I know right now it seems like summer (or even next fall) may be a long time away, like you can’t even think past the time that you have your Ames oral argument, or getting that final seminar paper done. However, it will be here before you know it!
If you are going to a job this summer or fall that you think will involve some corporate or securities legal research, then you may want to consider attending our legal research class on April 10th, at 3 p.m. To sign up, just click here. The class will be held in Hauser 105. If you have any questions, please contact .
This session just might save you from a lot of headaches and stress this summer and next fall!
On April 30, Dr. Norman Daniels, Professor of Population Ethics and Health at the Harvard School of Public Health, will lecture on topics from his new book: Just Health: Meeting Health Needs Fairly, which presents a comprehensive theory of justice for health in both developed and developing countries. What is the special moral importance of health? When are health inequalities unjust? How can we meet health needs fairly when we cannot meet them all?
This lecture is open to the public. A book signing and reception will follow.
April 30, 2008
4:30 p.m. Minot Room, 5th floor Countway Library 10 Shattuck Street, Boston
If you haven’t already done so, you may wish to download LibX from the Harvard Libraries. This plugin tool ties you into the Harvard system for all the databases that we buy and for which you have access. If you search Google Scholar and find articles in HeinOnline, JSTOR, Oxford University Press, Sage Press, PubMed, or other such paid databases, you will find that you can only see a citation and it will prompt you for access information. After installing LibX, just right click on your mouse and choose Reload Library via Harvard Access, and this will tie you back into Harvard and allow you to the full article in whichever database we’ve already purchased.
If you are not sure that Harvard has access to the database, this is a great way to find out!
HLS has the largest number of different programs listed, with seven. (Woo hoo, one more than Yale or NYU!!) The post, by Univ. of Cincinnati Associate Dean Paul Caron, also includes a number of links to useful information about becoming a law professor.
In case the reading room isn’t as quiet as you had hoped, please remember that designer earplugs are available at the Langdell Circulation Desk. Stop by and ask for a pair any time!
Got room for one more RSS feed? “Convictions” is a new blog on legal topics sponsored by Slate, the online magazine.
According to Slate’s press release, the blog aims to “post immediate reactions to legal cases and headlines,” and offer “an accessible source for legal discourse from a wide-range of qualified experts.”
The all-star cast of bloggers includes HLS’s own David Barron and Boston-based federal district judge Nancy Gertner. Other bloggers reportedly include Slate writers Dahlia Lithwick, Phil Carter, and Emily Bazelon, journalists Ben Wittes and Rosa Brooks, Deb Perlstein of Human Rights First, Professors Viet Dinh and Marty Lederman of Georgetown Law, Doug Kmiec from Pepperdine Law, Jack Balkin and Kenji Yoshino form Yale, Eric Posner of Univ. of Chicago Law, Richard Ford of Stanford, former acting Solicitor General Walter Dellinger of Duke, Diane Amann of Boalt Hall, Dawn Johnsen of Indiana, Orin Kerr of GW, Tim Wu of Columbia, former public defender David Feige of Seton Hall and law firm associate Adam J. White. Right now, posts seem to be focused on Heller, but the range of topics seems to be wide open - and based on the bloggers involved, discussion should remain lively. Warning: At least some of the posts seem to be culled from other blogs, so you may experience a moment or two of deja vu.
Our friends from the left coast at the UC Berkeley Library have used wiki software to create a congressional research tutorial called Congresearch.
Congresearch includes Flash tutorial videos on finding a bill, a hearing, a congressional debate, or the like, such as this one. Over time, more tutorials will be added. The tutorial homepage also contains links to current congressional news, recent votes and a link to their customized Congressional Search Engine created with Google CSE to create a focused Google search on current official U.S. Congressional websites and news organizations focusing on Congress.
Props to FGI, Free Government Information, for spotting this.
For those of you with an interest in historical aspects of legal citation, the fine folks at The Bluebook have put up PDFs of the first 15 editions (1926-1991) of their seminal “Uniform System of Citation.”
The 16th (1996), 17th (2000), and 18th (2005) editions are not available in PDF, although the 18th edition has recently been made available electronically for a fee.
Feeling like you’re getting a little too much information, lately? Lots of lawyers feel the same way. A recent study by LexisNexis reveals that 80% of legal professionals suffer from information overload. (Even more than the 70% of white collar workers who feel overloaded with information.)
Other findings include:
* 98% of legal professionals agree that the consequences of mismanaging information are extremely serious in the legal profession;
* 90% agree that not being able to access the right information at the right time is a big time-waster;
* 70% say they spend a lot of time sifting through irrelevant information;
* 45% say that research takes up so much of their time that they occasionally omit billing clients for this work.
What’s the solution? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to “google” all of law with one little box? (Try googling . Nope, we’re not quite there yet. Though I did find out that someone thinks Nevada is “tort-plagued.") Can legal research ever be that easy? Maybe someday… but until then, try asking your librarian… we’ll help you get the information you need, as quickly and as google-like as possible in our imperfect information world.
The Garrison Family is fairly well known in the Boston area, boasting a 19th century abolitionist in William Lloyd Garrison; a literary editor in Wendell Philips Garrison; an esteemed writer in Lloyd McKim Garrison; and a well-respected lawyer in Lloyd Kirkham Garrison.
I am sure the list goes on of the accomplished, and Harvard educated Garrisons who have made great waves, but these four generations are of primary focus in the recently-processed Garrison Family Papers. The collection provides a glimpse into the family life enjoyed by these men, their wives and children.
Being a personal collection, as one might expect, it primarily consists of correspondence between family members. Such as this October 18, 1919 letter from Lloyd Kirkham Garrison to his wife Ellen, in which he describes “the one lovely spot anywhere around Cambridge.”
However, being a personal collection, there are also a few pieces of miscellany that don’t quite fit with the rest of the collection. One such piece in the Garrison family’s case is this shipping receipt:
As you can see, it is dated 1766 and bears the signature of John Hancock. While this item certainly caught our attention, we are left wondering how it fell into the hands of the Garrisons. Certainly Hancock was another well-known Bostonian, but his life preceded William Lloyd Garrison, whose parents were not prominent Bostonians, and therefore would not have rubbed shoulders with Hancock. So, the shipping receipt remains both a mystery, and a rare gem in an already fascinating collection.
Post contributed by:
Margaret Peachy
Curatorial Assistant for Manuscripts
This adds to a research guide on presidential signing statements done in October 2006, as well as a House Judiciary Hearing on the subject, just released.
The Appeals Court announced today that any unpublished opinion issued pursuant to Rule 1:28 after today (February 25, 2008) may be cited for its persuasive value but not as binding precedent.
The long-standing policy that “unpublished decisions of this court are not to be relied upon or cited as authority in unrelated cases” had been established in the case of Lyons v. Labor Relations Comm., 19 Mass. App. Ct. 562, 566 n.7 (1985).
Explaining the reason for permitting limited use of unpublished opinions, Chief Justice Phillip G. Rapoza wrote, “In the nearly twenty-three years since we decided Lyons, however, our [unpublished] decisions have become far more widely available and now routinely appear in the results of electronic research. That widespread availability leads us to announce a modification of the prohibition set out in Lyons.”
The rule amendment was announced in the case of Chace, et al. v. Curran, et al., Lawyers Weekly No. 11-026-08. Click here to read the full opinion.
