Here in New England we are surrounded by greenery this time of year, which brings to mind these charming illustrations from an early manuscript compilation of English statutes. The Charter of the Forest, enacted in 1217, was considered a companion to Magna Carta and appears directly after it in this volume. The Charter re-established for free men rights …
To celebrate National Library Week 2022, we collaborated with Jack Cushman of HLS’s Library Innovation Lab to use GPT-3 (Generative Pre-Trained Transformer 3), a language prediction model created by OpenAI. We asked GPT-3 several versions of this prompt: “To celebrate National Library Week, here is what I love about the Harvard Law School Library.” We’ll be sharing GPT-3’s …
In honor of #Facial Hair Friday and Movember, check out these images of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’s magnificent mustache over the years. The first photograph, taken in 1872 when Holmes was in his early 30s, shows him the same year he married his wife, Fanny Bowditch Dixwell. His mustache is off to a good start: The second image …
Honoring Movember with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Read More »
It’s an historic day in the world of German law following the announcement that the Beck Verlag, a prominent legal publisher, is renaming one of its most well-known titles, the Palandt Civil Code Commentary. I spoke and wrote briefly on this topic in my presentation and paper at Yale Law Library’s legal citation symposium this past spring. The …
Thirty years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Cohen v. Cowles Media Co., 501 U.S. 663 (1991), a leading freedom of the press case in which the Court decided that freedom of the press does not exempt journalists from following generally applicable laws. Learn more about the background and significance of Cohen v. Cowles in our blog post …
Cohen v. Cowles Media and the Quill Pen Tradition Read More »
This is a video about the Harvard Law School Library’s Historical & Special Collections unit.
Samuel Botley’s Maximum in minimo or Mr Jeremiah Richs pens dexterity compleated with the whole terms of the law is a charming little guide to 17th century shorthand. Botley, picking up where his predecessor Jeremiah Rich left off, published a complete guide to shorthand, outlining both legal and general terms, circa 1674. Prior to the publication of this …
Taking place at Harvard Law School today is the 2019 Inaugural Prepare to Practice Conference, a joint initiative between the HLS Library and four other local law schools (Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern, and Suffolk). This conference is designed to provide Boston-area law students with legal research instruction oriented toward their future roles as practicing attorneys. The conference …
We are looking forward to hosting our first Prepare to Practice Legal Research Conference for law students next Tuesday, May 21, 8:30am – 4:30pm. We are teaming up to four other Boston-area law schools (Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern and Suffolk) to offer this full-day event, which focuses on getting students up to speed on research methods for …
The law library recently added a very interesting book to the collection: Testamente und Erbstreitigkeiten: von Kriemhild bis Cornelius GurlittWalter Zimmermann2018, C.H. BeckISBN: 9783406730238 This book provides a historical survey of wills and inheritance disputes and includes transcriptions (in normal, readable font) of actual language from testamentary instruments. Researchers who are interested in historical wills will especially enjoy …