentagon’s policy that bars openly gay or bisexual people from the military. But with the federal government threatening to withhold $350 million in grants if the university does not assist the recruiters, that fight will all but end on Monday."  [RJ]

NELLCO Awarded Grant to Develop Universal Search Engine for Law Libraries

From the press release:

NELLCO, Inc., a non-profit consortium of 101 law libraries in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a significant grant by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) under the IMLS National Leadership Grants program. The grant award of $364,150.00 will aid NELLCO in funding a two-year project to develop a Universal Search Solution.

The NELLCO "Universal Search Solution" will be based on open standards and open source software, and will result in the creation of a physical master index of material, including participating library catalogs, as well as subscription-based databases and open content, special collections, and other resources that a participating library wishes to make discoverable to its patrons.

The idea for this project came from one of NELLCO's institutions, Franklin Pierce Law Center. [JH]

Ten Things Your IT Department Won't Tell You

The WSJ Online's Vauhini Vara reports on the following office computing hacks. For each, the article identifies the "problem," offers solutions ("tricks"), and tips about "how to keep yourself (and your job) safe."

1. HOW TO SEND GIANT FILES

2. HOW TO USE SOFTWARE THAT YOUR COMPANY WON'T LET YOU DOWNLOAD

3. HOW TO VISIT THE WEB SITES YOUR COMPANY BLOCKS

4. HOW TO CLEAR YOUR TRACKS ON YOUR WORK LAPTOP

5. HOW TO SEARCH FOR YOUR WORK DOCUMENTS FROM HOME

6. HOW TO STORE WORK FILES ONLINE

7. HOW TO KEEP YOUR PRIVACY WHEN USING WEB EMAIL

8. HOW TO ACCESS YOUR WORK EMAIL REMOTELY WHEN YOUR COMPANY WON'T SPRING FOR A BLACKBERRY

9. HOW TO ACCESS YOUR PERSONAL EMAIL ON YOUR BLACKBERRY

10. HOW TO LOOK LIKE YOU'RE WORKING

Don't blame me! Hat tip to LawLibTech. [JH]

New on Law X.0

Web 2.0 for the Uninitiated. Educause's series of concise, two-page explanations of Web 2.0 technologies is featured in a post by Matt Morrison, who has joined Law X.0 as a co-editor.

Google's Privacy Tools. Google has produced two videos explaining their privacy practices and tools in the context of personalized searching. Detail with links to the videos.

[JH]

Do We Have To?

How To Stop Wasting Time Online

[JJ]

ASU Law Profs Receive Grant to Study Regulation of Nanotechnology

ASU Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law received a grant recently to research the legal effects of a technology. The $314,000 grant came from the Department of Energy and will be used to anticipate and offer legal solutions for the regulation of nanotechnology, said Dr. Gary Marchant, executive director for the Center for Law, Science and Technology within the College of Law. Read more about it. [JH]

Professional Reading: An Empirical Study of Amicus Curiae in Federal Court: A Fine Balance of Access, Efficiency, and Adversarialism

Suffolk law prof Linda Sandstrom Simard offers an interesting perspective on the US Supreme Court in An Empirical Study of Amicus Curiae in Federal Court: A Fine Balance of Access, Efficiency, and Adversarialism. Forthcoming in the Review of Litigation, the article is currently available from SSRN. Here's the abstract:

During a recent telephone conversation, a colleague and I discussed whether the United States Supreme Court bears some resemblance to a quasi administrative agency. Of course, the Supreme Court is an Article III court, not an administrative agency. Yet, in more than 50% of the cases on the Court's docket, non parties are permitted to offer legal and/or factual information to supplement the legal and factual arguments made by the parties to the suit. Such non party participants, commonly referred to as amicus curiae - or friends of the court, frequently raise new arguments that are totally absent from the parties' briefs. Moreover, the procedural requirements for permission to participate as an amicus are very lenient - at times virtually non existent. The Court's willingness to allow such non party participation and consider the information offered by such participants is more akin to the notice and comment period of administrative rule making than the party controlled adversarial model which we typically consider essential to our judicial system. This article considers why the system allows amicus curiae this privileged position and whether we should be rethinking the procedural mechanisms which apply to friend of the court briefs.

CRS Report on Presidential Claims of Executive Privilege

From the summary of the CRS Report on Presidential Claims of Executive Privilege: History, Law, Practice and Recent Developments (Updated September 17, 2007)

Presidential claims of a right to preserve the confidentiality of information and documents in the face of legislative demands have figured prominently, though intermittently, in executive-congressional relations since at least 1792. Few such interbranch disputes over access to information have reached the courts for substantive resolution, the vast majority achieving resolution through political negotiation and accommodation. In fact, it was not until the Watergate-related lawsuits in the 1970’s seeking access to President Nixon’s tapes that the existence of a presidential confidentiality privilege was judicially established as a necessary derivative of the President’s status in our constitutional scheme of separated powers. Of the eight court decisions involving interbranch or private information access disputes, three have involved Congress and the Executive but only one of these resulted in a decision on the merits. The Nixon and post-Watergate cases established the broad contours of the presidential communications privilege. Under those precedents, the privilege, which is constitutionally rooted, could be invoked by the President when asked to produce documents or other materials or information that reflect presidential decisionmaking and deliberations that he believes should remain confidential. If the President does so, the materials become presumptively privileged. The privilege, however, is qualified, not absolute, and can be overcome by an adequate showing of need. Finally, while reviewing courts have expressed reluctance to balance executive privilege claims against a congressional demand for information, they have acknowledged they will do so if the political branches have tried in good faith but failed to reach an accommodation.

However, until the District of Columbia Circuit’s 1997 ruling in In re Sealed Case (Espy), and 2004 decision in Judicial Watch v. Department of Justice, these judicial decisions had left important gaps in the law of presidential privilege. Among the more significant issues left open included whether the President has to have actually seen or been familiar with the disputed matter; whether the presidential privilege encompasses documents and information developed by, or in the possession of, officers and employees in the departments and agencies of the Executive Branch; whether the privilege encompasses all communications with respect to which the President may be interested or is it confined to presidential decisionmaking and, if so, is it limited to any particular type of presidential decisionmaking; and precisely what kind of demonstration of need must be shown to justify release of materials that qualify for the privilege. The unanimous panel in Espy, and the subsequent reaffirmation of the principles articulated in Espy by Judicial Watch, authoritatively addressed each of these issues in a manner that may have drastically altered the future legal playing field in resolving such disputes.

Bad Boys of Environmental Movement Offer New Vision in Break Through

The Death of Environmentalism: Global Warming Politics in a Post-Environmental World (pdf)

Reaction to "The Death of Environmentalism"

Don't Fear the Reapers: A special series on the alleged "Death of Environmentalism," Grist Magazine, (Jan. 15, 2005) NPR Talk of the Nation podcast (Mar. 18, 2005)

In October 2004, Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus became the "bad boys" of the environment movement with the release of their paper, "The Death of Environmentalism." In it they argued that the US environmental movement had become just another special interest group lead by myopic technocrats who focused on a tired, narrowly defined set of issues and advocated for piecemeal procedural solutions that keep an army of attorneys and lobbyists employed. Their point, their concern signaled in the subtitle of the paper, "Global Warming Politics in a Post-Environmental World," was that the political and legal tactics that dealt with acid rain and the like were inadequate to deal with global warming.

Three years later, Shellenberger and Nordhaus new book, Break Through: From "The Death of Environmentalism" to the Politics of Possibility, is now available. In his review of the book, Wired's Mark Horowitz says,"Green groups may carp, but the truth is that the book could turn out to be the best thing to happen to environmentalism since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring." Two Environmentalists Anger Their Brethren. [JH]

Break Through: From "The Death of Environmentalism" to the Politics of Possibility
by Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus

List Price: $25.00
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co (October 4, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0618658254
ISBN-13: 978-0618658251

From the Book Description. If environmentalists and progressives are to seize the moment offered by the collapse of the Bush presidency, they must break from the politics of limits, and grapple with some inconvenient truths of their own. The old pollution and conservation paradigms have failed. The nations that ratified the Kyoto protocol have seen their greenhouse gas emissions go up, not down. And tropical rain forest deforestation has accelerated.

What the new ecological crises demand is not that we constrain human power but unleash it. Overcoming global warming demands not pollution control but rather a new kind of economic development. We cannot tear down the old energy economy before building the new one. The invention of the Internet and microchips, the creation of the space program, the birth of the European Union - those breakthroughs were only made possible by big and bold investments in the future.

The era of small thinking is over, the authors claim. We must go beyond small-bore environmentalism and interest-group liberalism to create a politics focused as much on uncommon greatness as the common good.

Break Through offers more than policy prescriptions and demands more than casual consideration. With its challenge to conventional environmentalist, conservative, and progressive thought, and its proposal for a politics of possibility, Break Through will influence the political debate for years to come.

Editor's Note: Environmental advocates have finally managed to put the issue of global warming at the top of the world's agenda. But the scientific, economic, and political realities may mean that their efforts are too little, too late.  See Paul J. Saunders & Vaughan Turkekian, Why Climate Change Can't Be Stopped, Foreign Policy (September 2007). Meanwhile, for a politics of the absurd, see this recent Bush Administration document: Toward a New Global Approach to Climate Change and Energy Security. [JH]

New and Forthcoming Titles from the Council on Foreign Relations

When the Council on Foreign Relations publishes, people read:

• Winners without Losers: Why Americans Should Care More about Global Economic Policy
• God and Gold: Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World
• Heroic Conservatism: Why Republicans Need to Embrace America's Ideals (And Why They Deserve to Fail if They Don't)
• On Nuclear Terrorism

Winners without Losers
Why Americans Should Care More about Global Economic Policy
Edward J. Lincoln

A CFR Book. Cornell University Press, September 2007
256 pages, ISBN 978-0-8014-4622-1
$27.95

Book Description: In the two decades since the United States became the world’s only superpower, policymakers in Washington have seemingly abandoned many tools of statecraft and instead now rely on U.S. military strength as the key—and sometimes the sole—element of its global strategy. Yet economists see a world in which the salience of military power has been shrinking as greater affluence and deepening interdependence transform the global economy.

In Winners without Losers, Edward J. Lincoln, a highly regarded economist, contends that the best chance the United States has of ensuring peace and prosperity—for itself and for the rest of the world—will be found at conference tables rather than on the battlefield. Shining a spotlight on foreign trade policy as an agent for political change, this cogent and well-argued book urges policymakers, the business community, and citizens to find a path to increased stability by forging stronger international economic ties.

Interdependence is founded on cooperation with other nations, and in particular on multilateral institutions. Over the past five years, in particular, American policy has moved strongly away from cooperation and, in a single-minded pursuit of the “war against global terror,” has largely ignored economic issues. Extending the scope of his previous work, which started with the economic transformations of postwar Japan and more recently considered the evolution of economic linkages and cooperation in East Asia, Lincoln applies regional lessons to the world stage. More than a critique of current policies, Winners without Losers argues for a transformation of American foreign policy that recognizes the new realities of the globalized world-realities that America’s leaders ignore at the nation’s peril.

God and Gold
Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World
Walter Russell Mead

A CFR Book. Alfred A. Knopf, October 2007
464 pages, ISBN 978-0-375-41403-9 (0-375-41403-7)
$27.95

Book Description: Since Oliver Cromwell’s day, the English-speakers have seen their enemies as haters of liberty and God who care nothing for morality, who will do anything to win, and who rely on a treacherous fifth column to assure victory. Those enemies, from Catholic Spain and Louis XIV to the Nazis, communists, and al-Qaeda, held similar beliefs about their British and American rivals, but we see that though the Anglo-Americans have lost small wars here and there, they have won the major conflicts. So far.

Walter Russell Mead, one of our most distinguished foreign policy experts, makes clear that the key to the predominance of the United States and England has been the individualistic ideology of the prevailing Anglo-American religion. Mead explains how this helped create a culture uniquely adapted to capitalism, a system under which both countries thrived. We see how, as a result, the two nations were able to create the liberal, democratic system whose economic and social influence continues to grow around the world.

The stakes today are higher than ever; technological progress makes new and terrible weapons easier for rogue states and terror groups to develop and deploy. Where some see an end to history and others a clash of civilizations, Mead sees the current conflicts in the Middle East as the latest challenge to the liberal, capitalist, and democratic world system that the Anglo-Americans are trying to build. What we need now, he says, is a diplomacy of civlizations based on a deeper understanding of the recurring conflicts between the liberal world system and its foes. In practice, this means that Americans generally, and especially the increasingly influential evangelical community, must develop a better sense of America’s place in the world.

With wit, verve, and stunning insight, Mead recounts what is, in effect, the story of a centuries-long war between the English-speaking peoples and their enemies. Sustained by control of the oceans that surround them, the British and their American heirs built a global system of politics, power, investment, and trade over the past three hundred years. Along the way, the two nations developed a sophisticated grand strategy that brought the English-speaking powers to a pinnacle of global power and prestige unmatched in the history of the world.

Mead’s emphasis on the English-speaking world as the chief hero (and sometimes villain) in modern history changes the way we see the world. Authoritative and lucid, God and Gold weaves history, literature, philosophy, and religion together into an eminently important work—a dazzling book that helps us understand the world we live in and our tumultuous times.

Heroic Conservatism
Why Republicans Need to Embrace America's Ideals (And Why They Deserve to Fail if They Don't)
Michael J. Gerson

A CFR Book. HarperCollins, October 2007
320 pages, ISBN 9780061349508 (006134950X)
$26.95

Book Description: Michael J. Gerson, who penned most of George W. Bush’s inspiring speeches, is considered by many Democrats and Republicans to be the most influential White House speechwriter since the Kennedy administration’s Ted Sorenson. Known around the administration as the "moral compass," Gerson was more than a speechwriter, he was also a trusted insider helping to make policy decisions.

In Heroic Conservatism, he uses his own experiences in the upper tier of the Bush White House to make his point that America needs a conservatism that is heroic in its aspirations—this includes such “compassionate conservative” social strategies such as continued international AIDS funding, anti-poverty initiatives, and a government leadership rooted in moral values.

Written in Gerson’s own accessible voice and with his unique ability to frame complex issues in a way that both challenges and inspires, Heroic Conservatism is a new manifesto for the Republican party and a fascinating memoir of a history-shaping Presidency.

On Nuclear Terrorism
Michael A. Levi

A CFR Book. Harvard University Press, November 2007
224 pages, ISBN 978-0-674-02649-0
$24.95

Book Description: Nuclear terrorism is such a disturbing prospect that we shy away from its details.
Yet as a consequence, we fail to understand how best to defeat it. Michael Levi takes us inside nuclear terrorism and behind the decisions a terrorist leader would be faced with in pursuing a nuclear plot. Along the way, Levi identifies the many obstacles, large and small, that such a terrorist scheme might encounter, allowing him to discover a host of ways that any plan might be foiled.

Surveying the broad universe of plots and defenses, this accessible account shows how a wide-ranging defense that integrates the tools of weapon and materials security, law enforcement, intelligence, border controls, diplomacy, and the military can multiply, intensify, and compound the possibility that nuclear terrorists will fail. Levi draws from our long experience with terrorism and cautions us not to focus solely on the most harrowing yet most improbable threats. Nuclear terrorism shares much in common with other terrorist threats--and as a result, he argues, defeating it is impossible unless we put our entire counterterrorism and homeland security house in order.

As long as we live in a nuclear age, no defense can completely eliminate nuclear terrorism. But this book reminds us that the right strategy can minimize the risks and shows us how to do it.

World Law Bulletin

From Secrecy News:

"The World Law Bulletin is a monthly publication of the Law Library of Congress that reports on significant or interesting legal developments in countries around the world.

For its own peculiar reasons, the Law Library has declined to make this serial available to the public. (In response to insistent pleas, a derivative publication called the Global Legal Monitor was created last year for public release.)

But now a collection of back issues of World Law Bulletin, dating from October 2000 to March 2006, has become publicly available through alternate channels."  [RJ]

New Database of Frequently Asked Questions

Check out QueryCAT, a new search engine that has indexed FAQs from all over the web and made them searchable from a single site.  Very cool.  [RJ]

Cyberstructure for Collaboration and Innovation: Selected Conference Papers

The papers in this special issue of First Monday were originally presented at a conference held at the National Academies on 29–30 January 2007, co–sponsored by the National Science Foundation, University of Michigan, Council on Competitiveness, Committee for Economic Development, and Science Commons.

• Issues in IP Management to Support Open Access in Collaborative Innovation Models
  by Sara Boettiger
• Intellectual Property and Cyberinfrastructure
  by Dan L. Burk
• Knowledge Management Architectures Beyond Technology
  by Marla M. Capozzi
• Cyberinfrastructure and Patent Thickets: Challenges and Responses
  by Gavin Clarkson
• Is ‘Designing’ Cyberinfrastructure — or, Even, Defining It — Possible?
  by Peter A. Freeman
• Infrastructure Commons in Economic Perspective
  by Brett M. Frischmann
• Economic Experiments in Internet Access Markets
  by Shane Greenstein
• The Role of Patents in Technology Markets: Issues Pertaining to Data Collection and Analysis
  by Dominique Guellec and Maria Pluvia Zuniga
• Understanding Infrastructure: History, Heuristics, and Cyberinfrastructure Policy
  by Steven J. Jackson, Paul N. Edwards, Geoffrey C. Bowker, and Cory P. Knobel
• A Simple Method to Improve Life Sciences Patent Searches Using the Cyberinfrastructure at the National Institutes of Health
  by Kyle Jensen, Chen Jinan, and Fiona Murray
• Cyberinfrastructure and Innovation Policy
  by Brian Kahin
• Social and Behavioral Scientists Building Cyberinfrastructure
  by David W. Lightfoot
• Cyberinfrastructure, Institutions, and Sustainability
  by Christopher J. Mackie
• Knowledge Commons: The Case of the Biopharmaceutical Industry
  by Arti K. Rai
• Intellectual Property and Compatibility Standards: A Primer
  by Tim Simcoe
• ICT Standard Setting Today: A System Under Stress
  by Andrew Updegrove
• Dealing with Patent Fragmentation in ICT and Genetics: Patent Pools and Clearing Houses
  by Geertrui Van Overwalle, Esther van Zimmeren, Birgit Verbeure, and Gert Matthijs
• Seeking Open Infrastructure: Contrasting Open Standards, Open Source and Open Innovation
  by Joel West
• Implementing Openness: An International Institutional Perspective
  by Sacha Wunsch–Vincent, Taylor Reynolds, and Andrew Wyckoff

How Lawyers Perceive Law Firm Libraries

A recent Wall Street Journal blawg post regarding the weeding of Harvard Law Reviews has set off quite a few comments.  Apparently,  WSJ blawgers are unaware that this type of activity frequently occurs, and has been occurring for some time.  Though there seems to be some confusion between getting rid of HLR volumes and the death of the law firm library.  One does not necessarily indicate the other.

Prawfsblog takes a more misty-eyed view of the evolution from print to online law firm libraries.  Since they're inviting "memories" on law firm libraries, I thought Law Lib Blog readers might be interested in sharing your wisdom with them.  [JJ]