Symposium: The Largest Murder Trial in History

Do you have an interest in Houston Legal History?

Do you have an interest in Military Justice?

Are you an attorney looking for CLE credits?

On March 23, 2012 the Fred Parks Law Library at the South Texas College of law will be hosting a Symposium on the Houston Riot of 1917. Topics in the symposium will include:

• "The Largest Murder Trial in the History of the United States": The Houston Riots Courts-Martial of 1917
• The Houston Mutiny and Riots Courts-Martial: Military Justice in its Aftermath
• The Buffalo Soldiers: Their History, the Houston Mutiny, and its Legacy, A Descendant Speaks: Academic and Personal Observations on the Houston Mutiny and its Aftermath
• Military Justice Going Forward
• Contemporary Practice of Military Law
  

The cost is $20 (check or cash only, collected at the door) and lunch will be provided.

6.5 hours of CLE credit

For more information, visit the symposium web page.

Race & Miltary Justice

by Heather Kushnerick, Special Collections Librarian

To complement our upcoming seminar, “The Largest Murder Trial in American History: Exploring the Houston Riot of 1917 and it’s Impact on Military Justice Today,” there is an exhibit of selected materials from the library on race and military justice in the library lobby. Included in the display are works on the Buffalo soliders, the Brownsville Raid, and Henry O. Flipper, the first African-American graduate of West Point. This exhibit will be up until April 15, 2012.

Free Class on Digital Law Practice

Starting February 10, CALI (The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction) is offering a FREE course on Digital Law Practice. The course will provide an overview of the changes in law practice brought about by the ever changing use of technology, using real life practice situations to demonstrate how to best use the tools at the disposal of the modern attorney.

The course is an hour per week, with a different guest speaker each week, and will be delivered via webcast. If you miss a class, that's fine. The courses will be recorded and posted to the site, but you need to register to participate!

For more information, see the course site here: http://tdlp.classcaster.net/

Hugo Grotius, Desecretation of Bodies of the Enemy, and International Law

By Jessica R. Alexander, J.D., M.L.S., Reference Librarian

Hugo Grotius,' the father of international law's, writings on international norms and the burial of the dead inform our understanding of the revulsion we feel when bodies are desecrated, no matter that they are those of our enemy combatants. His works were published in the seventeenth century. One English translation is, "In The Rights of War and Peace: Including the Law of Nature and Nations, (A. C. Campbell, trans.) 213 (1901), Book II, Chapter XIX, On the Right of Burial, in which he quotes sources of myth and reality:

"...Upon the principles advanced above, it is agreed by all that public enemies are entitled to burial. Appian calls it the common right of war, with which, Tacitus says, no enemy will refuse to comply. And the rules, respecting this, are, according to Dio Chrysostom, observed, even while the utmost rage of war still continues. (For the hand of death, as the writer just quoted observes, has destroyed all enmity towards the fallen, and protected their bodies from all insult.)"(my emphasis).

This book (and chapter) can be found in full-text on Google and on HeinOnline, which you can access through our Stanley portal or in the library. Link to the text on HeinOnline here (Faculty, staff, students, and in-house users only).

Follow Up On Deferred Adjudication Pardons

By Jessica R. Alexander, J.D., M.L.S.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has now issued the forms and some vague guidelines on how to apply for a pardon of deferred adjudication cases. Information on the law of pardons in Texas can be found in the Texas Criminal Practice Guide, Volume 5, editors, Marvin O. Teague and Barry T. Heft, published by Matthew-Bender. It can be accessed through our Stanley Portal electronically in the Lexis-Nexis Matthew Bender Online database: http://bender.lexisnexis.com/bender/us/catalog?action=home. It is in paper on the 5th floor and on reserve at KFT1775 .T4 1979.

It remains to be seen how the process for deferred adjudication pardons plays out in the board, before the Governor and maybe ultimately in a judicial review scenario. This new area of Texas law is ripe as a subject of a scholarly article. For example, former Govenor Haley Barbour of Mississippi, finds some of his controversial pardons enjoined by a court.http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2104269,00.html?xid=gonewsedit

New York Times, Sunday, December 17,2011 "For Law Schools, a Price to Play the A.B.A.'s Way."

David Segal wrote the article discussing how American Bar Association accreditation standards contribute to tuition costs at law schools. The first paragraph is actually the only part of the article discussing the standards for law libraries. You can find these standards on the A.B.A. website. (Standards of Rules and Procedures for Approval of Law Schools.)

The standards for law libraries are in Chapter 6. Segal's article talks about how a school in Appalachia, the Duncan School of Law, copes with the requirement that the library maintain a "core collection." Duncan meets this requirement by providing online access to the core collection. The required core collection is:

Interpretation 606-5
A law library core collection shall include the following:
(1) all reported federal court decisions and reported decisions of the highest appellate court of each state;
(2) all federal codes and session laws, and at least one current annotated code for each state;
(3) all current published treaties and international agreements of the United States;
(4) all current published regulations (codified and uncodified) of the federal government and the codified regulations of the state in which the law school is located;
(5) those federal and state administrative decisions appropriate to the programs of the law school;
(6) U.S. Congressional materials appropriate to the programs of the law school;
(7) significant secondary works necessary to support the programs of the law school, and
(8) those tools, such as citators and periodical indexes, necessary to identify primary and secondary legal information and update primary legal information.

Interpretation 606-6
The dean, faculty, and director of the law library should cooperate in formulation of the collection development plan,
While the requirements for a core collection may be straightforward, the more abstract principle and one that almost necessarily requires a large expenditure of money on materials and access is:

Standard 601. GENERAL PROVISIONS
(a) A law school shall maintain a law library that is an active and responsive force in the educational life of the law school. A law library’s effective support of the school’s teaching,scholarship, research and service programs requires a direct, continuing and informed relationship with the faculty, students and administration of the law school.
(b) A law library shall have sufficient financial resources to support the law school’s teaching, scholarship, research, and service programs. These resources shall be supplied on a consistent basis.
(c) A law school shall keep its library abreast of contemporary technology and adopt it when appropriate.

While refraining from getting into Segal's arguments on ABA accreditation, one can contend that a library located in a large and sophisticated community like Harris County and contending with schools like the University of Houston and the University of Texas law libraries, requires at least a "Mercedes library." Our alumni also practice in sophisticated and demanding specialities like international arbitration, intellectual property and maritime law. Of course our library is a Rolls-Royce, "Silver Cloud." Our students, faculty, and alumni deserve no less!

Attorney, Employ Thyself! - Jennifer Kim Chau, Maritime Specialist

Jessica Alexander,J.D., M.L.S., Reference Librarian

This will be the first in a series about young attorneys, who in the face of hard economic times have found success in solo practice.

Jennifer Kim Chau,12335 Kingsride Ln, No. 388, Houston, Texas 77024, hails from the small coastal town of Palacios, Texas. She is a patron of our library. I am always curious about the backgrounds and aspirations of young lawyers. I am fearful for young lawyers with student loan debt who cannot find employment with law firms or governmental agencies. However, it is possible to thrive with determination and creativity.

Jennifer graduated from the independant, Thomas M. Cooley School of Law, in Michigan. After graduation she aspired to work in criminal law and become an assistant district attorney. She did an internship with the Matagorda County District Attorney, but permanent employment was not possible.

Jennifer's dad who used to be in the shrimping business is now a municipal judge. The president of a corporation who owned a shrimp boat was talking to her dad about his need for an attorney to represent the corporation in an ad volarem tax matter. Jennifer landed the work and the rest is history. She now represents the corporation full-time, and is stimulated and excited about her new found speciality.

She comes to our library often to use our extensive maritime collection, and to consult other resources as well. Our maritime collection includes the major standard works in the area. You can peruse our collection on the fourth floor at KF 1096-1114. She said she loves our library and "its the best library she's ever been to hands down!"