Law Librarian Blog

Chrysler Bankruptcy Information

Key documents related to the bankruptcy of U.S. automaker Chrysler LLC will be available free of charge here, a website operated by Epiq Systems, Inc., apparently the claims agent in the case, according to Chrysler's April 30 press release. According to PACER, the case, no. 09-50002-ajg, has been filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York, and has been assigned to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur J. Gonzalez.  According to PACER, debtors' counsel is Corinne Ball of Jones Day.  Documents respecting the case are also available from PACER. Key telephone numbers respecting the case are listed on the bankruptcy court's "Chrysler" page.

The Chrysler Chapter 11 petition is available at Scribd, courtesy of the New York Times's DealBook Blog. [Robert Richards]

Google Launches Public Data Tool

Google has launched Public Data Tool, a search feature that makes it easier to find and compare visually public data often buried deep in government websites. The Public Data Tool builds on Trendalyzer code that generates moving graphics and other effects in the display of facts, figures, and statistics in presentations. Additional information on the Official Google Blog post. [JH]

Video demo of Google's Public Data Tool

Google Books Deadlines Extended; DOJ Antitrust Investigation Begins

In the Google Books settlement, the authors' opt-out deadline and the deadline for objectors and amici to submit their views to the district court have been extended to September 4, 2009, according to an April 28 order issued by U.S. District Judge Denny Chin. The order also postpones the final fairness hearing respecting the proposed settlement agreement to October 7, 2009.  In addition, the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division has begun an investigation respecting the settlement terms, according to Miguel Helft's April 28 article in the New York Times. If the DOJ needs more time to conduct its investigation, further postponement of the final fairness hearing would not be a surprise. [Robert Richards]

An Endangered Species: The Sacred Cows of Academic Law Library Collections

In The Effect of Economics and Electronic Resources on the Traditional Law Library Print Collection, 101 LLJ 117 (2009), Amanda M. Runyon (Tarlton Law Library) surveyed academic law libraries directors to determine how expenditures on acquisitions and electronic resources changed between the 2002–03 and 2006–07 academic years and how academic law libraries are managing their print collections given the increasing electronic availability of the same legal resources. Note well the shift to canceling print titles duplicated online. Runyon concludes:

One can see from the results of this study that academic law library collections are on the brink of a major change, and indeed have begun to take a new shape over the past five years. Although further research using a larger sample is needed to confirm these results, what is clear is that right now academic law libraries of all sizes are feeling the squeeze in acquisitions funds. Despite the range of acquisitions expenditures reported by the responding libraries, a good number of libraries had already taken action by ceasing to update or canceling some of their print materials, and even more have considered cancellations. While microtrends in the data show that libraries that have had smaller increases in their acquisitions budgets may be the leaders in this paradigm shift, it is clear that even libraries that have received larger increases are not far behind. It is probable that what we consider the “sacred cows” of the law library collection will change drastically in the near future.

[JH]

Federal Reserve Transparency Act: Ron Paul's Latest Federal Reserve Bill Garners Bipartisan Support

Remember Rep. Ron Paul's ritual of introducing go-nowhere bills to abolish the Federal Reserve? Now he has introduced a bill that may have legs. The Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009, H.R. 1207 [Thomas | Open Congress] is gaining bipartisan support quickly with over 70 co-sponsors so far and according to Open Congress Blog could be voted on this session.

Removing the barriers to Fed audits under 31 USC 714, H.R. 1207 mandates that a full GAO audit of the the Federal Reserve Bank be completed by the end of 2010 and submitted to Congress. Sounds like a good way to gain some transparency for the Fed's bailout activities. So far, it has issued more than $2 trillion in loan guarantees. [JH]

Arrivals and Departures: Law School Hiring Reports Updated

Like major airports the legal academy is busy with takeoffs and landings. Larry Solum has updated his list of 2009 entry-level hires by law school and Dan Filler has updated his list of law faculty lateral moves. [JH]

Law Review Trivia Question

The only state without an ABA-accredited law school is Alaska but there is an Alaska Law Review. Who publishes it? Did you know the answer without checking the bib record?

Hat tip to Eric Johnson (North Dakota) (answer on PrawfsBlawg). Check out Eric's use of wikis for collaborative course outlines for his torts, IP, and media and entertainment law classes. [JH]

It's for a Good Cause

Help bail me out of MDA Jail by making a donation to MDA. The Muscular Dystrophy Association must think I'm a danger to society because my bail was set at $1,300. I'm being arrested next Wednesday, May 6th, so time is of the essence. It's for a good cause; even a small pledge will help Jerry's Kids. Donations can be made on my MDA web page or by using this Pledge Slip with Mailing Info.

Note to my legal publishing reps -- your donations matter. I'm keeping score.

Thanks in advance, Joe Hodnicki.

Swine Flu Information Resources

The current WHO pandemic alert level for the Swine Flu is 4, meaning the risk for a pandemic is greatly increased but not certain. Click on the image (left) for details. Hat tip to Daily Kos.

For resources, start with the CDC's resource pages covering influenza A (H1N1), a/k/a Swine Flu and move on to your state's department of health. See also the World Health Organization's alerts and WebMD's Swine Flu Guide. [JH]

Internet Archive's Motion to Intervene in Google Book Settlement Rejected

A federal judge overseeing the Google Book litigation rejected Internet Archive's request to file a motion that would ask the court to alter the proposed settlement to give other companies that have scanned printed books the same copyright protection granted to Google for orphan works. “The proposed interveners are, however, free to file objections to the proposed settlement” according to the ruling. The deadline for filing objections and comments is May 5. Hat tip to Publishers Weekly. [JH]

Tim Berners-Lee: Web Still Static and Social Networking Sites Suffer from the "Social Silo Problem"

In his opening talk the 18th WWW conference, Tim Berners-Lee outlined the status quo of the current Web and focused on areas for ongoing research. The Semantic Puzzle reports:

According to Tim Berners-Lee the Web is still static and consists mostly of archived HTML and PDF documents. There is still a need for a read/write Web and the standards are still not used to a sufficient extend.

...

Open Social Networking has become a great application in the Web. Currently it suffers from the ‘Social Silo Problem’. Users have often accounts in several platforms like Facebook or MySpace. The platforms, however, are separated from each other like in a field of silos. The challenge of the Semantic Web Community is now to interconnect the silos via RDF, OWL, HTTP, and SPARQL. A further requirement of Tim Berners-Lee are to focus on a Secure Web id.

Hat tip to the ResourceShelf. [JH]

Whose Opinions Matter in US News Law School Reputational Rankings?

In his article, Why Trying to Rank Law Schools Numerically Is a Non-Productive Undertaking: An Article on the U.S. News & World Report 2009 List of "The Top 100 Schools," Judge Louis Pollak, former Dean of both Yale Law School and Penn Law School, critiques the US News Rankings methodology and offers his own rankings. Dan Filler, Senior Associate Dean for Academic and Faculty Affairs Professor of Law, Drexel describes Pollak's rankings as a list that "clusters similar schools solely along the [dean/professor] peer assessment axis and relies on 2009 US News survey data" on The Faculty Lounge. Clusters are based on US News peer assessment scores: Top Tier for schools with peer assessment score 4.0 and above, divided into sub-groups; Second tier for schools with 3.0 and above peer assessment scores, etc. See Filler's Faculty Lounge post for the results of Fuller's cluster method

Dean and Law Prof Opinions Matter. About relying solely of peer assessment scores, Judge Fuller writes

The chief difficulty with the ranking is that the one clearly pertinent datum—the “peer assignments” by law school deans and professors—accounts for only 25% of the “overall-scores” of the 104 listed schools. It is submitted that a less untrustworthy ranking would be based exclusively on the “peer assessments” since these are the informed views of the people responsible for, and expert in, legal education.

But Lawyer and Judge Opinions Also Matter. The deans and law profs who assess law schools for the US News rankings may indeed be "the people responsible for, and expert in, legal education" but if a "fine law school" is one that both trains lawyers and advances legal scholarship" well as Judge Fuller writes, then assessment scores by practitioners matter and matter for both outputs -- law school grads and scholarly legal products. The irony here is that the assessment scores by lawyers and judges are usually higher than the peer assessment scores for most law schools. Fuller's cluster approach to practitioner assessment scores would be interesting and useful.

And Recent Law School Grad and Current Student Opinions Matter.Judge Fuller also arguing that "any serious attempt to measure the quality of a law school should include inquiry into a dimension unmentioned, let alone unexamined, by U.S. News & World Report—namely, how recent and current law students feel about their alma mater. A major difficulty, of course, is that a useful inquiry would be very difficult to design and carry out. But the larger difficulty is that the findings, while very likely of real interest (most especially to college seniors deciding which law schools to apply to) would be unquantifiable."

One can also easily dispute Fuller's conclusion that one cannot quantify recent and current law school students opinions about their alma mater. There's no mystery in the mathematics of quantitative opinion research. US News could easily hire one of the many brand name research firms to conduct an opinion poll of recent law school grads and current law schools if US News had the will to just do it. The findings, perhaps dreaded by the legal academy, certainly would be of interest to college seniors. [JH]

Call for Papers: Cyberspace 2009 Conference

Important dates:

Abstract submission deadline: July 31 2009

Notice on acceptance deadline: Aug. 31 2009

Full papers deadline: Dec. 31 2009

A call for papers has been issued for the 7th International Cyberspace Conference to be held 20-21 November 2009, in Brno, Czech Republic.  Submissions are invited for a workshop on "Theory of Cyberlaw," on topics including legal informatics and artificial intelligence & law; and a workshop on "e-Government/e-Justice," including the topics: "electronic filing, electronic public submissions, videoconferences, on-line dispute settlement, re-use of public sector information, on-line public procurement, legal information systems, on-line access to law and case-law, data mining systems for lawyers, electronic storage of documents, [and] on-line legal counseling."  The conference is organized by the Faculty of Law in cooperation with the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno and the Faculty of Law, Charles University, Prague.  For more details, see the complete call for papers. Hat tip to Charles Christian. [Robert Richards]

Black's Law Dictionary Now An iPhone App

The eight editon of Black's Law Dictionary is now available as an iPhone/iPod tounch application. Priced at $49.99, the iPhone app features 43,000-plus definitions, nearly 3,000 quotations, hyperlinked cross-references and audio pronunciations. West developers Dan Bennett and Jay Peyer talk about the iPhone/iPod touch app for Black's Law Dictionary.

Hat tip to Bob Ambrogi.

BTW: The one billionth app, Bump, was downloaded by Connor Mulcahey, age 13, of Weston, CT according to Apple. That's 1 billion downloads in just nine months. [JH]

A Learning Experience

In news that I don't think has hit the Law Librarian Blog it is being reported that Howard Kieffer a non lawyer and actual felon managed to be able to become a presenter at a Wisconsin CLE. In good news to the attending attorneys their CLE hour/s will not be taken away for Mr. Kieffer's infiltration. As someone who presented in a CLE last week I have to question Kieffer's sanity, not for the impersonation but for going through the hassle of preparing a CLE presentation in the first place.

Now some of you who are very keen may remember that Mr. Kieffer has made an appearance on the Law Librarian Blog before as he has also, while not being licensed, represented clients in a myriad of jurisdictions.

HT to the ABAJournal Blog and the NMissCommentor (where I first read of this most recent story). {BB}

Blog for Unemployed Law Librarians Recently Launched

Christine Sellers has turned a real negative, being laid off by her South Carolina law firm because of the current economic downturn, into a real plus. She has launched Law Librarians of Leisure, a blog to help fellow AALL members and colleagues by gathering statistics, posting jobs and advice, and by providing a web destination where law librarians concerned about their job prospects and librarians concerned about their colleagues can stay connected.

Christine and I have corresponded by email and talked on the phone. She is energized by the prospect of helping her profession in this way. Several other law librarians have expressed an interest in joining the project and, if you are so inclined, you can email Christine. [Linkedin] Come the AALL annual meeting, I hope the Executive Board will see Christine's efforts as an important project, one deserving AALL sponsorship. [JH]

Samuelson on the Google Book Settlement

Pamela Samuelson, the Richard M. Sherman Distinguished Professor of Law and Information at the University of California, Berkeley, as well as a Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology and an advisor to the Samuelson High Technology Law & Public Policy Clinic at Boalt Hall has uploaded a brief article entited Legally Speaking: The Dead Souls of the Google Booksearch Settlement to SSRN. The article will be published in July 2009 issue of Communications of the ACM. See also Samuelson's guest blog post on O'Reilly Radar (note the comments).

Samuelson argues the proposed settlement of the Authors Guild v. Google lawsuit is a privately negotiated compulsory license primarily designed to monetize millions of orphan works. Quoting from the abstract, "It will benefit Google and certain authors and publishers, but it is questionable whether the authors of most books in the corpus (the “dead souls” to which the title refers) would agree that the settling authors and publishers will truly represent their interests when setting terms for access to the Book Search corpus."

You can also view Samuelson's slide show from her April 14, 2009 OCLC/Kilgour Lecture on the settlement. [JH]

Artificial Intelligence and Law Workshop in Beijing, Sept. 2009

A special workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Law  will be held Sept. 15-16, 2009 in Beijing, in conjunction with the 24th World Congress of Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (IVR World Congress). The workshop will focus on legal multilingual ontologies, multiagent systems, and distributed networks. "The aim of the workshop is . . . to offer effective support for the exchange of knowledge and methodological approaches between scholars from different scientific fields, by highlighting their similarities and differences. The comparison of multiple formal approaches to the law - such as logical models, cognitive theories, argumentation frameworks, graph theory, game theory, as well as opposite perspectives like the internal and the external viewpoints - should stress possible convergences in the realm, say, of conceptual structures, argumentation schemes, emergent behaviors, learning evolution, adaptation, simulation, etc." [Robert Richards]

New Law Titles from Yale UP

In Confidence
When to Protect Secrecy and When to Require Disclosure
Ronald Goldfarb

Publisher's Description. In a doctor's examining room, off-the-record with a journalist, in an attorney's office, speaking with a clergy member—in each situation we expect confidentiality. This book examines the full range of today's privacy issues, what secrets the laws protect, how rights of privacy have been eroded, and why these matters should concern every American.

The Federalist Papers
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay
Edited and with an Introduction by Ian Shapiro

Publisher's Description. This authoritative edition of the complete texts of the Federalist Papers, the Articles of Confederation, the U.S. Constitution, and the Amendments to the U.S. Constitution features supporting essays in which leading scholars provide historical context and analysis.

For the Common Good
Principles of American Academic Freedom
Matthew W. Finkin and Robert C. Post
 
Publisher's Description. Debates about academic freedom have become increasingly fierce and frequent. Legislative efforts to regulate American professors proliferate across the nation. Although most American scholars desire to protect academic freedom, they have only a vague and uncertain apprehension of its basic principles and structure. This book offers a concise explanation of the history and meaning of American academic freedom, and it attempts to intervene in contemporary debates by clarifying the fundamental functions and purposes of academic freedom in America.

Additional Yale UP releases listed below. [JH]

The Unitary Executive
Presidential Power from Washington to Bush
Steven G. Calabresi and Christopher S. Yoo

Publisher's Description. This book is a detailed legal and historical examination of presidential power. The authors look at the theory of the unitary executive as practiced in every administration from Washington to Bush. Discovering consistent patterns in presidential practices, the book has important implications for today's debates over the extent of executive power.

The Preemption War
When Federal Bureaucracies Trump Local Juries
Thomas O. McGarity

Publisher's Description. This comprehensive book brings to light the quiet war that has been raging in the courts, federal agencies, and Congress—a war that threatens to allow federal regulation to preempt state common law. The author explains the legal and policy issues, describes the dangers to consumers, and offers balanced solutions to preemption issues.

Regulation by Litigation
Andrew P. Morriss, Bruce Yandle, and Andrew Dorchak

Publisher's Description. This book investigates the increasing reliance of federal and state regulatory agencies on litigation as a means of regulation. Analyzing three major case studies, the authors conclude that litigation is an inappropriate means for establishing substantive regulatory provisions, and they suggest reforms to help curb the practice.

Eloquence and Reason
Creating a First Amendment Culture
Robert L. Tsai

Publisher's Description. This groundbreaking book investigates the religious issues that businesses confront as they expand their global activity. The author proposes that corporations can become instruments of peace by providing a forum for nurturing religious harmony.

The Public Domain
Enclosing the Commons of the Mind
James Boyle

Publisher's Description. “Boyle is one of the world's major thinkers on the centrality of the public domain to the production of knowledge and culture. He offers a comprehensive and biting critique of where our copyright and patent policy has gone, and prescriptions for how we can begin to rebalance our law and practice. It is the first book I would give to anyone who wants to understand the causes, consequences, and solutions in the debates over copyrights, patents, and the public domain of the past decade and a half.”—Yochai Benkler, Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies, Harvard Law School

Voting for the Webby Award's People's Voice Award Ends Thursday

Almost 10,000 entries were submitted to the 13th Annual Webby Awards this year. [About the awards | List of nominees by category] Webby Award winners will be chosen by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences and the People's Voice Award winners for the best websites, online videos, interactive ads, etc. by you if you vote here by April 30th. Webby Award and People's Voice Award winners will be announced on May 5th. [JH]