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Book Event: A Panel Discussion about Connecting Democracy: Online Consultation and the Flow of Political Communication

A Panel Discussion about Connecting Democracy: Online Consultation and the Flow of Political Communication

with

Peter Shane, Jacob E. Davis and Jacob E. Davis II Chair in Law at the Ohio State University and Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School Library (co-editor of the book)

David Lazer, Associate Professor, College of Computer and Information Science, Northeastern University

Ethan Zuckerman, Director of the Center for Civic Media at MIT

Matthew Baum, Marvin Kalb Professor of Global Communications, Professor of Public Policy, Shorenstein Center, Harvard Kennedy School of Government

John Palfrey, Berkman Faculty Co-Director, Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law, Vice Dean, Library and Information Resources, Harvard Law School

Austin 111 West
Harvard Law School
Tuesday, February 7th
6:00pm

Free and open to the public.

RSVP requested.

Sponsored by the Harvard Law School Library and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society

Introducing Two New E-Resources – Bangladesh & Ghana

The Law Library has purchased access to two new e-resources: Chancery Law Chronicles, which provides access to Bangladesh’s case law and Lexis Nexis South Africa, which provides access to legal materials from Ghana. Chancery Law Chronicles is the first online database to provide access to Bangladeshi case law. It currently offers access to Appellate and High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh since 1972. In addition to case law, it also includes several dictionaries related to legal practice and some statutes, though statutes are not yet searchable. The database remains under development with plans to offer access to additional legal documents in the future. Our other new e-resource, Lexis Nexis South Africa, is a valuable resource for students interested in researching the Ghana legal system. It provides access to law reports from Ghana as well as the constitution and laws of the country. To access either of these databases, ask a librarian at the reference desk for assistance during normal reference hours.

852 RARE: The Monthly Special – A favorite digital collection

Over the years, Historical & Special Collections has taken on many digitization projects – from early studies of Roman law, to our collection of legal portraits, to the papers of some of the Law School’s distinguished alumni.  One of my personal favorites is the Charles Claflin Davis Papers.  Davis attended both Harvard College and the Law School, graduating in 1910.  In the 1920s he became involved with the American Red Cross as Director of the Southwestern Base located in Constantinople.   There he worked with Russian refugee camps and spent time in the schools and orphanages.  His collection of papers, photographs and scrapbooks represents his time with the Red Cross in Constantinople and the gratitude expressed to him by the children in the camps.

A highlight of the collection is one scrapbook made by the Russian Towns Union Children’s Home No. 1.  The children created a beautiful scrapbook for Davis to thank him for his work.  Below is one of the pages:

A page from a scrapbook presented to Charles Claflin Davis by children in a Russian refugee camp. From The Charles Claflin Davis Papers, 1917-1923. Scrapbooks, box 6. Sequence number 711.

There are also some haunting photos of the refugee camps, such as this one that depicts a view of a Russian refugee camp showing men lying on the ground and lines of laundry hanging overhead. The camp sits outside the Dolma Bagtche palace in Constantinople, Turkey.

From the Charles Claflin Davis Papers, 1917-1923. Box 1. olvwork438394.

Stanford Law School’s China Guiding Cases Project

On November 26, 2010, the Supreme People’s Court of China promulgated a new provision stating that the Court would release selected cases as part of a new category of “guiding cases”. It was intended that other courts would refer to these “guiding cases” when deciding similarly situated cases. While not exactly equivalent to binding precedent, many legal practitioners who follow Chinese law believe that these cases will be given similar weight in future cases.

Last week, Stanford Law School initiated a program called the China Guiding Cases Project to collect and provide online access to both Chinese-language and English-language versions of these cases promptly after their release. The goal of the project according to its website is “to advance knowledge and understanding of Chinese law and to enable judges and legal experts both inside and outside of China to contribute to the evolution of Chinese case law through ongoing dialogue on “guiding cases” (指导性案例) released by China’s Supreme People’s Court”. Currently the site provides access to the four guiding cases that have been released to date in both Chinese and English as well as Chinese and English versions of the original November 26, 2010 provision that announced the new concept of “guiding cases”. The project’s Why Guiding Cases Matter page also includes quotes from legal experts and judges on the importance of these “guiding cases” and the site will include additional expert commentary in the future. As new “guiding cases” are released, they will also be added to the website and there are plans in place to offer “Question and Answer” sessions in the future as well. The China Guiding Cases Project will be an important resource for anyone interested in keeping up with future developments in this new concept in Chinese law.

Introducing Two New E-Resources – Juta Law & Hukuk Türk

The law school recently purchased access to two new foreign law e-resources, Juta Law and Hukuk Türk. Juta Law covers both South Africa and Zimbabwe. For South African legal research, it includes the country’s Law Reports from 1947 to the present and Appellate Division Reports from 1910 to the present and also offers access to statutes and regulations. For Zimbabwe, it includes access to both case law and statutes. Hukuk Türk is a Turkish legal database with a range of legal resources including annotated case law, statutes, regulations, and decrees. In addition to these primary resources, it also provides access to an extensive legal bibliography of both books and articles from 1930 to 2000 (with additional items published more recently being added all the time) as well as Turkish legal news and a legal dictionary. All resources are provided in the original Turkish. Both of these resources can be accessed both on and off campus by current law school affiliates.

852 RARE: Activity Alert in the Library’s Lemann Lounge & Entrance Areas

As part of a large physical plant improvement project in the Harvard Law Library’s Historical & Special Collections stacks, materials will be moving in and out of the Library in January and February 2012. Please be prepared for increased noise and activity near the Lemann Lounge and Story Statue Library entrance areas during this time. Activity will begin on Wednesday January 4. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we take these steps to ensure the future safety of our collections.

Capitol Words: From the Mouths of Legislators!

The Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan non-profit that seeks greater government transparency, has relaunched Capitol Words.

Capitol Words scrapes the Congressional Record, uses computer magic to organize the metadata, then presents an easy-to-use website where one can quickly search the favorite keywords of legislators, states or dates over the last 15 years.

This tool seems to have the most practical use for comedy writers and social scientists.  I just ran a search for marijuana.  Seems this capitol word appeared most often in September 1998 and by Republicans.

Interested in the judicial branch, then check out LegalLanguageExplorer.com (in beta). Search instances of phrases in Supreme Court opinions, and instantly download a list of cases.  Marijuana appears in 127 decisions since 1800, and is most popular in 2001.

 

852 RARE: The Monthly Special – A Treat from the Early Days of Printing

Newe Reformacion (Nuremberg, 1484): Hand-Colored Woodcut by Michael Wohlgemut

Newe Reformacion (Nuremberg, 1484): Hand-Colored Woodcut by Michael Wohlgemut

Regular readers of 852 RARE on Et Seq may wonder why the Weekly Special, featuring cool and unusual items from Historical & Special Collections, has morphed into a Monthly Special. We made the change because our department is undergoing a physical plant project that has required us to send many of our materials offsite from December 2011 until August 2012. Until our collection is back in place, we’ll still share news of the wonderful and the weird – just not as frequently. We hope you enjoy our posts!

Newe Reformacion (Nuremberg, 1484): Cover

Newe Reformacion (Nuremberg, 1484): Cover

December’s Monthly Special features the Newe Reformacion, a collection of the city of Nuremberg’s laws. It was printed in Nuremberg in 1484 by Anton Koberger. Books printed in Europe before 1501 are called incunables or incunabula, meaning that they were printed in the earliest days, or “cradle,” of printing.

Our copy features beautifully tooled front and back covers, an illuminated initial capital, and most notably of all, a hand-colored woodcut which shows the Nuremberg city arms flanked by St. James the Greater and St. Lawrence. Nuremberg artist Michael Wohlgemut (1434-1519) created the woodcut. Primarily a painter, Wohlgemut also produced woodcuts for book illustration and taught Albrecht Dürer, who went on to much greater artistic fame.

Newe Reformacion (Nuremberg, 1484): Detail

Newe Reformacion (Nuremberg, 1484): Detail

 

Study Break: A night at the movies

to-kill-a-mockingbird

At this time of year,  I’m reminded of some good advice from my contracts professor.

Put down your outlines, study guides, practice tests and laptops.

Take a break.

Watch a movie.

The Library has a collection of movies available for 7 day check-out. Browse the shelves in the Lemann lounge or search HOLLIS for a favorite title. If the Law School Library doesn’t have it, more movies are available from Widener and Lamont.

Not sure what to watch?  Escape into Hollywood’s idea of the Harvard Law School…

Try the Paper Chase, the classic 1970′s drama about a 1L at Harvard Law School.

Watch the Paper Chase Trailer

Legally Blonde poster

or compare current classroom fashions to Elle’s in

Watch the Legally Blonde Trailer

Pick a movie to match your classes…

Trial Advocacy Workshop: To Kill a Mockingbird

Torts: A Civil Action

Evidence: Witness for the Prosecution

Sports and Law: Jerry Maguire

Water Law: Chinatown

Contracts: The Devil and Daniel Webster

Property: Pride and Prejudice ( the 2005 or 1940 versions only – save the BBC miniseries for after exams!)

Family Law: Kramer v. Kramer

Constitutional Law: First Amendment: The People vs. Larry Flynt

Criminal Investigations: Police Practices: LA Confidential

Securities Regulation: Wall Street

Or pick a classic…

The ABA has compiled a list of the top 25 legal movies of all time (plus 25 runners up).

The American Film Institute has also compiled a list of the top 10 courtroom dramas.

Best of luck on all of your exams!

852 RARE: The Weekly Special – Manuscript collections now open for research

In an effort to get more manuscript collections out of the backlog and available to researchers, the staff in Historical & Special Collections have been busy over the last six months organizing and describing nine new Modern Manuscript collections.  Spanning both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, these collections cover a variety of topics including an account of the Nuremberg trials from an unusual perspective, and an early Massachusetts court case involving Harvard and a bridge across the Charles river.  For those fans of the classic Harvard Law School tale, The Paper Chase, we also have a collection of the author’s drafts now available. We are grateful to Amelia Wilber, Janet Katz, and Ana Enriquez, colleagues who participated in the library’s 20% program and volunteered their time to work on these projects. The staff of Historical & Special Collections are grateful for their work.

Take a moment to see what these collections are all about!

1.       Joseph Goodbar Papers

2.       Papers relating to Mexican government debts held by Louis Hargous and George Hammeken, 1840-1881

3.       Papers relating to John Jay Osborn’s books: The Paper chase; The Only thing I’ve done wrong; and The Associates. 1971-1978 (inclusive).

4.       Jule E. Stocker, “Draft of the book, “Drawing Will”

5.       Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge. Records, 1828

6.       E. Merrick Dodd Papers

7.       Ingeborg Kalnoky collection of Nuremberg Guest House papers

8.       Class notes of Irvin Bieser

9.       Class notes of Leo Gottlieb

 

Post contributed by Edwin Moloy, Curator of Modern Manuscripts and Archives