Legal Research

VUSL Grads Honored

Posted on April 30, 2008
Congratulations to VUSL grads Hon. Mary Harper, Nicholas C. Huang, and Kevin W. Vanderground for their recognition in the April 30th Indiana Lawyer annual special publication - Leaderhip in Law. Judge Harper (Porter Co. Circuit Court) was named a Distinguished Barrister...

National Library Week

Posted on April 17, 2008
Libraries are celebrating National Library Week and many are enjoying special activities --the School of Law Library is no exception! Launched in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association. Libraries across the country celebrate the contributions of our nation?s libraries and librarians, and promote library use and support...

US Gov't Printing Office begins authenticating its online content

Posted on March 31, 2008
Until recently, US GPO publications such as the U.S. Code and the Code of Federal Regulations were accessible online through GPO Access, however, users had no guarantee of the authenticity of the information they were accessing. The problem, faced by many government agencies, has been that digital technology has made electronic documents vulnerable to unauthorized alteration...

Access to Information

Posted on February 21, 2008
We have two new titles in the Law Library which focus on access to information, from the vantage point of protecting ourselves from government intrusion into our privacy as well as having appropriate access to government information.Who Needs to Know? : The State of Public Access to Federal Government Information by Patrice McDermott discusses the dangers of withholding of information in a democratic society...

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Presidents' Day Websites

Posted on February 11, 2008
In celebration of Presidents' Day this month, the library has added several websites to Galileo.The American Presidency Project contains over 75,000 documents related to the study of the American presidency, including public papers, annual messages to Congress on the state of the union, inaugural addresses, radio addresses, acceptance speeches, presidential candidates debates, party platforms, elections data, and an audio/video archive...

The State Secrets Privilege

Posted on January 30, 2008
From The Secrecy News.At a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing today, witnesses discussedthe feasibility and advisability of legislating reforms to the statesecrets privilege.The state secrets privilege has been used by the executive branch toblock discovery in civil litigation when the government believes thatthere is an unacceptable risk of disclosure of sensitive nationalsecurity secrets...

World Privacy Forum's Top Ten Consumer Opt Outs

Posted on January 30, 2008
New from the World Privacy Forum, this list contains the Top Ten Opt Outs for consumers. Created over the years from questions this organization has answered, each opt out has information of just what the organization does and gives the various ways of opting out...

"The Supremes"

Posted on January 28, 2008
The Law Library has two new books about the Supreme Court. The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin takes the reader into the chambers of the Court for an "inside" look. Toobin -- author, New Yorker staff writer, and CNN legal analyst --based his book on exclusive interviews with the justices...

Burns was a Scot After All

Posted on January 21, 2008
This story may primarily be of interest to library types (specifically catalogers) or people of Scottish heritage, but it nevertheless demonstrates the effectiveness of widespread protest. As reported on January 12, 2008 in The Times, the Library of Congress agreed to reverse an earlier decision to classify all Scottish writers under the general heading of "English...

Empirical Legal Studies Bibliography

Posted on January 17, 2008
This announcement came from Cornell and UCLA:Through the collaborative efforts of Cornell and UCLA, there is now available a bibliographic database of empirical legal studies and scholarship: the ELS Bibliography. It is available at: http://www.law...

Take a Few Minutes to Laugh!

Posted on January 17, 2008
If you enjoy law related humor, these two books recently added to the law library will make you smile.In The Little Green Book of Golf Law: the Real Rules of the Game of Golf, author John H. Minan selected nineteen cases corresponding to the typical eighteen holes -- plus one --played in a round of golf...

Chimp Is Not A Person

Posted on January 15, 2008
The Austrian Supreme Court has ruled that a chimpanzee cannot be declared a person. The Association Against Animal Factories, an animal rights group based in Vienna had tried to have the chimp declared a person to protect him from being sold outside the country...

Supreme Court Justices Burial Sites

Posted on January 14, 2008
Do you want to visit the grave of your favorite former U.S. Supreme Court justice? The website www.oyez.org has a list of burial sites with a link to Google maps.Go to http://www.oyez.org then look for Justice Internments under "New Media". There are two lists A-L and M-Z.

Newly Released CRS Reports of Note

Posted on January 09, 2008
Federal Torts Claims ActThe Federal Tort Claims Act is the Statute by which the United States authorized tort suits to be brought against itself. This report examines among other things, the application of the Feres doctrine to suits for injuries caused by medical malpractice in the military, the prohibition of suits by victims of atomic testing, Supreme Court cases interpreting the discretionary function exception, the extent to which federal employees may be held liable for torts they commit in the scope of their employment, and the government contractor defense to products liability design defect suits...

Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Posted on January 09, 2008
As we approach the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we have added three websites to the library catalog.The first site is The Martin King, Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University. In addition to an extensive King biography, encyclopedia, and collection of audio recordings, the website includes the most complete inventory available of King's major sermons, speeches, public statements, published writings, manuscripts, and substantial notes and outlines...

Annotated Justinian Code online

Posted on January 08, 2008
Justice Fred Blume's translation of the Justinian Code has been put online by the University of Wyoming Law Library.See http://uwacadweb.uwyo.edu/blume&justinian/default.aspTo quote Tim Kearley, Director of the Law Library and Centennial Distinguished Professor of Law At Wyoming:"This web site ...

Professor Whitton quoted in Marketwatch.

Posted on January 08, 2008
Professor Linda Whitton was quoted yesterday in an article online by Gail Liberman and Alan Lavine titled: Designated Hitter: Know How to Deal with Your Bank on a Power of Attorney. The article appeared on MarketWatch, an online publication of Dow Jones & Company...

The Effect of Same-Sex Marriages on Benefits

Posted on January 07, 2008
A short, only 5 pages, new CRS report examines how social security benefits are impacted by state legalized same sex marriages. In a nutshell, the report points out that federal government benefits are only available to spouses of the opposite sex, as defined in the Social Security Act and the Defense of Marriage Act...

Report of Indiana Commission on Local Government Reform

Posted on December 11, 2007
The report of the Indiana Commission on Local Government Reform (known as the Blue Ribbon Commission) is now available athttp://indianalocalgovreform.iu.edu/assets/docs/Report_12-10-07.pdfThe Report discusses ways to save money by streamlining local government in Indiana.

Per Curiam Opinions Examined

Posted on December 10, 2007
Ever wondered why courts sometimes designate an opinion as per curiam (by the court) without indicating which judge or justice actually penned it? Howard J. Bashman does exactly this in an interesting column appearing today on Law.com titled "Per Curiam Opinions: What's the Point?".

International Law Research Resources

Posted on November 27, 2007
The Law Library has added two websites for international law resources to Galileo, our online catalog.ASIL (American Society of International Law) contains valuable resources for international law including links to international organizations, treaties, U...

Visual Dictionary Online

Posted on November 27, 2007
Here's a cool tool if you want to see an illustration of a word.http://visual.merriam-webster.com

Get the skinny on your zip code

Posted on November 14, 2007
Website of the week: zipskinny.com, a website that allows you to analyze and compare zip codes in terms of population, level of education, level of income, and other interesting categories. The site was compiled using Census 2000 data available from the U...

National Emergency Powers

Posted on November 13, 2007
The President of the United States has available certain powers that may be exercised in the event that the nation is threatened by crisis, exigency, or emergency circumstances (other than natural disasters, war, or near-war situations). Such powers may be stated explicitly or implied by the Constitution, assumed by the Chief Executive to be permissible constitutionally, or inferred from or specified by statute...

Mortgage Crisis Congressional Research Service Report

Posted on November 13, 2007
With concern rising over the recent crisis situation in the housing and mortgage markets this report provides a general analysis and overview of current foreclosure issues that may be addressed in bills currently before Congress. Offering a description of the behavior of aggregate foreclosure rates and putting into context the behaviors of foreclosure rates, the foreclosure process is explained, from the point of view of a traditional financial lending institution, and from the viewpoint of securitization when loans are sold in secondary markets...

Could We Learn Something From This?

Posted on November 12, 2007
Good government, common sense, and self-restraint often appear to be in short supply. However, an article in the November 11, 2007, Chicago Tribune counteracts that observation and is worth reading. From Pool of Cash, Good Fortune Flows by Tribune foreign correspondent Tom Hundley explains how Norway learned from past "oil addiction" in the 1970's and has now developed a strategy that benefits all its citizens...

E-Discovery

Posted on November 05, 2007
The Law Library has several books about electronic discovery including a newly added title, Discovery of Electronically Stored Information: Surveying the Legal Landscape by Ronald J. Hedges. According to author, the aspect of law which has been most dramatically altered by the information technology revolution is discovery...

Selected U.N. Resources and Research Tools: Updated

Posted on November 02, 2007
In a blog entry for October 8, an article referenced in Globalex, entitled Selected U.N. Resources and Research Tools: Overview and Search Tips for Legal Research by Wiltrud Harms was mentioned. Since then, according to an email received from the author, a new pdf link has been added where "the columns fit nicely on one page and the scrolling down is more pleasant when the text is broken up into 7 pages...

A Year Ahead, Republicans Face Tough Political Terrain

Posted on November 01, 2007
A new survey from the Pew Research Center for the People and the PressA year before the 2008 presidential election, most major national opinion trends decidedly favor the Democrats and discontent with the state of the nation is markedly greater than it was four years ago...

Law School - The Musical

Posted on October 31, 2007
From ojarv001 on YouTube: a funny, mid-semester take on the experience that is law school. This is a great study break, especially for 1Ls.Thanks Rob!

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