Need help creating a table of authorities?
November 05, 2012 at 11:20 AM
Keeping Your Eyes on the Ball
October 25, 2012 at 11:07 AM
All Eyes Still Open
October 23, 2012 at 11:46 AM
Quick tutorial in the library on legislative materials
October 18, 2012 at 10:57 AM
Second Circuit Decision on DOMA
October 18, 2012 at 9:32 AM
Justis, JustCite Trials
October 11, 2012 at 9:45 AM
All Eyes on Legal Research Tutorial Series
October 09, 2012 at 3:03 PM
The book scanner is working again
October 04, 2012 at 12:29 PM
Happy Constitution Day!
September 17, 2012 at 8:05 AM
Election Law
September 07, 2012 at 11:08 AM
LexisNexis eBooks now available via the Amazon Kindle Store
August 27, 2012 at 11:17 AM
Federal Rules available on mobile app
August 22, 2012 at 2:38 PM
CALI.org has banned all accounts with a Hotmail email address
August 22, 2012 at 2:00 PM
Online Privacy Laws
August 03, 2012 at 1:26 PM
Law of the Sea Convention
July 30, 2012 at 2:25 PM
N.J. Supreme Court Ruling in Favor of Rutgers Law Clinic
July 05, 2012 at 1:50 PM
Title IX at 40
June 22, 2012 at 1:53 PM
Death Penalty Worldwide
June 20, 2012 at 4:03 PM
Immigration Policy Shift
June 15, 2012 at 8:52 AM
NFL Concussion Litigation
June 07, 2012 at 1:45 PM
Ninth Circuit Denial of Petition for Rehearing
June 05, 2012 at 11:19 AM
First Circuit DOMA Opinion
May 31, 2012 at 8:56 AM
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
May 24, 2012 at 9:22 AM
Cornell's Legal Information Institute
May 09, 2012 at 11:37 AM
University of Michigan Law School Refugee Caselaw Site
May 07, 2012 at 9:09 AM
Charles Taylor Verdict
April 26, 2012 at 9:04 AM
Career Importance by Gender
April 19, 2012 at 11:04 AM
ECHR Extradition Decision
April 10, 2012 at 11:05 AM
Guilty Verdict in the International Criminal Court
March 14, 2012 at 3:46 PM
Leginfo.legislature.ca.gov
March 02, 2012 at 2:42 PM
Bloomberg Law Access
February 28, 2012 at 4:25 PM
OSCE Documents
February 28, 2012 at 10:20 AM
International Justice Resource Center
February 14, 2012 at 9:00 AM
There's a Bloomberg Rising
February 13, 2012 at 11:09 AM
Senator William Proxmire
February 10, 2012 at 8:01 AM
Conviction of Baltasar Garzon
February 09, 2012 at 9:31 AM
Publishing in Law Reviews and Legal Journals
January 24, 2012 at 10:52 AM
Stanford's China Guiding Cases Project
January 23, 2012 at 11:26 AM
Domestic Violence in Gay and Lesbian Households
January 17, 2012 at 1:59 PM
Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC
January 11, 2012 at 2:16 PM
CALI Lessons Offers New Feature
January 10, 2012 at 4:51 PM
Domestic Violence Survey
January 03, 2012 at 2:22 PM
Houselive.gov
December 22, 2011 at 11:03 AM
The 13th Amendment
December 07, 2011 at 11:54 AM
Exercise and Brain Power
December 01, 2011 at 1:41 PM
Need a Break?
November 23, 2011 at 12:32 PM
Law Library Fall Exam Hours
November 17, 2011 at 5:01 PM
Top Twenty Tax Blogs
November 09, 2011 at 10:04 AM
Cuba: Sales of Private Property
November 03, 2011 at 10:49 AM
Wikipedia
October 27, 2011 at 3:17 PM
Trade Agreements
October 21, 2011 at 2:13 PM
International Investment Arbitration and Public Policy website
October 11, 2011 at 1:36 PM
FCC Publishes Net Neutrality Regulations
September 27, 2011 at 1:14 PM
Banned Books Week 2011
September 24, 2011 at 10:12 AM
Charting Tax Breaks
September 23, 2011 at 3:13 PM
Constitution Day
September 15, 2011 at 11:20 AM
International Religious Freedom Report
September 13, 2011 at 10:09 AM
Federal Rules Available for Download
September 06, 2011 at 10:49 AM
Conviction of Momcilo Perisic
September 06, 2011 at 10:04 AM
Predicting patent litigation
August 29, 2011 at 10:48 AM
Law libraries and digital institutional repositories
August 22, 2011 at 4:26 PM
The next generation of integrated library systems
August 22, 2011 at 4:25 PM
Santa Clara Law launches its new Digital Commons
August 22, 2011 at 4:23 PM
Immigration Policy Change
August 19, 2011 at 9:57 AM
oldbaileyonline.org
August 18, 2011 at 2:49 PM
Death of Library Director, Mary Emery
August 08, 2011 at 1:37 PM
Budget Control Act of 2011
August 03, 2011 at 3:28 PM
Death Penalty Repeal Bill
July 11, 2011 at 2:18 PM
How to apply your legal research skills to the "real world"
June 29, 2011 at 9:39 AM
Convictions at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
June 24, 2011 at 8:26 AM
CRS Guide to Legislative History
June 23, 2011 at 3:41 PM
Summer access for Lexis and Westlaw
June 21, 2011 at 1:29 PM
Library Closing early for University Commencement
June 08, 2011 at 4:29 PM
SmartPrint Funds for Summer School
June 01, 2011 at 12:35 PM
Summer Access at USF's Zeif Law library
June 01, 2011 at 12:27 PM
Statutes in U.S.C. Section Notes
May 26, 2011 at 3:37 PM
Online treaty sources
May 07, 2011 at 1:39 PM
Regulations.gov
April 25, 2011 at 11:38 AM
USA v. Arizona
April 12, 2011 at 4:58 PM
WestLawNext Printing Issues
April 06, 2011 at 3:47 PM
Shutdown of the Federal Government?
April 06, 2011 at 10:47 AM
Please don't print with WestlawNext
April 05, 2011 at 4:48 PM
Tax Time
April 01, 2011 at 2:48 PM
Legal Information Institute of India
March 18, 2011 at 11:11 AM
List of most cited authors within HeinOnline's law journal collection
March 10, 2011 at 1:33 PM
End of the death penalty in Illinois
March 09, 2011 at 12:42 PM
ASIL Insights: The Special Tribunal for Lebanon
March 08, 2011 at 3:04 PM
Westlaw Next Lacks FCIL Content
March 05, 2011 at 9:03 AM
Excellent review of WestLaw Next and its impact on academic legal research
March 03, 2011 at 6:24 PM
Stanford v. Roche
February 28, 2011 at 3:57 PM
Be prepared for internet failure
February 22, 2011 at 10:32 AM
Reading for Presidents' Day
February 21, 2011 at 1:56 PM
New ebooks on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Evidence available from Westlaw
February 16, 2011 at 4:18 PM
Need help submitting a law review article?
February 12, 2011 at 10:56 AM
SB 1070 : New research guide from UCLA
February 08, 2011 at 3:32 PM
CA Supreme Court will respond soon to question from 9th Circuit regarding Prop. 8
February 03, 2011 at 11:19 AM
Don't forget about CALI lessons!
February 02, 2011 at 10:29 AM
How to Break into International Arbitration
January 31, 2011 at 3:49 PM
International Center for Research on Women
January 21, 2011 at 12:44 PM
New CALI video
January 19, 2011 at 11:20 AM
A Cure for Test Anxiety?
January 13, 2011 at 12:50 PM
The Arizona shooter and mental health care law
January 12, 2011 at 9:39 AM
Law School Survey of Student Engagement
January 05, 2011 at 9:03 AM
Ninth Circuit sends certified question to CA Supreme Court regarding standing for Prop. 8
January 04, 2011 at 11:15 AM
Congressional Research Service reports on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
December 22, 2010 at 10:24 AM
Law and the Multiverse
December 21, 2010 at 10:14 AM
Genocide Archive Rwanda
December 10, 2010 at 9:04 AM
The Right to a Vegetarian Menu in Prison
December 09, 2010 at 10:06 AM
Something to Read between Exams
December 07, 2010 at 8:40 PM
WestlawNext and the Cost of Online Research
December 06, 2010 at 5:00 PM
USF Law Library closed to SCU law students until Jan. 3
November 30, 2010 at 2:45 PM
Prison University Project
November 24, 2010 at 1:18 PM
Researching Constitutions of Other Countries
November 16, 2010 at 6:00 PM
Preparing for the 800th Anniversary of the Magna Carta
November 12, 2010 at 9:18 AM
Go Blue, but which way?
November 10, 2010 at 12:16 PM
Efforts to Improve Wikipedia
November 04, 2010 at 9:12 AM
Arguments in U.S.A. v. Arizona
November 01, 2010 at 1:34 PM
Introducing Unity
October 29, 2010 at 1:04 PM
"Ass clowns" is probably not the best way to refer to the court
October 28, 2010 at 11:45 AM
French pension reform
October 22, 2010 at 2:39 PM
Scout Report links to legal history
October 22, 2010 at 10:17 AM
Indian Law Portal
October 19, 2010 at 3:58 PM
School bullying and LGBT adolescents
October 08, 2010 at 12:21 PM
The Law Library now has the Serial Set
October 07, 2010 at 5:00 PM
Need help creating a table of authorities?
October 05, 2010 at 12:46 PM
First Monday in October
October 02, 2010 at 1:38 PM
Domestic Case Law on International Crimes (The DomCLIC Project)
September 22, 2010 at 8:27 AM
Google Books and multi-volume works
September 17, 2010 at 2:30 PM
Exercise and testing
September 16, 2010 at 2:29 PM
The U.S. Constitution
September 15, 2010 at 6:58 AM
Dallas, Cranch, Wheaton, . . . Wagner?
September 09, 2010 at 3:30 PM
California Legislative Session
August 31, 2010 at 1:30 PM
Submission of Law Student Articles for Publication
August 19, 2010 at 8:31 AM
Changes in the New Edition of the Bluebook
August 17, 2010 at 5:36 PM
In Custodia Legis
August 16, 2010 at 11:13 AM
Catalog of Federal Register Publications & Online Services
August 11, 2010 at 9:47 AM
Prop. 8 Decision
August 04, 2010 at 1:41 PM
Library Closed for Construction Projects
July 26, 2010 at 5:57 PM
Cheerleading Isn't A Sport?
July 23, 2010 at 9:12 AM
ICJ Validates Kosovo's Indepence
July 22, 2010 at 9:09 AM
Mobile Apps from Uncle Sam and Elsewhere
July 21, 2010 at 1:17 PM
Westlaw error uncorrected?
July 21, 2010 at 10:52 AM
Library Catalog Vendor Presentations
July 19, 2010 at 11:47 AM
Legal Scholarship Blog
July 19, 2010 at 11:42 AM
DOMA Decisions from Massachusetts
July 09, 2010 at 9:24 AM
Why the Christian Legal Society case may be important for the Prop. 8 challenge
June 29, 2010 at 3:46 PM
Is legal education at a crossroads?
June 29, 2010 at 11:46 AM
European Court of Human Rights on Same Sex Marriage
June 25, 2010 at 8:29 AM
Today's Supreme Court Opinions
June 24, 2010 at 10:00 AM
California 2009 Legislation
June 21, 2010 at 11:15 AM
Georgetown Bioethics Library
June 18, 2010 at 9:32 AM
Supreme Court Decision in Ontario v. Quon
June 17, 2010 at 3:11 PM
Gerald Uelmen on the value of law review articles
June 17, 2010 at 9:54 AM
Pursuing an LL.M. Tax Degree
June 15, 2010 at 11:00 AM
Prop. 8 trial and the "nature of sexual orientation"
June 15, 2010 at 9:40 AM
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
June 14, 2010 at 10:52 AM
Blind Applicants Challenge Online Applications
June 11, 2010 at 9:51 AM
Elena Kagan Documents from the Clinton Library
June 04, 2010 at 1:39 PM
Samantar v. Yousuf
June 01, 2010 at 10:13 AM
Berghuis v. Thompkins
June 01, 2010 at 9:32 AM
Information about Sexual Assault on College Campuses
May 14, 2010 at 8:30 AM
Summer Lexis & Westlaw Access
May 12, 2010 at 3:49 PM
University of Michigan Law Library Posts Informational Page on Elena Kagan
May 11, 2010 at 10:30 AM
Solicitor General Elena Kagan
May 10, 2010 at 2:27 PM
Looking for exam prep materials?
May 04, 2010 at 3:23 PM
Growth Industry
May 03, 2010 at 7:57 AM
Text of the Arizona Immigration Legislation
April 30, 2010 at 3:22 PM
National Forum on the Future of Legal Education
April 28, 2010 at 9:04 AM
Department of Labor on Unpaid Internships
April 22, 2010 at 3:19 PM
City of Ontario v. Quon
April 19, 2010 at 10:11 AM
Christian Legal Society Chapter v. Martinez
April 19, 2010 at 9:27 AM
Don't Scream!
April 15, 2010 at 7:23 AM
National Library Week
April 12, 2010 at 11:23 AM
Google Search Tips
April 09, 2010 at 8:45 AM
Online Course Evaluations
April 08, 2010 at 9:27 AM
Comcast v. FCC opinion from the D.C. Circuit
April 06, 2010 at 2:05 PM
Digest of United States Practice in International Law
April 01, 2010 at 3:10 PM
LARAW students needing a legal research refresh before the final
March 26, 2010 at 3:13 PM
One week to get new ACCESS cards
March 24, 2010 at 3:12 PM
Library records still at risk from so-called "Patriot" Act
March 22, 2010 at 1:26 PM
OSCAR will be unavailable Tuesday
March 19, 2010 at 11:26 AM
Power, Voice and Rights
March 19, 2010 at 10:57 AM
C-SPAN launches new video archive
March 18, 2010 at 10:43 AM
Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C. (LLSDC)
March 17, 2010 at 9:08 AM
9th Circuit Pledge of Allegiance Ruling
March 11, 2010 at 4:16 PM
Gunner's World
March 10, 2010 at 2:37 PM
Researching American Indian Law
March 10, 2010 at 1:20 PM
International Women's Day: Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities. Progress for All
March 08, 2010 at 9:25 AM
Samantar v. Yousuf
March 05, 2010 at 11:47 AM
Federal Jobs and Taxes
March 04, 2010 at 2:22 PM
Half a Century of Asian Law: A Celebration of Prof. Jerome Cohen
March 03, 2010 at 10:01 AM
Tax Time
February 26, 2010 at 11:22 AM
Google Trial
February 24, 2010 at 8:58 AM
Arabic Language Flashcards
February 12, 2010 at 8:29 AM
Avon Global Center for Women and Justice at Cornell Law School
February 11, 2010 at 11:32 AM
Legal Citation Finder Bookmarklet
February 10, 2010 at 10:56 AM
ABA Views on Immigration Courts
February 09, 2010 at 1:36 PM
Afghanistan
February 09, 2010 at 11:00 AM
Innocence Project Report
February 08, 2010 at 10:00 AM
Dungeons and Dragons
January 29, 2010 at 8:47 AM
Don't Ask, Don't Tell
January 28, 2010 at 11:13 AM
Campaign Spending
January 22, 2010 at 9:22 AM
Rule of Law Index
January 19, 2010 at 10:35 AM
ECHR Stop and Search Case
January 13, 2010 at 11:13 AM
THOMAS introduces some nice new features
January 12, 2010 at 10:46 AM
Law School Survey of Student Engagement
January 06, 2010 at 9:34 AM
Perry v. Schwarzenegger will not be online
January 06, 2010 at 9:13 AM
Positive news on the death penalty and the ALI
January 05, 2010 at 11:34 AM
Ninth Circuit Allows Cameras in District Courts
December 22, 2009 at 11:52 AM
2010 Statistical Abstract of the United States
December 21, 2009 at 12:41 PM
WomensLaw.org
December 18, 2009 at 7:59 AM
Free Full-text Online Law Review/Law Journal Search Engine
December 14, 2009 at 9:38 AM
Settlement of Indian Trust Accounts Litigation
December 08, 2009 at 1:55 PM
U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs
November 24, 2009 at 4:55 PM
Thanksgiving Proclamations
November 23, 2009 at 1:18 PM
Harvard's Amicus
November 20, 2009 at 9:27 AM
Tweeting One's Way Into Court
November 17, 2009 at 7:10 PM
Pfizer Move from New London, CT
November 13, 2009 at 9:11 AM
University of Virginia Miller Center of Public Affairs
November 12, 2009 at 2:32 PM
Giving up your Lexis/WestLaw addiction after graduation
November 10, 2009 at 1:20 PM
Birther lawsuit thrown out by CA judge -- nice intro to Civil Procedure and Con Law I
October 30, 2009 at 10:57 AM
Change in Asylum Policy for Abused Spouses
October 30, 2009 at 7:50 AM
Gender Bias Bingo
October 29, 2009 at 9:15 AM
Finding House and Senate Reports
October 28, 2009 at 8:45 PM
Conference on Practicing Law in a Virtual World
October 28, 2009 at 11:29 AM
GAO Report on Law Schools
October 28, 2009 at 9:05 AM
Karadzic Trial at ICTY
October 27, 2009 at 1:41 PM
Feeling Good about the Golden State?
October 23, 2009 at 11:21 AM
Hoover Digest
October 23, 2009 at 8:01 AM
Death Penalty Report
October 20, 2009 at 8:54 AM
The Medill Innocence Project
October 19, 2009 at 11:12 AM
California's Referendum Process
October 15, 2009 at 3:26 PM
Side-by-Side Comparison of Health Care Proposals
October 14, 2009 at 9:36 AM
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
October 09, 2009 at 9:21 AM
Roofing Project Update
October 08, 2009 at 6:48 PM
Forum Network
October 08, 2009 at 10:08 AM
Should animal abuse videos be protected by the first amendment?
October 06, 2009 at 11:15 AM
First Monday in October
October 05, 2009 at 11:44 AM
70 Sizzling Apps
October 05, 2009 at 11:44 AM
Blogging at Internet Librarian 2009
October 05, 2009 at 11:42 AM
Texas state judge rules that gay marriage ban violates federal equal protection
October 02, 2009 at 9:10 AM
Torture Archive
October 02, 2009 at 8:33 AM
Heafey Roofing Project Update
October 01, 2009 at 9:37 AM
Is online social networking becoming segregated?
September 30, 2009 at 5:31 PM
Want to read the health care bill?
September 30, 2009 at 10:44 AM
New legal blog census
September 28, 2009 at 3:54 PM
Coming Tomorrow to a Library Near You
September 25, 2009 at 10:41 AM
Intellectual Property Rights in China Webinar Series
September 24, 2009 at 9:09 AM
Beauty School Sues Student for Defamation
September 19, 2009 at 10:38 AM
Constitution Day and Citizenship Day
September 17, 2009 at 9:00 AM
Are your legal research skills ready for the real world?
September 11, 2009 at 11:35 AM
Duck Boats Battle Over Kazoos
September 11, 2009 at 9:32 AM
State Department Office of the Historian
September 11, 2009 at 9:11 AM
Indigenous People and International Law
September 10, 2009 at 2:45 PM
Best Guide to Canadian Legal Research
September 02, 2009 at 3:05 PM
Flash drives are now available!!
August 20, 2009 at 12:20 PM
Evening 1Ls and Lexis/Westlaw training
August 14, 2009 at 6:49 PM
Welcome 1Ls - Flash Drives to Arrive Next Week
August 12, 2009 at 5:09 PM
Roofing Project Update...
August 12, 2009 at 4:23 PM
How well is OneNote working for you?
August 12, 2009 at 2:57 PM
Textbooks on the iPhone?
August 12, 2009 at 2:54 PM
Dispute between WestLaw and AALL (American Association of Law Libraries)
August 07, 2009 at 9:32 AM
Change in Asylum Policy for Battered Woman
July 20, 2009 at 1:56 PM
Follow us on Twitter!
July 16, 2009 at 11:46 AM
AspenLaw releases StudyDesk version 3.0
July 15, 2009 at 9:24 AM
International Criminal Tribunals
July 14, 2009 at 4:09 PM
Need help submitting a law review article?
July 14, 2009 at 9:26 AM
Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings
July 13, 2009 at 10:03 AM
Practising Law Institute announces new legal titles available in Kindle format
July 13, 2009 at 9:32 AM
Getting ready for your first year of law school?
July 08, 2009 at 2:40 PM
Massachusetts sues over DOMA
July 08, 2009 at 2:31 PM
Washington State Supreme Court hears case on library Internet filtering
July 08, 2009 at 11:29 AM
Product review : Casemaker vs. Fastcase
July 08, 2009 at 9:59 AM
Delhi High Court Decision on Gay Rights
July 02, 2009 at 12:20 PM
UPDATE: Law Library Roofing Project
June 26, 2009 at 5:36 PM
Roofing Project
June 26, 2009 at 10:43 AM
California's budget crisis : LA Sheriff suspends DNA testing for rape victims
June 23, 2009 at 10:52 AM
What can you do with an iPhone/Kindle in law school?
June 22, 2009 at 4:16 PM
CLE class in Second Life
June 19, 2009 at 2:49 PM
Pew Internet & American Life Project
June 18, 2009 at 10:29 AM
Tax Protest in the Digital Age
June 17, 2009 at 9:17 AM
Photos from the Iranian protests
June 16, 2009 at 10:39 AM
A study in contrasts : Obama and Jerry Brown on gay marriage
June 15, 2009 at 11:55 AM
The revolution will be tweeted
June 15, 2009 at 10:42 AM
Summer access to Lexis and Westlaw
June 09, 2009 at 11:05 AM
U.S. Supreme Court Decisions
June 08, 2009 at 3:24 PM
National crisis for public defenders
June 03, 2009 at 2:37 PM
Microsoft announces new search engine
June 03, 2009 at 10:37 AM
Typography for Lawyers
June 01, 2009 at 1:04 PM
Prop. 8 being challenged in federal court
May 28, 2009 at 10:03 AM
Erwin Chemerinsky and Ilya Somin debate Sotomayor nomination
May 28, 2009 at 9:55 AM
New website for bill tracking
May 28, 2009 at 9:50 AM
Ruling on Prop. 8 rumored to be imminent
May 20, 2009 at 9:31 AM
Westlaw China
May 18, 2009 at 9:24 AM
Free Lexis access for new graduates in public interest work
May 15, 2009 at 7:13 PM
New cell phone reference service
May 14, 2009 at 10:57 AM
Not enough time in the library
May 14, 2009 at 10:17 AM
Maine governor signs marriage equality bill
May 06, 2009 at 9:45 AM
Rumors that California Supreme Court will issue Prop. 8 ruling tomorrow
May 06, 2009 at 9:14 AM
Summer access to Lexis and Westlaw for students
April 23, 2009 at 7:10 PM
Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals
April 23, 2009 at 11:46 AM
Senate Report on Interrogation Methods
April 22, 2009 at 8:21 AM
Captured Somali pirate may create interesting case for American maritime law
April 21, 2009 at 12:45 PM
New Twitter service for legal professionals
April 17, 2009 at 11:52 AM
OLC Opinions and Memoranda
April 16, 2009 at 2:12 PM
Human Rights documents and tools from the OSCE
April 15, 2009 at 2:32 PM
'A Guantanamo on the Sea': The Difficulties of Prosecuting Pirates and Terrorists
April 14, 2009 at 5:20 PM
ASIL Insights
April 13, 2009 at 1:48 PM
Tools for effectively engaging laptop users in the classroom
April 08, 2009 at 9:37 AM
Researching Human Rights Law
April 07, 2009 at 7:01 PM
How did Lexis and WestLaw corner the market on legal information?
April 07, 2009 at 3:13 PM
How to update the CFR using GPO Access
April 07, 2009 at 2:41 PM
Tech roundup from the Computers in Libraries Conference 2009
March 31, 2009 at 5:04 PM
More information about legal RSS feeds
March 31, 2009 at 11:17 AM
Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
March 30, 2009 at 9:31 AM
Free and low cost legal research
March 26, 2009 at 11:49 AM
CALI Lesson on California Citations
March 24, 2009 at 3:04 PM
Monday Fun : Right To Privacy Not Guaranteed By Constitution, Says Supreme Court Justice Peeking In Bathroom Window
March 23, 2009 at 2:32 PM
New Mexico bans the death penalty
March 20, 2009 at 1:06 PM
Bar Admission Requirements
March 20, 2009 at 10:50 AM
UN Database on Violence against Women
March 20, 2009 at 8:51 AM
Mistrial by iPhone
March 17, 2009 at 5:22 PM
What first year students should learn in a legal research class
March 17, 2009 at 1:05 PM
Law library and law school Twitter feeds
March 17, 2009 at 11:44 AM
New search tool for FOIA-acquired documents by the EFF
March 16, 2009 at 5:04 PM
Surge in anti-gay hate crimes in Santa Clara County
March 16, 2009 at 4:22 PM
Law librarians lead nationwide campaign for no-fee public access to PACER
March 09, 2009 at 12:01 PM
New Technology I Love : DropBox
March 09, 2009 at 10:14 AM
RSS Court Feeds
March 09, 2009 at 10:03 AM
Videos at the U.S. Supreme Court
March 02, 2009 at 12:04 PM
Children's Rights
February 27, 2009 at 8:20 AM
Upcoming Changes to West's Digests
February 26, 2009 at 5:36 PM
Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC)
February 18, 2009 at 9:17 AM
Recovery.gov
February 17, 2009 at 9:02 PM
Happy Birthday to Charles Darwin
February 12, 2009 at 10:39 AM
Remember to use your librarian
February 11, 2009 at 1:09 PM
Most frequently cited authors in Heinonline's law journal collection
February 11, 2009 at 1:05 PM
Federal Digital System (FDSys)
February 11, 2009 at 10:06 AM
Are you using CALI?
February 10, 2009 at 12:48 PM
Tens of thousands of CA inmates to be released due to overcrowding
February 09, 2009 at 4:55 PM
Tax Time
February 09, 2009 at 10:51 AM
Please don't divorce us
February 05, 2009 at 3:54 PM
Important 9th Circuit decision regarding DOMA
February 05, 2009 at 3:04 PM
NY recognizes same-sex Canadian marriage for intestate succession
February 05, 2009 at 12:47 PM
Justice Ginsburg has surgery for pancreatic cancer
February 05, 2009 at 10:48 AM
ASPCA v. Feld Entertainment
February 04, 2009 at 12:26 PM
East Palo Alto Youth Court
February 03, 2009 at 4:15 PM
Exciting new peer-reviewed law review
February 03, 2009 at 2:13 PM
New UN Legal Research Tools
February 02, 2009 at 9:27 AM
Obama issues executive orders regarding labor practices
January 30, 2009 at 11:10 AM
A changing economy and the "billable hour"
January 30, 2009 at 11:02 AM
Meet your Heafey Law Librarians!!
January 29, 2009 at 3:40 PM
Want to read Obama's executive orders?
January 29, 2009 at 1:42 PM
International Criminal Court
January 28, 2009 at 4:10 PM
New Employment Discrimination Legislation
January 28, 2009 at 3:50 PM
Photo from Obama Inauguration
January 26, 2009 at 3:48 PM
Is it time for a law library bailout?
January 26, 2009 at 10:54 AM
Excellent research guide on California ballot measures
January 26, 2009 at 10:01 AM
Santa Clara breaks new ground in virtual admissions event
January 22, 2009 at 10:26 AM
Say goodbye to COPA (Child Online Protection Act)
January 21, 2009 at 3:17 PM
Top 5 most popular blogs written by law professors
January 21, 2009 at 10:35 AM
Obama's new wheels
January 20, 2009 at 4:53 PM
Inauguration Day
January 20, 2009 at 1:46 PM
Warning about using Westlaw with older web browsers
January 14, 2009 at 10:20 AM
Update on police shooting at Oakland BART station
January 14, 2009 at 9:58 AM
Congressional Investigation: "Hulk Hogan was a terrible wrestler"
January 12, 2009 at 11:40 AM
Simulations in legal education
January 08, 2009 at 2:45 PM
Rioting in Oakland in response to police violence
January 08, 2009 at 2:17 PM
Pictures from Gaza
January 08, 2009 at 11:39 AM
Significant CA Supreme Court ruling regarding church property
January 05, 2009 at 4:50 PM
Progressive religious groups file petition against Prop. 8
January 05, 2009 at 3:32 PM
Leon Panetta named CIA Director
January 05, 2009 at 12:23 PM
Controversy over changes to Endangered Species Act
January 05, 2009 at 10:33 AM
Recent actions at the United Nations
December 22, 2008 at 9:49 AM
California Supreme Court agrees to hear challenge to Prop. 8
November 19, 2008 at 2:41 PM
National Center for Lesbian Rights submits lawsuit over Prop. 8
November 06, 2008 at 10:57 AM
Looking for exam preparation materials?
October 31, 2008 at 2:43 PM
Google Book Search Settlement Proposed
October 30, 2008 at 2:24 PM
Audiovisual Library of International Law
October 28, 2008 at 4:09 PM
Library internet filtering in Washington State
October 15, 2008 at 9:37 AM
Maureen Dowd's Latin NY Times column
October 13, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Connecticut Same Sex Marriage Decision
October 10, 2008 at 10:00 AM
UN Yearbook Online
October 09, 2008 at 11:35 AM
10th Anniversary of the murder of Matthew Shepard
October 07, 2008 at 9:45 AM
Digital Course Books?
October 01, 2008 at 1:07 PM
Muslim children injured in terrorist attack in Dayton, Ohio
September 29, 2008 at 4:27 PM
NY Times calls for a No vote on California's Prop. 8
September 29, 2008 at 11:01 AM
U.S. Supreme Court
September 25, 2008 at 4:24 PM
ASIL Website
September 19, 2008 at 8:40 AM
United Nations Treaty Collection
September 18, 2008 at 4:59 PM
Constitution Day and Citizenship Day
September 17, 2008 at 8:00 AM
Men in legal professions earn 95.6 percent more than their female counterparts
September 16, 2008 at 10:18 AM
Protest photos from the national conventions
September 11, 2008 at 3:17 PM
Law school presidential election contributions
September 11, 2008 at 9:15 AM
Exciting new development in Google News
September 09, 2008 at 4:45 PM
Christian Domionism, Imprecatory Prayer, and John McCain
September 05, 2008 at 1:17 PM
Former SCU prof writes about Sarah Palin's teenage pregnancy story
September 04, 2008 at 12:45 PM
Registering for CALI
September 04, 2008 at 11:48 AM
Library Resources for Cite Checks
September 03, 2008 at 12:50 PM
Sarah Palin versus the public librarian
September 02, 2008 at 12:29 PM
Advice for 1Ls: What to do if you don't know the answer
August 27, 2008 at 10:29 AM
Medical Marijuana 10th Amendment claim moves forward in Santa Cruz v. Gonzales
August 22, 2008 at 1:07 PM
Obama's case comment from the Harvard Law Review
August 22, 2008 at 11:19 AM
New student loan forgiveness program for prosecutors/public defenders
August 22, 2008 at 10:49 AM
Gay Marriage and Tribal Sovereignty
August 21, 2008 at 9:19 AM
The crisis of Mexican children deported into Tijuana
August 19, 2008 at 2:15 PM
San Jose Mercury News comes out against Prop. 8
August 18, 2008 at 3:50 PM
How to Read a Legal Opinion : A guide for new law students
August 18, 2008 at 12:26 PM
Library Information for One Ls
August 15, 2008 at 3:23 PM
Texas's Disdain
August 08, 2008 at 10:25 AM
Reneging on a right
August 08, 2008 at 10:18 AM
Settle v. Trial
August 08, 2008 at 9:38 AM
Convicted killer gets life sentence, and pizza, from Portland court
August 07, 2008 at 3:21 PM
WestLaw Tip: Quick Print is NOT your friend
August 07, 2008 at 3:09 PM
Important tip for downloading documents via WestLaw/Lexis
August 07, 2008 at 3:00 PM
Legal educators plan on boycotting San Diego AALS over marriage equality
August 05, 2008 at 2:11 PM
New website enables free searching of criminal records
August 05, 2008 at 10:11 AM
Prop. 8 will not be retroactive according to Attorney General Jerry Brown
August 05, 2008 at 10:02 AM
Marintindale-Hubbell links up with LinkedIn
August 04, 2008 at 3:43 PM
Animal rights activists firebomb two homes in Santa Cruz
August 04, 2008 at 10:25 AM
UK Research Resources
August 04, 2008 at 8:49 AM
Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter donates $3K to No on Prop. 8 campaign
August 01, 2008 at 2:12 PM
Mormon Times calls for overthrow of government if Prop. 8 fails
August 01, 2008 at 10:24 AM
Librarian writes defense of "Uncle Bobby's Wedding"
July 31, 2008 at 10:41 AM
University of North Dakota Law Review gets hijacked by marriage equality opponents
July 31, 2008 at 10:25 AM
NY Times publishes Obama's law school exam questions
July 31, 2008 at 10:05 AM
Southern California earthquake affects bar takers in LA
July 30, 2008 at 4:57 PM
Eric Goldman discusses Ethan Lieb's "Friends as Fiduciaries"
July 30, 2008 at 4:44 PM
Opponents of marriage equality sue over ballot initiative description
July 30, 2008 at 10:52 AM
Poor research skills at DOJ
July 29, 2008 at 4:06 PM
South Carolina Law Review tries out peer review selection process
July 29, 2008 at 2:09 PM
Bush approves first military execution since 1961
July 29, 2008 at 10:15 AM
MCLE credit in Second Life
July 28, 2008 at 5:30 PM
DOJ hiring practices were "unlawful"
July 28, 2008 at 2:05 PM
Church shooting in TN targeted "liberals and gays"
July 28, 2008 at 10:33 AM
Iranian woman faces imminent execution by stoning
July 25, 2008 at 4:24 PM
IRS says virtual greeters are real employees
July 25, 2008 at 2:40 PM
Top 35 blogs written by law faculty
July 25, 2008 at 11:04 AM
American Library Association begins privacy campaign
July 25, 2008 at 10:54 AM
Seasteading and Constructed Sovereignty
July 24, 2008 at 4:33 PM
CA Supreme Court deterimines no right to allocution at sentencing
July 24, 2008 at 3:53 PM
Google releases product to compete with Wikipedia
July 24, 2008 at 11:10 AM
The "de-centralizing" of social networks : News from Facebook
July 24, 2008 at 10:44 AM
New report recommends closing California's state-run juvenile detention centers
July 24, 2008 at 10:18 AM
GPS Tracking for Convicted Sex Offenders?
July 23, 2008 at 4:07 PM
House Armed Services Committee debates future of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
July 23, 2008 at 10:22 AM
Recent developments regarding COPA (Children's Online Protection Act)
July 22, 2008 at 4:30 PM
Despite World Court ruling, and protests, Texas continues with executions of Mexican nationals
July 17, 2008 at 4:13 PM
How to Read a Legal Opinion : A guide for new law students
July 17, 2008 at 11:50 AM
The Google Generation and Legal Research
July 10, 2008 at 2:51 PM
Lexis v. WestLaw : Law Librarians Weigh In on Debate
July 10, 2008 at 1:53 PM
Congress approves warrant-less eavesdropping
July 09, 2008 at 2:37 PM
Personal Democracy Forum 2008: Rebooting the System
July 09, 2008 at 11:08 AM
New virtual world created by Google releases its terms of service contract
July 09, 2008 at 10:43 AM
Top SCU-affiliated downloads from SSRN
July 08, 2008 at 2:22 PM
D.C. Circuit Opinion cites to Jimi Hendrix
July 08, 2008 at 2:09 PM
SL Bar Association offering CLE credit entirely within a virtual world
July 08, 2008 at 11:23 AM
Online video of debate between Eugene Volokh and Jack Rakove on the Heller decision
July 07, 2008 at 5:18 PM
Summer fun: Judge Kozinsky on The Dating Game
July 07, 2008 at 4:17 PM
Washington Post calls for rehearing in Kennedy v. Louisiana
July 07, 2008 at 10:29 AM
Need to brush up on legal research skills before the fall?
July 07, 2008 at 10:20 AM
Legal research faux-pas affects Kennedy v. Louisiana case
July 03, 2008 at 11:51 AM
Is it a crime for a gay Wisconsin couple to marry in California?
July 03, 2008 at 10:10 AM
Interesting study on blog reading habits
July 02, 2008 at 4:44 PM
C-SPAN posts video of Federalist Society's review of this term's SCOTUS decisions
July 01, 2008 at 1:42 PM
Chief Justice John Roberts cites to Bob Dylan
July 01, 2008 at 11:59 AM
New website for international disaster information
July 01, 2008 at 11:07 AM
U.S. News and World Reports considers adding part-time students in their law school rankings
July 01, 2008 at 11:00 AM
The Protestant Ethic and American Capitalism
June 30, 2008 at 10:58 AM
California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice issues scathing report on California death penalty
June 30, 2008 at 10:14 AM
Is gun control a feminist issue?
June 27, 2008 at 10:02 AM
Criminal law implications from Heller decision
June 26, 2008 at 3:58 PM
Reactions from Heller decision
June 26, 2008 at 10:49 AM
SCOTUS rules death penalty for child-rape unconstitutional
June 25, 2008 at 10:44 AM
Orange County Register editorial supports marriage equality
June 24, 2008 at 4:16 PM
Top 10 Books for incoming law students
June 24, 2008 at 3:18 PM
Software tools for making class outlines and table of authorities
June 24, 2008 at 2:42 PM
Defining "community standards" in a digital world
June 24, 2008 at 1:34 PM
Were signatures for the anti-marriage equality initiative acquired under a false assertion?
June 24, 2008 at 11:21 AM
Two Years for Law School?
June 20, 2008 at 9:46 AM
Professors get their "rankings" on SSRN
June 13, 2008 at 8:48 AM
Proofreading checklist for law school papers, notes, and comments
June 13, 2008 at 8:39 AM
June 12--Loving Day
June 12, 2008 at 11:50 AM
SCOTUS announces decision on Boumediene v. Bush
June 12, 2008 at 11:04 AM
Murderer of young gay man gets 2.5 years in South Carolina prison
June 11, 2008 at 2:12 PM
Tenth Circuit says Lawrence was a rational-basis case
June 10, 2008 at 5:27 PM
First Circuit Upholds "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
June 09, 2008 at 4:40 PM
www.ourcourts.org
June 09, 2008 at 2:53 PM
Friday Fun: I'm a Bar/Bri Girl
June 06, 2008 at 4:35 PM
Controversy over recent Harvard Law Review article
June 06, 2008 at 1:55 PM
CA Supreme Court unanimously denies stay for marriage equality ruling
June 04, 2008 at 11:48 AM
New peer-reviewed open access journal from Harvard Law School
June 04, 2008 at 10:48 AM
Marriage quote of the day
June 03, 2008 at 4:03 PM
Should communion be a political weapon?
June 03, 2008 at 12:43 PM
Proselytizing and Free Speech
June 03, 2008 at 11:57 AM
Questions about access to the library?
June 03, 2008 at 11:04 AM
Voter initiative to limit marriage qualifies for November ballot
June 03, 2008 at 10:18 AM
Podcast Series on Law Practice
June 02, 2008 at 9:44 AM
ACLU President Anthony Romero interviewed in Second Life
May 29, 2008 at 4:21 PM
Bar Exam Resources
May 29, 2008 at 3:54 PM
Heavily-redacted documents on waterboarding released by the CIA
May 29, 2008 at 3:20 PM
Deal reached to ban cluster bombs
May 29, 2008 at 1:51 PM
Is California's anti-marriage equality initiative a revision or an amendment?
May 29, 2008 at 11:13 AM
State Laws Relating to Immigrants and Immigration
May 28, 2008 at 12:58 PM
Majority of Californians support marriage equality
May 28, 2008 at 11:37 AM
The California Marriage Decision and Basic Civics
May 23, 2008 at 11:43 AM
Loyola Law School introduces "First Monday" podcasts on iTunes
May 23, 2008 at 11:35 AM
Cheating on your lover may soon be a felony in Missouri?
May 23, 2008 at 11:22 AM
USA ranks #97 on the Global Peace Index
May 21, 2008 at 4:20 PM
Ninth Circuit revives substantive due process challenge to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
May 21, 2008 at 1:31 PM
New legal research blog from the law librarians at Stanford
May 15, 2008 at 3:57 PM
CA Supreme Court issues historical ruling on marriage equality
May 15, 2008 at 11:12 AM
Exciting changes to West's Key Number System
May 13, 2008 at 3:45 PM
Right-wing affirmative action?
May 13, 2008 at 12:49 PM
U.S. Legal Work Booms in India
May 12, 2008 at 3:48 PM
New Screencasts/Video Tutorials!!
May 12, 2008 at 11:23 AM
Patent Attorney Stephan Kinsella speaks on re-thinking intellectual property
May 09, 2008 at 5:33 PM
Harvard Law School goes open access
May 09, 2008 at 10:29 AM
Santa Clara ranks 33rd in 1L attrition rates
May 09, 2008 at 10:03 AM
Michigan Supreme Court says gay partners can't get health benefits
May 07, 2008 at 4:05 PM
"And Tango Makes Three" continues to top list of most challenged library books
May 07, 2008 at 3:01 PM
2008 Webby Awards
May 06, 2008 at 12:57 PM
Mildred Loving (Loving v. Virginia) passed away today...
May 05, 2008 at 10:50 AM
Southern Poverty Law Center reports a 48% rise in hate groups since 2000
May 05, 2008 at 10:08 AM
Administrative Office of the US Courts releases its 2007 Wiretap Report
May 01, 2008 at 3:40 PM
Google News releases new quote-searching function
May 01, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Oregon statutes are protected under copyright?
May 01, 2008 at 10:18 AM
Interesting new website
April 29, 2008 at 2:14 PM
Access to EU documents threatened with proposed legislation
April 29, 2008 at 10:54 AM
Lawyers open their file cabinets for a web resource
April 28, 2008 at 2:04 PM
National Law Journal publishes study on law employment trends
April 28, 2008 at 10:40 AM
U.S. Senate unanimously passes Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act
April 25, 2008 at 10:04 AM
Summer Lexis and Westlaw Access
April 24, 2008 at 2:47 PM
Electronic Communications Preservation Act
April 24, 2008 at 10:12 AM
SCOTUS widens police searches (Virginia v. Moore)
April 23, 2008 at 11:48 AM
Was Baze the most "internet friendly" SCOTUS ruling?
April 21, 2008 at 10:19 AM
What can next president do about food crisis?
April 21, 2008 at 10:11 AM
Recent Studies on Violence against Women Worldwide
April 18, 2008 at 10:38 AM
Harry Potter on trial
April 17, 2008 at 11:01 AM
SCOTUS determines drunk driving is not a "violent felony" (Begay v. U.S.)
April 16, 2008 at 3:40 PM
President of California State Bar calls for billing reform
April 16, 2008 at 2:30 PM
Tortured Justice : Using coerced evidence to prosecute terror suspects
April 16, 2008 at 2:07 PM
Supreme Court okays lethal injection in Baze v. Rees
April 16, 2008 at 1:55 PM
RSS feeds available at the Library of Congress
April 15, 2008 at 3:55 PM
SCOTUS justices interviewed about legal research and advocacy
April 15, 2008 at 3:45 PM
Law Journal Articles and Contemporary Judicial Decision-Making
April 14, 2008 at 2:51 PM
New tutorial videos for HeinOnline
April 14, 2008 at 11:31 AM
Looking for municipal resources?
April 11, 2008 at 2:10 PM
National Lawyer Guild calls for firing of Boalt Hall professor John Yoo
April 09, 2008 at 5:43 PM
Searching for presidential nominees
April 07, 2008 at 2:24 PM
Online tutorials: Congressional materials
April 04, 2008 at 9:24 AM
Google Scholar and HeinOnline
April 02, 2008 at 11:15 AM
New Dynamically Updated Research Guides
April 01, 2008 at 4:39 PM
District of Columbia v. Heller
March 18, 2008 at 1:35 PM
California Legislative History
March 14, 2008 at 10:17 AM
Online Journal Supplements
March 05, 2008 at 9:08 AM
Supreme Court Justices on Legal Writing and Advocacy
February 28, 2008 at 3:07 PM
New Journal Finder Widget
February 26, 2008 at 3:45 PM
Two New Legal Research Websites
February 15, 2008 at 2:54 PM
United Nations Treaty Collection
February 14, 2008 at 3:40 PM
New Legal Podcast directory
February 08, 2008 at 10:29 AM
Add a librarian as a "friend"
January 28, 2008 at 11:32 AM
Alternatives to Billable Hours
January 24, 2008 at 11:48 AM
Do you IM?
January 17, 2008 at 3:37 PM
InSITE and Legal Research Engine
January 12, 2008 at 2:34 PM
Top 10 Blawgs from the ABA Journal
January 04, 2008 at 10:41 AM
2007 Law School Survey of Student Engagement
January 03, 2008 at 1:01 PM
Human Rights Watch Report on Pakistan
December 20, 2007 at 9:44 AM
Boumediene v. Bush
December 06, 2007 at 10:51 AM
Damage to library materials
December 05, 2007 at 8:03 PM
West Key Numbers Search Tool
November 19, 2007 at 11:00 AM
Search Engine Showdown
November 17, 2007 at 10:37 AM
Converting Documents to PDF Files
November 07, 2007 at 2:57 PM
British Lawmaking: Silly and Serious
November 07, 2007 at 10:42 AM
Violence Prevention Databases
October 31, 2007 at 10:04 AM
Thursday Night Lectures
September 27, 2007 at 11:35 AM
Supreme Court Preview -- 2007
September 18, 2007 at 6:47 PM
Constitution Day
September 15, 2007 at 8:31 AM
Legal Reading
September 12, 2007 at 10:10 AM
Any time for a Second Life?
August 30, 2007 at 5:06 PM
Using Interlibrary Loan (ILL) at Heafey Law Library
August 27, 2007 at 8:24 AM
Foreign Law Translations
August 16, 2007 at 9:15 AM
International Day of the World's Indigenous People
August 09, 2007 at 9:08 AM
Guilty Verdict for Reyes
August 07, 2007 at 2:09 PM
Novartis Decision
August 06, 2007 at 2:41 PM
Federal Communications Law Journal
August 03, 2007 at 10:39 AM
Professor Goldman's Blogs
July 30, 2007 at 9:30 AM
Alternative Search Engines
July 26, 2007 at 9:14 AM
Declaration of Independence
July 03, 2007 at 9:20 AM
Legal Research Guides: Canada and the United Kingdom
June 29, 2007 at 3:19 PM
Supreme Court Term
June 28, 2007 at 9:23 AM
Hearing on the National Football League System for Compensating Retired Players
June 26, 2007 at 2:33 PM
Best and Worst Internet Laws
June 21, 2007 at 8:52 AM
Special Court for Sierra Leone
June 20, 2007 at 11:08 AM
National Child Support Enforcement Association Research Clearinghouse
June 18, 2007 at 12:46 PM
International Law Protecting Delta and Dawn
June 01, 2007 at 2:06 PM
Reports to the People
May 31, 2007 at 3:12 PM
Immigration Reform Legislation
May 25, 2007 at 4:43 PM
Extending Westlaw and Lexis access over the summer
April 18, 2007 at 9:41 AM
Do You Haiku? Enter our contest!
April 16, 2007 at 3:42 PM
Chinese Law
April 13, 2007 at 2:40 PM
Actual Innocence Awareness Database
April 11, 2007 at 2:07 PM
State-by-State Report on the Authentication of Online Legal Resources
April 09, 2007 at 9:54 AM
Notice from the Library as Exams Approach - pt. 2
April 02, 2007 at 2:03 PM
Notice from the Library as Exams Approach - pt. 1
April 02, 2007 at 2:01 PM
Shloss v. Estate of Joyce
March 26, 2007 at 7:16 PM
Together Since 1957
March 23, 2007 at 10:54 AM
Find a Journal
March 20, 2007 at 3:43 PM
Tax Deductions for Designer Clothes
March 14, 2007 at 12:04 PM
Libby Testimony and Documents
March 08, 2007 at 8:31 AM
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
March 05, 2007 at 10:43 AM
Westlaw: Quick Print v. Print, where your print job goes
February 28, 2007 at 2:11 PM
Journalist Shield Laws
February 27, 2007 at 9:53 AM
ICJ Genocide Decision
February 26, 2007 at 10:10 AM
Canadian Supreme Court Decision
February 23, 2007 at 2:37 PM
Tobacco Decision
February 20, 2007 at 10:08 AM
Google Copyright Decision
February 15, 2007 at 8:45 AM
Tax Information
February 13, 2007 at 10:47 AM
Law Librarianship Opportunity
February 09, 2007 at 10:02 AM
International Law Careers
February 08, 2007 at 9:42 AM
Chief Justice Roberts
February 06, 2007 at 9:28 AM
Search Engine for Legal Research Guides
February 02, 2007 at 8:54 AM
International Intellectual Property
February 01, 2007 at 11:00 AM
Multi-State Legal Research
January 30, 2007 at 2:54 PM
World Trade Organization
January 27, 2007 at 1:32 PM
Hearing on Credit Card Practices
January 26, 2007 at 9:56 AM
Kahle v. Gonzales
January 24, 2007 at 3:14 PM
Digital Collection of Civil Rights Documents
January 13, 2007 at 10:26 AM
Legal Research: The Movie
January 12, 2007 at 12:45 PM
National Taxpayer Advocate 2006 Annual Report to Congress
January 11, 2007 at 1:11 PM
AALS Meeting
January 05, 2007 at 10:21 AM
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
January 02, 2007 at 4:35 PM
More Pick-up Locations for Link+
December 05, 2006 at 10:55 AM
Student Survey Results
December 05, 2006 at 10:10 AM
Last Chance for Westlaw/LexisNexis Training
November 29, 2006 at 7:30 PM
USF's Exam Access Policy
November 29, 2006 at 4:30 PM
Get ready for exams: Download ExamSoft, find practice exams and take advantage of study materials
November 29, 2006 at 12:40 PM
Off-Campus Access to Electronic Resources
November 20, 2006 at 12:00 PM
Protect Your Personal Property
November 17, 2006 at 11:00 AM
New Chairs!!! Library Student Survey Response
November 17, 2006 at 10:55 AM
Survey Drawing Winners
November 17, 2006 at 10:15 AM
Restitution of Property Seized by Nazis
November 14, 2006 at 2:40 PM
Fifty-State Surveys
November 10, 2006 at 1:45 PM
Borrowing materials from other libraries: Help us get it for you quickly
November 09, 2006 at 8:25 AM
Easy Way to Bone Up on Legal Research Skills
November 08, 2006 at 4:50 PM
CFR Now Available in HeinOnline
November 06, 2006 at 4:50 PM
Verdict in the Trial of Saddam Hussein
November 06, 2006 at 12:30 PM
African Union
November 03, 2006 at 11:15 AM
FindLaw's Supreme Court Center
November 01, 2006 at 11:35 AM
New Uniform Laws Approved
October 31, 2006 at 8:05 AM
The Million Dollar (Canadian) Comma
October 27, 2006 at 10:40 AM
Biotechnology Legislation Tracker
October 25, 2006 at 11:10 AM
Early Library closure Friday & Saturday, Oct. 20 & 21
October 18, 2006 at 9:30 AM
Friday - we will close at 8pm
Saturday - we will close at 6pm
Printing and study facilities are available at the University Interim Library (by the parking structure) and in the new study space on the first floor of Nobili Hall (the tall building behind the Mission Church) until 10pm both days. (Their machines no longer accept disks, you must have a USB key/flash drive to print files.)
We will be open regular hours on Sunday, Oct. 21 (9am to Midnight) and anticipate being open regular hours next week.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Tips for Faculty and RAs: Getting materials on SSRN
October 16, 2006 at 2:40 PM
Supreme Court Oral Argument
October 10, 2006 at 7:05 PM
Three Blogging Professors at SCU Law
October 09, 2006 at 10:55 AM
Heafey Law Library Student Survey
October 04, 2006 at 2:45 PM
Animal Law
October 04, 2006 at 11:05 AM
Clerkship Notification Blog
October 02, 2006 at 1:45 PM
European Union Information
September 29, 2006 at 10:25 AM
Know thy Co-Blogger
September 27, 2006 at 10:25 AM
Court Rules, Forms and Dockets
September 26, 2006 at 1:55 PM
Supreme Court Preview
September 25, 2006 at 7:45 PM
Thank You Notes
September 22, 2006 at 3:05 PM
International Law Blogs
September 21, 2006 at 11:25 AM
Constitution Day and Citizenship Day
September 15, 2006 at 5:10 PM
New Blog on Consumer Law and Policy
September 14, 2006 at 10:55 AM
Student Writers
September 12, 2006 at 7:10 PM
HeinOnline Enhancements
September 12, 2006 at 10:55 AM
HeinOnline, one of the easiest ways to get law journals online, has made some enhancements to their database interface. You can watch a short demo video to find out about these changes.
If you have used HeinOnline in the past you will appreciate the changes. If you are new to HeinOnline, now is a good time to discover it.
2005-2006 California Legislative Session
September 08, 2006 at 11:20 AM
Library Repurposing
September 06, 2006 at 4:40 PM
"Research Canons" Project
September 05, 2006 at 5:50 PM
New Head of Circulation
September 05, 2006 at 3:05 PM
The li
brary is pleased to announce that one of our employees, Michael Gillespie, is the successful candidate for the position of Head of Circulation. He will be filling the vacancy made open by Lucio Ortiz, who left SCU to take a position in the Gilroy Public Library system.
Michael has worked in the law library for the past year, overseeing the Circulation Department’s student workers. He came to SCU after several years working in the library at UC-Santa Barbara. His wife, Carrie, has recently been hired by the law school as Administrative Assistant to Dean Terman. So when you see next see Michael at the Circulation desk, please congratulate him on his promotion.
Teaching Torts
August 31, 2006 at 1:05 PM
This week on TortsProf Blog, academics, practitioners, and at least one judge have been submitting guest posts on the topic “What should be taught in torts?” Information about these and other recent postings on a variety of law blogs is noted in Juris Novis, Legal Headlines and News, an online aggregator created by Greg Smith.
Supreme Court Clerkships
August 30, 2006 at 11:05 AM
An article by Linda Greenhouse in today’s New York Times notes a precipitous drop in the number of female clerks working for U.S. Supreme Court justices this term: “Women Suddenly Scarce Among Justices’ Clerks” (August 30, 2006). Although almost half of U.S. law school graduates in 2005 were women, there are only seven women among this year’s 37 Supreme Court clerks, half as many female clerks as there were last year at this time. A chart accompanying the Greenhouse article ranks Justices according to each one’s percentage of female clerks since the year 2000. A majority of Justice Breyer’s clerks since 2000 have been women, 15 out of 28. Forty-six percent of Justices Ginsburg and O’Connor’s clerks were women during the same period. Justice Scalia has had two female clerks since the 2000-2001 term.
Patent Law Blog: The Art of IP War
August 23, 2006 at 10:15 AM
My husband brought my attention to Richard Cauley’s blog, The Art of IP War. Cauley is a partner in the Newport Beach law firm of Wang, Hartmann & Gibbs, and he specializes in (surprise!) patent litigation. Read his blog for keen insights about the latest patent battles.
CALI's Pre-Law Blog
August 22, 2006 at 2:00 PM
CALI’s Pre-Law Blog has been getting lots of mentions from other law school bloggers lately, so I wanted to put in my own plug for it. Don’t be fooled by the blog’s name! The name "Pre-Law Blog" might make you think that the blog only has information for those who are contemplating law school. But there’s a lot of good material here for current law students as well (particularly first-years). I particularly like the regular features on the latest podcasts from law school professors.
Say Hello To SAM
August 21, 2006 at 4:35 PM
No, we haven’t hired new library staff. SAM is a stand alone computer in the library’s CD-ROM area (near the first floor conference rooms). SAM stands for: Software Accompanying Material. This includes all computer diskettes that come with books available in the library. Most of the computer files on SAM are forms, but some files also contain tables of contents, and a few are executable files.
SAM is very single-minded in its purpose. Because it is the only computer that contains all these computer files, its access is limited to copying files from Windows 3.11 File Manager. To use SAM you will have to bring a 3 ½” diskette with you. You will also need the title or call number of the book that complements the software. (For some titles, you may also want to have the form number, because hundreds of forms may be included on one diskette.)
Easy to use instructions are available in a binder near the computer. Once you have copied your files you will need to go to another computer to view the forms, etc. Most of the software to date was created for WordPerfect. You can use the computers in the Toso and Ruffo labs, or bring the files home to use on your own computer.
As always, if you need help ask someone at Reference or Circulation.
Library Research Sessions for Advocacy Students
August 21, 2006 at 12:15 PM
Need some help researching for your Advocacy problem?
The following sessions have been set up to help you brush up your research process skills, answer questions regarding research strategy, and help you feel confident about your legal research abilities.
All sessions are 50 minutes in the Toso Lab in the Law Library.
Sign-up sheets are at the Reference desk, or call x4452, or email lawref@scu.edu to sign up.
Friday 8/25 12 noon and 5 pm
Monday 8/28 5pm
Tuesday 8/29 12 noon and 5 pm
Wednesday 8/30 12 noon and 5 pm
Thursday 8/31 12 noon and 5 pm
Students in the sections taught by Abriel, Ekern, El Kouri, Hardack, King, Rauch and Smith will have in-class libarry research sessions. Students in these sessions are also welcome to attend the general sessions for further training.
More Tips for OneLs
August 21, 2006 at 10:00 AM
Professor Vikram Amar has some interesting tips for first-years in his FindLaw column this week. He makes his most insightful point here:
After law school, almost every lawyer serves clients and customers. A lawyer’s clients or customers may include individuals, businesses, government agencies and judges, in-house counsel, or (quite often) other lawyers, such as partners, within a practice group. Successful attorneys develop an effective customer-service mindset; the best lawyers are the ones whose clients or customers walk away the most satisfied.
Although perhaps it is not apparent, law students have clients and customers too - most particularly, we law professors, who are offered the students’ work products in the form of exams, papers and so on. Just as each customer or client in the real world may be looking for slightly different things, so too we law professors might not all react to or consume the same work product in the same way. Being able to quickly figure out what your client or customer is looking for, and to vary your style and approach accordingly, is the kind of skill the real world values, and the kind that should be developed from the beginning of law school.
As a former practicing attorney, I think it’s never too early for students to start thinking about practice management issues like customer service and marketing. And Professor Amar makes a great point when he notes that, in a way, law professors are like the clients and partners that you will have to learn to please later on when you’re practicing law. Like clients and partners, law professors all have distinctive pet peeves and preferences (I remember one supervising partner who freaked out each time an associate used "i.e." when he or she really should have used "e.g."). It’s a good idea to find out about these predilections before you take the exam or turn in your final paper. I know a lot of law students find it a bit maddening that law professors can take such different approaches to evaluating student work. But a good portion of your professional life will be spent trying to tailor your work product to your clients, so it’s best to develop a strategy for coping with these idiosyncrasies now.
List of Law Review Articles Citing Legal Blogs
August 20, 2006 at 11:40 AM
3L Epiphany continues to explore the impact of blogging on legal scholarship with this post, which lists law review articles that cite to blogs as well as the blogs cited most frequently by law review articles.
Summary of U.S. Supreme Court's 2005-2006 Term
August 17, 2006 at 10:50 AM
The staff of American Law Reports has created two updates summarizing the decisions of the Supreme Court during its 2005-2006 term, including denials of petitions for cert. The summaries include handy citations to the ALR annotations that cover the legal topics addressed in the Supreme Court decisions. Part I of the summary is available at this link, and Part II can be found here.
SCU Law Welcomes Another Blogging Professor
August 14, 2006 at 4:15 PM
Heafey Headnotes was thrilled to find two blogs by our new SCU Law professor, Eric Goldman, during a recent Talk Digger search. You can find Professor Goldman’s observations about Internet law and marketing at his Tech & Marketing Blog. Goldman’s Observations Blog is a more eclectic compilation of thoughts on teaching law, moving to California, and the latest legal headlines.
WorldCat Search Page
August 10, 2006 at 10:40 AM
It happens all of the time when you’re cite-checking or researching a paper. You need to track down a book or a periodical, and it isn’t in the Santa Clara collections. You’ve tried LINK+, and you haven’t come up with anything. You want to figure out if the item is available at another area library, but how do you do that quickly and easily without searching each library’s online catalog separately? If you find yourself in this position, try the new WorldCat search page. It allows you to search for books, journals, videos and magazines using the title, subject, or author from a free, simple search engine page. For example, if you want to find books about former Supreme Court justice, Sandra Day O’Connor, just enter her name in the search box. Your search will automatically pull up books written by Justice O’Connor as well. When you see the item that you want, click on it, then enter your zip code in the "Enter Location Information" box. You’ll receive a list of area libraries that have your item, and it will even tell you how far away each library is from your zip code. You can find more detailed information about the WorldCat search page on the WorldCat "Learn More" page.
Interesting Items from Law Practice Today
August 09, 2006 at 9:35 AM
The latest issue of Law Practice Today has lots of useful articles, addressing topics such as the art of crafting timesheet entries, the 2006 discovery amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the structural causes of associates’ dissatisfaction, and a quiz on proactive marketing.
Westlaw's RegulationsPlus
August 08, 2006 at 9:35 AM
RegulationsPlus made a big splash when Thomson West released it last spring, and with the fall semester about to begin, I thought it would be a good time to remind students and faculty about some of the useful features of this new product. With the introduction of RegulationsPlus, West has taken several important steps to make federal regulatory research easier. When you go to the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) search page, West has added a link to the new RegulationsPlus Index (in the upper right-hand corner of the search screen). The RegulationsPlus Index is a detailed subject index that includes links to the regulatory text. If your "terms and connectors" or "natural language" searches aren’t giving you relevant search results, try browsing the subject index to find federal regulations about your topic.
The other major improvement for regulatory researchers appears when you access a CFR section in Westlaw. The left-hand side of the screen now has a number of useful research tools, including links to prior versions of the regulatory section, links to cases and administrative agency materials that discuss your regulations, and links to related statutes. You can also read summaries of previous Federal Register publications that refer to your section and access the content of these Federal Register sections.
You can read more about RegulationsPlus on the Thomson West website and view a quick demo video. The SCU law school community can receive training on RegulationsPlus by contacting a reference librarian at 408-554-4452. We’re happy to help you learn more about this new feature!
Annual Round-Up of Faculty's Advice for First-Years
August 07, 2006 at 10:35 AM
Boy, it really is the time of year when advice for newly-minted lawyers and incoming first-years proliferates in the legal literature and the blogosphere! I recommend these posts from law student and law faculty bloggers for incoming first-years:
- Orin Kerr advises students to not worry excessively about feeling lost and to take advantage of professors’ office hours -- they really do want you to come and ask questions!
- Brandon Denning tells first-years to "treat law school like a job" and get enough exercise, but even more importantly, he warns them not to forsake outside interests. I would add that it’s equally as important to maintain your relationships with folks who aren’t involved in the life of the law school. Trust me, if you have a meltdown about your Civ Pro exam the night before the exam, it will be your spouse, partner, family member, friend, or neighbor who isn’t in law school who will usually see you through your moment of temporary insanity. Your law school friends will probably be too busy reviewing their own outlines and scribbling out a last-minute practice exam to help you cope with your stress.
- Belle Lettre of Law and Letters has a very thoughtful post about the law school classroom experience, which is a must-read for all law students. She has some great points about the laptops in the classroom debate, but she also talks about her learning style and what worked for her in the classroom. Read her post and start thinking about your learning style and the best way to process the information that you pick up in the classroom.
Advice on Courtroom Etiquette
August 01, 2006 at 2:45 PM
- Don’t answer your cell phone or use your Blackberry in the courtroom.
- Don’t engage in heated exchanges with opposing counsel in the courtroom -- work out your differences somewhere else rather than asking the judge to serve as referee.
- Don’t swig from bottles of water while addressing the court. Judge Chaney sternly opines that "[u]nscrewing a water bottle, tipping it toward the heavens, and gulping may be acceptable after a jog or in your car but not in the courtroom, especially while addressing the judge on the record or arguing to the jury."
- When arguing motions, don’t read directly from the pleadings.
- Last but not least, don’t drive the court reporter crazy by talking over others in the courtroom or by speaking too softly or too quickly.
Thanks to WSJ’s Law Blog for the tip.
False Claims Act/Qui Tam Blog
August 01, 2006 at 9:20 AM
When I practiced law, I spent a good portion of my practice on Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse and False Claims Act matters, so I was pleased to see that there is a blog devoted to news about qui tam cases. The appropriately-named False Claims Act/Qui Tam Blog is authored by attorneys at the firm of Phillips & Cohen LLP, which specializes in representing whistleblowers. The blog isn’t limited to health care matters -- it covers all kinds of qui tam litigation, which makes it a good current awareness resource for lawyers and academics interested in this area. Thanks to Inter Alia for the tip.
Down-to-Earth Advice on Obtaining Judicial Clerkships
July 31, 2006 at 1:30 PM
Unless you have some special interest in or connection with a particular judge, use the standard form letter. The cover letter is not the place to recount all of your academic and professional accomplishments or to discuss your summer work experiences; that is the purpose of the resume. If you are the editor of a journal or rank highly in your class, you may note those achievements. Other than that, however, the cover letter should be straightforward and short.
And for those students who are enthusiastic users of social software, the authors give this cautionary advice:
Most judges may be unfamiliar with the power of the Internet, but their clerks are not. This past year, when there was a free moment or two in the chambers, the law clerks "Googled" several of our applicants’ names and, lo and behold, they found a treasure trove of information omitted from the carefully-crafted application packet. What does this tell you, the applicant? Be careful what you put on personal web pages, web logs, or other Internet sites such as Friendster, because a clerk with a couple of minutes on his or her hands could be researching you. Although clerks may find it fun to circulate a link to your website around the office, you may not appreciate what knowledge of your party antics may do to your job chances.
Two Updated Research Guides from Heafey's Librarians
July 28, 2006 at 1:15 PM
We’ve recently updated two of our research guides. Heafey’s "California Legal Research Guide" furnishes tips on researching California law using treatises or legal encyclopedias, annotated codes, and case digests. Our "Guide to American Law Reports" provides information on how to use ALR, a multi-volume secondary source that provides detailed articles about selected topics in state and federal law. Both of these guides are excellent resources for students who are just beginning to familiarize themselves with legal research. As always, you can find electronic copies of every Heafey research guide on this page.
Linda Greenhouse at AALL
July 26, 2006 at 10:50 AM
I had the privilege of hearing New York Times reporter Linda Greenhouse speak about her research in the Blackmun archives for her book, "Becoming Justice Blackmun," at the AALL conference in St. Louis. LLRX has posted this transcript of the speech. Here’s my favorite anecdote from Greenhouse’s speech:
Blackmun’s files documented just how doctor-centered his interest in the abortion issue was, and just how naïve he and the court were about what to expect once the decision was issued. My favorite document in the Roe file was a handwritten note the Blackmun wrote to himself as part of a draft of the “mandate” section. He was suggesting that, assuming the decision was issued in January 1973, the mandate be delayed until April 1 to give states a chance to adjust their statutes to the decision. “It will be an unsettled period for a while,” he noted (emphasis supplied).
Pocket Part's Latest Discussion
July 26, 2006 at 10:35 AM
The latest issue of Yale’s Pocket Part tackles the topic of post-Booker appellate review of federal sentencing decisions, with contributions from Judge Nancy Gertner (Federal District Court, Mass.), Professor Douglas Berman, Professor Steven Chanenson, and Yale Law Journal Editor Eric Citron.
Create a "Don't Do" List for Better Practice Management
July 25, 2006 at 4:35 PM
Now that I’m back from my two-week plus jaunt across the United States, I’ve been wading through my e-mail and came across a particularly pertinent article in the latest issue of the ABA’s Law Practice Today. In her article, "Too Much to Do, Too Little Time?" Allison Shields recommends making a list of things that you shouldn’t do rather than a "to do" list so that you stop overextending yourself. For example, attorneys can make a list of tasks that they should delegate to others so that they can concentrate on the most important tasks in their practices. Attorneys can also use their "don’t do" list to remind themselves to avoid abusive clients and to protect their personal time by listing dates and times when they will not make themselves available to colleagues and clients. Time-consuming marketing and networking activities that rarely yield new clients should also be added to the "don’t do" list. I like Shields’ approach because it requires you to analyze your practice (or your job) and figure out the activities that are truly necessary and worthwhile and jettison the activities that aren’t worth it.
Heafey Headnotes On Vacation
July 07, 2006 at 10:25 AM
I'll be taking a blogging break in order to attend the American Association of Law Libraries' annual meeting in St. Louis from July 8-13, then vacation at the Jersey Shore. I'll be back on July 25.
Georgetown Law Faculty Blog
July 05, 2006 at 2:05 PM
Georgetown Law’s faculty have been busy this summer, joining the ranks of law professors who are working collaboratively on one blog. This new venture is logically called the Georgetown Law Faculty Blog, and the faculty have started out with several lively posts about the U.S. Supreme Court’s Hamdan decision. Thanks to PrawfsBlawg, another collaborative law prof blog, for the heads-up.
Where Did Orradre's Service Desk Go?
July 03, 2006 at 1:20 PM
I know that not everyone reads the news about Orradre’s big construction project as thoroughly as we do over here at Heafey, so for those of you who missed this news the first time around, here’s a recap. Orradre Library is Santa Clara University’s main campus library, and as all law review editors know, law faculty, students, and staff have full borrowing privileges there. The old Orradre Library building closed a few weeks ago and is in the process of being demolished to make way for a new library on the same site. The Orradre staff have managed to reestablish most of their services in a very large modular trailer that can be found between the parking garage and the Buck Shaw stadium. We’ve toured the new temporary library structure, and we were amazed at how quickly the folks at Orradre got everything up and running! The Circulation Desk has been operational since June 23, and the staff are ready to handle all of your library needs. If you need library materials that are located at Orradre, simply look up the material in our online catalog, OSCAR, request the material from the ARS, then pick up your books a few hours later at Orradre’s Circulation Desk. If the books that you need aren’t available from SCU libraries, try LINK+, which allows you to borrow books from other public and academic libraries in California and Nevada free of charge. Even if you’re a law student or faculty member, you’ll still need to pick up and drop off LINK+ books at the new Orradre Circulation Desk. Summer hours for Orradre can be found on the website. If you have questions, contact Orradre at 408-554-5020.
CALI Update for 2006-07
July 03, 2006 at 11:45 AM
During the past year, CALI has added many new features to its website to provide resources for the legal education community, including new lessons for law students and podcasts on a wide range of topics.
***2006-07 CALI Library of Lessons***
Over 20 new lessons in Legal Research, Copyright, and Property Law are now available on the CALI website, which brings the total number of CALI lessons to over 625. Watch for the new Family Law lessons! The CALI Family Law Fellows are working on a series of lessons that will be released beginning in September.
***Legal Education Podcasting Project***
As Amy mentioned in an earlier post, the 20 faculty who participated in CALI’s Legal Education Podcasting Project produced over 1,000 podcasts of class lectures and summaries. Many of these podcasts are freely available to anyone.
In addition, 10 faculty podcasters are interviewed and these are posted as podcasts. In these interviews, faculty talk about how podcasting helped their students and offer advice and reflection on using podcasting in the classroom.
If you're a student or faculty member who's interested in CALI, contact the reference staff at 408-554-4452 or email us at lawref@scu.edu for the SCU Law username and password.
Changes are Coming for CA Rules of Court
July 03, 2006 at 11:30 AM
The Judicial Council of California announced last Friday that it has approved "a major reorganization of the California Rules of Court." Most of the changes involve renumbering, reordering, and rewording the rules "to make them clearer, better organized, and easier to read." The changes will become effective on January 1, 2007, and you can read a complete description of the changes in this report.
Flip-Flops: Part of the Future of Business Casual?
June 29, 2006 at 12:55 PM
Sounds to Study By
June 26, 2006 at 11:15 AM
Redacting Snafus
June 23, 2006 at 10:25 AM
The San Francisco Chronicle published an interesting story today about some embarrassing redacting errors made by federal prosecutors. According to the article, federal prosecutors filed a court brief relating to the government’s attempt to require two Chronicle reporters to reveal their secret source for confidential grand jury testimony. A redacted PDF copy of the government’s brief was available to members of the press with a portion of the text hidden by "black bars." A New York Sun reporter was able to reveal the redacted text by highlighting the redacted sections, copying them, then pasting them into a Word document, which revealed the blacked-out text. What did the brief’s author do wrong? Instead of removing the text completely from the document, the author just changed "the foreground color to . . . a black rectangle." The text was still there, and it didn’t take an expert to reveal it. Ironically, at least one federal agency has published a guide to redacting digital documents entitled "Redacting with Confidence." The guide dispenses valuable tips on how to sanitize electronic documents. You can also find additional recommendations on redacting digital documents in this Law.com article.
POSTSCRIPT, June 26, 2006: A few days after this post, LLRX published a helpful piece on "Controlling the Accidental Release of Digital Information" by attorney Conrad Jacoby.
Full-Text Searching of EDGAR filings
June 21, 2006 at 9:35 AM
The Securities and Exchange Commission recently unveiled a new search page that allows researchers to search the full text of all EDGAR filings from the past two years, including attachments. After experimenting with this search page, I recommend skipping the basic search and moving directly to the advanced search page, which gives you the option to limit your search by date, by company, by central index key, and by form type (10-K, 10-Q, etc.). For those of you who are new to legal research and aren’t sure what EDGAR filings are, EDGAR stands for the SEC’s "Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval" system. The SEC decided to require electronic filings over a decade ago so that investors would have easy access to the most current financial information about public companies. You can find additional EDGAR search options as well as descriptions of SEC form types on the SEC website. Thanks to beSpacific for the tip.
CALI's Podcasts
June 20, 2006 at 9:25 AM
Most law students know about the helpful online exam preparation exercises and resources offered by CALI, the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction. But did you know that CALI is now offering podcasts as well? You can find podcasts on constitutional law, contracts, property, torts, and exam preparation strategies on CALI Radio. For legal educators who are curious about trying podcasts, you can listen to interviews with law professors who participated in CALI’s Legal Education Podcasting Project on CALIopolis, CALI’s blog on legal education and technology.
Moving Beyond Basic Searching on the Internet
June 14, 2006 at 9:45 AM
I see that the "Google Cheat Sheet" has been making the rounds in the blogosphere and at legal conferences again, so I thought I’d feature it for a second time on Heafey Headnotes. For those of you who aren’t aware of it, the Google Cheat Sheet provides you with lots of ways to refine your Google searches, and it also gives you information about little-known functions, such as using Google as a calculator. Why should law students take the time to learn advanced search techniques? Because these features will save you lots and lots of time by giving you much more relevant, on-point search results. Law school gives you the opportunity to conduct legal research in a fairly leisurely fashion, but the luxury of having lots of time for research projects will disappear in practice, so it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with these features now. These advanced features aren’t exclusive to Google. Advanced search tips and features are also available on Yahoo!, FirstGov, Ask.com, IceRocket, and A9.com, just to name a few. Search Engine Showdown’s search engines features chart is also a valuable resource for determining which search engine is best for your search.
Report on Federal Preemption of State Statutes & Regulations
June 14, 2006 at 9:30 AM
Rep. Henry Waxman has just released a report that highlights the number of times that Congress has voted in the last five years to preempt state law. The report, prepared by the House Committee on Goverment Reform’s minority staff, states:
" . . . [T]here exists a wide gulf between the pro-states rhetoric of Republican leaders and the actual legislative record. Rather than ceding power to the states, the Republican-controlled Congress and President Bush have repeatedly preempted state authority and centralized policy-making in Washington.
Over the past five years, the House and the Senate have voted 57 times to preempt state laws and regulations. These votes have resulted in 27 laws, signed by the President, that preempt state authority. Some of this legislation contains multiple distinct preemptive provisions. Over the last five years, the House and the Senate have passed 73 separate preemptive provisions, and 39 of these have become law.
An examination of this legislation reveals that Congress and the President have routinely backed federal legislation that usurps traditional state powers. The reach of the preemptive legislation is broad and its intrusiveness is deep. Literally hundreds of state laws have been or would be overridden.
The House and Senate have passed legislation that would preempt states from regulating sources of air pollution, setting health insurance standards, and protecting consumers from contaminated food. Areas of traditional state prerogatives, such as local land use decisions and the issuance of drivers’ licenses, have been federalized, and states have been blocked from protecting their citizens from emerging threats, such as unsolicited “spam” email. Last year, Congress passed — and the President flew through the night to sign — legislation to override the judgment of a state court in an individual family’s private end-of-life decision.
Thanks to beSpacific for the information on this report.
Coaching Resources for Lawyers
June 13, 2006 at 3:15 PM
I recently subscribed to Ellen Ostrow’s excellent newsletter, Beyond the Billable Hour, and I would recommend it for law students who are planning to join a law firm after they graduate. The newsletter dispenses useful tips on career strategies and work-life balance aimed primarily at women attorneys, but there’s plenty of valuable information here for men as well. Ostrow’s website also has a handy "Resources and Links" page that includes a lengthy bibliography on every aspect of managing your legal career.
Law-Related Literature List
June 13, 2006 at 3:05 PM
For those of you looking for some law-related literature for your beach reading or as a distraction from studying for the bar, Daniel Solove has thoughtfully compiled a list of literature about the law. If you’re interested in law and humanities, check out Professor Solove’s group blog, the Law and Humanities blog as well as The Law and Humanities Institute.
Round-Up of Classic Commencement Addresses
June 12, 2006 at 10:35 AM
Commencement season is just about over across the United States, and the New York Times had a nice round-up of commencement speeches from across the country a few days ago that’s worth reading. I thought it would be nice to feature a selection of some of my commencement speech favorites:
- David Gergen asked Duke Law’s Class of 2006 to be "lawyer-statesmen" and work to reform "the insanity of the billable hours regime."
- Judge John Kane’s 2004 address at the University of Colorado School of Law warned graduates that "you will seldom see people at their best" and told them that, to succeed as a lawyer, "you need to feel a fire in your belly."
- Kansas Attorney General Carla Stovall reminded graduates at Washburn University School of Law’s 2002 commencement that "doing basic legal research is really not below your station in life" and encouraged them to "accept the job you want -- not the job your parent or spouse wants for you."
- And finally, historian David McCullough didn’t address law students, but his advice to Bates College’s graduating seniors is perfect for all of us: "How ever little television you watch, watch less. Read. Read for pleasure. Read for happiness."
Rock, Paper, Scissors: The New ADR
June 09, 2006 at 10:20 AM
It’s a sad day when a federal judge orders the lawyers in a case to settle a trivial dispute with a game of "Rock, Paper, Scissors," but that’s the decision that Orlando federal district court Judge Gregory A. Presnell just handed down from the bench. The New York Times reports that attorneys David Pettinato and D. Lee Craig couldn’t reach agreement on the appropriate location for a deposition. The fact that leaves me speechless: both lawyers work in the same building, but couldn’t agree on whether to hold the deposition in this office building or at the court reporter’s office. Not surprisingly, Judge Presnell decided that there couldn’t be a more appropriate way to settle this decidedly juvenile dispute than with that age-old kid’s game, Rock, Paper, Scissors. Matti Leshem, the co-commissioner of the USA Rock Paper Scissors League, has offered to serve as referee. Just in case this method of ADR catches on, there are plenty of Internet guides to Rock, Paper, Scissors strategy. Thanks to Law Blog for the tip.
Wall Street Journal Online: Summer Associate Diary
June 07, 2006 at 10:40 AM
The Wall Street Journal is publishing a summer-long Summer Associate Diary, which is available exclusively on WSJ Online to subscribers. The series profiles four summer associates, working in a variety of law firm settings in cities across the country. If you’re not a WSJ subscriber, you can find snippets of the Diary’s content on WSJ’s Law Blog as well.
LINK+ Service Notice: June 19 - 23
June 06, 2006 at 12:05 PM
On behalf of the Orradre Library staff, we are posting this LINK+ service notice for the law school community: During the week of June 19-23, Orradre Library staff will relocate to temporary office space prior to the library building’s demolition. Consequently, Orradre staff will not be able to process the SCU community’s LINK+ requests during the week of June 19-23. Orradre staff will begin processing LINK+ requests again during the week of June 26, and these materials should be available by mid-week. If you need materials from LINK+, place your requests by this Friday, June 9. While Orradre staff cannot guarantee that your books will arrive before LINK+ service is suspended, there is a high probability that your LINK+ books will be available before June 19th if you request them by June 9th.
Internet Dating Woes and the Law
June 05, 2006 at 10:40 AM
My favorite Slate legal journalist, Dahlia Lithwick, has a great article this week about the law of Internet dating. According to Lithwick, the Communications Decency Act of 1996 generally protects Internet dating services such as Match.com from lawsuits by customers who suffer damages as a result of fraudulent behavior by other customers. Of course, injured customers can still pursue civil or criminal actions against online scam artists, but these customers usually can’t touch the deep pockets of the Internet dating services themselves. Although the most recent California bill on this topic did not manage to make it through the Legislature, other states have introduced legislation to make the online dating world safer for consumers. Some of these bills would requiring dating service providers to perform criminal background checks on their customers. And at least one Internet dating company, True.com, is trying to carve out a niche for itself as the "safer online dating service" by voluntarily running criminal background checks on its customers and prosecuting individuals who are married or have criminal records who attempt to use the service. It will be interesting to see whether state efforts to regulate this "anything goes" industry are successful.
Top Ten Things Law Librarians Want New Associates to Know
June 01, 2006 at 5:15 PM
Law firm librarian Bobbi Cross has a Law.com article about basic research skills that is useful reading for summer associates and newly-minted attorneys. If you find yourself reading this list and feeling a little queasy about your upcoming summer research assignments, please feel free to call a Heafey reference librarian at 408-554-4452 or e-mail us at lawref@scu.edu. We give individual refresher courses on legal research for any interested student.
Thanks to Law Librarian Blog for the tip.
Mastering E-Mail
June 01, 2006 at 3:05 PM
Out of the Jungle recently featured an article from the Christian Science Monitor entitled, "It’s All About Me: Why E-Mails Are So Easily Misunderstood." The article notes that the lack of facial cues and body language can make it quite difficult to determine whether the person who sent you a short e-mail is annoyed with you or just really, really busy. E-mail is particularly tricky for attorneys -- in addition to worrying about whether their e-mails strike the right tone with important clients and with finicky supervisors, attorneys also have to worry about protecting attorney-client privilege and client confidentiality. I would encourage those who are just beginning the practice of law to review Stephen Armstrong and Timothy Terrell’s recent article, "The Perils of E-mail," in the Spring 2006 issue of Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing (I’ll provide a link as soon as West loads this journal onto its website!). Terrell and Armstrong give new lawyers a number of valuable tips on sending effective and appropriate e-mails to colleagues and clients. And for those of you still in school, you may want to check out this New York Times article and a few professor blog entries about student e-mails from LawCulture, Discourse.net, and PrawfsBlawg.
Research Sessions for Summer Advocacy Sections
May 31, 2006 at 4:05 PM
Heafey Law Library will offer small group, hands-on training sessions for Advocacy students who would like additional help with their research skills. Separate classes will be offered for the two topics being used this summer.
The training sessions will go over OSCAR searching tips, legal indexes for finding articles, using digests, KeyCite and Shepards refresher, and ALR searching. Each session will be about 30 minutes. All sessions will be held in the Toso Lab. Contact the reference desk if these times will not work for you. We can arrange individual training.
Please sign up at the reference desk; class slots are available on a "first-come, first- served" basis. You can also request a spot by calling us at (408) 554-4452 or e-mailing us at lawref@scu.edu
Discrimination in admission problem:
Thursday 6/1 at 5 pm
Friday 6/2 at 2 pm
Monday 6/5 at 5 pm
Tuesday 6/6 at 2:15 pm
Wenesday 6/7 at 5 pm
Freedom of speech problem:
Friday 6/2 at 5 pm
Monday 6/5 at 4:15
Tuesday 6/6 at 5 pm
Thursday 6/8 at 5 pm
Counterfeit Chic: Blending IP Law & Fashion
May 30, 2006 at 10:20 AM
Georgetown Law professor Susan Scafidi confesses that she keeps "a file on the clothing/textile industry in my office and the latest Vogue hidden in my briefcase," and now she’s blogging about her interest in fashion and law at Counterfeit Chic. Thanks to Inter Alia for the tip.
New on LLRX
May 25, 2006 at 10:30 AM
LLRX has just published some excellent new legal research resources. To read the entire list of new articles, visit LLRX’s home page. I’ve linked to a few of the new items that should be of interest to academic legal researchers and the SCU Law community:
- Let the People Know the Facts: Can Government Information Removed from the Internet Be Reclaimed?
Susan Nevelow Mart’s article "examines the legal bases of the public’s right to access government information, reviews the types of information that have recently been removed from the Internet, and analyzes the rationales given for the removals." - Beyond Google and Yahoo: Advanced Search (PowerPoint PDF)
Sabrina Pacifici and Tom Mighell share their tips for advanced Internet searching in this comprehensive presentation from ABA TechShow 2006. - Gumshoe Librarian 2006
Barbara Fullerton and Sabrina Pacifici’s article lists 70 useful websites, covering blogs, intelligence data, state and federal government resources, open source scholarly literature, and more. - Eight Reasons Solo Lawyers Should Use Law Libraries
Mary Whisner explains how law libraries and law librarians can make life easier for small-firm and solo practitioners. Although Heafey Law Library isn’t open to the public, we do allow members of any state bar to purchase a Courtesy Card to access our library. If you’re interested, you can read more about it in our Courtesy Card policy handout.
Wall Street Journal Full Text Now Available on LexisNexis
May 22, 2006 at 4:55 PM
My esteemed colleagues at the University of San Francisco’s Zief Law Library have an excellent blog, ZiefBrief, and a recent post just alerted me to an important change in LexisNexis content. Finally, academic law libraries now have access to full-text content of the Wall Street Journal via Lexis Nexis. For those of you who follow such things, Wall Street Journal content moved from Westlaw to LexisNexis over a year ago, and academic law school subscribers weren’t granted full-text access to WSJ following the move. However, law librarians across the country begged and pleaded with LexisNexis, and it appears that all of our lobbying has finally paid off. ZiefBrief has instructions on accessing the Wall Street Journal via LexisNexis here.
A Problem-Based Approach to Legal Education?
May 22, 2006 at 11:45 AM
According to this story in the Boston Globe, major changes may be brewing in the Harvard Law School curriculum. The law school’s curriculum review committee has proposed that Harvard law professors begin introducing "real-world," practical legal problems in their classes as early as the first year of law school. The committee chair, Martha Minow, stated that "we’re trying very much to help students think how to practically solve problems rather than only solve problems the way academics would . . . In talking with many lawyers, it has been clear to us that we have the opportunity to help very, very smart and motivated students make better use of the time they’re in school." If Harvard adopts the curriculum committee’s proposals and deemphasizes the case method of teaching, will others follow? It should be interesting to watch the development of Harvard’s curriculum over the next few years. Thanks to Out of the Jungle for the tip.
Law Library of Congress Introduces the Global Legal Monitor
May 18, 2006 at 11:05 AM
The Law Library of Congress has created a new electronic publication, the Global Legal Monitor. As the name implies, the newsletter will monitor legal developments from around the world. According to the announcement, the newsletter will have frequent updates, and will occasionally feature "lectures, conferences, symposia and exhibits on timely legal topics."
Blogging the Bar Exam
May 18, 2006 at 9:45 AM
eBay, Inc. v. MercExchange, LLC
May 16, 2006 at 9:25 AM
There has been a flurry of commentary about the US Supreme Court’s decision in eBay, Inc. v. MercExchange, LLC. For those of you who didn’t read the Wall Street Journal this morning, the Supreme Court held that "the decision whether to grant or deny injunctive relief rests within the equitable discretion of the district courts, and . . . such discretion must be exercised consistent with traditional principles of equity, in patent disputes no less than in other cases governed by such standards." Howard Bashman’s How Appealing has links to news stories from the major dailies about the case, and you can find more commentary and debate about the case from legal scholars on SCOTUSblog.
Folger Levin's IP Blog
May 14, 2006 at 10:20 AM
Folger Levin & Kahn, a firm with offices in SF and LA, has a year-old IP law blog called IP Law Observer, which covers breaking developments in patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret and privacy law. The blog also strays into general business and commercial law from time to time, which also makes it an excellent read for corporate attorneys who don’t necessarily specialize in IP. Thanks to Inter Alia for the tip.
Inmate Access to Legal Info in Santa Clara County
May 12, 2006 at 10:50 AM
Metroactive, one of the Silicon Valley’s weeklies, recently featured a story about the closure of Santa Clara County’s jail law libraries. Instead of using print resources, individuals who are incarcerated in the County jails must now request resources from a remote legal research outfit called Legal Research Associates. The Public Interest Law Firm sued on behalf of the inmates, claiming that the closure of the libraries violated the constitutional rights of pro per inmates. Judge Whyte didn’t agree with PILF’s constitutional arguments, but he did conclude that the county prematurely closed the law libraries in violation of a previously-issued consent decree. It remains to be seen whether PILF and the County can iron out a mutually acceptable settlement.
LexisNexis Unveils New Cite & Quote-Checking Tool for Legal Documents
May 11, 2006 at 11:05 AM
Lexis just introduced a new product, Shepard’s BriefCheck, that replaces its old CheckCite software. According to Lexis, Shepard’s BriefCheck "collects your brief’s case law and law-review citations, verifies them through Shepard’s Citations Service and Auto-Cite and generates a summary report that tags problem cites." You can also use BriefCheck to check the accuracy of your quotations from case law. The BriefCheck report notes the errors and supplies the correct language from the case. BriefCheck is now available to SCU Law students and faculty, and you can find a BriefCheck tutorial here. To access BriefCheck, sign in to Lexis, click on the Shepard’s tab, then click on the link for BriefCheck at the bottom of the menu.
Latest Issue of Law Practice Today
May 10, 2006 at 11:30 AM
The ABA’s webzine, Law Practice Today, has some great articles this month on marketing your practice, using presentations as a rainmaking tool, staying motivated, stress management, and more.
Information About Heafey Law Library's Summer 2006 Renovation Project
May 09, 2006 at 2:30 PM
GAO Report on Sarbanes-Oxley's Impact on Small Companies
May 09, 2006 at 11:30 AM
The Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 was passed in order to improve the flow of accurate information from corporate offices to investors and other interested parties. But SOX, as the Act is called by most corporate attorneys, has created significant headaches for corporate legal departments, particularly for smaller public companies. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has just released this report about SOX’s impact on companies, and the report concludes that:
costs associated with implementing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act—particularly those costs associated with the internal control provisions in section 404—were disproportionately higher (as a percentage of revenues) for smaller public companies. In complying with the act, smaller companies noted that they incurred higher audit fees and other costs, such as hiring more staff or paying for outside consultants, to comply with the act’s provisions. Further, resource and expertise limitations that characterize many smaller companies as well as their general lack of familiarity or experience with formal internal control frameworks contributed to the challenges and increased costs they faced during section 404 implementation. Along with other market factors, the act may have encouraged a relatively small number of smaller public companies to go private, foregoing sources of funding that were potentially more diversified and may be less expensive for many of these companies.
Want to find more GAO reports? Visit the GPO Access pages, which allow you to search GAO reports from 1995-present.
Volokh's Tips on Law Review Write-On Competitions
May 05, 2006 at 10:55 AM
Professor Eugene Volokh has posted several valuable tips on the Volokh Conspiracy about how to succeed during the law-review write-on process. If you haven’t read some of his longer works on academic legal writing, I highly recommend the following:
- Eugene Volokh, Writing a Student Article, 48 J. Legal Educ. 247 (1998) (available on HeinOnline to SCU students and faculty).
- Eugene Volokh, Test Suites: A Tool for Improving Student Articles, 52 J. Legal Educ. 440 (2002).
- EUGENE VOLOKH, ACADEMIC LEGAL WRITING: LAW REVIEW ARTICLES, STUDENT NOTES, SEMINAR PAPERS, AND GETTING ON LAW REVIEW (2005) (available at Heafey).
Associate Attrition Revisited
May 04, 2006 at 4:50 PM
The Wall Street Journal featured an article last Tuesday about associate attrition from big law firms. Paula Patton, head of the NALP Foundation, declares in the article that "[t]he rate of associate attrition we’re seeing today at big firms is the highest level we’ve ever seen." For links to the article and an online discussion about the root causes of associate attrition, visit the Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog.
Health Care Law Blogs
May 03, 2006 at 9:25 AM
Materials from Harvard's Bloggership Conference
May 01, 2006 at 10:45 AM
SSRN has designed a special page devoted to Harvard’s recent Bloggership Conference, which was held last Friday. SCU students and faculty can download papers presented by such blogging luminaries as Eugene Volokh, Orin Kerr, and Christine Hurt. As a bonus, this SSRN page links to Harvard’s webcast of the event, which should be up by this time next week.
New Site for Heafey's International Law Page
April 29, 2006 at 10:05 AM
We’ve just added a new site to Heafey’s page of international law Internet resources. The Project on Extrajudicial Executions is part of NYU School of Law’s Center for Human Rights & Global Justice. The Project’s website was established by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions and contains the Special Rapporteur’s annual reports, correspondence, and country visit reports as well as breaking news about international human rights issues.
Online Compilation of Selected Federal Legislative Histories
April 28, 2006 at 10:10 AM
The website for the Law Librarians’ Society of Washington, DC is known throughout the law librarian community as a great source for high-quality research resources. The Society’s Legislative Source Book contains all kinds of useful information for legal researchers. The Society has just introduced another new site, "Legislative Histories of Selected U.S. Laws in Electronic Format." The page is pretty self-explanatory; you can view the laws for which legislative histories are available by popular name or by public law number. For details about accessing the information on this site, see the Society’s explanatory notes. Thanks to beSpacific for highlighting this item.
New Research Guides on LLRX.com
April 25, 2006 at 10:35 AM
LLRX has just released some new research guides -- here are links to some of the new guides as well as short descriptions of each guide excerpted directly from the LLRX site:
Beyond Google and Yahoo: New, Nifty Search Engines to Optimize Your Research
"Barbara Fullerton and Sabrina I. Pacifici’s recommendations focus on subject area and issue-centric sites to facilitate obtaining search results that are better targeted to the scope of your requests. Whether you are looking for government data, blogs, RSS feeds, videos, podcasts, news or scientific papers, this guide will serve you well. "
The Limited Liability Company: The Importance of Choosing The Correct Business Vehicles
"Sarah Spear’s guide distinguishes the LLC from other common forms of business entity, discusses the various LLC management structures, highlights businesses thriving as LLCs and some of the tax advantages realized by the LLC."
Indecisive Decision: An Examination of the Greenberg & Faulkner Cases and their Impact on Libraries
"Sharon Whitfield examines the conflicting decisions made by the Eleventh Circuit Court in the case of Greenberg v. National Geographic and the Second Circuit Court in the case of Faulkner v. National Geographic and the impact that these court decisions may have on libraries that are looking to reformat their copyrighted material into digital media."
Got Competitive Intelligence? Tips, Tools, Techniques for the Savvy Marketer
"Donna Cavallini and Sabrina I. Pacifici’s guide has again been completely revised and updated to include new recommendations ranging from free websites, news alerts, RSS and blogs to fee-based subscriptions and licensed enterprise applications."
A Commentary on the National Forest Land Conveyance for Rural Communities Act
"The administration’s unprecedented plan to have the Forest Service sell large tracts of [the] National Forest is the topic of Beth Wellington’s commentary this month."
Applying Project Management Techniques to Litigation Discovery
"Conrad J. Jacoby discusses the important role of the project manager, and how critical oversight allows this individual to anticipate and identify potential problems quickly so that they can be resolved without derailing the case."
CongressLine by GalleryWatch.com: Congressional Hearings
"This month Paul Jenks provides an inside view of the most visible and widely recognized function of Congress: the hearing, for which he identifies three distinctive types: informational hearings, oversight or investigative hearings, and confirmation hearing."
Important Change to Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure
April 22, 2006 at 2:15 PM
On April 12, the United States Supreme Court approved new Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32.1, which permits attorneys to cite to unpublished federal court opinions issued on or after January 1, 2007. This new rule will take effect on December 1, 2006, unless Congress takes action to reject or modify the approved rule. I’m pleased to see the federal judiciary eliminate the prohibition on citing unpublished decisions. As the committee report emphasizes, the circuits have developed very different rules concerning the citation of unpublished opinions for persuasive value, and it’s confusing to practitioners to try to determine when such decisions can be cited and when their use is forbidden. Thanks to Law Librarian Blog for the tip.
Exam Prep Advice
April 20, 2006 at 2:40 PM
List of Law Review Articles that Cite Blogs
April 20, 2006 at 9:30 AM
Once again, 3L Epiphany has created a useful list for legal researchers. This time, Ian Best has compiled a list of law review articles that cite blogs. Some might jump to the conclusion that citations to blogs will only appear in law review articles about blogging, but I was pleasantly surprised to see blogs cited in articles about a host of legal topics, including human rights, legal ethics, Medicare’s prescription drug benefit, international law, evidence, and more. Also, highly-respected law reviews aren’t afraid to include articles that cite to blogs. Ian Best’s list reveals that the University of Chicago Law Review, Cornell Law Review, and Michigan Law Review have all published articles that cite blogs. Thanks to PrawfsBlawg for the pointer.
Vox Clamantis In Deserto
April 20, 2006 at 9:00 AM
Since I began blogging at Heafey Headnotes last November, I’ve highlighted blogs authored by many other schools’ law professors, but I’ve neglected to feature SCU Law’s sole law professor blogger, David Friedman. Professor Friedman’s succinctly -named blog, Ideas, doesn’t just focus on the law. He’s also blogging about current affairs and cultural issues.
Postscript: For those of you who are wondering about the meaning of the Latin title for this post, it means "a voice crying in the wilderness," which seems appropriate since SCU Law has just one faculty blogger (if there are more, please let us know!). It’s the motto of my undergraduate alma mater, Dartmouth College.
A Primer on Writing Briefs for International Law Competitions
April 19, 2006 at 9:55 AM
Stephen Doyle serves as a judge for international moot court competitions, and he’s decided to dispense some tips about preparing written briefs for these competitions in his recent article, "Preparing Written Briefs for International Law Competitions: A Primer." 31 J. Space L. 447 (2005). In this article, Doyle notes some of the common mistakes that students make in their written briefs, such as attempting to rewrite the Compromis, failing to understand the difference between primary and secondary sources, relying too heavily on a single source to support arguments, and discussing irrelevant issues in their briefs. For those of you who participate in the Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, I would recommend reading this article before you dive into your brief. The Journal of Space Law is available in Heafey Law Library’s print collection.
Disability Law Blog
April 17, 2006 at 9:10 AM
Beyond the Ramp is a relatively new blog, which is designed to increase awareness about disability issues. The blog is co-authored by a group of five law students from New York City. According to the student authors, the blog is intended to serve as "a forum to educate people about the legal issues affecting people with disabilities." The best thing about this blog is that the authors don’t just cover legal matters. In addition to highlighting recent developments in disability law, Beyond the Ramp also publicizes upcoming conferences and media stories about individuals with disabilities. Thanks to Inter Alia for the tip.
California Legislative History Research
April 12, 2006 at 12:10 PM
If you’ve ever had to research California legislative history, you know that the amount of available material varies wildly depending upon the era that you’re researching. For example, if you’re researching the history of a recent legislative enactment (1993-present), you’ll find a wealth of committee analyses, procedural histories, amended versions of the bill, and more on the Official California Legislative Information website, which is maintained by the Office of the Legislative Counsel. But if you have to venture into pre-1970 legislative history, you’ll find it much tougher to track down materials. When you only turn up a few short comments on 1955 legislation after exhaustive research, you usually find yourself scratching your head and wondering, "Is that all that I can expect to find?" Until now, there haven’t been many research guides that attempt to describe the kinds of materials that researchers can expect to find from different eras in California legislative history. However, I discovered an excellent overview of the types of California legislative documents available in different eras when I attended Jan Raymond and Carolina Rose’s very informative presentation on California legislative history research a few weeks ago. The handout provides information about legislative documents from the following eras: 1993 to present; 1970 to 1992; 1943 to 1969; 1900 to 1942; and 1849 to 1899. Jan and Carolina also have a few helpful tips on the legislative history research process in this handout.
New Research Guides from Heafey's Librarians!
April 10, 2006 at 4:50 PM
Heafey has completed three new research guides, which are designed to help patrons with research in international and foreign and comparative law:
You can find print copies of these research guides on the first floor of the library, and all of Heafey’s research guides are always available in electronic form on Heafey’s ClaraNet page.
Dealbook from the New York Times
April 10, 2006 at 9:45 AM
The New York Times recently revamped its website and the newspaper is also starting to experiment with different content delivery technology, including blogs. For the transactional lawyer or professor specializing in corporate law, the most useful of these new websites may be Dealbook. Launched last month, Dealbook provides updates about Wall Street deals and the business world. There’s not much in the way of opinion on the site, but it’s an excellent current awareness resource because it compiles news from several different financial news sources on one site. You’ll find the latest news on mergers and acquisitions, investment banking, IPOs, private equity, hedge funds, venture capital, and the legal community. Best of all, the site is frequently updated throughout the day.
New Name for Arizona State's Law School
April 06, 2006 at 11:20 AM
Arizona State University has decided to rename its law school in honor of recently-retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. According to this press release, ASU’s law school will henceforth be called the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at ASU. The Dean of ASU’s law school, Patricia White, stated "We are very excited about the opportunity to be the first law school named after a contemporary woman...One cannot overestimate Justice O’Connor’s importance as a role model for women and how central her success has been to the acceptance of women in legal practice and the judiciary."
San Francisco Chooses Google & Earthlink for Wi-Fi Project
April 05, 2006 at 8:50 PM
San Franciscans at SCU Law will be delighted to hear that the city has selected Google and Earthlink to furnish affordable wi-fi access to the entire city. As this SF Gate article states, if the project continues to move forward without any glitches, "virtually everyone within the city limits will be able to get online -- provided they have a compatible computer -- whether at home, in a park or at work."
Looking for a Paper Topic? Check Out Split Circuits!
April 04, 2006 at 12:50 PM
Professor A. Benjamin Spencer at the University of Richmond School of Law has a blog that’s a must-read for law students trying to find paper topics. The blog is called Split Circuits, and it features nothing but Professor Spencer’s commentary on splits among the federal circuits. Professor Spencer discusses circuit splits on a wide variety of legal topics, so there’s something for everybody on Split Circuits. Thanks (again) to Inter Alia for the tip!
International Economic Law and Policy Blog
April 04, 2006 at 12:25 PM
Launched last January, the International Economic Law and Policy Blog concentrates on international trade law (thanks to Inter Alia for the tip!). The blog features commentary from an impressive array of over 20 trade law experts from law schools around the world.
SCU Law Hosts Sixth District Court of Appeal
April 04, 2006 at 11:35 AM
Dean Polden announced earlier this week that the Sixth District Court of Appeal will be sitting in SCU Law’s moot court room in Bergin Hall on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 from 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. The court’s official calendar for the morning of April 11th can be accessed on this page. The library staff also wanted to provide quick access to the briefs available on Westlaw for these cases. If you click on the links below, you’ll be prompted for your Westlaw sign-on information. Enter your Westlaw sign-on information, and you’ll be taken directly to the full text of the brief:
Cutler v. Kriens, et al.; Plotkin v. Kriens (Appellants’ Opening Brief only)
In re Stacy Marcus on Habeas Corpus (no briefs available on Westlaw)
Marriage of Ittai Bareket and Stacy Marcus (Respondent’s Brief only)
Osborn v. Pisoni, et al.; Ernst: Appellants’ Opening Brief; Respondent’s Brief; Appellants’ Reply Brief
Foster v. KNTV Television, Inc., et al.: Appellants’ Opening Brief; Respondents’ Brief; Appellant’s Supplemental Opening Brief
Short summaries of the cases will also be available in the courtroom on April 11. The library staff will place summaries on reserve at the library along with full-text copies of the briefs by this Friday, April 7th.
Technology and Higher Education
April 03, 2006 at 2:40 PM
Meredith Farkas, a librarian and blogger (see Information Wants To Be Free), just announced HigherEd BlogCon, a web-based event that will focus on "how new online communications technologies and social tools are changing higher education." All of the resources on the HigherEd BlogCon site are available free of charge. The schedule of online events and discussions is:
April 3-7, 2006: Teaching
Blogs as Personal Learning Environments; Curriculum Development Using a Wiki; Legal Issues in Podcasting; and more...
April 10-14, 2006: Library and Info Resources
Blogging and Podcasting in Libraries; Web 2.0/Library 2.0; Building an Online Research Toolkit; and more...
April 17-21, 2006: Admissions, Alumni Relations, and Communications & Marketing
Podcasts as a Marketing Tool; Alumni E-Networks; Blogging and Podcasting for Student Recruitment; and more...
April 24-28, 2006: Websites and Web Development
Legal Education Podcasting Project; Taking Control of HTML and CSS; Agile Web Apps; and more....
3L Epiphany's Taxonomy of Legal Blogs
March 30, 2006 at 1:30 PM
One of the most frustrating things about Internet resources -- at least for librarians -- is that they are not neatly cataloged like the items in a library. Sure, Google has the "similar pages" function on its search results page, but it’s never yielded anything that’s relevant to my research topic when I’ve used it. Most of the time, I focus on trying to find frequently-updated meta-pages about different legal research topics (for those of you wondering, a meta-page is a Web page that compiles links to lots of different Internet resources on a particular topic. See the library’s Internet Resources pages for examples of meta-pages). I’ve just found an excellent legal blog meta-page, compiled by Ian Best, the author of 3L Epiphany. Ian has created an extremely useful taxonomy of legal blogs, which categorizes blogs according to jurisdictional focus, author/publisher, legal specialty, and a bunch of other categories. There’s even a collection of other blawg meta-pages!
Online List of Law School Symposia
March 29, 2006 at 3:30 PM
Professor Rick Bales at Salmon P. Chase College of Law maintains a list of upcoming law school symposia, which is a handy reference source for law faculty and law review editors. Professor Bales also blogs at Workplace Prof Blog -- an excellent current awareness tool for those who need to stay abreast of breaking labor and employment law developments.
How Do Lawsuits Get Their Names?
March 28, 2006 at 10:45 AM
Ever wonder why case names include the name of a particular government official? Slate’s Daniel Engber has an interesting little piece that explains how lawsuits get their names and describes the government’s recent efforts to eliminate certain officials as defendants in lawsuits.
Debate on Laptops in the Law School Classroom
March 27, 2006 at 4:30 PM
Orin Kerr is playing host to a fascinating debate on laptops in the law school classroom on his blog. Professor June Entman decided to ban laptops in her classroom (she’s teaching Civil Procedure at the University of Memphis). Law professors and students from all over the country are weighing in on her decision in the comments to Orin Kerr’s post. So far, the comments are heavily in favor of allowing laptop use.
Statement on Proposed Ninth Circuit Split
March 27, 2006 at 11:30 AM
Thirty-three Ninth Circuit judges, including Alex Kozinski and Chief Judge Mary Schroeder, have recently endorsed this statement in opposition to the proposed Ninth Circuit split. Here is the statement’s concluding paragraph:
In sum, we believe the case for splitting the circuit has not been made. Yes, we are big and our territory is wide, but we have shown that we can function effectively and efficiently despite—indeed because of—our size. Large organizations, whether they be corporations or courts, profit from economies of scale. We have made size our friend rather than our enemy; other courts of appeals will have no choice but to follow suit, because in one generation, two at the most, they will be where we are today. Which is why the overwhelming number of judges of the Ninth Circuit, and the lawyers who practice before us—the people who know the most about the court’s operation—strongly oppose the split. The time has come to put this bad idea behind us and get on with the business of administering justice.
For an opposing view, you can read Judge O’Scannlain’s piece in support of the Ninth Circuit split here.
Recommended Internet Links for Summer Interns
March 24, 2006 at 1:25 PM
Ellen Platt and I recently did a presentation for first-year students on research strategies for summer jobs. We prepared a del.icio.us page of essential California and federal legal research websites. The selected resources focus on California and federal primary law Internet sources, including cases, statutes, and regulations. We’ve also included links to California and federal court forms, rules, and jury instructions. We’ll post the entire presentation outline here in a few days, but we thought we’d share the del.icio.us page today so that students have time to explore the links.
Two New Research Guides from Heafey Law Library
March 22, 2006 at 3:05 PM
Heafey Law Library has just released two new research guides. The first guide, European Union Research, provides information about EU legal research. You’ll find links to EU documents, EU Internet resources, and other research guides on EU law. The second guide, Tax Research, describes Heafey’s federal tax research resources and also provides information about accessing tax information on CCH, Lexis, and Westlaw. We hope you find these guides useful! If you have ideas for future research guides, please let us know by commenting on Heafey Headnotes or send me an e-mail at ajwright@scu.edu.
A Comic Version of Copyright Law
March 21, 2006 at 9:30 AM
Donna Nixon of Duke Law Library recently announced that Duke’s Center for the Study of Public Domain has released a comic book about copyright law. Details from Donna Nixon’s message follow:
Today’s librarians, teachers and students -- from high school to graduate school -- are forced to confront copyright issues every day. What is permissible? What is fair use? Until now, the only answers came in lengthy and incomprehensible law review articles or confusing internet resources. Three law professors have tried to change that.
Duke Law School’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain has just released "BOUND BY LAW?" - a comic book on copyright and creativity -- using the example of documentary film. It has been published under a Creative Commons License. The comic, by Keith Aoki, James Boyle and Jennifer Jenkins, lays out the basics of copyright in clear and easy to understand examples. It deals with such issues as fair use, how to determine if a work is in the public domain, and the effects of digital technology on the meaning of intellectual property.
Download "Bound by Law?" here, purchase copies on Amazon, or place an educational order for 50 or more copies at a subsidized price here.
Judge Ware's Order in Gonzales v. Google
March 20, 2006 at 10:15 AM
Last Friday, Judge James Ware issued his opinion in Gonzales v. Google, granting in part and denying in part the Department of Justice’s motion to compel Google’s compliance with the government’s subpoena. Judge Ware ruled that Google must turn over a sample of 50,000 URLs randomly selected from Google’s databases. However, he refused DOJ’s request to compel Google to produce a log of 5,000 search queries, stating that "the marginal burden of loss of trust by Google’s users based on Google’s disclosure of its users’ search queries to the Government outweighs the duplicative disclosure’s likely benefit to the Government’s study." On the official Google blog, Google’s in-house attorney, Nicole Wong, describes the court ruling "as a clear victory for our users and for our company." I would agree. Judge Ware’s opinion reveals that he was very concerned about users’ privacy perceptions and the possibility that search query data could be used for law enforcement purposes despite DOJ’s best intentions, emphasizing that "it is conceivable that the Government may have an obligation to pursue information received for unrelated litigation purposes under certain circumstances regardless of the restrictiveness of a protective order." The decision will at least make government agencies think twice before they go on another Google fishing expedition. What remains to be seen is if the other search engine companies that complied with the DOJ’s original subpoena (Yahoo!, MSN Search, and others) will begin to fight overreaching government requests for search data as well.
For Our Subscribers....
March 17, 2006 at 2:20 PM
If you’re a Heafey Headnotes subscriber, you’ve probably noticed that you’re not getting e-mail updates for the blog. That’s about to change! As of today, we’re going to begin e-mailing each post to subscribers. We hope you’re enjoying Heafey Headnotes, and if you have suggestions about blog content, please feel free to contact us by clicking on the "Email Law Library" link on the right-hand side of the Heafey Headnotes page.
Social Justice Legal Research Blog Debuts
March 17, 2006 at 11:50 AM
The law librarians at Zimmerman Law Library (University of Dayton School of Law) just unveiled Vox Bibliothecae, a new legal research blog devoted to social justice and human rights topics. You can find detailed information about the blog’s focus in this post. For those of you who enjoy reading law library blogs, you can find a very useful list of blogging law libraries here, which has been maintained by Bonnie Shucha at the University of Wisconsin.
ABA Survey: Legal Research and Writing Most Useful Course
March 16, 2006 at 4:20 PM
Forty percent of law students participating in an ABA Quick Poll reported that legal research and writing was their most useful first-year course, and 48 percent expected that legal research and writing would prove to be the most useful course throughout the remainder of their law school career. Student respondents had to choose among the following courses: civil procedure; contracts; criminal law; torts; legal research/writing; constitutional law; and property. As others have pointed out, a poll with just 172 students isn’t necessarily an adequate sampling of the law student populace. Nevertheless, it is interesting that legal research and writing fared so well among those who took the poll.
Judge Ware to Order Google to Divulge Some Search Data
March 15, 2006 at 12:00 PM
After a hearing in federal district court in San Jose yesterday, it appears that Judge Ware will order Google to turn over at least some of the search data requested by the U.S. Department of Justice several months ago. However, according to the SF Chronicle’s story on the hearing, Judge Ware did express some reservations about granting DOJ access to everything that the agency asked for, stating some misgivings "about revealing user search terms, citing public perception that the government might scour the database as part of a digital dragnet." It is interesting to note that Google’s arguments at yesterday’s hearing appear to have placed more emphasis upon user privacy concerns. For example, one of the Google attorneys noted that search terms can contain personal identifying information, such as searchers’ social security numbers, or terms that could spark interest from law enforcement authorities, such as "White House bombing location." Based on Google’s past arguments, I would have expected its lawyers to focus much more on the company’s concerns about divulging trade secrets. At any rate, it appears that Google’s decision to fight the subpoena will at least result in some restrictions on the types of data that Google will have to divulge.
Symposium on Blogs & Legal Scholarship
March 15, 2006 at 11:35 AM
Given the high volume of posts about legal scholarship and blogging, I suppose it was inevitable that a law school would host a symposium on how blogs are transforming legal scholarship. And who better to organize such an event than Harvard Law School? The symposium, "Bloggership: How Blogs Are Transforming Legal Scholarship," will be held on April 27-28 at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. The discussion promises to be lively because the scheduled speakers include both blogging enthusiasts (a sizable portion of the Volokh Conspiracy profs are participating) and folks such as Kate Litvak who scoff at the idea that blogs offer serious scholarly content. Stay tuned for posts from attendees who are live-blogging the event.
Don't Be Google-Centric!
March 14, 2006 at 10:15 AM
It’s easy to rely too heavily on Google for all of your day-to-day searching needs -- that is, until you have to find something particularly obscure on the Internet. That’s when it pays to expand your searching horizons and try out a different search engine. I often turn to a meta-search engine when I want to save time by searching across several search engines at the same time. The search interface of most meta-search engines looks quite similar to the simple Google search box, but your search results will appear a bit different. For example, if you search on one of the better known meta-search engines, Dogpile, your search results will be a blend of results from Google, Yahoo!, Ask.com, and other search engines. If you want to view the individual search results from each search engine, all you have to do is click on the name of that engine at the top of the search results page. Not only will you be able to view individual search results, Dogpile will also highlight the results that appear exclusively from that search engine. You can even click on all of the individual search engines to view each engine’s results side-by-side. For an extensive list of search engines, visit Heafey’s search engines page or visit SearchEngineWatch.
Reports on Human Rights Practices
March 10, 2006 at 9:20 AM
BeSpacific recently posted links to the U.S. Department of State’s 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. The report features discussions of each country’s human rights record in 2005, with examples of specific human rights abuses.
Heafey Headnotes Contest Deadline Extended
March 09, 2006 at 1:40 PM
We have just 3 entries for the Heafey Headnotes contest, so we’re extending the contest deadline a full two weeks to Friday, March 24. Download a copy of the contest here or pick up a copy at the library Circulation Desk or Reference Desk, fill it out, and turn in your completed entry at the Reference Desk. We’re giving away two $50 Barnes & Noble gift certificates, four $25 Starbucks gift certificates, and six $10 Starbucks gift certificates. Right now, the odds of winning are pretty darn high, so turn in your entry! NOTE: An alert contestant just told me that there is a dead link in the post that you need to read to answer Question 9 (it deals with a case regarding appropriate sources of California legislative history). That’s been fixed.
Summary of Supreme Court's 2005-2006 Term
March 09, 2006 at 9:45 AM
Thomson West and the staff of ALR have published an online summary of the Supreme Court’s activities during the first half of the 2005-2006 term. This summary is particularly handy because it includes citations to related ALR annotations.
Adam Sandler and Legal Writing
March 08, 2006 at 1:05 PM
Occasionally, attorneys submit a motion or a brief that is so badly written or poorly researched that the judge decides to scold them for their horrible research or writing skills in a written opinion. I like to collect examples of these public reprimands for my legal research class, so that students can see that one of the negative consequences of inadequate legal research is the possibility that your incompetence will be forever memorialized in a court opinion for the whole world to see. Of course, the goal of avoiding potential harm to your clients is a far more worthy reason to hone your legal research skills than the threat of ridicule from a judge. But the threat of public humiliation seems to work as a motivator, too, so I like to highlight a few of these opinions for students whenever I can. That’s why I was pleased to discover this great quotation from a February 21 order penned by Judge Leif Clark of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Texas (thanks to Out of the Jungle for featuring the quote). Judge Clark wrote, "[t]he court cannot determine the substance, if any, of the Defendant’s legal argument, nor can the court even ascertain the relief that the Defendant is requesting." As if this comment wasn’t enough, Judge Clark went on to quote a character from an Adam Sandler film, "Billy Madison," in a footnote: "At no point in your rambling, incoherent response was there anything that could even be considered a rational thought." Ouch. If you’d like to find out more about these judicial tongue-lashings, read Mary Whisner’s excellent article on this topic, "When Judges Scold Lawyers."
New Exam Prep Series Available At Heafey
March 07, 2006 at 9:25 AM
Heafey has just received the 2005 edition of Siegel’s law school examination preparation series for the following topics: Property; Torts; Professional Responsibility; Evidence; Corporations; Contracts; Criminal Law; Criminal Procedure; and Civil Procedure. Each book contains sample essay questions with sample answers as well as multiple-choice questions with a detailed answer key. You’ll find the Siegel’s exam prep series in Heafey’s Stauffer Collection -- we’ll be shelving all of the books in the series by the end of the week. If you have any difficulty locating exam prep materials, stop by the reference desk and ask a librarian for help. You can also reach a librarian by e-mail or by phone.
Supreme Court Delivers Opinion on Solomon Amendment
March 06, 2006 at 10:20 AM
In an 8-0 opinion released today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Congress could require colleges and universities to furnish equal access to military recruiters as a condition of receiving federal funds without running afoul of the First Amendment. Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. wrote the unanimous opinion. Howard Bashman’s How Appealing has an extensive roundup of news articles and online commentary about Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, Inc.
International Trade Web Resource
March 06, 2006 at 10:05 AM
Tom Mighell’s legal research newsletter, Internet Legal Research Weekly, recently highlighted the website of the Federation of International Trade Associations (FITA). There are some great links for legal researchers featured under the "Tools of Trade" category on the left-hand side of the FITA page, including an extensive online library of trade law resources on the Internet. Simply click on the "Trade Law" link under the "Tools of Trade" category.
And if you haven’t subscribed to Internet Legal Research Weekly yet, I encourage you to do so! Tom Mighell writes about materials that are useful to librarians, academics, and practicing attorneys, and reading his newsletter each week is an easy way to stay abreast of the latest domestic and international legal resources on the Internet.
Westlaw Alert: Changes to Navigation Page
March 03, 2006 at 3:20 PM
Westlaw will be rolling out a new, revamped sign-on and main navigation page on March 11, 2006. For a preview of these new pages from Westlaw, click here.
EU Digital Library and Archive
March 03, 2006 at 11:55 AM
The European Commission has announced plans to create a "European Digital Library" over the next five years. According to the press release, this digital archive will be supported by all of the national libraries in the EU and will furnish access to at least six million books, photographs, archival items, and other works by 2010. If you’re interested in exploring the European Digital Library’s current offerings, visit the library’s web portal.
The Simpsons and the First Amendment
March 02, 2006 at 9:20 AM
It seems like everyone’s discussing the results of a recent poll demonstrating that Americans know more about the TV show "The Simpsons" than they do about the United States Constitution. According to the poll, less than one percent of respondents could identify the five rights protected by the First Amendment, which the poll listed as freedom of press, speech, assembly, religion, and the right to petition the government. However, 20 percent of respondents could identify all five members of the Simpsons family by name. Some poll participants also believed that the Constitution protected an individual’s right to own a pet and drive a car. As you can imagine, this news has generated quite a bit of chatter in the blogosphere. For example, the Volokh Conspiracy’s Dale Carpenter, a constitutional law professor at the University of Minnesota, challenges the poll author’s assumption that the First Amendment only enumerates five freedoms: "By the way, I count six (not five) freedoms explicitly listed in the First Amendment: no establishment of religion, free exercise, free speech, press, assembly, and petition. If we added the unenumerated freedom of association we’d get to seven." You can read more blog commentary on the poll here.
Additional Debate About the Value of Law Professor Blawgs
February 28, 2006 at 2:15 PM
Professor James Edward Maule of Villanova University School of Law has written a thoughtful post about blogging and law professors, in which he argues that "it appears that the so-called traditionalists are beginning to sense the threat to their way of academic life that blogs, and technology generally, pose." Professor Maule also authored an earlier post on blogging in academia if you're interested in his earlier musings on the topic. The National Law Journal also has a lengthy article on blogging and law professors entitled "Blogging Law Profs Assault Ivory Tower." According to the article's author, at least 182 law professors are also blog authors, and the law schools at University of Chicago and UCLA have the highest number of blogging law professors.
Featured Reference Question
February 25, 2006 at 3:20 PM
A student working on a cite-check asked us to decipher the abbreviations that appear after different versions of a piece of federal legislation in THOMAS search results. (For those of you wondering what THOMAS is, it’s a Library of Congress website that compiles a wide variety of federal legislative information, including legislation, House and Senate committee reports, the Congressional Record, and more -- most of it is available in PDF format from the Government Printing Office.) For example, if you search for H.R. 2520 on THOMAS in the records of the current session of Congress, you will see search results that look like this:
1. Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005 (Received in Senate from House) H.R. 2520.RDS
2. Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005 (Placed on Calendar in Senate) H.R. 2520.PCS
The letters that are tacked on to the end of the bill number (RDS and PCS) simply represent the different versions of the bill. According to the Library of Congress, the meaning of these extensions "is largely explained in the preceding parentheses." Thus, "PCS" stands for "placed on calendar in Senate," and "RDS" stands for "received in Senate from House." Thanks to THOMAS for taking the time to create a useful and informative "Help" page!
MPRE Online Practice Exam
February 25, 2006 at 9:55 AM
The MPRE is coming up in mid-March, and we’re starting to get questions about MPRE study aids at the reference desk. Our research guide, Guide to Bar Exam Resources, can be found online on our ClaraNet Page, and it has a section on Heafey’s MPRE study resources. As noted in the research guide, we have a copy of MPRE Sample Questions V and MPRE Sample Questions VI (the latest set of sample questions from NCBE) in the Stauffer Collection. You can also register to access a free online copy of an MPRE sample exam with an answer key at the NCBE website. Good luck to everyone who is taking the MPRE on March 11!
Congressional Hearings on China and the Internet
February 24, 2006 at 9:35 AM
The House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights, and International Operations held a hearing last week on "The Internet in China: A Tool for Freedom or Suppression?". The hearing featured testimony from human rights and free speech advocates, such as Radio Free Asia and Human Rights in China. Most of the American search engine companies doing business in China also testified, including Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! Inc. If you click on the link above, you can access a webcast of the hearing as well as PDF copies of all of the hearing testimony.
Have You Entered Our Trivia Contest?
February 23, 2006 at 3:55 PM
Enter our Heafey Headnotes trivia contest for a chance to win Barnes & Noble or Starbucks gift certificates! Simply open and print the contest from this page or pick up a copy in Heafey Law Library. Complete all of the questions, then submit your entry at the Reference Desk by Friday, March 10. Remember to include your name and email address on the contest form. Once we determine that you've submitted complete and correct answers, we'll enter your name in a drawing for exciting prizes!
Upcoming Symposium on Law School Rankings
February 23, 2006 at 11:30 AM
Indiana University School of Law will host a symposium, "The Next Generation of Law School Rankings," on April 15, 2006. The one-day symposium is free and open to the public. According to the conference organizers:
The goal of this symposium is to deepen our understanding of rankings and their effects on legal education. The participants in this symposium will examine the need for law school rankings; the effects of rankings on legal education; and the various new approaches to addressing the public’s insatiable demand for ever more and increasingly sophisticated rankings, which permeate not only legal education but also all aspects of American life.
Are Law Reviews Withering on the Vine?
February 23, 2006 at 10:30 AM
The online version of the Wall Street Journal published an excellent story this week on the viability of law reviews, which is a "must-read" for law review editors and faculty. According to the article, "law professors are looking beyond law reviews, moving relevant and timely commentary to the Internet and blogosphere." As the article points out, the academic legal community is starting to take aim at law reviews. By now, most of us have read Richard Posner’s piece, "Against the Law Reviews," in which he states that "too many articles are too long, too dull, and too heavily annotated, and . . . many interdisciplinary articles are published that have no merit at all." And Professor Rosa Brooks at the University of Virginia asked in a recent LawCulture post, "Is there any good reason, post-tenure, not to eschew law reviews for books and other less stultifying genres, on the theory that people beyond my immediate family may then read what I write?" Some journals are responding by moving content online, developing blog-like online communities such as The Pocket Part, and insisting on shorter articles. I don’t think that the journals will vanish quickly -- after all, scholarly publications are part of law school tradition, and law schools tend to move fairly slowly when it comes to dispensing with traditional features of the law school experience. However, I do believe that scholarly journals are going to have to become more tech-savvy if they want to appeal to a wider audience. It seems like discussing some of the measures described in this article would be a great place to start.
Toolbars, Bookmarklets, and More!
February 22, 2006 at 10:00 AM
LLRX features a useful article this month on practical web strategies for attorneys, but these tools are really for anyone who spends a significant time doing Internet research. Frederick Faulkner IV describes how to maximize your web browsing experience by using toolbars, bookmarklets, and extensions.
International and Comparative Law as a Required First-Year Course
February 15, 2006 at 7:35 AM
PrawfsBlawg’s guest blogger, Julian Ku, has an interesting post about Hofstra’s recent decision to require first-year law students to take a course in international and comparative law called "Transnational Law." The post spurred an interesting discussion in the comments about the wisdom of Hofstra’s decision that’s worth reading.
African-American Law Professors' Blawg
February 14, 2006 at 9:00 AM
The ever-useful Inter Alia highlights blackprof.com in its Blawg of the Day category this week, which is a blawg co-authored by African-American law professors from across the country. This blawg tackles both legal and cultural issues, and also features an advice column, Ask Mom!, just for professors or wannabe professors.
Geography and Associate Salaries
February 13, 2006 at 8:25 AM
This recent story by Law.com highlights a fairly common practice among law firms with offices scattered across the United States -- these firms may pay associates in smaller cities a smaller amount than they pay to associates in large metro areas. It’s unlikely that any Bay Area law firm associates would find themselves on the less generous side of a firm’s salary scale, but it’s still something to think about if you plan to transfer within your firm to a smaller city or an overseas location.
Law School Applications Declining
February 10, 2006 at 9:00 AM
The New York Times featured a story yesterday about the decline in law school applications. According to the article, applications fell by 4.6% last year, and have declined by about 9.5% so far this year. What’s behind the decline? TV show creator David E. Kelley voiced a novel theory, speculating that the "more lawyers there are, the more people are out there to encourage others not to go to law school."
Web 2.0 and Law 2.0
February 09, 2006 at 10:35 AM
The January 2006 issue of Law Practice Today features an excellent roundtable discussion about evolving Internet applications and their impact on the legal profession. If the terms "Web 2.0" and "Law 2.0" leave you scratching your head, you should definitely take a moment to read this discussion! As Stephen Nipper points out in the discussion, the next generation of legal technology tools emphasizes collaboration and interacting with colleagues online to achieve greater efficiencies. The reference librarians at Heafey have taken a step in this direction by using blogs to better communicate with each other and with our patrons. We maintain this blog, Heafey Headnotes, to reach out to our patron base. But we also maintain another internal, password-protected blog that we all use to create a permanent, searchable archive of the answers to recurring research problems, library policies and procedures, and time-saving tips and information for our colleagues. We’ve found that using our blog as a sort of online meeting place works particularly well, and it means that we don’t have to rely so heavily on a much more static and inflexible means of electronic communication -- e-mail.
Family Law Prof Blog
February 06, 2006 at 11:25 AM
Law Students Blawgs and Law Libraries
February 02, 2006 at 11:45 AM
Rob Hudson, a librarian at St. Thomas University School of Law, has written a fun little piece for the ALL-SIS Newsletter that compiles quotes about law libraries from law students’ blawgs. If you’re curious about what Santa Clara law students have to say about their law school experiences, you can find blawgs authored by SCU law students by going to TalkDigger and entering the SCU Law URL, http://www.scu.edu/law, in the "Dig It!" search box.
Debate on Law School Clinics
February 01, 2006 at 4:00 PM
Legal Affairs is hosting a lively online debate this week about the role of law school clinics in legal education. Participants include the Manhattan Institute’s Heather Mac Donald and Yale Law School’s Ronald S. Sullivan, Jr. Ms. Mac Donald has recently argued that law school clinics are little more than a vehicle for left-wing activism by law school professors.
Snowboarding and Assumption of Risk
January 30, 2006 at 3:20 PM
Fellowship in Law Librarianship
January 27, 2006 at 1:05 PM
Law students don’t often think of law librarianship as a career choice while they’re in law school. After all, to become a law librarian, you usually have to earn an additional graduate degree (a master’s in library and information science), and the pay for librarians isn’t anywhere close to a first year associate’s salary at a large Bay Area law firm. However, law librarianship can be a great career choice for law school graduates who truly enjoy research and want a job with a slightly more manageable pace. If you’re a soon-to-be law school graduate who isn’t sure if practicing law is for you, you might want to consider law librarianship. There are some attractive fellowship programs that allow you to work part-time while you earn your Master’s in Library Science, such as this recently announced fellowship for aspiring law librarians at the University of Arizona:
The University of Arizona, School of Information Resources and Library Science (SIRLS) and the Law Library of the James E. Rogers College of Law offer a two-year fellowship in law librarianship for lawyers seeking to become law librarians. Successful applicants will work 20 hours a week in the law library while pursuing an M.L.S.
Requirements: 1) J.D. degree from an ABA accredited school; and 2) Admission to the University of Arizona School of Information Resources and Library Science.
Preference given to students with Spanish language skills.
SIRLS Application Process: Application for Admission to Graduate Study; written statement of Introduction; official Transcript from each college or university attended;
resume of educational and work experience; and two letters of recommendation.
Fellowship Application: Cover letter and resume. Cover letter should describe interest in law librarianship. Deadline April 1, 2006.
Send applications to:
Professor Mike Chiorazzi, Assoc. Dean Information Services
Law Library
University Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law
1201. E. Speedway Blvd.
Tucson, AZ 85721
Fellowship Information: The successful applicant will work 20 hours a week in the law library. The first year will focus on technical and access services, the second year will focus on public services. The salary is $11,000 a year, plus benefits and tuition remission. (In the current fiscal year the fellowship recipient would pay a program fee of $79 per semester and have the remaining tuition and other fees waived.)
New and Improved FirstGov
January 26, 2006 at 12:55 PM
Spotlight on Faculty Publications
January 24, 2006 at 1:25 PM
We’ve just received word of a rave review for Exploring Tort Law (Cambridge University Press, 2005), a collection of essays edited by SCU School of Law visiting professor, M. Stuart Madden. (Professor Madden’s contribution is a chapter entitled "Tort Law Through Time and Culture: Themes of Economic Efficiency.") The essays that appear in Exploring Tort Law are based on papers presented at a November 2003 Pace University School of Law colloquium, "The Future of Torts." The review by Michael Rustad and Thomas Lambert notes that "it is rare to see conference papers morph into an instant classic of original scholarship." In Rustad and Lambert’s view, Exploring Tort Law "represents some of the best modern tort original scholarship." Rustad and Lambert describe Professor Madden’s essay as an "exquisitely written" study of tort law in ancient civilizations, which "unveil[s] a treasure trove of concepts prefiguring tort law in the ancient law." Rustad and Lambert’s review will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Bimonthly Review of Law Books. Exploring Tort Law is available at Heafey Law Library.
Google Battles U.S. Department of Justice
January 23, 2006 at 8:00 AM
The Pocket Part
January 20, 2006 at 10:35 AM
Yale has devised an interesting approach to encouraging online discussion of the articles that appear in The Yale Law Journal. The journal has introduced The Pocket Part, an "online companion to The Yale Law Journal." The Pocket Part features shorter versions of articles from the journal, along with responses and commentary from policymakers and legal scholars. The most recent issue features lively commentary about law and politics in judicial confirmation hearings from Randy Barnett, Erwin Chemerinksy, Robert Post, Reva Siegel, and Laurence Tribe. You can also read Samuel Alito’s law review note from 1974 and post a comment about it, if you’re so inclined.
Tracking Down Think Tank Publications
January 12, 2006 at 11:15 AM
As legal scholarship becomes increasingly interdisciplinary, researchers often need to find reports or other materials published by public policy research institutes or "think tanks." Of course, legal researchers must keep in mind that most think tanks have a distinct political philosophy and agenda. Not surprisingly, materials published by partisan think tanks tend to support the think tanks’ agenda. Nevertheless, they can be useful resources for legal scholars who are exploring the intersection of law and public policy. Here are several websites that furnish links to think tanks in the United States and abroad:
- Harvard University’s Kennedy School Library also furnishes an impressive alphabetical list of links to think tanks located in the United States and abroad.
- The University of Michigan’s "Political Science Resources: Think Tanks" maintains links to a large number of individual think tank websites.
- Project Vote Smart’s page also features links to individual think tanks.
- Foreign Affairs Online has compiled an alphabetical listing of domestic and foreign policy think tanks.
Washington Post Database on Congressional Votes
January 11, 2006 at 4:40 PM
Thanks to Inter Alia, we’ve discovered another handy legal research resource from the Washington Post. The newspaper has created a free Votes Database, which allows users to browse every vote in the U.S. Congress since 1991. You can browse late-night votes for sessions from 1991 until present, and you can also review a list of members who have missed the most votes in each session. The site even publishes an RSS feed of recent votes by individual members of Congress. This is an extremely handy tool for anyone tracking federal legislation or the voting record of particular members.
Alito Confirmation Hearings Transcript
January 10, 2006 at 10:20 AM
The Washington Post has created a page devoted to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearings on Judge Samuel Alito’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. If you’re looking for hearing transcripts, photos, or Alito biographical information, this page provides one-stop shopping.
Thanks to beSpacific for originally pointing out the Washington Post’s coverage of the hearings.
Congressional Research Service Reports
January 05, 2006 at 3:15 PM
Wall Street Journal Joins the Blawgosphere
January 04, 2006 at 10:20 AM
California Law Blawg
January 03, 2006 at 4:20 PM
The Recorder and CalLaw.com have created Legal Pad, a California law blawg. Although this blawg is just getting started, it promises to be an excellent source of information on recent developments in California appellate law, law firm news (including the latest on associate salaries), and the judiciary.
Heafey Headnotes Is On Vacation
December 19, 2005 at 4:05 PM
We're taking a break from blogging for the holidays -- we'll resume on Tuesday, January 3, 2006. Happy Holidays from Heafey Law Library!
A Client-Focused Blawg
December 19, 2005 at 11:05 AM
Study of Wikipedia's Accuracy
December 16, 2005 at 11:00 AM
Lexis and Westlaw User Guides
December 15, 2005 at 11:15 AM
Most first-year law students get all kinds of Lexis and Westlaw handouts during their first semester of law school, then promptly lose most of them. Fortunately, both Lexis and Westlaw have placed most of their user guides on their websites, so there's no need to keep track of paper copies. Click here for Westlaw's user guides and here for Lexis user guides.
Heafey Law Library Holiday Hours
December 15, 2005 at 10:50 AM
For those of you still working on papers, here is an up-to-date notice of Heafey's holiday break hours. We'll be closed from December 23, 2005 to January 2, 2006, reopening on January 3, 2006. If you live in the South Bay and need a study/work space, San Jose State University's Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library is open on December 27, 28, and 29. King Library is open to the public.
Research Tip of the Day
December 14, 2005 at 5:20 PM
Like most librarians, I have a few "top 10" research guides that I recommend to patrons. Today, I’m featuring one of my favorite guides on researching California legislative history by UC Hastings’ Susan Nevelow Mart. The guide gives researchers an intuitive, step-by-step introduction to the mysteries of California legislative history research and identifies all of the key materials that you’ll need. --Posted by Amy Wright
Gov. Schwarzenegger Appoints Carol Corrigan to the California Supreme Court
December 13, 2005 at 3:45 PM
Jus in Bello: A Blog Devoted to the International Criminal Court
December 09, 2005 at 11:00 AM
Continuing today’s theme of international criminal law resources, we’re featuring a relatively new blog from Pace Law School faculty called Jus in Bello. The blog concentrates on the International Criminal Court, other international criminal tribunals, and the law of international criminal prosecutions. Thanks to Out of the Jungle for the tip.
Saddam Hussein Trial Blog
December 09, 2005 at 9:50 AM
It's Never Too Early to Focus on Your Practice
December 08, 2005 at 10:30 AM
When I started practicing law eight years ago, I must have thought "Wow, they never taught me about THAT in law school!" at least three times a day. While law school does a great job of teaching you the things you need to know to pass the bar exam, it won't necessarily teach you how to have a harmonious relationship with a difficult client, how to market your practice, or which legal technology is worth buying. Fortunately, today's recent law school graduates and newly minted lawyers have access to lots of valuable law practice management and client relations tips on the Internet, including the ABA's Law Practice Today, which features articles on legal technology, marketing, management, and finance. For daily free tips on a variety of law practice management issues, I highly recommend the law practice management blogs featured in the November 2005 issue.
--Posted by Amy Wright
Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments on the Solomon Amendment
December 07, 2005 at 4:10 PM
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments last Tuesday in Rumsfeld v. FAIR (Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights). The basic issue: Does the federal statute popularly known as the Solomon Amendment (10 U.S.C. sec. 983) violate the First Amendment rights of law schools? The Solomon Amendment basically requires that universities give military and non-military recruiters equal access to students and campus career resources. If universities refuse to provide the military with such access, the statute permits the government to withdraw federal funds for research and other university activities. Law schools with antidiscrimination policies prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation argue that, under the First Amendment, Congress should not be able to require universities to suspend their antidiscrimination policies by permitting military recruiters on campus. For a selection of news articles about the case, see Howard Bashman's excellent blog, How Appealing. For an audio file of oral arguments, visit the Oyez website. You can access the parties' briefs at the ABA website. As always, SCOTUSblog has a wealth of links, analyses, and other resources.
BAR/BRI Lawsuit
December 05, 2005 at 4:35 PM
Even The Best Attorneys Struggle With the California Bar
December 05, 2005 at 11:15 AM
Today’s Wall Street Journal declares that the "California bar exam has created misery for thousands of aspiring and practicing lawyers." Wondering just how tough the California bar exam is? The Wall Street Journal reports that Kathleen Sullivan, the former dean of Stanford Law School, did not pass the July 2005 California bar exam. If you’re interested in reading the entire WSJ article, visit the law library’s newspaper collection right next to the circulation desk.
If you’re a December graduate who is already worrying about the upcoming February bar exam, don’t miss Heafey’s recently updated "Guide to Bar Exam Resources." We can’t take the California bar exam for you, but we’ve compiled a very handy list of print and online resources that you can use to prepare for the exam.
Law School News Resource
December 02, 2005 at 1:55 PM
Resources for Law Review Cite-Checks
November 30, 2005 at 7:45 PM
Cite-checks for law review can be terribly tedious, but Heafey’s reference librarians have a few tips for making the process easier:
- First, if you’re pulling your hair out trying to find your sources, ask one of the reference librarians for help. We are happy to help you track down hard-to-find materials.
- If you’re a new cite-checker and it’s been awhile since you’ve encountered an online library catalog, review our online OSCAR tutorial before you begin looking for sources. The tutorial has both basic and advanced OSCAR search tips that will save you lots of searching frustration!
- HeinOnline is a great resource for cite-checkers. This database contains exact page images of law reviews and journals, U.S. Reports, the Federal Register, and other primary and secondary legal sources. When we demonstrate HeinOnline at the reference desk, students often exclaim, "We can’t use electronic resources for cite-checking!" But because there’s absolutely no difference between looking at a PDF version of a law review volume and the actual print volume, law review editors should not object to using HeinOnline to check article citations. For this reason, Heafey’s staff will not pull a print volume from remote storage if the volume is available electronically in PDF on HeinOnline.
- LINK+ is another useful resource for cite-checking. LINK+ is essentially a pooled catalog of books available from participating academic and public libraries in California and Nevada. If you encounter a nonperiodical source that is not available at SCU, you may request the material through LINK+. There is no charge to patrons for this service, and you usually receive your material within 3-5 business days. Two key things to remember about LINK+: 1) you must first confirm that the book that you need is not available at SCU in order to obtain the material from LINK+; and 2) Heafey Law Library patrons will need to pick up LINK+ materials at the Orradre Circulation Desk.
Bloggers and Federal Election Laws
November 22, 2005 at 2:35 PM
Exam Preparation Resources
November 21, 2005 at 1:05 PM
From the palpable tension in the library, the reference librarians can tell that exam time is almost here, and we thought this would be a good time to offer a few helpful exam preparation resources. We've created a comprehensive guide to all of the exciting exam prep resources available at Heafey, including our popular collection of past SCU Law exams. Our guide also tells you how to find sample essay and multiple-choice questions in Heafey's collection. To access the guide, click on this link to Heafey's ClaraNet resources, then click on the fifth research guide in the list entitled "Exam Guide and Tips."
Don't forget about CALI exercises! The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction offers a wide array of Web-based, interactive exercises that can help you master all of those tricky legal concepts from your first-year classes. And CALI exercises are available for lots of upper-level classes, too, including evidence, intellectual property, tax, wills and trusts, and more! Just ask one of Heafey's reference librarians for the SCU authorization code to access the CALI exercises.
New Legal Research Wiki
November 16, 2005 at 3:10 PM
California Appellate Opinion on Legislative History
November 15, 2005 at 1:40 PM
A recent opinion from the Third District, California Court of Appeal sheds light on which documents can be considered part of a California statute’s legislative history. In Kaufman & Broad Communities, Inc. v. Performance Plastering, Inc., 133 Cal. App. 4th 26 (2005), Judge Sims notes wryly that "many attorneys apparently believe that every scrap of paper that is generated in the legislative process constitutes the proper subject of judicial notice . . . [t]his must stop." Id. at 29. Judge Sims proceeds to devote a substantial portion of his opinion to a discussion of exactly which "documents . . . constitute cognizable legislative history." Id. A few examples of documents discussed in the opinion that obviously do not constitute legislative history: magazine articles, letters to the governor in favor of a bill, and documents of unknown author or origin.
Thanks to Nanna Frye, law librarian with the California Court of Appeal, Fourth District, for highlighting this opinion.
New International Legal Research Tutorial
November 11, 2005 at 7:00 AM
About Heafey Headnotes
November 10, 2005 at 3:05 PM
Welcome to Heafey Law Library’s blog and online newsletter! We’ve retired our print version of Heafey Headnotes, and we’ll use this blog to keep our patrons apprised of the latest developments in legal research, legal news, and law library events.
If you have comments about our posts, please use the comments feature on this blog to let us know what you think! We’d love to hear from you!
