Law Librarian Blog

Downsized U.S. Goals and Presence in Iraq

New report from the The Century Foundation:

"In a new report from The Century Foundation, former National Intelligence Council vice-chair Ellen Laipson argues that the United States needs to move quickly to reset its Iraq policy goals, arguing that U.S. strategic goals in the Middle East region require a change in Iraq policy regardless of how Iraq’s internal political scenario plays out.

According to Laipson’s report, elections in both Iraq and the United States over the next eighteen months could significantly change the landscape for U.S. policy toward Iraq. In the United States, Iraq could well be one of the most important issues on voters! minds when they make their choice in the presidential contest. The campaigns have raised expectations that major changes may be in the offing, even if the clarity of campaign aspirations may need to bend somewhat to the harsh realities of troop deployments, funding needs, and potential destabilization from changing course too.

Iraqis too will be asked to register their choices in provincial elections in fall 2008 and in national elections in December 2009. A new U.S. administration could find itself dealing with different Iraqi political leaders than those collaborating with President Bush, possibly taking more stringent positions on the U.S. military presence in the country, among other issues."  [RJ]

Colleges Express Concern About State Laws That Require Them to Fight Online Piracy

Interesting story from the Chronicle: "Higher-education officials say that the entertainment industry is pushing for state laws that would force colleges to police their networks for illegal trading of music and video files and to buy software to stem the problem."  [RJ]

Britannica 2.0 (sort of…)

Interesting article from Pandia Search Engine News:

"Can it really be? Encyclopaedia Britannica will soon be launching a new initiative to promote greater participation by both expert contributors and readers.

Both groups will be invited to play a larger role in expanding, improving, and maintaining the information on the Web under the Encyclopaedia Britannica name. They will also be sharing content they create with other visitors.

This comes as a surprise after years of antagonism between Wikepedia and Britannica where the the main conflict has been on the subject of the value of the contributions of amateurs. But is this really such a quantum leap as Britannica will have us beleive?"  [RJ]

Power Browsing: What the Internet is Doing to Our Mental Habits

Nicholas Carr author of The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google (2008), Does IT Matter? Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage (2004) and the very influencial 2003 Harvard Business Review article "IT Doesn't Matter" [LLB post] has penned Is Google Making Us Stupid? for The Atlantic. The article is about our ability to adapt to new intellectual technologies.

Is the Internet making us stupid? Not likely but it is altering our mental habits. [RJ & JH]

Friday Fun: Bill Gates Retires Today

Steve Sires, who has been impersonating Bill Gates for years under the name Bogus Bill, may need to find a new gig because today marks the last day Bill Gates will work as a full-time employee of the company he co-founded 33 years ago. [Financial Times Timeline: Bill Gates at the Helm of Microsoft (free registration required); NPR Timeline: From Geek to Gazillionaire to Do-Gooder; official biography on Microsoft's website] Following an announcement made on June 15, 2006, Gates will remain Microsoft's chairman but the company will be run by an executive team led by CEO Steve Ballmer, chief software architect Ray Ozzie, and chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie. [Transcript of Financial Times interview with Steve Ballmer on Microsoft's post-Gates era].

Gates, only 52, will be focusing on his philanthropic efforts, giving away his (and Warren Buffett's) fortune through his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Foundation has already donated billions of dollars to fund medical research in AIDs, malaria, and other diseases; minority college scholarships; literacy efforts; and additional causes including the Global Libraries Initiative which partners with countries emerging from poverty to help public libraries provide free access to computers connected to the Internet and training in how to use them.

Here's two hilarious retirement-related video clips:

Bill Gates Retirement Video on David Letterman Show (Aired two years ago after the announcement of Gates' retirement plans)

Bill Gates' Last Day (Video clip aired during Gates' Keynote Address at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show, featuring cameos by Brian Williams, Steve Ballmer, Matthew McConaughey, Jay-Z, Bono, Steven Spielberg, George Clooney, Jon Stewart, and others)

Gates was featured in the 1996 PBS documentary, Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires. Link to YouTube clips. [JH]

ALA's Annual Conference Is Underway

The 2008 ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim is underway. Check out the Conference's Official Wiki and Conference Materials Archive. [JH]

Movement to Kill C-61 Will Heat Up This Summer

On June 12, 2008, Canadian Industry Minister Jim Prentice introduced C-61 to amend the Canadian Copyright Act. See the Financial Post's New Copyright Act Targets Online Piracy, CBC's Copyright Law Could Result in Police State, National Post's Highlights From Proposed Copyright Bill, the podcast of the Jim Prentice interview (mp3) on the CBC Radio program Search Engine, and the comment trail for Connie Crosby's Slaw post. C-61 would amend the Copyright Act in order to

1. update the rights and protections of copyright owners to better address the Internet, in line with international standards;
2. clarify the liability of Internet service providers;
3. permit certain uses for educational and research purposes of Internet and other digital technologies to facilitate technology-enhanced learning, inter-library loans, the delivery of educational material and access to publicly available material on the Internet;
4. permit certain uses of copyright material for private purposes; and
5. amend provisions of the Act relating to photographs to give photographers the same rights as other creators

Resources: Text of C-61 | Official Backgrounder and Fact Sheets

According to Michael Geist, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa, C-61 is worse than the US DMCA. Read his The Canadian DMCA: Check the Fine Print. See also Geist's How the U.S. Got Its Canadian Copyright Bill and his follow-up post.

Parliament has adjourned for the summer, so Canadian lawmakers will not examine C-61 in depth until the fall. For coverage of the campaign against the bill, check out Fair Copyright for Canada (Group's Facebook site). See also the  Kill C-61 Blog. [JH]

Prosecuting Terrorism Cases in the Federal Courts

New report from Human Rights First:

“In Pursuit of Justice: Prosecuting Terrorism Cases in the Federal Court, written for Human Rights First by Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP partners Richard B. Zabel and James J. Benjamin Jr., constitutes the most comprehensive and thorough examination to date of the federal prosecution of terrorism cases. 

In Pursuit of Justice examines more than 100 international terrorism cases prosecuted in the existing criminal justice system over the past fifteen years, ranging from epic mega-trials for completed acts of terrorism to individual, pre-emptive prosecutions focused on prevention. It draws on the personal perspectives of judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers with firsthand terrorism litigation experience, as well as the views of security experts and academics.

The focus of this examination is on the legal and practical issues that confront courts, law enforcement, and Congress regarding terrorism-related crimes. In Pursuit of Justice concludes that the federal system has capably handled important and challenging terrorism cases without compromising national security or sacrificing rigorous standards of fairness and due process." 

[RJ] 

Diversity Meets Law School GPA Data

Has the ABA’s diversity standard led highly ranked law schools to accept some students who might be more successful if they attended lower-ranked, less competitive or less rigorous schools? Are you as uncomfortable with the question as I am? See Inside Higher Ed's Diversity Meets Data at George Mason Law article. [JH]

Opening: Web Developer, Jenkins Law Library, Philadelphia, PA

The Jenkins Law Library is the nation’s oldest law library established in 1802. It is a membership library and also serves as the county law library for the city and county of Philadelphia. It provides services to attorneys, the judiciary, government officials, students, scholars and other researchers as well as the general public. Its web site is a vital resource for the legal community. Library members have round the clock exclusive access to databases and other information that assist them in their law practices.

The Web Developer maintains and develops the Library’s dynamic web site and is responsible for implementing all web database and design initiatives. The law library is planning a web redesign in late 2008. The Web Developer works closely with employees in the library’s various departments.

Responsibilities & Duties:

• Manages the ongoing development of the law library’s Web database & design projects.
• Improves office productivity and work flow by designing database applications.
• Enhances the library’s Intranet by working with the library staff to meet departmental needs.
• Provides technical and design assistance for marketing initiatives.
• Plans for the future directionof the law library’s Web sites.
• Elicits and coordinates feedback from all types of end-users.
• Keeps end-users informed of site changes and enhancements through varied means of communication.
• Delivers Web related educational classes to staff and patrons .
• Shares Web, graphic and technical abilities and resources with other departments on an as needed basis.
• Manages the online marketing plan for the library's Web sites.
• Works with Information Technology department on keeping in-house Web technologies up-to-date.
• Supervises a Web Assistant on day-to-day operations and related projects.

Required Skills:

• Excellent problem-solving skills
• A solid working knowledge of current Web technologies and applications
• A strong understanding of Web architecture and design
• Excellent organizational, verbal communication, technical writing, editing, and people skills
• Project management and leadership skills
• Proficient with HTML, JavaScript, PHP5+ and MySQL
• Experience using a CMS system such as Drupal and its custom modules
• Proficient with Adobe Photoshop CS
• SEO and e-commerce knowledge a plus
• Graphics and digital photography experience
• Intermediate computer hardware and software knowledge
• Proficient teaching skills
• Team player with a sense of humor
• Desire to learn new technologies

Education & Experience: Bachelor’s degree plus 2 years experience developing websites and web applications, or equivalent combination of education and experience.

Application Information: Submit resume and salary requirements to hr@jenkinslaw.org . No phone calls please.

The Jenkins Law Library is an equal opportunity employer.

Supreme Court Affirms Right to Own Guns for Self-Defense

In a 5-4 decision, the US Supreme Court ruled in District of Columbia v. Heller (No. 07–290)(pdf) that D.C.'s ban on handguns is unconstitutional. The opinion, delivered by Scalia, in which Roberts, Kennedy, Thomas and Alito joined, holds that:

• The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.
• Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose. The Court’s opinion should not be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.
• The handgun ban and the trigger-lock requirement (as applied to self-defense) violate the Second Amendment. The District’s total ban on handgun possession in the home amounts to a prohibition on an entire class of “arms” that Americans overwhelmingly choose for the lawful purpose of self-defense.

Stevens filed a dissenting opinion joined by Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer. Breyer also filed a dissenting opinion in which Stevens, Souter and Ginsburg joined.

Check out SCOTUSblog's and Sentencing Law & Policy blog's analysis and commentary. See also: 

• High court strikes down gun ban, CNN
• Court Affirms Right to Own Guns, WSJ
• Justices Rule for Individual Gun Rights, NY Times

[RJ & JH]

Call for Presentations at 2008 Federal Depository Library Conference

Registration is now open for the fall meeting of the Federal Depository Library Council and Federal Depository Library conference, to be held October 20-22, 2008 in Arlington, VA. For details, visit the events page on the FDLP Desktop.

The GPO invites the Federal documents community to submit proposals for presentations at the annual Federal Depository Library conference. The conference committee invites presentations from introductory to advanced levels on topics related to Federal information librarianship, including but not limited to:

• Collection Development
• Cataloging and Other Methods for Access
• Depository Library Operations, Training, or Management
• Regional and Local Depository Events
• Depository Library Promotion
• Preservation of Depository Materials

Presentations may run for 45 minutes or 90 minutes, with a sole presenter or a panel. To submit a proposal, please visit the FDLP Desktop. [JH]

Kamali's Shari'ah Law Recommended for Islamic Legal Studies Collections

What is Islamic law?

In a time when the phrase "Islamic law" can mean just about anything, Kamali's Shari'ah Law is the best English language book I've found for answering the question, what is Islamic law? Recommended for all academic law libraries as an essential work for Islamic legal studies collections. [JH]

"Goes far beyond an 'introduction'; it is indeed an excellent compendium of Islamic jurisprudence." -- Tahir Mahmood, Chairman, Amity University Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, India, and former chairman of the National Minorities Commission, India

Shari'ah Law: An Introduction
Mohammad Hashim Kamali

List Price: $29.95 
Paperback: 398 pages
Publisher: Oneworld Publications (February 8, 2008)
ISBN-10: 1851685650
ISBN-13: 978-1851685653

Description: Providing a comprehensive and accessible examination of Shari’ah Law, this well considered introduction examines the sources, characteristic features, and schools of thought of a system often stereotyped for its severity in the West. In a progressive and graduated fashion, Mohammad Hashim Kamali discusses topics ranging from juristic disagreement to independent reasoning. Also broaching more advanced topics such as the principle of legality and the role and place of Shari’ah-oriented policy, Kamali controversially questions whether Islam is as much of a law-based religion as it has often been made out to be. Complete with a bibliography and glossary, and both a general index and an index of Arabic quotations, this wide-ranging exploration will prove an indispensable resource for Islamic students and scholars, and an informative guide to a complex topic for the general reader.

About the Author: Professor Dr Hashim Mohammad Kamali is the Dean of the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation (ISTAC) at the International Islamic University, Malaysia, and author of Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence.

The ID Divide

The Center for American Progress has released The ID Divide: Addressing the Challenges of Identification and Authentication in American Society (pdf) which explores the background of the issue of identification and authentication in American society, including the sharp rise in recent years in how often Americans are asked for proof of identity. The report then examines the facts of the ID Divide in detail, identifying at least four important types of problems:

• A large population affected by identity theft and data breaches
• The growing effects of watch lists
• Specific groups that disproportionately lack IDs today
• The effects of new and stricter ID and matching requirements

[RJ]

Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

Reviews published in the June 16th, 2008 issue of InSITE:

• Council of Europe: Action Against Economic Crime
• Ciminal Law Conversations
• HumanTrafficking.org
• Interviews of United States Supreme Court Justices
• Venice Commission

[RJ]

Council of Europe: Action Against Economic Crime
http://www.coe.int/t/DG1/LEGALCOOPERATION/ECONOMICCRIME/

This site aggregates press releases, documents, and publications produced by several different
committees of the Council of Europe, all relating to the topic of economic crime.  "Economic crime"
is defined as including corruption, money laundering, cybercrime, human trafficking, and the activities of organized crime (i.e., drug and weapons trafficking). The site also tracks activities related to the improvement of judicial cooperation in Europe. The site is well updated, although such updates consist primarily of press releases by the various projects and agencies. The site suffers from a lack of any search engine or site map, and some content is behind a "Restricted Access" firewall.  The most useful feature of the site would likely be the lists of the various relevant treaties and legal instruments under each of the topic areas.  Each specific treaty has, in addition to its full text, a "Summary" of the legal effect, a time line of developments in its implementation, and an "Explanatory Report" which gives a
plain-language narrative of the reasoning behind it.  The site also lists specific projects underway, although these pages in some cases less well updated and use numerous undefined acronyms. [JPC]

Ciminal Law Conversations
http://www.law.upenn.edu/cf/faculty/phrobins/conversations/

Criminal Law Conversations (CLC), a web project hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Law School, brings a new approach to peer review of legal scholarship.  Criminal law scholars are invited to submit texts, which then will be commented on by several peers, with a final reply by the author.  Based upon the “conversations,” essays will be either rejected or selected to be published in an upcoming book from Oxford University Press.  CLC seeks to promote thoughtful discussion of issues rather than
having opponents “talk past each other.”  The site is not a blog; instead, it is “a vehicle for
nominating and organizing the project’s topics and contributors.”  The Introduction and FAQ
pages provide details of the process that submissions go through, including nomination, drafts, finals, and final replies.  The Status Table provides a summary of the submissions.  Items in the table include papers submitted as “core texts” and the comments on those texts.  The author, position or thesis,
title, phase, and date is listed for each item in the table.  The “phase” indicates the stage of development for that “conversation” covering the range from nomination to replies by the core text
author.  As an added service, the site allows users to subscribe to get daily e-mail notification of submission activity. [MM]

HumanTrafficking.org
http://www.humantrafficking.org/

The HumanTrafficking.org website provides information to help governments and nongovernmental organizations combat human trafficking in East Asia and the Pacific.  The website is sponsored by the Academy for Educational Development (www.aed.org), a non-profit organization located in Washington,
D.C., with funding provided by the U.S. State Department.  Through links on the home page, users can view pages detailing human trafficking information for individual East Asian and Pacific countries.  The individual country pages contain information on government agencies with jurisdiction over trafficking, including contact information; relevant laws, including non-obvious links to the text of the laws, if available (the links are often labeled “see more information”); that country’s initiatives to combat human trafficking; and on non-governmental organizations working within the country.  The
“related issues” link on the homepage takes users to pages on general human trafficking topics,
such as prosecution, child trafficking, prostitution, human rights, and legal issues.  Information available under those topics includes recent HumanTrafficking.org news updates; publications by HumanTrafficking.org, governments, and NGOs; and links to websites for other organizations.  The “Resources” section of the website contains links to training, teaching, and information tools.  The website can be searched using a search box in the right-hand sidebar.  For additional information, users can email the director of HumanTrafficking.org, sign up for its monthly email newsletter, or subscribe to its RSS feed. [LB]

Interviews of United States Supreme Court Justices
http://lawprose.org/supreme_court.php

This site is put out by LawProse, a “provider of CLE training in legal writing, editing, and drafting.” While most of the LawProse website focuses on advertising their services and training sessions, this section of the site provides video interviews with eight of the nine current Supreme Court justices, voicing their thoughts on legal writing and advocacy.  The videos are available free of charge.  Windows Media Player or a Mac WMV plug-in are needed to view the videos.  There are also additional
archived interviews from judges and lawyers across the country.  Those interviews can be  found under the heading "Educational Video Clips" and cover a number of different topics, but focus primarily on legal writing and related issues.  This site is beneficial to lawyers and law students looking for advice on how to improve their writing skills. [SA]

Venice Commission
http://www.venice.coe.int/

The Venice Commission in the common name for the European Commission for Democracy through
Law.  It is an independent legal think-tank which advises the Council of Europe on constitutional
matters.  The Commission promotes democracy, human rights, and the rule of law by assisting countries with drafting constitutions and electoral laws.  It also monitors and collects information on the activities of constitutional courts, and developments in electoral and constitutional law.  Much of the information the Commission collects is available in online databases accessible through its website, and is available in English and French.  The CODICES database contains information on the “most
important” constitutional cases from constitutional courts, European and American courts of equivalent jurisdictions, the European Court of Human Justice, and the Court of Justice of the European Communities.  The CODICES database is updated three times per year, and contains information from 1993 forward.  It can be navigated by a sidebar index, or through an advanced search function; however, both are non-intuitive and difficult to use.  The VOTA database contains information on the electoral legislation for “all Council of Europe member states, and other states which participate in the
Commission’s work.”  Users should access the database through the sidebar link, rather than through the link in the elections and referendums section of the website, which requests a user name and password.  Users can easily search the database through indexes found under “overview” and “browse,” or through a search engine which allows users to narrows searches by topic, country, language, and date.  The documents section of the website allows users to access primarily documents prepared by the Venice Commission, such as opinions and reports, organized by country, topic, and type of document
(opinion, studies, and seminars). [LB]

Election Maps for Political Junkies

CQ Politics features one of the most comprehensive online maps you will find for tracking 2008 election races. Go to the main map page, choose from the category tab at the top (House, Senate, Governors or President), click a state and you will find the breakdown you need to drill deeper for a wealth of information about candidates, balloting history and the CQ Politics Race Forecast for expected outcomes.

NPR's 2008 Election Map is based on projections by Ken Rubin, NPR's political editor. The You Predict option allows you to re-drawn the map while keeping track of how many electoral votes each candidate will win in your scenario. CQ's Poll Tracker can provide information to help you make your predictions.

[JH]

Video Series Traces History of Legal Information Institutes

This three-part video presents an overview of the origins of the open-access law movement as it grew from Cornell's Legal Information Institute to 18 or more. The Canadian Legal Information Institute provides links to 14 such institutes. Hat tip to Robert Ambrogi's LawSites. [JH]

Part One:

Part Two:

Part Three:

Professional Reading: Copyright Harm, Foreseeability, and Fair Use

Christina Bohannan's (Iowa) article "Copyright Harm, Foreseeability, and Fair Use," has been published in volume 85 of the Washington University Law Review (2007)[SSRN]. Here is the abstract.

Copyright law needs a theory of harm that can give effect to its constitutional purpose. In order to Promote the Progress of Science and the useful Arts, copyrights must strike a balance between owners and users. Historically, copyright law struck this balance by granting limited copyrights, protecting only against copying that was likely to cause the copyright owner to lose sales of the copyrighted work. When the defendant used the work in a less foreseeable way, perhaps changing its meaning or purpose, the fair use doctrine was invoked. If the use was not foreseeable, it could hardly harm a copyright owner's reasonably expected sales. The fair use doctrine's harm requirement encouraged innovation by limiting infringement to uses that would likely affect a copyright owner's decision to create or distribute the work.

Over time, however, the scope of copyright protection has increased dramatically. This expansion leads to circularity in determining when a use is fair, as the copyright owner can nearly always argue that the defendant could have paid a license fee for the challenged use. This Article argues that current approaches to fair use, including the market failure and balancing theories, do not strike the balance necessary to achieve copyright's purpose, and that to do so, fair use must make liability turn on proof of harm.

Further, the Article shows that courts have developed a harm-based approach to fair use. This approach avoids circularity by requiring proof or a meaningful likelihood of lost profits that would be likely to have a material effect on a reasonable copyright owner's ex ante decision to create or distribute the work. Accordingly, it rejects the theory of copyright dilution, under which some courts have found harm where the defendant's use of a copyrighted work impairs the image of a work without causing any provable lost profits. It also argues that courts should allow defendants to mitigate evidence of harm to plaintiffs' sales by showing that their use also increased sales.

Hat tip to Christine Corcos (LSU), Media Law Prof Blog. [JH]

New Titles from the Brookings Institution Press

Details below the fold. [JH]

• Power Play: The Bush Presidency and the Constitution by James P. Pfiffner
• Attacks on the Press in 2007: A Worldwide Survey by the Committee to Protect Journalists
• Democracy in the States: Experiments in Election Reform edited by Bruce E. Cain, Todd Donovan and Caroline J. Tolbert
• Freedom's Unsteady March: America's Role in Building Arab Democracy by Tamara Cofman Wittes
• Beyond the Façade: Political Reform in the Arab World edited by Marina Ottaway and Julia Choucair-Vizoso

Power Play
The Bush Presidency and the Constitution
James P. Pfiffner

Brookings Institution Press, 2008
Cloth Trade, 299 pages
978-0-8157-7044-2, $28.95

Description: The framers of the U.S. Constitution divided the federal government's powers among three branches: the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary. Their goal was to prevent tyranny by ensuring that none of the branches could govern alone. While numerous presidents have sought to escape these constitutional constraints, the administration of George W. Bush went farther than most. It denied the writ of habeas corpus to individuals deemed to be enemy combatants. It suspended the Geneva Convention and allowed or encouraged the use of harsh interrogation methods amounting to torture. It ordered the surveillance of Americans without obtaining warrants as required by law. And it issued signing statements declaring that the president does not have the duty to faithfully execute hundreds of provisions in the laws he has signed.

Power Play analyzes the Bush presidency's efforts to expand executive power in these four domains and puts them into constitutional and historical perspective. Pfiffner explores the evolution of Anglo-American thinking about executive power and individual rights. He highlights the lessons the Constitution's framers drew from such philosophers as Locke and Montesquieu, as well as English constitutional history. He documents the ways in which the Bush administration's policies have undermined the separation of powers, and he shows how these practices have imperiled the rule of law.

Attacks on the Press in 2007
A Worldwide Survey by the Committee to Protect Journalists

Brookings Institution Press, 2008
Paper Text. 325 pages
978-0-944823-27-9, $30

Description: Attacks on the Press in 2007 recounts hundreds of threats to the news media and explores the trends underlying the news. International pressure has spurred improvements in nations such as China, where the government has eased media restrictions for the 2008 Olympics. But the erosion of U.S. influence in Latin America has led to setbacks for press freedom, and impunity in journalist murders remains a pervasive problem in nations from Russia to the Philippines.

Compiled annually by the Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent, nonprofit organization, Attacks on the Press is the most authoritative reference guide to press freedom worldwide, providing factual and unbiased analyses of media conditions in 120 nations.

Democracy in the States
Experiments in Election Reform
Bruce E. Cain, Todd Donovan and Caroline J. Tolbert, eds.

Brookings Institution Press, 2008
Cloth Text, 256 pages
978-0-8157-1336-4, $62.95

Description: Democracy in the States offers a 21st century agenda for election reform in America based on lessons learned in the fifty states. Combining accessibility and rigor, leading scholars of U.S. politics and elections examine the impact of reforms intended to increase the integrity, fairness, and responsiveness of the electoral system. While some of these reforms focus on election administration, which has been the subject of much controversy since the 2000 presidential election, others seek more broadly to increase political participation and improve representation.

Freedom's Unsteady March
America's Role in Building Arab Democracy
Tamara Cofman Wittes

Brookings Institution Press, 2008
Cloth Trade, 176 pages
978-0-8157-9494-3, $26.95

Description: Freedom's Unsteady March shows why America cannot afford to be neutral or passive in the face of the momentous changes taking place in Arab states and why it must wield its power and influence in support of democratic reform. Wittes also dissects the Bush administration's failure to advance freedom in the Middle East. She diagnoses the roots of America's ambivalence about Arab democracy, and shows how to confront more honestly the risks of change and act more effectively to contain them.

Beyond the Façade
Political Reform in the Arab World
Marina Ottaway and Julia Choucair-Vizoso, eds.

Carnegie Endowment For International Peace, 2008
Cloth Text, 295 pages
978-0-87003-240-0, $57.95

Description: Beyond the Façade: Political Reform in the Arab World evaluates the changes that are taking place in the region and explores the potential for further reform. The essays provide careful, detailed examinations of ten countries (Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Yemen), highlighting the diversity of processes and problems. Beyond the Façade forces us to recognize the reality of conflicting interests and the limitations of external actors to bring about political reform, while drawing lessons on how to make international democracy promotion more effective

Two New GITMO Reports from the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)

From the press release:

"The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) released two reports on the conditions and treatment of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. One report highlights numerous instances of threats and abuse of prisoners at Guantánamo by interrogators from brutal human rights abusing regimes who are given full access by the U.S. The second report demonstrates the deteriorating mental health of the overwhelming majority of Guantánamo prisoners relegated to solitary confinement at the prison."

• Foreign Interrogators in Guantanamo Bay
• Solitary Confinement summary

[RJ]

Can Google Trends Help Define Community Obscenity Standards?

Considering the accessibility of online pornography, how should communities shape local obscenity standards in the digital age? The New York Times is reporting that in the trial of a pornographic Web site operator, the defense plans to show that residents of Pensacola are more likely to use Google to search for terms like “orgy” than for “apple pie” using Google Trends. [JH]

CDT Soliciting Comments on Its Draft Internet and Technology Policy Proposals

The Center for Democracy & Technology is working on a set of proposals for Internet and technology policy, including  preserving free speech while protecting children online, protecting consumer privacy, keeping a balance between security and liberty, promoting global Internet freedom, keeping the Internet open to innovation, and promoting an open and transparent government. The document is a work in progress and CDT is now asking for public comments before finalizing it in January. Check out the CDT's The Internet in Transition website. You can also download the draft report (pdf). [JH]

New Features on OpenCongress

In addition to a site redesign, OpenCongress has added 13 new features, including several community-related ones like viewing articles and comments OpenCongress users have rated as useful. Read more about it: Donny Shaw's Thirteen Awesome New Feature on OpenCongress. [JH] 

Protection of Classified Information by Congress: Practices and Proposals

New CRS Report via the Federation of American Scientists: "The protection of classified national security and other controlled information is of concern not only to the executive branch — which determines what information is to be safeguarded, for the most part 1 — but also to Congress, which uses the information to fulfill its constitutional responsibilities. It has established mechanisms to safeguard controlled information in its custody, although these arrangements have varied over time between the two chambers and among panels in each. Both chambers, for instance, have created offices of security to consolidate relevant responsibilities, although these were established two decades apart. Other differences exist at the committee level. Proposals for change, some of which are controversial, usually seek to set uniform standards or heighten requirements for access." [RJ]

AALL Executive Board Candidates Named

The 2008 AALL Nominations Committee has submitted the following slate of AALL Executive Board candidates. The election will be held November 3 - December 1, 2008, and successful candidates will begin their terms of office in July 2009.

Vice President/President-Elect

• Joyce Janto, Deputy Director of the Law Library, University of Richmond School of Law, Richmond, VA
• Nancy Johnson, Law Librarian and Professor of Law, Georgia State University College of Law Library, Atlanta, GA

Executive Board Member

• Beth DiFelice, Assistant Director and Head of Public Services, Arizona State University, Ross-Blakley Law Library, Tempe, AZ
• John Edwards, Associate Dean for Information Resources and Technology and Professor of Law, Drake University Law Library, Des Moines, IA
• Marcus Hochstetler, Law Librarian and Director, King County Law Library, Seattle, WA
• Janet McKinney, Computer Services Librarian, Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP, Kansas City, MO

Meet the Candidates in Portland! You can meet the candidates at the 2008 Annual Meeting in Portland on Tuesday, July 15, from 1:30-2:30 p.m. in the Exhibit Hall at the AALL Member Services Booth.

Congratulations to all! [JH]

A Very Short Reading List for Incoming 1Ls

There are two classics every incoming 1L should read before starting law school but my sense is that many turn them away because they are not written in a style that resonates with our younger students. I'm referring, of course, to Karl N Llewellyn's The Bramble Bush, recently republished by Oxford UP, and Edward H. Levi's An Introduction to Legal Reasoning.

In addition to those two works, I always recommend Helene Shapo and Marshall Shapo's Law School Without Fear: Strategies for Success (Foundation Press, 2002). Helene Shapo and Marshall Shapo are law professors who compiled this book of practical advice for their son, a law student. The book discusses in simple terms what law students need to know about law school and how to get the most out the law school experience. The text also discusses the problems law students encounter most frequently and solutions to those problems. Topics covered include briefing a case, precedent and how to use it, balancing competing interests and factors, legal writing, and psychological tips for the study of law.

For the "what should I read" question asked by incoming 1Ls (or admissions directors wanting to send students a reading list during the summer), we librarians can easily compile an extensive bibliography but I lean toward providing a very short guided reading list instead. The above three titles plus Carolyn J. Nygren's Starting Off Right in Law School (Carolina Academic Press, 1997) which melds information about the legal system usually found in legal methods books with information about study skills usually found in books with a "how to succeed in law school" focus is in my opinion sufficient. 

See also: The Summer Before Law School? by Alan Childress on Legal Profession Blog and Law Vibe's Top 10 Law Student Books (based on Amazon sales for the last three months). [JH]

Opening: Reference Librarian, Univ. of Pennsylvania Law Library

Biddle Law Library is searching for a talented Reference Librarian to join its Public Services team in providing outstanding reference, research, and teaching support at a law school that prides itself on cross-disciplinary studies.  This is a new position reflecting the growth in the Library’s services to faculty and the school.

Requirements:

• ABA-accredited JD and ALA-accredited MLS degrees.
• A thorough knowledge of basic legal sources and skill in using print and electronic materials.
• A strong service orientation toward all library patrons with special attention to law faculty and students.
• Excellent organizational, communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work with initiative and flexibility in order to respond effectively to changing information needs.
• Ability to work with grace under pressure while performing several tasks and helping demanding patrons.
• Collegiality which fosters team building among librarians and staff so as to constantly improve service.
• Active participation in the intellectual and administrative life of the Law School.

Preferred: Additional degrees or training in non-legal fields; instructional experience; facility with webpage development software (Dreamweaver, for example) and web 2.0 technologies (blogs, wikis, social tagging).    

Responsibilities: Under the general direction of the Head of Reference Services, the Reference Librarian will be expected to do the following:

• Participate in Reference Desk rotation, helping patrons in a wide variety of ways such as: identifying possible research sources in all formats, suggesting research strategies, giving “over the shoulder” guidance in the use of online databases, assisting in the use of library equipment, exercising discretion and tact in representing the library in the best possible light to the walk-in or call-in patron.
• Participate in Biddle’s Faculty Liaison Program by meeting regularly with assigned faculty about their research interests, attending their “working paper” presentations, developing faculty course portal materials, making recommendations on their behalf to the Collection Development Committee, bringing new acquisitions to their attention with their research interests in mind, doing everything possible to make faculty feel that librarians  support them proactively.
• Teach legal research in formal and informal settings, including but not limited to, first year legal research instruction, upper-level law students in classes and tutorials, LLM classes in an intensive August program, "one-on-one" consultations with students writing research papers and with non-law university patrons.
• Enhance the library’s contribution to the mission of the Law School by producing bibliographies for the Faculty Appointments Committee, supplying specialized information for administrators, giving webpage assistance to units such as Career Planning and Placement.
• Write library guides, handouts, bibliographies, etc., and contribute to webpage projects.
• Participate in library collection development in light of faculty research interests, changing technology, space considerations and preservation.
• Be the library’s contact person with Lexis and Westlaw, making sure that commercial representatives provide the highest level of service to the Law School.
• Contribute to the Library’s teams and strategic initiatives, including identifying innovative outreach efforts and applying new technologies to Reference and the Library’s work.
• Serve on various university teams dedicated to improving information technology and library service.
• Foster contacts with other professionals and libraries by participating in the activities of professional organizations.

Salary and Benefits: Highly competitive and dependant upon qualifications and experience. Benefits include TIAA/CREF retirement program, medical insurance, disability benefits, life insurance, tuition remission, among others. 

To Apply: Please send by email or regular mail an introductory letter, resume, and names with contact information of three references to:

Paul M. George
Director
Biddle Law Library
University of Pennsylvania Law School
3460 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-3406
pmgeorge@law.upenn.edu

The University values diversity and is an equal opportunity employer.  It is committed to non-discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, marital status, status as a Vietnam Era Veteran, or any other trait or status protected by applicable law.

Play Budget Hero!

From American Public Media: "If you ever wanted to control where your tax dollars go, here's your chance to decide."  Click here to play the game.  Very cool.  [RJ]

"Bore You To Death" Year Eliminated by Northwestern Law's New 2-Year JD Program

First year, they scare you to death; second year, work you to death; third year, bore you to death.

Northwestern has joined Dayton and Southwestern Law School in offering an accelerated JD program that eliminates the third calendar year of law school. Students will be required to complete the same number of credit hours as traditional three-year JD students but in five semesters over the course of two calendar years. They will start classes in May and then join traditional JD students during the fall and spring semesters. The accelerated program leaves the second summer open for working in summer programs. Students then return to law school for their last two semesters. According to the School's press release, applicants for the two-year JD program must have at least two years of substantive post-undergraduate work experience and "ideally have demonstrated managerial and leadership experience to qualify for the program." Tuition for Northwestern's accelerated program has not be set yet but the real economic incentive is being able to start paying off student loans by practicing law a year sooner. See the WSJ's Law Blog post, Law School in 2 Years (Same $$?) — Assessing Northwestern’s Program. Northwestern estimates that 25 to 40 students are expected to enroll. 40 First-Years running around the law library! There goes quiet summers for the School's law library staff.

University of Chicago professor and former dean Geoffrey Stone called the two-year program "irresponsible." "My sense is that compressing the educational process is likely to seriously derogate from the quality. What is lost is likely to be much more than anything that is gained by hustling the students through more quickly." But Daniel Polsby, the George Mason University law school dean and a former Northwestern faculty member for 23 years, is predicting that other law schools are likely to follow up with their own accelerated programs. Quoted in NU law school to offer 2-year program: Other schools predict lower-quality lawyers (Chicago Tribune).

Northwestern is also adding three new required courses covering quantitative analysis (accounting, finance and statistics), dynamics of legal behavior, and strategic decision making starting with the new two-year program and eventually being required of everyone. Is this an innovative approach to curricular reform in legal education? Take Above the Law's poll: Is Northwestern's Two-Year Program a Good Idea.

Instead of eliminating the third year and adding new three required courses to the otherwise traditional law school curriculum, Washington & Lee's new third year program offers fundamental curricular reform in legal education. See LLB's earlier post: Washington and Lee Reinvents 3L Curriculum. [JH]

Are You Driven to Distraction by the Same Communication Tools Intended to Make Us More Productive?

Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age
by Maggie Jackson

List Price: $25.95
Hardcover: 327 pages
Publisher: Prometheus Books (June 4, 2008)
ISBN-10: 1591026237
ISBN-13: 978-1591026235 

Book Description: Despite our wondrous technologies and scientific advances, we are nurturing a culture of diffusion, fragmentation, and detachment. In this new world, something crucial is missing--attention. Attention is the key to recapturing our ability to reconnect, reflect, and relax; the secret to coping with a mobile, multitasking, virtual world that isn't going to slow down or get simpler. Attention can keep us grounded and focused--not diffused and fragmented.

Distracted offers the cutting-edge solutions we need to cure--not just live with--an epidemic of inattention. How did we get to the point where we keep one eye on our Blackberry and one eye on our spouse--in bed? At a time when we can contact millions of people worldwide, why is it hard to schedule a simple family supper? Most importantly, what can we do about it?

Journey with Maggie Jackson as she explores the many ways in which we are eroding our capacity for deep, sustained attention-the building block of intimacy, wisdom, and cultural progress. In her sweeping quest to unravel the nature of attention and detail its erosion, she introduces us to scientists, cartographers, marketers, educators, wired teens, virtual lovers from the telegraph age, and roboticists building smart machines to comfort and care for us. She takes us from the nineteenth-century roots of our mobile, virtual multitasking ways into a darkening future of snippets, glimpses, skimming, McThinking, and mistrust.

Jackson makes it clear that if we continue down this road of scattered attention spans and widespread societal ADD, we will be in danger of squandering and devaluing the essence of humanity, and our technological age could ultimately slip into cultural decline. But we are just as capable of igniting a renaissance of attention by strengthening our varied powers of focus and perception, the keys to judgment, memory, morality, and happiness. She investigates the science of attention--describing some of the exciting new scientific research that shows how attention skills can be nurtured.

Taking us beyond Blink, Faster, and CrazyBusy, Distraction is unique. It's simultaneously an original exposé of the multifaceted nature of attention, an engaging and often surprising portrait of postmodern life, and a compelling roadmap for cultivating sustained focus and nurturing a more enriched and literate society.

New on LLRX.com for June 2008

From LLRX:

• The Art of Written Persuasion: The Rise of Written Persuasion, by Troy Simpson
• The Government Domain: Plain Language in Government Communications, by Peggy Garvin
• Keeping Up with Class Actions: Reports, Legal Sites and Blogs of Note, by Scott Russell
• A Little Grafting of Second Life into a Legal Research Class, by Rob Hudson
• CongressLine: Running for Congress, by Paul Jenks
• LLRX Book Review by Heather A. Phillips - A Guide to HIPAA Security and the Law, by Heather A. Phillips
• Conrad Jacoby's E-Discovery Update: Attorneys, Experts, and E-Discovery Competence, by Conrad J. Jacoby
• FOIA Facts - My Proposal: FOIA Litigation Reporting Requirements, by Scott A. Hodes
• Burney's Legal Tech Reviews - Gadgets for Legal Pros: Ergotech "Convertible" Monitor Arm and Canary Wireless Digital Hotspotter, by Brett Burney
• Commentary: Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007

Liveblogging the 2008 CALI Conference

The 2008 CALI Conference may be over but there's plenty of great liveblogging posts in the blogosphere to read. Check out Professor Paul Maharg's (Glasgow Graduate School of Law) posts and CALI Fellow Gene Koo's posts. See also posts by Denise Grey and Jim Milles. [JH]