April 2009 Archives

LexisNexis Officially Launches Martindale-Hubbell Connected

LexisNexis has officially launched Martindale-Hubbell® Connected. In beta development since June 2008, the network launched with 3,000 members and six alliance partners - the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, Lex Mundi, the Council on Litigation Management, Pro Bono Net, the National Association of Women Lawyers, and TerraLex.

From the press release:

Martindale-Hubbell Connected combines the largest global resource of legal contacts - more than one million lawyers and law firms around the world - with social networking technology to create a dynamic, authenticated network enabling corporate counsel and private practice attorneys to uncover new relationships and trusted referrals, share information and insights, and to identify their connection to firms, corporate legal departments or other lawyers.

What a mouthful!

At launch, the network is open to any private practice attorneys and corporate counsel. Law profs and students, law firm marketing directors, paralegals and other "qualified legal professionals" (law librarians?) will be invited to join the network later this year. There is no fee to join, and all members have access to the site's basic features and functions.

Source: Bob Ambrogi, Martindale's Networking Site Comes out of Beta via Law Librarian Blog

GPO Launches FDsys

I am pleased to announce the launch of FDsys, GPO's new Federal Digital System, an innovative tool to enable Americans and people worldwide to search and access the documents of the U.S. Government. FDsys is a one-stop site on which to find current, authentic, published information from all three branches of the U.S. Government.

I am especially pleased with our new Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents, which includes releases from the White House Press Office and remarks made by the President. FDsys also offers search capabilities to find documents released by Members of Congress and congressional committees, using only keyword and date information.

Bob Tapella
Public Printer of the United States

More info about FDSys: http://www.gpo.gov/projects/fdsys.htm

Ebbesson, Jonas and Phoebe Okowa, eds. Environmental law and justice in context. Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009. Call number: K3585 .E5793 2009

Publisher’s Description:

This innovative collection of essays discusses the extent to which considerations of justice and fairness have permeated the legal debate on environmental protection. Written by a wide range of contributors who have approached the subject from fresh theoretical and practical perspectives, the essays examine how these permutations of justice have influenced policy choices relating to topics like climate change, protection of the stratospheric zone, trade and the conduct of warfare. The significance of participatory rights as a medium for the realisation of environmental justice is given extended treatment, and the contributors also assess the congruence between environmental justice and structural issues, such as gender, class, state borders and, on a global scale, North-South relations. The book will inform and stimulate debate on an important-yet-neglected aspect of the environmental discourse, and is highly recommended for researchers and students of international and domestic law, political science and international relations.

Powe, L. A. Scot. The Supreme Court and the American elite, 1789-2008. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2009. Call number: KF8742 .P683 2009

Publisher’s Description:

“The Supreme Court follows the election returns,” the fictional Mr. Dooley observed a hundred years ago. And for all our ideals and dreams of a disinterested judiciary, above the political fray, it seems Mr. Dooley was right. In this engaging—and disturbing—book, a leading historian of the Court reveals the close fit between its decisions and the nation’s politics.

The story begins with the creation of the Constitution and ends with the June 2008 decisions on the rights of detainees at Guantánamo Bay. Rendering crisp (and often controversial) judgments on key decisions from Marbury v. Madison to the War on Terror, Lucas Powe shows how virtually every major Supreme Court ruling, however deftly framed in constitutional terms, suited the wishes of the most powerful politicians of the time. This history reflects a changing Court, from the country’s early struggles over commerce and transportation to the torturous justifications of slavery before the Civil War, to a post–New Deal interest in ending segregation, controlling criminal procedure, and addressing knotty questions arising from the Cold War. Through all of this the Court emerges as part of a ruling regime, doing its best to implement the regime’s policies.

Drawing on more than four decades of thinking about the Supreme Court and its role in the American political system, this book offers a new, clear, and troubling perspective on American jurisprudence, politics, and history.

Separating State from Church: A Research Guide to the Law of the Vatican City State
Stephen Young (Catholic University) and Alison Shea (Fordham) have deposited Separating State from Church: A Research Guide to the Law of the Vatican City State in SSRN.

From the abstract:

Mr. Young and Ms. Shea discuss the unique situation of the Vatican City State in legal research. They provide an overview of the founding documents and the constitutional structure of the world's smallest sovereign nation, a discussion of the complex nature of the Vatican's international status, and a bibliographic essay covering the materials most likely to be available in law libraries in the United States.

Source: Law Librarian Blog

April 22, 2009
Chronicle of Higher Education "The Wired Campus Blog"
Law Reviews Create Web Magazine Offering Condensed Articles

Lawyers study for years to develop the patience to wade through dense legal tomes on such topics as the “takings clause,” but what about the rest of us?

A coalition of publications at a handful of prestigious law schools is looking out for curious laypersons who might be interested in the debate over intentionalist and textualist interpretations of the law, but don’t have the time to wrestle with a 78-page document brimming with footnotes and legalese. The new online magazine The Legal Workshop offers visitors the chance to browse brief summaries of articles appearing in the influential law reviews (composed by the authors of those articles), written in plain language.

The idea is to open up the content of law reviews to a wider audience and to make legal debates influential and relevant beyond academic cloisters. “As a profession,” Michael Montano, an editor of the Stanford Law Review, told the Web site Legal Blog Watch, “we owe it to the public to produce work that is relevant to society as a whole.”
–Steve Kolowich

What is CaseMap?
According to Sue Altmeyer, Electronic Services Librarian at Cleveland-Marshall:
It's a research log tool provided by LexisNexis. Sue explains that LexisNexis CaseMap allows one to create tables of the actors, documents, evidence, pleadings and legal authorities, link them and create reports. CaseMap also works with LexisNexis' TimeMap and TextMap. Sue links to David Thomson's (Denver) CaseMap as a Tool for the Research Log Function: Finally, a Technology that Can Help us Teach Better [SSRN] for additional information.

Source: Law Librarian Blog

The Law Library is pleased to announce the publication of a new research guide, “Researching Criminal Procedure in Federal & Minnesota Trial Courts” . This guide covers print and electronic primary and secondary sources for criminal procedure research.

The complete list of over 60 library research guides and pathfinders can be accessed from the Law Library’s Research Guides & Pathfinders web page at: http://local.law.umn.edu/library/pathfinders-directory.html.

An excerpt from the MN Legal History Project website:

The objective of The Minnesota Legal History Project is to increase knowledge of and research into the legal history of the State of Minnesota. It will do so by making available previously published articles and by publishing new or original studies of Minnesota’s legal past.

The Minnesota Legal History Project will publish studies of subjects that relate in any way to the legal history of the State of Minnesota, including the state constitution, state courts, Indian treaties, tribal law and courts, significant litigation, the development of specific areas of the law, memoirs and biographical sketches of individual lawyers, judges and their support staffs, and law firm histories, among others.

The Minnesota Legal History Project is an experiment. With experience and over time, it will be redesigned to better meet the needs of its audience and to fulfill its ambitions. Suggestions for improvement are welcome and patience is advised.

The Minnesota Legal History Project is a private, noncommercial endeavor. It has no affiliation with the State of Minnesota.

This week we highlight recent acquisitions received from the ABA. Enjoy!

Friedman, Gary J. and Jack Himmelstein. Challenging conflict : mediation through understanding.
Chicago, IL : American Bar Association, 2008. Call number: KF9084 .H56 2008

Publisher’s Description:
This revolutionary book shows how through mediation parties can escape the trap of conflict rather than remain ensnared within its grasp at enormous cost to themselves and others. The authors demonstrate how mediators, and lawyers, can support parties to work together effectively in ways that deeply respect their humanity. Through the telling of ten riveting stories of actual commercial mediations, the principles and methodologies of the understanding-based approach come alive. In so "challenging conflict," the authors also challenge the conflict resolution field to reach for more.

Paul, George L. Foundations of digital evidence.
Chicago, IL : American Bar Association, 2008. Call number: KF8902.E42 P38 2008

Publisher’s Description:
Foundations of Digital Evidence provides you with a legal and practical approach to the new world of digital information…. The book provides an overview and history of digital evidence, as well as a thorough discussion of relevant issues, including:
•How you can view and understand informational records, so that you can ask the right questions in search of the truth;
•An understanding of how to ensure that any digital record is authentic, including a full explanation of how to authenticate digital evidence -- or contest its admission as the case may be;
•A discussion of the three principal foundations that determine whether a digital writing is authentic;
•How to test whether digital information has changed through time;
•A discussion of the various ways evidence of time appears in digital records;
•An overview of identity issues -- How do we know who is playing in our information systems? Is there a way to keep track? Who authored a digital record?
•An understanding of hearsay rules and under what circumstances judges admit computer-generated information into evidence.

Joy, Peter A. and Kevin C. McMunigal. Do no wrong : ethics for prosecutors and defenders.
Chicago : American Bar Association, c2009. Call number: KF9619 .J69 2009

Publisher’s Description:
Criminal law practice is a minefield of legal ethics issues for both the prosecution and defense. There are a myriad of ethical questions requiring not only an understanding of the relevant ethics rules, but also applicable constitutional and statutory law as well as rules of criminal procedure and evidence. This book aims to put these and other ethical questions on the "radar screens" of criminal practitioners and to provide both prosecution and defense with the analysis and authorities necessary to understand the issues and underlying policies. This book gathers in one place ethics columns written over a number of years for the ABA Criminal Justice Section's publication Criminal Justice. Each has been updated and some expanded.

Young, John Hardin, ed. International election principles : democracy & the rule of law.
Chicago : ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice, c2009. Call number: K3293 .I58 2009

Publisher’s Description:
International Election Principles is a practical resource covering standards, rules, and other criteria that apply to elections around the world. The book is designed to help attorneys (and others observing or otherwise participating in the electoral process) understand the general standards and theoretical complexities of the field. Some of the chapter authors focus on collaborative efforts of non-governmental organizations and similar institutions to strengthen electoral procedures; others use comparative assessments to review election doctrines. Each author presents core principles to explain electoral processes and examines democratic elections in a broader political context. This comprehensive resource will help unite theory and practice in this rapidly evolving field.

U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
http://indian.senate.gov/public/

In 1984, the U.S. Senate voted to make the Committee on Indian Affairs permanent, and the basic mission is "to study the unique problems of American Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Alaska Native peoples and to propose legislation to alleviate these difficulties." Visitors can learn a bit more about the Committee and its members in the "About" section. After reading through the brief introduction there, users can click on sections that cover "Hearings", "Investigations", "Issues", and "Legislation". The "Issues" section is perhaps the most informative, as it includes summaries that provide a basic outline of primary issues affecting different Native American groups, such as gaming, reservation roads, and tribal law. Visitors can also offer their own comments on these affairs and view a list of relevant links.

From the Scout Report:
Copyright Internet Scout, 1994-2009. Internet Scout (http://scout.wisc.edu/), located in the Computer Sciences Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, provides information about the Internet to the U.S. research and education community under a grant from the National Science Foundation, number NCR-9712163. The Government has certain rights in this material. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the entire Scout Report provided this paragraph, including the copyright notice, are preserved on all copies.

Military Law Review [pdf]
http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/Military-Law-Review-home.html

The Library of Congress' Research Center of Military Legal Resources contains, among other publications, the Military Law Review. The Military Law Review has been published quarterly since 1958, and is meant to be used by military attorneys in their work and "'provides a forum for those interested in military law to share the products of their experience and research.'" Visitors should also note that most of the issues from 1958 to 2008 are available for general perusal. Each issue of the journal contains both articles and book reviews. An article in the Winter 2008 issue, entitled "Crossing the Line: Reconciling the Right to Picket Military Funerals With the First Amendment", is a very accessible article about the constitutionality of state and federal funeral picketing laws. Visitors interested in learning about the school that provides military legal education, and where the Military Law Review is published, should click on the link "The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center & School (JAGS), U.S. Army, Charlottesville, Virginia", in the first paragraph on the homepage.

From the Scout Report
Copyright Internet Scout, 1994-2009. Internet Scout (http://scout.wisc.edu/), located in the Computer Sciences Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, provides information about the Internet to the U.S. research and education community under a grant from the National Science Foundation, number NCR-9712163. The Government has certain rights in this material. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the entire Scout Report provided this paragraph, including the copyright notice, are preserved on all copies.

International criminal law / edited by M. Cherif Bassiouni.
3rd ed. Leiden, Netherlands : Martinus Nijhoff Pub., c2008. Call number: K5165 .I58 2008

Publisher’s Description:
The definitive treatise on international criminal law, M. Cherif Bassiouni’s unique 3- volume collection is now in its third edition. Written by more than 50 outstanding authorities from 19 countries, it covers the entire field, from the theory of what makes a crime "international" to the step-by-step conduct of an international prosecution. Its in-depth coverage includes:

• analysis of the doctrinal basis of international criminal law
• the historical development of international criminal law and policy
• detailed treatment of 16 crimes that have been given international jurisdiction, including torture, genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity
• issues of immunity and jurisdiction
• judicial assistance
• recognition of foreign penal judgments
• extradition and transfer of prisoners
• taking evidence abroad
• seizure of foreign assets
• international criminal tribunals procedure
• international criminal prosecutions in domestic courts
• and a great deal more

Attention is paid throughout the presentation to the complex cultural and regional issues that often arise in this field of practice.

Lessons from the identity trail : anonymity, privacy and identity in a networked society / edited by Ian Kerr, Valerie Steeves, and Carole Lucock.
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, c2009. Call number: K3264.C65 L47 2009

Publisher’s Description:
During the past decade, rapid developments in information and communications technology have transformed key social, commercial and political realities. Within that same time period, working at something less than internet speed, much of the academic and policy debates arising from these new and emerging technologies have been fragmented. There have been few examples of interdisciplinary dialogue about the potential for anonymity and privacy in a networked society. Lessons from the Identity Trail fills that gap, and examines key questions about anonymity, privacy and identity in an environment that increasingly automates the collection of personal information and uses surveillance to reduce corporate and security risks.

This project has been informed by the results of a multi-million dollar research project that has brought together a distinguished array of philosophers, ethicists, feminists, cognitive scientists, lawyers, cryptographers, engineers, policy analysts, government policy makers and privacy experts. Working collaboratively over a four-year period and participating in an iterative process designed to maximize the potential for interdisciplinary discussion and feedback through a series of workshops and peer review, the authors have integrated crucial public policy themes with the most recent research outcomes.

During this week, National Library Week April 13-17, the Law Library will be collecting donated books, magazines, and media (CDs, videos, etc) for distribution to area nursing homes, jails, and community organizations without a full library. Consider donating your gently used materials!

If you have any questions about this event, please contact Paula Seeger at seege030@umn.edu

"Ever wondered what Louisa May Alcott looked like? That's her at left; it's her portrait in the New York Public Library's digital authors collection. Look how she had to perch sideways on the couch in order to accommodate her bustle. And how upright she sits! Did they ever slump in her day? Did they wear pajamas? My goodness, how could a woman write all corseted up like that? Of course, we can't learn much from looking at authors' photos, but that doesn't stop me from being curious. There's Edmund Wilson, on the right, the esteemed critic. And I think he looks like a terrible bore — the fact that he's the one who donated this picture to the library doesn't recommend him, does it?"

Read more at the LA Times blog about the NY Public Library digital authors collection

Here are some resources of note on the topic of Women in the Law:

The Fairer Sex: What do we mean when we say we need more female justices?
By Dahlia Lithwick, Slate blog

It's almost an article of faith among Supreme Court watchers that President Obama will fill the bench's next vacancy—and perhaps the one after that, too—with a woman. The current court's sole female member, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has said she is "lonely" there, and even if she's not the next to step aside and another women joins her, that's still just two out of nine. Americans seem quite certain that isn't enough. Former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, on learning in 2005 that John Roberts would take her place, declared him "good in every way, except he's not a woman." Americans concur. In a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll taken just before Roberts was appointed, 80 percent of respondents said it was a good idea to replace O'Connor with a woman, and 13 percent said it was "essential." And with women claiming a large share of responsibility for Obama's victory over John McCain, the demand for a more gender-balanced court is stronger than ever.

"Untangling the Causal Effects of Sex on Judging," a paper by Christina L. Boyd and Andrew D. Martin and Lee Epstein: http://epstein.law.northwestern.edu/research/genderjudging.pdf

Surveying sex discrimination suits resolved by panels of judges in federal circuit courts between 1995 and 2002, the researchers examined whether male and female judges decide cases differently, and went on to look at whether the presence of a female on a panel of judges affects the behavior of her male colleagues.

ABA Commission on Women in the Profession
19th Annual Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Awards Luncheon
Sunday, August 2 - Noon to 2:00 p.m. - Chicago, IL (ABA Annual Meeting)
2009 Honorees:
--Linda L. Addison, Partner, Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. and co-founder of the Center for Women in Law at the University of Texas; in Houston, TX and New York, NY
--Helaine M. Barnett, President, Legal Services Corporation and first legal aid attorney to serve as president of the Legal Services Corporation; in Washington, DC
--Hon. Arnette R. Hubbard, Judge, Circuit Court of Cook County, IL and champion of human rights through the exercise of the right to vote; in Chicago, IL
--Hon. Vanessa Ruiz, Judge, District of Columbia Court of Appeals and the first Hispanic judge to serve on D.C.'s highest court; in Washington, DC
--Loretta A. Tuell, Partner, AndersonTuell, LLP, lawyer and legislative advocate on behalf of Indian tribes; in Washington, DC

Women & the Law -- Directory of Online Resources
from AcademicInfo

Minnesota Women Lawyers

Founded in 1972, Minnesota Women Lawyers is an association of more than 1,200 lawyers, judges, law students and other professionals. MWL’s goals are to support the professional and leadership development of women lawyers, to advocate on behalf of women lawyers within the legal profession, and to support social action initiatives to end discrimination in the justice system and promote equality of women in society. Minnesota Women Lawyers’ programs, projects, and activities are guided by our organizational values:
-The legal profession and society benefit from promoting and valuing diversity in all its forms.
-Women lawyers face common challenges and can teach and learn from one another.
-A strong community of women lawyers is essential to the legal profession and the administration of justice
-MWL celebrates the individual and collective achievements of women lawyers and law students, and supports them throughout their careers.
-MWL advocates for the full equality of women in society and promotes initiatives to eliminate all forms of discrimination.
-The practice of law is enriched when lawyers fully participate in the lives of their families and communities.

Women & the Law web links from the Law Library's website

From Shorpy blog: Washington, D.C., circa 1922. "Pauline Floyd, 24, youngest lawyer ever admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court."

Academic Earth is making available "full video courses and lectures from the world's leading scholars." A number of disciplines are represented, including law. At the moment, only two courses are linked to from the law site: Introduction to Copyright Law by Professor Keith Winstein from MIT, and Climate Change: Law and Policy by Professor William Collins of the University of California at Berkeley. The first of Professor Winstein's lectures deals with the basics of legal research and citation, among other subjects. Obviously, this site is a work in progress, but it's well worth returning to periodically to see if new content has been added.

Source: Out of the Jungle Blog

University Libraries to be Presented with Prestigious "Excellence in Academic Libraries" Award

The University of Minnesota Libraries are bringing in the cupcakes and trumpets to celebrate winning this year's prestigious Excellence in Academic Libraries Award (previously reported here). The Libraries have received the award, a national tribute to a library and its staff, in recognition of their success integrating their expertise and resources into the life of the campus. Sponsored by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL, a division of the American Library Association) and Blackwell’s Book Services, the $3,000 award and a plaque will be presented by ACRL President Erika Linke to Provost Tom Sullivan and University Librarian Wendy Pradt Lougee at a 3:00 p.m. ceremony on Wednesday, April 22 in Walter Library.

The recognition culminates a multi-year process of transformation. “The libraries understand the importance of the process of conducting scholarship and have implemented programs to support behaviors rather than product,” said Pamela Snelson, chair of the 2009 Excellence in Academic Libraries Selection Committee and college librarian at Franklin & Marshall College. “By ‘getting in the flow of users,’ the libraries have moved out of their comfort zone and shifted into an engagement-centered model for all library services and programs.”

“Through careful planning, creative energy, and hard work, we now have a highly visible and highly valued position on campus and strong reputation for leadership in the profession. To have our staff’s innovative work recognized by the ACRL community is quite simply wonderful," said Lougee.

Refreshments will be served beginning at 3:00 in Walter Library's Great Hall; the award presentation will begin at 3:15. The campus community and members of the public are welcome to attend.

Source: News from the Libraries

Working in "cubicle city"? New studies suggest you might not be working at the highest level of productivity due to noise, distractions, and bad office layout.

Research was reported in Journal of Facilities Management, available in full-text through University Libraries.

"The impact of office layout on productivity" by Barry P. Haynes, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK (vol. 6, no. 3, 2008, p. 189-201)

"Performance loss in open-plan offices due to noise by speech" by Paul Roelofsen, Grontmij|Technical Management, Amersfoort, The Netherlands (vol. 6, no. 3, 2008, p. 202-211)

"Distractions in the workplace revisited" by Kathy O. Roper and Parminder Juneja, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (vol. 6, no. 2, 2008, p. 91-109)

The emerging practice of the International Criminal Court / edited by Carsten Stahn and Goran Sluiter ; with a foreword by Adriaan Bos.
Leiden ; Boston : Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2009. Call number: KZ6311 .E364 2009

Publisher’s Description:
The International Criminal Court is at a crossroads. In 1998, the Court was still a fiction. A decade later, it has become operational and faces its first challenges as a judicial institution. This volume examines this transition. It analyses the first jurisprudence and policies of the Court. It provides a systematic survey of the emerging law and practice in four main areas: the relationship of the Court to domestic jurisdictions, prosecutorial policy and practice, the treatment of the Court’s applicable law and the shaping of its procedure. It revisits major themes, such as jurisdiction, complementarity, cooperation, prosecutorial discretion, modes of liability, pre-trial, trial and appeals procedure and the treatment of victims and witnesses, as well as their criticisms. It also explores some of challenges and potential avenues for future reform.

Knowles, Helen J. The tie goes to freedom : Justice Anthony M. Kennedy on liberty.
Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, c2009. Call number: KF4749 .K59 2009

Publisher’s Description:
At the ideological center of the Supreme Court sits Anthony M. Kennedy, whose pivotal role on the Rehnquist Court is only expected to grow in importance now that he is the lone "swing Justice" on the Roberts Court. The Ties Goes to Freedom is the first book-length analysis of Kennedy, and it challenges the conventional wisdom that his jurisprudence is inconsistent and incoherent.

Using the hot-button issues of privacy rights, race, and free speech, this book demonstrates how Kennedy forcefully articulates a libertarian constitutional vision. The Tie Goes to Freedom fills two significant voids--one examining the jurisprudence of the man at the ideological center of the Supreme Court, the other demonstrating the compatibility of an expansive judicial role with libertarian political theory.

Beyond LexisNexis & Westlaw: UCLA's New Guide to Online Legal Research

UCLA has just released a new Beyond LexisNexis & Westlaw guide. It describes a wide range of online legal research resources and covers primary law, government resources, research guides, reference sources, forms, and legal news. Using the LibGuides platform, Beyond LexisNexis and Westlaw is well organized, very helpful and an excellent implementation of LibGuides by an academic law library.

Source: Law Librarian blog

Bar Admission Requirements in All States
The National Conference of Bar Examiners and the ABA publish a book titled "Comprehensive guide to bar admission requirements". It's in the Reference Collection in our library at call number KF302.A15 C66. Ask for it at the Reference Office, or, if you would rather read a PDF version, you can do that here.

Source: bkallusky's blog via Moritz Legal Info Blog

Law Library = Twins Territory
Monday, April 6th, 12:15 - 1:15
Celebrate Opening Day!

Drop by the Library and enjoy hot dogs, popcorn, ice cream and drawings for Twins tickets, caps & t-shirts.

The Library gratefully acknowledges the Law Council's support of this event, and gifts from the class of 2008.

The iLibrary of iCongress
As essential printed content is increasingly available on-line through Google Books, Open Library, and other digitization projects, the Library of Congress has announced initiatives to upload more of other forms of media as well. Macworld and others report on the library's plans to post film, video, image, and audio materials on iTunes, Flickr, and YouTube, among other sites. Says Macworld:

Among the items Web surfers can expect on iTunes and YouTube are 100-year-old films from Thomas Edison's studio, book talks with contemporary authors, early industrial films from Westinghouse factories, first-person audio accounts of life in slavery, and inside looks into the library's holdings, including the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence and the contents of President Abraham Lincoln's pockets on the night of his assassination.

The articles also mention that the US General Services Administration has forged agreements with Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo, and blip.tv that will allow other federal agencies to participate in new media, with more agreements to come. Says Library of Congress Director of Communications Matt Raymond: "Our broad strategy is to 'fish where the fish are,' and to use the sites that give our content added value."

These initiatives should provide more access to resources in the public trust, and even some useful content for arts education, promotion, and context. And they continue the trends set by our first YouTube president (well...not on YouTube anymore).

Source: The Artful Manager

Here is the list of new titles the Law Library acquired in March 2009. The list is on the Library's home page.

March Acquisitions

In addition, here are several highlighted titles of particular interest:

Sunstein, Cass R. A Constitution of many minds : why the founding document doesn’t mean what it meant before. Princeton : Princeton University Press, c2009. Call number: KF4552 .S86 2009

Publisher’s Description:
The future of the U.S. Supreme Court hangs in the balance like never before. Will conservatives or liberals succeed in remaking the court in their own image? In A Constitution of Many Minds, acclaimed law scholar Cass Sunstein proposes a bold new way of interpreting the Constitution, one that respects the Constitution's text and history but also refuses to view the document as frozen in time.

Exploring hot-button issues ranging from presidential power to same-sex relations to gun rights, Sunstein shows how the meaning of the Constitution is reestablished in every generation as new social commitments and ideas compel us to reassess our fundamental beliefs. He focuses on three approaches to the Constitution--traditionalism, which grounds the document's meaning in long-standing social practices, not necessarily in the views of the founding generation; populism, which insists that judges should respect contemporary public opinion; and cosmopolitanism, which looks at how foreign courts address constitutional questions, and which suggests that the meaning of the Constitution turns on what other nations do.

Sunstein demonstrates that in all three contexts a "many minds" argument is at work--put simply, better decisions result when many points of view are considered. He makes sense of the intense debates surrounding these approaches, revealing their strengths and weaknesses, and sketches the contexts in which each provides a legitimate basis for interpreting the Constitution today. This book illuminates the underpinnings of constitutionalism itself, and shows that ours is indeed a Constitution, not of any particular generation, but of many minds.

Goldfarb, Ronald L. In confidence : when to protect secrecy and when to require disclosure.
New Haven [Conn.] : Yale University Press, c2009.Call number: KF8958 .G65 2009

Publisher’s Description:
The variety and pervasiveness of confidentiality issues today is breathtaking. Not a day passes without a media report on a breach of confidentiality, a claim of attorney-client privilege, a journalist jailed for refusing to reveal a source, a medical or hospital record improperly disclosed, or a major business deal exposed by anonymous sources. In Confidence examines confidential issues that arise in various disciplines and relationships and considers which should be protected and which should not.

Ronald Goldfarb organizes the book around professionals for whom confidentiality is an issue of weighty importance: government officials, attorneys, medical personnel, psychotherapists, clergy, business people, and journalists. In a chapter devoted to each, and in another on spousal privilege, he lays out specific issues and the law’s positions on them. He discusses an array of court cases in which confidentiality issues played an important role and decisions were often surprising and controversial. Goldfarb also looks into the criteria that should be used when determining whether secrets must be revealed. His nuanced analysis reveals how federal government practices and technological capabilities increasingly challenge the boundaries of privacy, and his thoughtful insights open the door to meaningful new debate.

International legal dimension of terrorism / edited by Pablo Antonio Fernandez-Sanchez.
Leiden ; Boston : Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2009. Call number: K5256 .I59 2009

Publisher’s Description:
More than ever before International Humanitarian Law needs to find new solutions to new types of conflicts. The current state of the fight against terrorism is without doubt one of the new problems facing international society and one of the concerns of International Humanitarian Law. This volume offers reflections on the international legal theory of terrorism, international responsibility, the obligation to prevent terrorist acts, terrorism in armed conflicts, the responses to terrorism by regional international organizations and the legal limits to the fight against terrorism.

The contributors consist of academics (and politicians) from Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon and Israel, as well as from Spain, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and a representative for the Organisation of American States. The book thus contains a wide, multidisciplinary debate, with an emphasis on a Mediterranean perspective.

In addition to examining all aspects of international terrorism, the objective of the symposium which gave rise to these essays was to establish some guidelines, in the form of a Declaration, to serve as the basis for the UN’s High Level Group for the Alliance of Civilisations on the subject of international terrorism. This overall objective was achieved with the adoption of the Huelva Declaration for an Alliance of Civilisations against Terrorism, the text of which is included at the end of this book.

The Oxford handbook of international trade law / edited by Daniel Bethlehem ... [et al.].
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2009. Call number: K1005 .O94 2009

Publisher’s Description:
Over the past 10 years, the content and application of international trade law has grown dramatically. The WTO created a binding dispute settlement process and in resolving disputes, the judicial organs of the WTO have built up a substantial amount of new international trade law. Emerging from this new WTO process is an international trade law system that is in some respects self-contained and in other respects overlapping and linked to other international legal, economic and political regimes. The 'boundaries' of trade law are now generating enormous interest and controversy which, at a broader level, is subsumed within the debate over globalization.

The detailed development of the rules of international trade is being examined with increasing frequency by scholars, government officials and trade law practitioners. But how does it fit with existing systems? How it is modified by them? How does the international trade law system affect and modify other regimes?

This Handbook places international trade law within its broader context, providing comment and critique on contemporary thinking on a range of questions both related specifically to the discipline of international trade law itself and to the outside face of international trade law and its intersection with States and other aspects of the international system. It examines the economic and institutional context of the world trading system, its substantive law (including regional trade regimes) and the settlement of disputes. The final part of the book explores the wider framework of the world trading system, considering issues including the relationship of the WTO to civil society, the use of economic sanctions, state responsibility, and the regulation of multinational corporations.