The Fred Parks Law Library Blog

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

2012-01-17T15:48:00.032-06:00

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

2012-01-12T10:42:00.024-06:00

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."

2011-12-21T14:41:00.034-06:00

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

2011-12-15T12:06:00.004-06:00

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!"

Reference Tidbit, Briefs Available Online 14th Court of Appeals

2011-12-15T10:41:00.013-06:00

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

The 14th Court of Appeals, Houston, has just implemented online access to briefs. Dates of inclusion are not apparent from the website. In the meantime, this is an important addition to their existing search utilities.

I have published a piece before on simultaneously searching Texas courts using Google scholar since the court system itself has never instituted cross-court searching. This new access by the 14th Court probably grows out of the fact that attorneys have been filing petitions and briefs online. Beginning January 1, 2012, attorneys in civil cases will be required to file all petitions and briefs through Texas.gov e-Filing for Courts. This requirement does not extend uniformly to the trial courts, so be sure refer to the official page of each trial court to find out if it participates in the Texas.gov efiling program.

There will be more information to come on these developments. One question to be answered is whether the ProDoc eFiling service will continue to be an option for filing in Texas Courts.

Legal Education at a Crossroads

2011-11-21T11:19:00.010-06:00

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

New York Times, "What They Don't Teach Law Students: Lawyering, is informative when the reader studies the whole content. However, its main thesis, that somehow law students are ill-served by the case (Socratic) method of legal study, is a subject for debate. It seems to assume that the only purpose for a legal education is a lucrative career. But a legal education has more riches to offer than monetary gain. A law degree is a platform for an extremely informed way of looking at current and historical events. All relationships, whether between persons, a person and the environment, a person and their government, business entities, or animals, to name a few, have a legal component. A legal education provides the ability to sense more than one level of these relationships just as musical talent or education provides the ability to hear more than one harmonic voice in a chorus.

There is a degree of panic relative to legal education because the economy has made it much harder to find a lucrative job after law school. High tuition costs have heightened the difficulty law graduates face after completing a degree. All criticism of legal education should trend towards balancing the need for practical training and the love of the law that a Juris Doctor provides.

Reference Tidbit - Going to the Poll on November 8, 2011 - Non-disclosure and Expungement of Criminal Records in Texas

2011-11-14T13:44:00.028-06:00

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

I made it to my polling station last Tuesday, November 8, 2011, with three minutes to spare. I will admit that I did not know that I would have an opportunity to vote on a constitutional initiative that may ease the problems with so-called "deferred adjudications" in Texas.

Proposition 9 on the ballot was worded: "The constitutional amendment authorizing the governor to grant a pardon to a person who successfully completes a term of deferred adjudication community supervision." (Spanish) “Enmienda constitucional que autoriza al gobernador para conceder el indulto a personas que cumplan con éxito un plazo de supervisión comunitaria por adjudicación aplazada.” See Texas Legislative Counci l analysis of the proposition at http://www.tlc.state.tx.us/pubsconamend/analyses11/analyses11.pdf.

For years citizens and even attorneys believed that a deferred adjudication plea bargain in a criminal case meant that, after the probationary period of deferred adjudication had run, the accused's criminal record would be clear. But, the cold truth is that these deferred adjudications show up in publicly accessible law enforcement records and are treated as convictions by people such as potential employers and landlords, however wrongly. Secondly, the expungement procedure under Chapter 55 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure is not available to people who are placed on Community Supervision under Article 42.12 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. Alas, almost all people who plea in exchange for deferred adjudication are placed on Community Supervision.

For purposes of brevity see the website of the Harris County District Attorney, Patricia Lykos, and click on Frequently Asked Questions -- deferred adjudication.

Back to election of November 8, and Proposition 9. : It passed by 57% in favor to 43% opposed. It is companion to a bill signed into law on June 16, 2011, SB 144 of the 82nd Regular Session of the Texas Legislature, 2011, introduced by my friend, Representative Royce West of Dallas, and authorizes "...the governor to grant a pardon to a person who successfully completes a term of deferred adjudication community supervision."

The law is codified in Article 48.01 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. Information on the implementation of the new law can be found on the Texas Board of Pardon and Paroles web page.

Reference Tidbit - Using Google Scholar for Combined Search of Texas State Court Opinions

2011-10-20T11:37:00.034-05:00

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

The official web sites of the courts in the Texas Judicial system are not integrated when it comes to case and opinion searches. See Texas Courts Online. Thanks to the Google Scholar search this problem is solved to some degree.

Obviously Google has a search algorithm that extracts Texas appellate opinions from the official websites. Google overlays them with a Southwest Reporter citation. Of course the search is limited by the date spans of the loaded opinions.

To perform a search, go to the main Google page and click More and click on ScholarYou can search from that page by clicking the button Legal opinions and journals, or, even better, click on the Advanced search button. Put in your search terms and go to the bottom of the search form and specify the courts (either state or federal) that you want to search. Note there is also a link to a menu of combined searches. You can search any or all of the state or federal courts in a particular jurisdiction. The images below depict a sample search. Click on the images to enlarge them.

The Fred Parks Law Library is pleased to announce our acquisition of four rare fifteenth century legal works.

2011-10-03T10:32:00.014-05:00

by Heather Kushnerick, Special Collections Librarian

In honor of our 10th anniversary, the Fred Parks Law Library has purchased four 15th century legal works. These books are important not just because of their rarity and subject matter, but because of their age and condition.

Paul de Castro’s Super primo, Secundo et Tertio Libro Codis... is a Commentary on the Code of Justinian printed in Venice in 1495. The Fred Parks copy is one of only two copies in the Western hemisphere. Jean Barbier’s Viatorium Utriusque Iuris is a legal handbook. printed in Strassburg in 1493. It combines elements of Roman and canon law with the legal customs of southern France. Jodocus of Erfurt’s Vocabularium Iuris Utrius(que) is a work of great authority. This early law dictionary went through more than 70 editions. The Fred Parks copy was printed in Nuremburg in 1481, a mere 29 years after the invention of the printing press, making it the oldest book in the library's collection. Finally, we have a first printed edition of Nicholas Statham’s [Abridgement of Cases], printed in 1490. Covering the reigns of Edward I through Henry VI, it was considered the standard abridgement until the publication of Sir Anthony Fitzherbert's Le Graunde Abridgement in 1514.

Early printed books, dating from 1492, when movable type was invented, to 1500, are called incunabula. Due to their age and the impact of constant warfare in Europe, they are very rare and often incomplete. It is not unusual for incomplete, or alas, even complete works, to be sold leaf by leaf in order to make the most profit.

The process of printing a book developed by Gutenberg in 1452 was much faster than hand copying, but it was still a laborious endeavor. Each letter of each word was hand-placed by a workman, called a compositor, into a small tray. Each line was carefully placed to form to an even margin, and when the tray (called a compositing stick) was full, the workman transferred it to another tray called a galley. The galley was large enough to hold an entire page, and when the page was complete, the workman set the tray aside to begin work on the next one. He did not go leaf by leaf but rather section by section. Large sheets of paper would be printed with multiple pages on each side; they were then folded into what we would recognize today as a section of a book. As a result of this process, not all the type was facing the same direction. On one sheet of paper there could be as many as 24 leaves, or pages, of a book on each side.

Once all the type was laid out correctly and was in the printing press, it would be covered in ink and paper would be pressed onto it. The paper would be removed, more ink would be applied, and another sheet laid on top to be pressed. And so it went until the workman had the total number of sheets needed for the edition he was preparing. Then the letters were returned to their individual bins, and the next section in the book was prepared and printed. The books were then assembled (hopefully in the correct order), and delivered to the binder, who would sew them together and bind them in paper, wood, leather or in a custom design for a specific buyer.

The four works now in our collection are in remarkable condition for their age, and will be on display in the library lobby now through the end of November as we celebrate our 10th anniversary.

Confluence Noted: New York Times Opinion Piece, "The Military and the Death Penalty" and Our Houston Mutiny and Riots Collection

2011-09-06T16:03:00.025-05:00

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

The issue of race, military tribunals and the imposition of the death penalty is an issue that has been shaped by events that occured in August 1917 in Houston. African-American soldiers who were involved in the construction of Camp Logan, a World War I military encampment were the subjects. They rioted and murdered white citizens and police officials in August 1917. The catalyst was the police beating of two soldiers and a false report that one of them had died. The racial hostility from the white population and law enforcement authorities contributed to the atmosphere of violence. As a result, sixty-three African-American soldiers were court-martialed. Five of the accused were acquitted, thirteen were sentenced to death, forty-one were sentenced to life in prison, with only four receiving lesser sentences. See the article written by Fred L. Borsch, III, The Army Lawyer, February 2011, under the byline, Lore of the Corps, "The Largest Murder Trial in the History of the United States: The Houston Riots Courts-Martial of 1917." at page 1. (The table of contents does not refer to the piece, but scroll to page 1 to read it.)
The issues in the Houston riots are still reverberating. The rush to judgment and near summary executions involved in the Houston incident has shaped military justice ever since.

When the The New York Times published an editorial on August 31 called "The Military and the Death Penalty," it called to mind the 1917 executions. The editorial highlights the results of a study co-authored by David Balthus which showed that "Minority service members are more than twice as likely as whites — after accounting for the crimes’ circumstances and the victims’ race — to be sentenced to death." (David Baldus died in June).

The Fred Parks Library is fortunate that Mark Lambert, our former archivist, acquired the entire microfilm collection of the trial proceedings. We asked the Law Library Microform Consortium (LLMC) to digitize the film and our present archivist Heather Kushnerick has loaded the digital files into our South Texas College of Law Digital Collection and provided indexing and other annotations of the resource.

To highlight this unique accomplishment we are planning a symposium on the Houston Mutiny and Riots for the spring of 2011. Stay tuned for more information about this event. Professor Geoffrey has volunteered to spearhead this event, along with Professors Kenneth Williams and Val Ricks. Professor Corn has already recruited Fred Borsch,III to be one of the keynotes. Professors David Cowan, Library Director and Dean Helen Jenkins are supporting the event from an institutional standpoint.

BNA’s United States Law Week is for all Comers.

2011-08-17T13:29:00.028-05:00

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

Prior to the ability to obtain up to date case law via databases such as Lexis and Westlaw, United States Law Week, a print publication of the Bureau of National Affairs, now known as BNA, was the traditional way to get weekly updates of federal case law. It is available in print, KF101.U5 (current volumes on reserve, non-current volumes on main (3rd floor) and on-line. http://news.bna.com/lwln/).

The print version is split into the Supreme Court and the General editions. Opinions are summarized by the editors. Full Supreme Court opinions follow the case summaries. In the online edition look for links to full opinions in original format (PDF) at the end of the article. It is well worth a user's time to study the search features and customization abilities of the database.

Circuit Splits --This very important feature notes circuit splits on various legal issues. This is a tried and true method for identifying research topics.
Law Firm Authors -- A student who has an interview scheduled with a firm can search for articles written by firm members.
Customization -- Sign in by providing your name and email address. Click on Preferences. You can choose to display highlights or headlines (case alerts). Create folders to save your searches and make notes about search results.
Advanced Searches -- Search by headings (terms in headlines and headings), topics (subject thesaurus), case names, authors and states.
Split Screens -- This feature makes navigation inside a topic or list easier – the results list appears on the left side, while the selected item appears on the right.

Now that you purchased your dream expresso machine, learning how to actually make latte …?

2011-08-17T12:47:00.009-05:00

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

As a Reference Librarian, I am excited by purchases of the latest and greatest databases. The library has subscribed to a number of BNA online databases for years. But our new BNA Premiere package is daunting in its coverage.

With such expanded online coverage, I am burdened by the need to communicate best practices in conducting research in these databases. The BNA Premiere package contains over 100 separate titles, and within those titles hundreds of separate resources. For example the Tax Planning and Tax Management(TM) databases number about seventeen titles, including the well-known Tax Management Memorandums.

In the future, see my blog postings on these databases, as well as information on the databases in our LibGuides.

So Cool! - SXSW Volunteer Shirt Worn by New Student, Abdul Pasha.

2011-08-15T15:52:00.008-05:00

Jessica R. Alexander, JD., M.L.S., Reference Librarian

A new student, Abdul Pasha, a UT Government grad volunteered for the SXSW Film festival. Since I am a big fan of the SXSW Interactive Festival, I was impressed by his volunteer t-shirt. His shirt, pictured on Abdul, at left, depicts a "deer in the headlights." In the library, we try to spot our new students and help them not to feel like a deer facing a Ferrari.

Later, I will be blogging on our BNA databases. We now subscribe to over 100 of these databases, and there is something for every patron in that mix.

Laws In Space featuring South Texas Faculty and 2010 Alum

2011-07-08T17:14:00.000-05:00

Two of our librarians, Jessica Alexander and Adreinne Cobb, had a great time at Houston Bar Association's annual production of Night Court, "a parody of pop culture, current events, politics, and the legal profession." This year's theme was Laws in Space, and it featured our very own Dean Helen Jenkins (aka Padme Amidala), and 2010 South Texas graduate, Darryl Scott (aka Darth Vader). Dean Guter and his wife, Pat Guter, were also in attendance, along with James Goodwille Pierre, South Texas class of 2006, and Hayes Jenkins, Princess Amidala's husband. Jessica and Adrienne had a great time as you can see. They were the show's number one groupies!

Click here for a slide show and a special message from Darth Vader:

Casey Anthony Documents Online

2011-07-07T13:21:00.002-05:00

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

Twenty-five thousand pages related to the Casey Anthony murder case are online at http://www.cfnews13.com/article/news/2011/march/219927/.

Happy 10th Anniversary to us!

2011-05-24T09:00:00.004-05:00

by Heather Kushnerick, Special Collections Librarian

The Fred Parks Law Library opened in 2001, and in the past 10 years a lot of things have changed. We’ve increased our print collection, gotten a multitude of fantastic databases, added digital collections, and built up our Special Collections. Our Special Collections consist of the library’s rare book collection, manuscript collections, and the college archive. These are closed stacks collections that may be accessed by appointment with the Special Collections Librarian. The preservation and the security of collections are ongoing concerns for the library. Items from Special Collections are not eligible for interlibrary loan and must be used in the Jones Reading Room under the supervision of library staff. Currently, the oldest item in Rare Book Collection dates from 1481 – that’s a mere 29 years after the Printing Revolution began with Gutenberg’s invention of movable type.

The Rare Book Collection consists of items considered too old, rare, valuable or fragile to be housed in the main collection. We focus on Texas legal history, Texana, Houston history, Mexican and Spanish law, and seminal works in legal history, particularly those dealing with Common Law. Items from Special Collections are placed on exhibit 3 to 4 times a year in an effort to promote the collection. Since 2011 is the year of our 10th anniversary, we have purchased some real gems in honor of this milestone. On display now in the library lobby is an exhibition featuring some of our most recent acquisitions, including a Spanish and Catalan edition of the Consolato del Mare, a study on Siete Partidas, a sixteenth century work on legal theory, a Spanish treatise on criminal procedure (which includes a section on the use of torture on both witnesses and the accused), a Spanish naval treatise addressing international law written at the time of the American Revolution, and a volume containing primary sources in Texas legal history. This exhibition will be up through September.

For more information on the Special Collections Department, please contact Heather Kushnerick at hkushnerick@stcl.edu.

Book Review

2011-05-03T13:16:00.020-05:00

Before Brown: Heman Marion Sweatt, Thurgood Marshall, and the Long Road to Justice
By Gary M. Lavergne
University of Texas Press, 354 pages

Reviewed by Stuart Stern
South Texas College of Law
Office of Development & Alumni Relations

The Postman Cometh: The Integration of UT School of Law

South Texas students are undoubtedly familiar with Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) and Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the two most well-known legal cases affecting the racial composition of public schools in the United States. But few, I’d venture, have heard of Sweatt v. Painter (1950). Yet this Texas case was called “the big one” by none other than Thurgood Marshall, who argued both Sweatt and Brown before the U.S. Supreme Court—and won each of them. For Sweatt, which was heard by the Court in 1950, resulted in the desegregation of the University of Texas School of Law and paved the way for Brown four years later.

In his engrossing book Before Brown: Heman Marion Sweatt, Thurgood Marshall, and the Long Road to Justice, Gary M. Lavergne presents the stories of plaintiff Sweatt, a black Houstonian, and his attorney Marshall, the star counsel of the NAACP, and depicts the painstaking groundwork that was laid by Marshall and his legal team to achieve victory in the landmark case. (The Painter they opposed was acting UT president Theophilus S. Painter.)

Heman Marion Sweatt was what we would today term a second-career student, which adds to the impressiveness of his accomplishment and makes him an intriguing figure. Sweatt was a thirty-seven-year-old mailman with a wife, an undergraduate degree in biology earned sixteen years previously, and a house on Delano Street in the Third Ward. In one of the ironies of the case, Sweatt, who said he wanted to be a lawyer when he applied, in 1946, for admission to UT, had originally wanted to be a doctor. But it was Sweatt who had stood up, when no one else did, at an NAACP meeting in a neighborhood church the previous fall to volunteer to be the plaintiff in a law school–desegregation suit the association was planning to file. He would later describe this turning point in civil rights history as a “brash moment.”

Lavergne, a UT Austin administrator and the author of four previous books, leads us up to this moment with his meticulous descriptions of a variety of interrelated historical threads: the history of public higher education in Texas, including the funding of both UT and Texas A&M through the profits of a very bountiful oil field; the history of the NAACP, including that of its outspoken Texas branches; the cases the NAACP took on in Texas prior to Sweatt to desegregate the state’s Democratic-primary elections (the only primaries held at the time); and the nature of life in both Houston and Austin during the first half of the twentieth century, a period in which the black and white citizens in each of these cities were rigidly divided by the racial caste system of the times.

Despite the segregation that characterized Austin, the UT campus itself during the 1940s and ’50s showed the first glimmers of open-mindedness that would later come to symbolize the capital city. The student newspaper, The Daily Texan, “exhibited a surprising liberalism,” according to one black educator. Following the denial by President Painter of Sweatt’s application to UT, a group of students formed an all-white campus branch of the NAACP. And two years later, in 1948, according to Lavergne, “UT polls indicated that nearly six in ten students approved of the desegregation of their campus, especially the graduate and professional schools.”

That wouldn’t happen, however, for another two years. Sweatt v. Painter went from the 126th District Court, in Austin, in 1946 to the Third Court of Civil Appeals, also in Austin, in 1947. The following year, the Texas Supreme Court refused to hear the case, and in November of 1949 it went to the U.S. Supreme Court. The following April, the Court heard oral arguments in Sweatt, and two months later, in June of 1950, issued a unanimous verdict in favor of the plaintiff.

In the meantime, the state of Texas had attempted to conform to the “separate but equal” doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson by providing more funds for Prairie View A&M University and, in 1947, establishing the Prairie View Law School, in downtown Houston (which generated no applicants); the Texas State University for Negroes (now Texas Southern University), in Houston (which generated 2,300 applicants and immediately became the largest African-American university in the South); and the School of Law of the Texas State University for Negroes, in Austin (which enrolled three students).

Although TSU became known as “the House that Sweatt Built,” Sweatt refused to attend either its makeshift law school, which consisted of four rooms in an Austin office building, or the Prairie View Law School, which comprised three rooms in a Houston office building. He was determined to go to UT, and the Supreme Court agreed that he should. In its ruling, the Court stated:

Whether the University of Texas Law School is compared with the original or the new law school for Negroes, we cannot find substantial equality in the educational opportunities offered white and Negro law students by the State. In terms of the number of faculty, variety of courses and opportunity for specialization, size of the student body, scope of the library, availability of law review and similar activities, the University of Texas Law School is superior. . . .

What is more important, the University of Texas Law School possesses to a far greater degree those qualities which are incapable of objective measurement but which make for greatness in a law school . . . [including the] reputation of the faculty, experience of the administration, position and influence of the alumni, standing in the community, traditions and prestige. It is difficult to believe that one who had a free choice between these law schools would consider the question close.

Heman Sweatt began classes at UT School of Law in September of 1950, and I will leave it to the reader to explore the bittersweet denouement of his complex story. Of significant note is that the portion of the UT campus known as the Little Campus, located at 19th and Red River streets, was renamed the Heman Sweatt Campus in 1988, and that the courthouse where his case was originally heard was renamed the Heman Marion Sweatt Travis County Courthouse in 2005.

Legal Social Media

2011-04-15T15:39:00.011-05:00

Social media sites have become a ubiquitous part of the today's society, and the legal world is no exception. Both the federal and state governments have engaged heavily in social media forums.

The complete list of the Texas state government's social media sites can be found here. Kind of surprising that the Department of Agriculture does a podcast, isn't it?

The federal government also uses social media in a number of different ways, from the institutional ones you'd expect - The White House has a twitter feed and a Facebook account - to ones you might not - The United States Government Printing Office, the Office of Law Revision Counsel and Regulations.gov all have Twitter accounts.

There are also some unofficial social media sites that are very handy when it comes to research. Want the latest US Supreme Court decisions? Usethe Unoffical Supreme Court Twitter Feed If you really look hard, you might be able to find an actual Supreme Court Justice using Facebook or Twitter.

BAM! POW! Comic Books and the Law

2011-03-22T10:05:00.008-05:00

Calling all comic book fans and those looking for a fun study break --

Two attorneys, James Daily and Ryan Davidson, who are both recent law school graduates, maintain a great blog called Law and the Multiverse where they explore the legal implications of various comic book scenarios and the behavior of comic book heroes and villains. Have you ever wondered:

Are mutants a protected class?
Who foots the bill when a hero damages property while fighting a villain?
What happens legally when a character comes back from the dead?

The authors use primary source material to support their discussions while considering issues such as sexual harassment in the workplace, as depicted in the recently-released Green Hornet movie, and comic book characters' use of social security numbers to hide their true identities and create alter egos. Fun stuff!

A good interview with this authors can be found here. Enjoy!

SXSW March 12

2011-03-12T10:56:00.004-06:00

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

I am attending a presentation called "Why Government Data Makes Taxpayers Happy. The Data analysis experts from the Texas Comptrollers Office are discussing "open data." There is a website called TexasTransparency.org. One purpose of the project is to provide data on how federal stimulus money is being spent by the state. American Recovery and Investment Act funding by regions, counties is available. A federal website called Data.gov provides information on tax receipts and expenditures. Google has a tax visualization utility.

The presenters powerpoint has a screen headed "Government Data Can Save Lives. - NOAA.gov, etc.

They highlight ClaimITTexas.org which visualizes data on unclaimed property. Texas has outreach efforts to help citizen awareness of unclaimed property.

The presenters emphasize Google Earth mapping tools to enhance data presentation. Using free web tools saves the state the development costs.

After the conference I will follow up on this subject.

Announcing the South Texas College of Law Digital Collection

2011-03-11T10:28:00.001-06:00

by Heather Kushnerick, Special Collections Librarian

The Fred Parks Law Library would like to announce our first four collections, now available online. Our inaugural collections celebrate the history of South Texas College of Law and the success of our nationally ranked Advocacy Program. We are also proud to feature a collection that brings to light a forgotten race riot and the largest murder trial in American history.

You can now view early South Texas School of Law catalogs, browse the photos of our winning Advocacy teams, examine YMCA postcards, and read through JAG documents on the three courts-martial that stemmed from the Houston Riot of 1917. These four collections are still growing and soon other collections and documents will be added, including a letter written in 1823 by Sir William Adams, “surgeon and oculist-extraordinary to the prince regent,” to the First Lord of the Admiralty, Robert Dundas, Lord Melville, supporting British recognition of Latin American countries newly independent from Spain. This is the beginning of an effort to bring materials from the South Texas College of Law Archives, Manuscript Collection, and Rare Book Collection to the attention of the South Texas community and allow greater access to materials that, due to their condition and age, must be kept in a closed stack, climate controlled environment.

You can go to http://libguides.stcl.edu/DigitalCollections to learn more about each collection or browse them directly at http://digitalcollections.stcl.edu/ .

Annotations Archive is now online

2011-03-10T08:37:00.011-06:00

by Heather Kushnerick, Special Collections Librarian

What was going on at South Texas in April 1976? When did the campus first get Westlaw access? When did Justice Clarence Thomas visit the campus? We used to have a football team? You can now learn the answers to all these questions and more by browsing the Annotations Archive online. The library has partnered with the Portal to Texas History in order to provide digital access to our campus newspaper, Annotations, dating from 1967 to March 2010. The last paper issues of our newspaper had not been printed when the project was begun, and those few remaining issues will be added soon. You can find Annotations at http://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/partners/STXCL/browse/.

The Portal to Texas History, hosted by the University of North Texas, has partnered with hundreds of Texas libraries, universities, museums, and historical societies in order to share and showcase unique collections.

FREE scanning in the library!

2011-03-08T09:42:00.033-06:00

New FREE scanning options are now available in the library! You may have already used our desktop scanner, located next to the Patron Services desk, which allows you to save your scanned images to a USB drive or send them to your email account, but you might not be aware that our new photocopiers on floors 2, 4, and 5 also have scanning capabilities.

Which scanner should I use?

Features of the desktop scanner:

Color scanning

Auto correction for page placement

See your image on the monitor before saving it

Crop your image before saving it

Specify desired file type (JPG, TIFF, PDF -- with or without OCR)

Best for low volume jobs, especially when using the email function. File size is limited to 10 MB when sending by email; USB storage is limited only by the storage capacity of your drive.

Features of the Oce Photocopiers:

Scan to USB drive only

Adjust settings for brightness and image size

Black and white scanning only

No image preview feature

All files saved as PDFs (without OCR)

Best for high volume jobs when original document is unbound (loose pages). The automatic sheet feeder is heavy-duty, and it allows for the scanning of double-sided documents.

Slight learning curve when scanning images from bound source material into a single PDF

Regardless of which machine you use, all scanning in the library is free for students. To activate the Oce photocopiers, a copy card with at least $0.10 value is required, but no money will be deducted. Copy cards can be checked out with your student ID at the Patron Services desk.

The desktop scanner is very user friendly, and, while scanning on the photocopiers can take a little getting used to, there are detailed instructions posted next to each machine. Of course, if you need help using any of the machines, please let us know.

2010 Census Figures and Legislative Redistricting

2011-02-18T11:29:00.033-06:00

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

The Houston Chronicle annotates the release of the 2010 Federal census in its February 18, 2010 print edition, with its headline article,"Trends show Texas increasingly urban and Latino," by Jeannie Kever. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7432703.html. The Houston Chronicle also provides an interactive map of the Texas census figures at http://www.chron.com/databases/Census2010Texas.

The apportionment of representatives from various counties in the Texas House of Representatives is prescribed by Texas Constitution Article 3, §§ 26, 27, and 28. These sections provide that apportionment is based on the most recent United States Census. Government Code § 2058.001 provides that no action can be taken by a governmental entity of Texas until September 1 of the year after the calendar year during which the census was taken. Important exceptions are set out in §2058.002 -- the Legislative Redistricting Board and a governing body elected from single-member districts may act before September 1 of 2011.

The website of the Legislative Redistricting Board has further information on redistricting and the role of the Board. Also see the website of the United States Census Bureau.

Current Awareness

2011-02-14T11:52:00.017-06:00

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

The library's "Current Awareness" service is directed to our faculty. However, an article entitled "The Natural Law Lecture, 2010, Torture, Suicide and Determinatio" by Jeremy Waldron in the "American Journal of Jurisprudence, Volume 55, 2010, page 1, is worth pointing out to law students at any level of study. The article contains beautiful illustrations of "natural law" v. "positive law" (the process of determinatio).

Waldron shows how complex philosophical concepts can be illustrated in every day terms. He approaches two controversial criminal questions: torture and assisted suicide. He starts with the reality of physical suffering as a factor in each determination. In cases of assisted suicide, there is usually an individual who is or will be in the future, living with some unbearable physical suffering. In torture an individual is being subjected to some degree of physical pain. Each situation requires two or more actors. Someone has to assist with suicide. Self-inflicted pain is not criminalized as torture.

Before Waldron tackles the specifics of determinatio (defined in the article as the method whereby general forms are particularized as to details) on assisted suicide and torture, he provides an everyday illustration of how "natural law " evolves into "positive law":

"And something similar may be true for law. Natural law principles---indeed, commonsense moral thinking by itself---might indicate to any sensible person the need to slow down whatever they are driving (a horse and cart or an automobile) when they move from a rural to an urban setting. But human law is needed to specify exact speed limits and determine where exactly the limits kick in (where the signs are posted) and that is a task for determinatio." (page 2)

When trying to master complicated concepts even first-year students might want to draw pictures in their minds or on paper of ordinary events or examples of such concepts.

Of course Waldron's article is very scholarly and his arguments tightly drawn. A law student might benefit from just how clearly he defines the issues. He does this again by use of vivid scenarios. He compares the case of a woman seeking to make assisted suicide legal in England with the treatment of water boarding and other painful interrogation measures by officials in the United States.

While reading his article we can see the lady and the water boarder asking, "How far can I go with my planned course of action, before I bump up against the criminal laws?" Where is the bright line? In his article Waldron argues that the woman suffering from an incurable and painful illness has the right to ask where the bright line is drawn. Suicide itself was de-criminalized in England. As for torture, he contends that an interrogator who wants to inflict physical pain has no such right to request a bright line determination. Again, his illustrations are beautiful :

"An example of someone who does have such a legitimate interest might be a tax-payer who says, "I have an interest in arranging my affairs to lower my tax liability much as possible, so I need to know exactly how much I can deduct for business expenses." Another example is the driver who says, "I have an interest in knowing how fast I can go without breaking the speed limit." For those cases, there does seem to be a legitimate interest in having clear definitions. Compare them however to some other cases: the husband who says, "I have an interest in pushing my wife round a bit and I need to know exactly how far I can go before it counts as domestic violence..." (page 23).

The illustrations make the article easier to read and digest. Students will benefit by such examples of clarity in legal thinking and reasoning, regardless of whether one agrees with the legal conclusions that Waldron draws .

2011-02-07T11:29:00.008-06:00

Reference Tidbits

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

Sexy Title, Pedestrian Concerns - Texas Transportation Code "Rules of the Road."

The Texas "Rules of the Road" are located in Tex. Transp. Code Ann. Sections 541-600 (West 1999 & Supp. 2010). Not only do these rules cover the operation of motor vehicles but also rules for the safety of pedestrians. They give certain rights of access to pedestrians but also restrict their movement upon and adjacent to a roadway. Most case law interpretations concern motor vehicle accidents or incidents where a pedestrian violates a law and then is arrested for a more serious criminal offense. Consult the case blurbs in the annotated code.

Online see http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/TN/htm/TN.552.htm

For procedural issues concerning traffic tickets a good starting place is the Texas Criminal Practice Guide Volume 1, Chapter 3. Proceedings in Inferior Courts. The Criminal Practice Guide is also online for in-house patrons, and available off campus for students and faculty, via Stanley. Check with a reference librarian for further information.

South Texas College of Law Closing due to Weather

2011-02-03T10:36:00.003-06:00

The South Texas College of Law, including the Fred Parks Law Library will be closed from noon Thursday February 3 until Saturday February 5, when we will resume normal business hours. During this time no library services will be available.

2011-01-26T14:53:00.012-06:00

Reference Tidbits

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

Finding Federal Legislative History Reports.

Many reports can be found in full-text in our Congressional Universe database. Access the database from Stanley, or from a public portal in the library. Click the "search by number" option and enter the congressional year number and report number in the pull down box. If the item is not available in full-text see the reference librarian. The item can be obtained from our microfiche collection.

Pretty Old Law Books

2011-01-07T15:50:00.003-06:00

by Heather Kushnerick, Special Collections Librarian

Books are great, aren’t they? Ok, that may seem like a silly thing for a librarian to say, but have you ever really looked at a book, at how it is put together? Most people don’t pay much attention to books except to note if it is a soft-cover or a hard-back. Really, unless it’s falling apart you don’t notice its binding at all. The art of bookbinding isn’t seen by most people, and it is an art – one with a long history that began out of practical necessity.

The shape of the modern book can be traced to the Roman diptych. It was made of wooden ‘pages’ with the inner sides hollowed out and filled with wax, which would then be written on. The pages were hinged together with leather cord. One of the oldest books of this kind ever found was discovered at Pompeii, and dates from 55 AD. The codex – a multi-page vellum document written in ink and sewn together, soon followed. Vellum, however, curls over time so it was placed in between wooden boards to keep the pages flat. Later, it was noticed that the leather ties holding the pages together started to come apart so they covered the spine as well, connecting it more securely to the wooden boards covering the pages. The book as we recognize it today was made. The covers of books could then be decorated. Holy books of all kinds, particularly Books of Hours, owned by the wealthy, can be seen today in museums and were richly decorated in bindings created by jewelers and metal smiths.

Until the mid 18th century books were sold in sheets to be bound by the new owner; it was customary to have all the books in one’s library bound in a similar manner. The Industrial Revolution created a new market of readers: the middle class. As literacy spread, so too did the demand for books, and publishers increasingly bound books themselves prior to sale. If the buyer had the money to spend on a custom binding, they would still buy the book unbound, and take it to a small workshop where it would be bound by hand. By the early 19th century the binding process was mechanized, and publishers would bind their books in decorative cloth or leather. Books can be bound in virtually any material – there are books bound in velvet, fur, papier-mâché, and mother-of-pearl.

Law books were not often bound in glitzy covers, but in sturdy cloth or leather. What they lack in decoration, they make up for in durability. On display now in The Fred Parks Law Library Lobby is Pretty Old Law Books, a selection of 16th and 17th century materials from the Special Collections department. These items are some of the oldest, and prettiest, books in our collection and include an early work on arbitration, a manuscript of the High Court of Chancery reports, and a branded book. This exhibit will be up through the end of March 2011.

Change in Library Hours This Week.

2010-12-13T10:17:00.003-06:00

With finals ending, the Fred Parks Law Library will be closing at 9pm this week, starting on Wednesday. The library will also be closed on Sunday.

Library Closed to public December 23

2010-12-13T10:07:00.002-06:00

The Fred Parks Law Library will be closed to the public to allow the library staff to work on special projects. Students, staff, and faculty may still request services and the use of the library if necessary. The front doors will be locked, however if members of the South Texas College of Law community would like to use the library or request a service they may call the Patron Services Desk at 713-646-1711.

The New York Times Graphics Depicting the 2010-2011 United States Supreme Court Session - Tips for Studying Law

2010-10-07T10:05:00.024-05:00

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

Students frequently mention their frustration with understanding legal concepts in their assigned cases. I always suggest that they try graphically depicting the facts and legal concepts in their cases. I was gratified Sunday to read the New York Times article, Supreme Court Term Offers Hot Issues and Future Hints, depicting the 2010-2011 United States Supreme Court Term in graphical images. (Click on the image for larger view.)

While briefing cases, a student may want to doodle the factual scenario. Resources are available on the utility of doodling in a learning situation. One web site features an article by Chris Dunmire, called "Exploring the New Wisdom of Doodling."

On a related note, I had a personal experience with the Texas Skinner v. Switzer case, No. 09–9000. It is set for oral argument on October 13, 2010. This case concerns whether a death row inmate has a right to DNA testing of evidence under the Civil Rights Act of 1871, codified at 42 U.S.C. 1983. The Times article mentions that Hank Skinner received a stay of his execution less than an hour before his scheduled execution. I was present at the execution vigil a block away from the execution chamber and was with a close friend of the inmate, the wife of a Pentecostal minister from West Texas, when his lawyer called her and told her of the stay. The news media rushed towards us when it was apparent from my screaming that we had heard good news. The whole scenario of being present at an execution vigil is surreal. For more information on the details of the case I recommend the information at http://www.excitatio.com/hankskinner/index.html. This site includes the full procedural history of the case and clemency applications with background and legal details.

September 26 to October 2 is Banned Books Week!

2010-09-24T09:37:00.005-05:00

by Heather Kushnerick, Special Collections Librarian

In honor of this important event, an exhibit of banned and challenged books, along with the stated reasons for deeming them objectionable, is on display in The Fred Parks Law Library lobby (Taming Poseidon is on hiatus for the week). Every year hundreds of requests are made to remove books from library shelves because the content is considered objectionable. The list of offensive books includes Judy Blume’s Are you there God? It’s Me, Margaret; The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams; How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell; Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne, and Little Red Riding Hood.

Objections to books are typically made because someone judges the content to be inappropriate on social, political or religious grounds, or because it is sexually explicit. The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom compiles a list every year of the top 10 most frequently challenged books. They have also compiled lists of the top 100 most frequently challenged and banned books for the decades of the 1990s and the 2000s. In the 2000s, number 69 on that list was Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, a book that is about censorship and the banning and burning of books. Originally published in 1953, the publisher, Ballentine Books, marketed two different versions of the book – the “adult” (i.e. original) version and an expurgated version that was sent to schools. In 1973 it stopped selling the adult version, but continued to publish the edited version in which over 75 passages were changed; offensive words such as ‘hell,’ ‘damn,’ and ‘abortion’ had been removed. The publisher withdrew the edited version in 1980 after Bradbury discovered what they had done (Sova, Dawn B. Banned Books: Literature Suppressed on Social Grounds. New York: Facts on File, 2006).

One of the most censored books in America is Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, and the list of reasons is quite long: obscenity, vulgar language, violence, inappropriateness, ungodliness, immoral subject matter, cruelty, and an unpatriotic portrayal of war. It has been the subject of several law suits as well: in Michigan, Todd v. Rochester Community Schools (1972), circuit Judge Arthur C. Moore told a high school to ban the book for violating separation of church and state. The Michigan Appellate court overturned this decision. It was also one of the books mentioned in Pico v. Board of Education, the first school censorship case to make it to the Supreme Court. The court ruled that “[l]ocal school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books …” (Board of Education v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853 (1982))

There are many court cases surrounding the right to read; one of the more recent ones is from 2003, Counts v. Cedarville School District (295 F. Supp. 2d 996). The suit was filed in reaction to the school district requiring students to obtain written permission from their parents in order to have access to the Harry Potter books. The Court overturned the board’s decision. In 2000, the court ruled in Sund v. City of Wichita Falls, Texas (121 F. Supp. 2d 530) that a city resolution to remove Heather has Two Mommies and Daddy’s Roommate from the children’s section of the library was discriminatory.

The Fred Parks Law Library joins the ALCU student chapter in celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. There will be a reading of banned books in the student lounge on Thursday, September 30, from 11am to 1pm. We hope to see you there, and remember to check out the exhibit in the library lobby.

For more information:
Regarding court cases and banned books click here.
On book banning in schools click here.

Texas Code Revision - The Venerable Probate Code Gets a Name Change

2010-09-17T10:14:00.006-05:00

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

Effective January 2014, the Texas Probate Code will be replaced by the Estates Code. The Probate Code revision project involves a non-substantive revision of the code. Follow the foregoing link for a full explanation of the project. West has issued an interim pamphlet (2009) Pamphlet Vernon's Texas Codes Annotated Estates Code) (KFT1230.5 V4 E88) with the changes approved by the 81st Legislature. This unannotated pamphlet is shelved just after the Elections Code and contains Title 1 - General Provisions and Title 2 - Estates of Decedents. Further revisions will be presented by the Texas Legislative Council to the 82nd Legislature in January 2011. The council is responsible for the Texas code revision project that has been going on for more than forty years. The goal of the project is to simplify Texas law by turning the old statutory alphabetical arrangement into subject matter codes. The Probate Code existed before the revision project, and was placed alphabetically between the statutory arrangement in Vernon's Texas Revised Civil Statutes Annotated. These statutes were last revised in bulk in 1925, and changes and additions to the laws made these "Black Statutes," confusing.

An in depth explanation of Texas statutory history is contained in Chapter 11 of Texas Legal Research: an Essential Lawyering Skill by Lydia M. Brandt. (1995). Some of the material in this book must be brought up to date by the reader.

Library Gets New Color Scanner!

2010-09-02T14:43:00.002-05:00

Students and other patrons of the Fred Parks Law Library will be happy to know that the library now officially has a scanner for public use. The new scanner is located near the front entrance of the library by the Patron Services desk. Some features of the new scanner:

Scans in color or black and white
Document feeder to scan multiple pages at once
Scans can be saved to a USB drive or emailed
Scans can be saved as Word, PDF, or TIFF files
A touchscreen to guide users through simple steps

The library staff hopes the new scanner will help students and visitors have a more enjoyable and helpful library experience.

New Student Tim Clark

2010-08-25T16:28:00.005-05:00

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

Sometimes I can look at a student and am compelled to ask, "What did you do in your other life?" Tim Clark, a recent graduate of the University of Houston (May, 2010) came to the Reference Desk. I asked him the question and he made my day. Tim never gave up on his childhood dream of becoming a lawyer, despite the detours on his journey. He grew up first in Midland, Texas, then in several other states during his grade school days and finally in League City, Texas. He married his high school sweetheart at 16, postponed college for years and became an oil rig welder. His last job was a supervisor at a chemical plant. He has children and grandchildren. He has been married for thirty years.

On his first day of law school he felt nervous. But his family treated him to the tender care a parent would give a young child on the first day of school. He came into his kitchen to find his lunch with coffee already packed. His grandchild picked up one of his bags. His wife, daughter and grandchild then walked him to the car! His first day at law school was one of the happiest of his life. We are honored to have Tim Clark!

New Student - Adriana Lopez

2010-08-18T14:09:00.007-05:00

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

The big perk of my job is the chance to meet our students. Their varied backgrounds and accomplishments speak to the appeal of law study for individuals from many walks of life.

I just met a new student named Adriana Lopez (Brown, 2004, Anthropology) from the Rio Grand valley whose love is acting and dance. She and her companion, Danny Ortiz, started a band called the Blue Rio Band, consisting of various members of Danny's family. http://www.bluerioband.com/contact-us. Adriana plans to keep up her dance abilities by taking modern dance classes at the Houston Ballet Academy.

It is not unusual to meet a student with artistic accomplishments. In the past a group of students, led by alum Willie D. Powells, (2004) who was both an engineer and a violinist, even formed a musical group.

Look for more of these short profiles in the future.

Taming Poseidon: The Law of the Sea goes on display in the library lobby.

2010-08-18T09:30:00.002-05:00

by Heather Kushnerick, Special Collections Librarian

It is difficult to overemphasize the importance of the sea in the development of civilization. If there is an oldest profession, it may well be that of sailor. There were sailors before there were farmers and boats before there were cities. While written evidence is scarce, artifacts found at archaeological sites tell the story of maritime trade between the earliest civilizations. The Sumerians traded with the people of the Indus Valley Civilization, and goods from Crete, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon and Afghanistan all found their way to Egypt thanks to early international trade. “The whole period between the Late Bronze Age and the founding of the Hellenic states saw extensive maritime activity in the Mediterranean area” (Gold 3). The growth of cities increased the need for communication and trade, and as civilization moved west that need increased. By the 5th century BC, the entire coast of the Mediterranean was dotted with cities and it was in the Mediterranean where the Law of the Sea began. Because no one nation or people owned the sea, international trade regulations evolved from customs that date back to the earliest times. “Empires rose and fell, states were in one kind of political or legal chaos after another, but the sea law appeared to continue as a growing, maturing body of law throughout these vicissitudes. It did so because no king or chieftain exercised continuous control” (Gold 4).

While early evidence of maritime laws can be found in the Code of Hammurabi, which included rules on collisions, bottomry and reimbursement for leased watercraft, the “first comprehensive maritime code, which not only regulated Greek commerce for a very long time but also supplied the basis for all sea law for the next 1,000 years was complied by the Rhodians…” (Gold 7). Dating from the 3rd or 2nd century BC, its principles were accepted by the Greeks and Romans and it is widely accepted that the “Rhodian code was actually a codification of very ancient legal principles developed over a long period of time… .” (ibid) Romans accepted the Rhodian law most likely out of practicality: they were an agrarian society whose interest in the sea began for defensive reasons during the Punic Wars. Following Rome’s success in the wars, they developed a “very capable maritime legal system covering all aspects of ocean transportation starting with sea as a medium; then the ship as a vehicle with the crew to operate it; the cargo as the purpose of the whole operation; the responsibilities relating to the operation; and finally, the method to settle disputes arising out of it” (Gold 15). By the 13th century competitive world trading centers with large fleets and wealthy cities had developed, and “Roman law and customary maritime rules were no longer adequate; consequently, maritime law was quickly codified and maritime courts sprang up in most of the cities. We witness here the real beginning of modern maritime shipping law” (Gold 18).

For Europe and England, the most important of these cities was Oleron. Oleron is an island off the coast of France, and in the 12th century it became a major trading center used by Crusaders heading to the Holy Land. It was the first non-Mediterranean city to codify maritime law. The code, known as the Rolls of Oleron, included the judgments of the maritime court and eventually became the canon for Europe, and was adopted by England, probably by Richard the Lionheart, in the late 12th century. The office of the Admiral was established in England in the 13th century and the Admiralty Court was established in the 14th century. When England began to colonize North America vice-admiralty courts were established in the main port cities. Following the American Revolution, the vice-admiralty courts were replaced with state courts, under the Articles of Confederation. Finally, Article III section 2 of the Constitution gives original jurisdiction in admiralty matters to the federal court, and the federal courts have jurisdiction over most admiralty and maritime claims.

On display now in the library lobby is Taming Poseidon: Select Admiralty and Maritime Sources from Special Collections. This exhibit includes works by Hugo Grotius, John Selden, and Charles Molloy. These materials will be on display August 18 through December 3, 2010.

Sources: Gold, Edgar. Maritime Transport: The Evolution of International Marine Policy and Shipping Law. Lexington, Mass: Lexington Books, 1981.

Runyan, Timothy. “The Rolls of Oleron and the Admiralty Court in Fourteenth Century England.” 19 Am. J. Legal Hist. 95 1975

Castro, William. “The Origins of Federal Admiralty Jurisdiction in an Age of Privateers, Smugglers, and Pirates.” 37 Am. J. Legal Hist. 117 1993.

New Library Policies on Food

2010-08-15T14:45:00.003-05:00

For those of you returning to the Fred Parks Law Library this fall you will probably notice a large sign near the 2nd floor elevators alerting you to a new and, probably, long awaited policy regarding food in the library. Patrons visiting the library are now allowed to bring food in and eat while they study. There are of course some guidelines, which are prominently displayed on the new sign: Covered Drinks, Cold Snacks, Clean up.

Covered Drinks: the policy regarding the types of containers you can use to drink liquids remains the same. All containers must have secure lids to prevent spilling. Examples of appropriate and non-appropriate containers are located in the glass case by the 2nd floor elevators.

Cold Snacks: As a courtesy to other patrons, we ask that you not bring in food that is hot or smelly. Basically, if you have to heat it up, it isn't allowed. Examples of appropriate and non-appropriate foods are also located in the glass case by the 2nd floor elevators.

Clean Up: When you are done eating, please dispose of your trash in the large trash cans that will be located on each floor. There will be one located by the elevators and and another convenient location on each floor, including extras in the lounge area on the 3rd floor.

Please keep in mind, the library has approved this new policy on a trail basis. We are depending on our students, alumni, and other visitors to the library to be responsible and follow the guidelines, in the hopes that everyone can enjoy their experience while visiting.

World Cup Court in South Africa

2010-06-30T15:46:00.006-05:00

Heather Waltman, Interlibrary Loan & Reference Librarian

On Day 20 of the World Cup, a bit of news about the World Cup Court...

To combat crime in the nine cities hosting World Cup games, South African officials installed 56 special World Cup courts. Just yesterday, an overzealous fan and London resident went before the court where he was ordered to pay a fine of 75 South African rand (about $98) and admit guilt in breaching security at the Green Point Stadium in Cape Town. After finding his way to the dressing room of the Manchester United team, the fan, Pavlos Joseph, berated David Beckham for his "disgraceful" performance at the games. Other crimes handled by the courts have been less remarkable and less well-publicized. More examples can be found in this NPR story.

Texas Legal Research Reference Tidbits: Historical Texas Statutory Bulk Revisions

2010-06-11T15:43:00.019-05:00

A "bulk revision" of a set of laws is a re-publication of statutes in existence by legislative authority. Texas has had a series of bulk revisions in its existence as a state and now the revisions are available at the website of the Texas State Law Library:

Revised Statutes of Texas, 1879
available in paper in our library at KFT1230 1879.T4 in the Main stacks and Special Collections

Revised Statutes of Texas, 1895,

available at KFT1230 1895.T4, Main stacks

Revised Statutes of Texas, 1911

available at KFT1230 1911.T4, Special Collections only

Revised Statutes of Texas, 1925

available at KFT1230 1925.T4, Main stacks

H.P.N. Gammel's Laws of Texas, 1822-1897, is also a very important historical publication. Gammel's compiles the colonization, pre-statehood, and stathood laws of Texas. The University of North Texas Library, Government Documents Department has digitized Gammels. In our library the publication is available at KFT1225.T4 in the Main stacks, Special Collections, and on microfiche. There is also a link to a partial digital collection from the Law Library Microform Consortium (LLMC) from STELLA, our catalogue.

2010-06-02T08:24:00.004-05:00

As one Supreme Court Justice retires and another faces confirmation hearings to fill the vacancy on the bench, you may want to check out these sites:

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Thanks to the folks at Secrecy News and the Federation of American Scientists, a series of Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports on the Jurisprudence of Justice John Paul Stevens are now available for download.

Selected Federalism Issues

Selected Opinions on Intellectual Property Law

The Constitutionality of Presidential Term Limits and the Presidential Lone Item Veto

Leading Opinions on Wartime Detentions

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The Law Library of Congress has compiled this excellent site, a compilation of resources about Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. Included are her Supreme Court briefs and the transcripts of cases she argued before the Supreme Court. Her first case, the controversial Citizens United, can be found here. You will also find links to other Web resources as well as videos of Kagan's nomination. Confirmation hearings for Kagan begin on June 28, giving you plenty of time to bone up on her background.

PACER gets a facelift

2010-05-25T09:00:00.009-05:00

The new and improved PACER website -- the digital case tracking service for federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts -- is now up and running. In short, the interface has been completely overhauled. The changes are largely cosmetic, but the site is definitely less cumbersome, more user-friendly and easier on the eyes. As always, PACER provides access to

Federal court dockets (excluding U.S. Supreme Court)

U.S. District courts including Federal District Courts of Texas

Full-text opinions & orders for courts using CM/ECF system

Case file documents and reports of case-related information

Chronologies of events entered in the case record

And now these documents are easier to access thanks to the new Case Locator feature. This service, which replaces the Case/Party Index, offers more search options and the ability to manipulate your search results. You will still be accessing the same individual court websites, but searching within PACER will be less clunky.

Also, as part of a pilot project, PACER now offers digital audio recordings of trial proceedings in six district courts (Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Alabama, New York, Rhode Island and Maine) and one bankruptcy court (North Carolina). Until now, these recordings were only available on CD at a cost of $26. Digital files available through PACER cost just $2.40.

Finally, the new PACER site provides a directory of telephone contacts for automated case information. The U.S. Supreme Court Clerk's Automated Response Systems (CARS) "permits callers using a standard touch-tone telephone to obtain the status of cases on the U.S. Supreme Court automated docket from an automated voice synthesizer response system." The VCIS (Voice Case Information System) and AVIS (Appellate Voice Information System) "use an automated voice response system to read a limited amount of bankruptcy or appellate case information directly from the court's database in response to Touch-Tone telephone inquiries." Currently, these services are offered at no charge.

To learn more about PACER, check out the PACER User Manual for ECF Courts.

Houston's Legal History

2010-05-13T13:45:00.003-05:00

by Heather Kushnerick, Special Collections Librarian

The city of Houston was founded in 1836 and was so named in an attempt to convince the Texas Congress to designate it the capital of the Republic. As of January 1, 1837, the town boasted a population of 12. By the time the first legislature of the newly formed Republic of Texas met in the capital ‘city’ of Houston on May 1, 1837, there were over 1500 residents, including 15 to 20 lawyers. (Handbook of Texas Online, “Houston, Texas”; and Chapman, Betty T. “Lawyers created bar association to clean up professional image.” Houston Business Journal 31 Mar. 2000: 32A) One such lawyer was George C. Childress, author of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Perhaps because Houston was the first capital of the Republic, area lawyers have been instrumental in the development of legal proceedings in Texas. Peter W. Gray, the first president of the Houston Bar Association, was in the Texas House of Representatives in the First Legislature and the Senate in the Fourth Legislature. He authored the first bill regulating Texas court proceedings (Chapman, 2000: 32A). Gray formed a partnership with his cousin Walter Browne Botts in 1865, and their firm survives today as Baker & Botts.

Lawyers have been instrumental in the development of the city: Frank Andrews, founder of Andrews & Kurth, was one of the developers of the Houston Ship Channel and Montrose. Two attorneys for Fulbright & Jaworski were trustees of the MD Anderson Foundation and helped establish the Texas Medical Center. Area lawyers and judges have also been instrumental in the development and promulgation of legal education in Houston. The growth of the oil industry in the 1920s created a need for lawyers trained in Texas law to handle all aspect of the oil business (Anglim, Chris. “South Texas College of Law: Houston’s Gateway to Opportunity in Law.” 369 S. Tex. L. Rev 922.). To answer this need and to further legal education in general, several prominent lawyers and judges joined with the YMCA in 1923 to open the finest law school in Texas, known today as South Texas College of Law.

On display now in the lobby of the Fred Parks Law Library is Exhibit A: Houston’s legal history. Containing materials from the Special Collections Department, this exhibit will be up through August 13th.

Celebrate Law Day, May 1st

2010-04-30T13:25:00.003-05:00

Law Day is a national day of celebration, created to recognize the role of law in American society and its contributions to our democratic way of life. The Joint Resolution that established Law Day (Pub. L. 87-20, 75 Stat. 43) was passed on April 7, 1961, and codified at 36 U.S.C. § 113. The full text of the law can be read here.

President Obama's proclamation in recognition of Law Day 2010 was issued just yesterday, and it can be read here.

The Library of Congress has created a bibliography of resources related to Law Day, including a list of Law Review articles and speeches written to commemorate the occasion.

Extended Hours for Library During Finals

2010-04-28T15:16:00.003-05:00

Fred Parks Law Library will extend hours April 29-May 14 2010. We will be open until 2:00am during this period (no library services from midnight until 2:00am).

The Fred Parks Law Library provides a variety of spaces for study and meetings by currently enrolled South Texas students. Room capacity varies from 2-8 persons. Rooms are available on a first come, first serve basis. Rooms left unattended for more than 20 minutes will result in loss of room.

Group size has to be appropriate for room capacity.

Serveal areas of the library are reserved specifically for quiet study during finals. During finals the 1st floor, 4th floor, and 5th floor are ultra quiet areas. Cell phones, beepers, and coversations are not allowed as a courtesy to other patrons.

Food and beverages in unapproved containers are not allowed in the library.

Empathy, Nostalgia, and "Playa Hating"

2010-04-07T16:58:00.007-05:00

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

Academic law librarians are an underpaid lot. However, there is a huge "happiness return" in mingling and providing service to law students. I admit to being nostalgic about my age, weight and naive outlook on life as a law student in the mid-seventies. I also admit to being a "Playa Hater." During law school I could not imagine having twenty-four hour access to subscription databases which may have aided my study.

Observing the tension overcoming law students as exams approach I surely empathize with their plight. I also know from my interaction with students that they need to be reminded about study aids they can access through our databases:

CALI Lessons:

One of the study aids that law students either forget or never knew about are interactive lessons from the Center for Computer Aided Legal Instruction, http://www.cali.org/. It is a consortium of law schools and features lessons for almost all subjects and levels for law students. I started a character evidence lesson for the purposes of this blog piece. I am definitely a "player hater" for students who have access to this study aid. This would have been so great on the Saturday that I took my evidence exam from Professor McElhaney at SMU, and had to dress, feed and get my son to the baby sitter before I could study.

The SMU Law Review Annual Survey of Texas Law

According to its website the SMU Law Review Annual Survey of Texas Law, "provides an overview of recent Texas case law and legislation. This edition features articles on 31 specialized areas of law, written by practitioners and experts in each field. In addition to the practice areas traditionally covered by the Survey, this year's edition includes articles on attorney's fees, business torts, conflict of laws, energy regulation, family law: parent and child, real property, Texas securities law, wills and trusts, and zoning and land use." Note that each annual survey comes out in the Summer edition of the journal.

From our web page follow the Database List in Alphabetical Order to access the InfoTracLegalTrac advanced search feature. Use the pull-down menu to search the SMU Law Review as a title, "annual" and "survey" as keywords. Refine the search with an additional keyword for your desired subject, i.e. bankruptcy. You will then have citations to specific full-text articles. Follow the link in InfoTracLegalTrac called "see if this journal is at South Texas College of Law." That link will pull up the journal in HeinOnline. Notice that the link takes you through our STELLA catalog to HeinOnline.

There are two other ways to access the full-text: (1) Go directly to HeinOnline and access the journal database.; (2) Go to Stella and title-search for the SMU Law Review; or (3) use E-Journal Portal and title-search for the journal.

The BNA Databases

The library has invested in many of the subject matter BNA databases (employment, labor, professional ethics, intellectual property, family, securities, etc.). These databases provide useful commentary on past decisions, statutory law and developing trends. BNA's USA Law Week has federal, Supreme Court, and criminal divisions. The paper version is a gold-standard publication for constitutional law research. For example, there is specific information on conflicts between the federal circuits in substantive law areas.

Blog posts now viewable on Facebook

2010-03-31T11:10:00.001-05:00

If you are not already a fan of the library's official Facebook page,South Texas College of Law | The Fred Parks Law Library, this is a good time to sign up. With the help of a tool called TwitterFeed, all entries posted to our blog will now be sent directly to our Facebook page. In fact, you may be reading this on Facebook now! You can easily keep up with our library blog simply by visiting the page. It's one-stop shopping!

C-SPAN Video Archives Now Available Online

2010-03-30T13:15:00.006-05:00

From the Government Documents Department...

For some people, C-SPAN is a cure for insomnia, but this cable network provides a wonderful service by recording the public proceedings of our government for all posterity. Now, you can access all every C-SPAN program aired since 1987, totalling over 160,000 hours of video on the newly created C-SPAN Video Library. The site is comprehensive and easily searchable . From the site:

"Programs are extensively indexed making the database of C-SPAN programming an unparalleled chronological resource. Programs are indexed by subject, speaker names, titles, affiliations, sponsors, committees, categories, formats, policy groups, keywords, and location. The congressional sessions and committee hearings are indexed by person with full-text."

Take some time to check out the site and you'll find video of the Iran-Contra Hearings, President Clinton's impeachment trial, and even the 2006 Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner featuring Stephen Colbert's humorous look at politics and the media. Practically speaking, you may find a video of the Congressional hearing you need to trace the legislative history of a particular statute -- a much more dynamic approach to research than poring over endless pages of text.

For more, take a look at this New York Times article: C-SPAN Puts Its Full Archives on the Web

The Government Tweets?

2010-03-25T10:27:00.002-05:00

Would you be surprised to find out your government officials were tweeting? Would you approve? Well let the surprise end here, your government officials are in fact tweeting. After a presidential campaign in which social networking stole the show, there should be no wonder that over 2500 agencies and individuals in the public sector currently have a Twitter account.

What is Twitter? According to Twitter's website it is a " real-time information network powered by people all around the world that lets you share and discover what’s happening now." Tweeters can alert their followers to bits information in a timely manner.

GovTwit is a website that provides a directory of all government agencies, public officials, and other individuals or organizations that report on the government. You can access the website at:
http://govtwit.com/. The site also keeps statistics about these Twitter accounts, like which are most active, which have the most followers, and which are the newest. The site also has a blog which discusses new information about government tweeting at http://www.blog.govtwit.com/.

Do you want to know what your Senator is up to right now? Chances are, they have a twitter account you can follow to find out. Do you want to know what the CDC is working on? Become a follower of one of their Twitter accounts. Everyone from the President of the United States to the local Houston fire department has a tweeting stream that you can follow.

Whether you approve of it or not, social networking activities like tweeting seem to be a permanent part of government today. What better way to keep up with the people you elect?

Informational Professional (Librarian) and Proud of It

2010-03-14T16:04:00.006-05:00

By Jessica R. Alexander, Reference Librarian

I am attending the South by Southwest Interactive Conference. I am fascinated with the breadth of knowlege of the panel presenters. I am in a presentation about the semantics called Beyond Algorithms: Search and the Semantic Web. This is heady talk. These guys and the one woman panelist are the best thinkers on search engine algorithms. But I keep thinking about targeted legal information and the ability of a law librarian to take a patron's question and provide them with one or several sources leading to an answer. The web is a real add on to our tools. But for hundreds of years scholars, especially librarians, have invented ways to organize and search for information.

For example, despite Google and the other big players, it is not possible for the casual user to determine what the operative case law is on a specific legal issue in a specified jurisdiction for a specific point in time. In paper research achieving this result takes the expertise of someone who understands the structure of the legal system. In United States jurisdictions it is the common law case precedent system interfacing with statutory law. This kind of search on the web requires a subscription to very expensive databases of legal information. When a patron comes into the law library she gets the benefit of both online and paper research tools.

More later...

Google Scholar

2010-03-08T16:26:00.003-06:00

By Jessica R. Alexander, Reference Librarian

I am just beginning to use Google Scholar to perform legal research. My first impression is: wow! I was using the search engine to locate the source of the famous quote by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes using the word "penumbra." Using 'Oliver Wendell Holmes and penumbra as terms, I found an article in a law journal. When I clicked on the article the search engine opened up the article from our subscription database HEINONLINE. More on Google Scholar later.

Recent Acquisitions

2010-03-01T11:46:00.008-06:00

Defiant Dads: Father's Rights Activists in America, Jocelyn Elise Crowley , (Cornell University, 2008) and Courting Change: Queer Parents, Judges and the Transformation of American Family Law, Kimberly D. Richman, (New York University Press, 2009).

By Jessica R. Alexander, Reference Librarian

When I saw the book cover for Defiant Dads, I thought of a quiet library patron with hurt in his eyes who has spent years trying to gain custody of his son in South America. After a divorce, his wife took his young son home to South America. When this dad visits his son, the wife's relatives demand that he hand over his passport during the visit.

In her informative book, Crowley gives a political face to the many non-custodial fathers who have formed or joined father's rights groups in the United States. She provides the reader with an overview of the legal and economic forces that have catalyzed the movement: family breakdown and the states role in determining issues of custody and child support. Numerous statistical information is provided about societal changes that have affected the movement.

I highly recommend this book to family law professors and students who plan to represent families in divorce, child custody and support matters.

Richman's, Courting Change, taught me the term "gayby boom." This term is used to describe a revolution in the exposure of the problem of gay and lesbian people and parental rights issues. The book is written from a critical legal and legal realism viewpoint. Richman begins the book with tragic illustrations of the absurdity of laws that automatically curb the parental options of gay and lesbian individuals and families. She goes on to give an overview of the case law with copious case law citations by discussing doctrines such as the now discredited "tender years doctrine," and the universally accepted but illusive "best interest of the child" standard for determining custody and child support issues. She concludes by saying that the persistence of the indeterminacy of these parental rights issues, cause contradictions and inconsistencies that continue to plague this area of the law.

Library Hours

2010-02-28T11:33:00.002-06:00

The hours of the Fred Parks Law Library have returned to normal operating hours. The staff wishes all our graduates good luck on the bar exam!

2010-02-24T09:14:00.005-06:00

Houston Area Law Librarians (HALL) is presenting a full-day seminar, "Legal Research Around the Globe," on Wednesday, March 10, 2010, here at South Texas College of Law. Students can attend at the member rate full day or half day. The State Bar of Texas has approved the program fro 5.50 hours of MLCE credit.

The program will cover subjects such as international law practice, international tax law and Islamic finance, as well as the laws of China; Argentina, Brazil & Mexico; Commonwealth countries; and, the European Union. Speakers include law librarians from South Texas College of Law, the University of Houston, the University of Texas, and representatives from LexisNexis and Westlaw.

You can see the full announcement for the seminar on the HALL website http://www.aallnet.org/chapter/hall/meeting/sprsem10.pdf. For more information about HALL, see the home page at http://houstonlawlibrarians.com/.

Library acquires rare sixteenth-century treatise on Arbitration

2010-02-18T11:55:00.004-06:00

by Heather Kushnerick, Special Collections Librarian

The Special Collections Department is proud to announce the recent acquisition of a first edition Tractatus de compromissis, in quo omnia ad arbitrorum, by Camillo Borrello. Published in 1597, it is a treatise on arbitration and award in canon and Neapolitan feudal law. South Texas College of Law is one of four institutions in the United State to have a copy of this work. UC-Berkeley Law School, Princeton and Harvard Law also have copies, though Princeton and Harvard have the 1600 edition.

The library also recently acquired Sir Thomas Smith’s De republica Anglorum libri tres. Quibus accesserunt chorographica illius descriptio aliiq[ue] politici tractatus.. Described as "the most important description of the constitution and government of England written in the Tudor age”, it went through eleven editions between 1584 and 1691. The library’s 1641 edition is the fifth and final Latin edition. Published in miniature format by Elzevier, it measures 2½ inches by 4½ inches.

For photographs of these “new” old books, visit our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Houston-TX/South-Texas-College-of-Law-The-Fred-Parks-Law-Library/294526053119?ref=ts

FDsys Search Strategies

2010-01-29T10:49:00.006-06:00

The Government Printing Office, the agency that publishes our nation's official documents, has almost completed its migration to FDsys, the new Federal Digital System that will ultimately replace the current GPO database of government publications, GPOAccess. The migration to FDsys was slated for completion at the end of 2009, but the date has been pushed back to April 2010. More content will be added in the next few months, but you don't have to wait to use the many good collections already available.

On this blog, we've kept you up-to-date with the latest additions to FDsys, but we have not yet provided any search strategies to help you locate and utilize the content. There are, however, two good articles online at LLRX.com, a excellent source for the latest law and technology information.

For an introduction to basic FDsys search techniques, see

The Government Domain -- Congressional Documents on FDsys: the Basics.

And for more advanced strategies, see

The Government Domain -- Congressional Documents on FDsys: Advanced Techniques

Happy searching!

Faculty, staff and students can now access personal library accounts

2010-01-21T11:25:00.004-06:00

Access your library account from campus and home! You can now see everything you have checked out, renew your books, and save searches of your research interests online.

· Access your account through Stella, the online catalog, from Stanley or the library's public home page.

· Select login and enter your last name and your G number (with the G included).

You will now be logged into your personal library account. On the left are Help instructions for renewing books and setting up your preferred searches. Be sure and log out (click on "Log Out" above the search box) when you are finished, especially if you are on a publicly-accessible computer.

If you have any questions or need further information about this new feature, please don't hesitate to ask the Reference Librarian on duty or any of the staff at the Patron Services desk.

Senate Executive Documents & Reports

2010-01-11T13:52:00.003-06:00

A student approached the reference desk recently, trying to locate a Senate Executive Report. These reports contain committee recommendations regarding the ratification of proposed treaties, or recommendations on proposed nominations. Beginning in 1979 these reports were published in the Serial Set, but the document we needed was issued in the 90th Congress, 1968. To locate this older report, we needed to look outside of the Serial Set in a unique collection called Senate Executive Documents and Reports (SED). This collection is indexed in Congressional Universe (aka Lexis/Nexis Congressional), but to locate the report itself, we had to search the SED on microfiche. The fiche are filed by Congress, session, and report number. For example, in this citation -- Exec.Rpt. 5, 73-2 -- we would look for the 73rd Congress, session 2, report number 5.

If you’re ever doing treaty research and need to find a Senate Executive Report, stop by the Reference Desk so we can help you locate it on microfiche on the first floor of the library at KF 39.

We can also help you to find Senate Executive Documents (renamed “Treaty Documents” in the 97th Congress, 1981) in this collection. These documents are issued by the Senate when the President asks them to ratify a treaty. They generally contain the text of the Presidential communication supporting ratification of the treaty and the text of the treaty agreement itself. Like the Executive Reports, these documents are also published in the Serial Set beginning in 1979; the older documents can be found in the SED microfiche collection.

Civility and the Practice of Law

2010-01-06T15:28:00.008-06:00

by Heather Kushnerick, Special Collections Librarian

In honor of the 20th anniversary of the Texas Lawyer’s Creed, materials from the Special Collections Department of The Fred Parks Law Library on legal ethics and professional responsibility will be on display in the library lobby until the end of April, 2010. Items on display include works by Jeremy Bentham, Immanuel Kant, and Frederick Pollock. The Texas Lawyer’s Creed was promulgated by the Texas State Supreme Court in 1989. It is an authoritative statement on professional standards for all Texas lawyers. To read the text of the Texas Lawyers creed, please go to the State Bar of Texas website.

Thomas Jefferson and the Danbury Letter

2009-11-20T09:53:00.009-06:00

From the Government Documents department...

In the first Thanksgiving proclamation, George Washington established November 26, 1798 as a day dedicated "to service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be." Read the full text of the proclamation here. Every president since has issued a similar proclamation -- expect for Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, and, most notably, Thomas Jefferson.

In 1802, President Jefferson wrote a letter to a Baptist church in Danbury, Connecticut, in thanks for their praise of him as the newly-elected president. He also used the letter to explain his reasons for not issuing a proclamation of thanksgiving and prayer:

"religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions."

This letter has become an important and, some say, revealing document from which the phrase, "a wall of separation between church and state" originates. This letter has been cited at least five times by members of the Supreme Court to support the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Some argue that, because this letter was penned many years after the Bill of Rights was written, it is not a good indicator of the intentions of that document's authors. Others feel that, as author of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson certainly played an important role in the formation of the country, and his opinions, at whatever time, should be considered. Either way, Jefferson's description of the separatist wall endures as a metaphor for church-state relations.

For more history, go to A Wall of Separation, presented by the Library of Congress. Here, you can link to the text of the Danbury letter and view the original document.

Providing access to CONAN online

2009-11-17T14:48:00.006-06:00

From the Government Documents department...

Last month, Senator Russell Feingold, who currently sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to the Government Printing Office (GPO) requesting that the publication of an important legal research tool undergo a revision. That tool is The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation.

CONAN, as it’s called, is published every ten years as a single volume, with biennial supplements published in the interim. It’s a cumbersome tome with incomplete coverage, due to the lag time between publication of the supplements. It is available in PDF via GPO Access, but the files are quite large, making navigation of the text impracticable. Furthermore, the electronic version is simply a reproduction of the static print version, without any updates or changes to the material over time. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) does update the material regularly, but does not make the new information available to the public until the next biennial supplement is published. Only members of Congress are privy to the updated content; CRS makes it available to them via the Congressional intranet in XML format. In his letter, Senator Feingold urges the GPO to make the updated content available to the general public as well, thereby granting equal access to everyone easily and inexpensively.

We spotlighted CONAN in this blog in September, just after we received the 2008 biennial supplement in print. Unfortunately, it is already out-of-date, and we won’t receive the next supplement until 2011. If Congress has access to the most current information in a format that is easily searchable, why shouldn’t we?

Carl Malamud introduces Law.gov

2009-11-17T09:33:00.005-06:00

From the Government Documents department...

Carl Malamud, a public domain advocate and champion of transparency in government, is determined to make public information more accessible. He has already succeeded by opening access to SEC filings through a free, online database known as EDGAR. He is also responsible for Fedflix and has contributed millions of bankruptcy and Federal District Court documents to RECAP, the new Firefox plugin that captures documents from PACER. Now, Mr. Malamud has created Law.gov, a “distributed, open source, authenticated registry and repository of all primary legal materials in the United States.” This site has three goals:

To develop law.Gov as a central tool for access to all United States primary legal materials, with the hope of creating streamlined, efficient and consistent access for all citizens

To systematically capture, preserve and maintain all primary United States legal materials which are born digital

To make all United States primary legal materials freely accessible to all its citizens

Mr. Malamud believes that public documents and the information they contain serve as the operating system of our democracy; we all have a right to view, read, and utilize these documents without any bureaucratic or financial barriers. As his new project, Law.gov, evolves, we should be able to access information that is currently only available for a fee levied by the government (as is the case with PACER) or through subscription-based services. This is definitely a development to watch.

Recent Legislation Introduced to make CRS Reports Available Online

2009-10-21T14:18:00.013-05:00

From the Government Documents department...

Democratic congressional representative Frank M. Kratovil, Jr. recently introduced legislation (H.R. 3762) to expand the availability of Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports via the Internet. The goal of this bill, which complements S. Res. 118 introduced earlier this year by Senator Joseph Lieberman, is to "increase transparency and help citizens become more informed and engaged advocates." (Read Representaive Kratovil's press release here.)

CRS reports are produced by the Library of Congress as a legislative research tool for members of the House and Senate. These reports are public domain documents, yet they are not made available directly to the public. Constituents can request the reports from their Senators and Congressional Representatives; the reports can also be purchased from private vendors. However, aside from a few online archives assembled by various universities and public interest organizations, there is no central, comprehensive repository of CRS reports on the Internet. That's why the recent legislative efforts to expand their availability are so critical.

To encourage further sponsorship in Congress for the initiatives proposed by Representative Kratovil and Senator Lieberman, the American Assocaition of Law Libraries is calling upon concerned citizens to voice their support. The AALL Government Relations Office has issued an Action Alert that makes it easy for you to write to your senators and House representatives. The Alert includes sample emails and links to the Webmail forms of your members of Congress so that you can easily start writing an email right away. Please take action. Your help will keep the momentum going on this important issue.

For more information about CRS reports and to find links to CRS sources online, read the Guide to CRS Reports on the Web, available from LLRX.com

Can't find a book? Try ILL!

2009-09-25T14:51:00.008-05:00

By Heather Waltman, Interlibrary Loan & Reference Librarian

You may not be aware that the library provides interlibrary loan services to all South Texas College of Law faculty, staff, and currently enrolled students. If you need a book or article that we don't own, we are usually able to locate it in another library and borrow it for you (if a book) or send it to you electronically (if an article). And it's easy! Just go to the Library tab in Stanley, scroll down to the Interlibrary Loan channel on the left, and click on the link to ILLiad, our automated ILL request system. You will need to create an account with a unique username and password, and then you can start submitting requests. The system is very user friendly and convenient, and you can track the progress of your request throughout the whole process. For more information, take a look at the ILLiad FAQ page or email the Interlibrary Loan Librarian at stclill@stcl.edu.

You can also view a very short tutorial here.

Even if you're already an ILLiad user, you may not know about one of its features that makes submitting requests even easier. After locating an item in OCLC FirstSearch (WorldCat or ArticleFirst), view the full record display. Under the section labeled "Get This Item," you will see a link that says "Send Request to ILLiad." When you click on this link, the ILLiad Logon page will open in a new window. Logon as you normally would, and the form (for Book or Photocopy, depending on your request type) should open, and all fields will be populated with the bibliographic information from OCLC. Click the submit button. It's that easy, and it saves you the trouble of keying in all that info yourself! If you've already used this feature, you'll know how convenient it is. If you've experienced problems submitting requests through OCLC from off campus, you will no longer have any difficulty. Any snags in off-campus accessibility to ILLiad via OCLC have been repaired.

Banned books Weeks: Celebrate the Freedom to Read, September 26 – October 3, 2009

2009-09-24T16:01:00.002-05:00

By Heather Kushnerick, Special Collections Librarian

On October 27, 1553 Michael Servetus, a scientist and theologian, was burned at the stake with the last known copy of his heretical book, the Christianismi Restitutio, chained to his leg. Three copies of this work survived the flames and can be found today at the Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna, the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, and the library of the University of Edinburgh. While authors no longer face such extreme punishment when their work is deemed objectionable, they are sanctioned nonetheless when libraries, schools, and communities are pressured to remove their books from shelves and classrooms. For these authors, and in recognition of all censored authors before them, Banned Books Week is celebrated each year.

"History is an ocean that books help us to navigate. It is the permanence of the printed word that has allowed ideas to travel from place to place, from age to age." (Lawrence Goldstone & Nancy Goldstone, Out of the Flames 325, Broadway Books 2002) Today books are banned mainly because of sex, offensive language, violence, religion or politics, particularly in school districts. The American Library Association and the Fred Parks Law Library want you to celebrate the freedom to read. Check out the list of the most frequently banned books of the 21st century, and the list of banned Classics. How many have you read?

A selection of banned books from the librarians’ personal collections is on display in the lobby, along with books from the Fred Parks Law Library. Come see the exhibit and join us in celebrating our freedom to read.

BNA For Law Review

2009-09-16T15:54:00.002-05:00

Are you a South Texas College of Law student looking for a topic for a research paper? Would you like to become more familiar with some of the databases offered by the Fred Parks Law Library?

The Fred Parks Law Library will be holding a review session with a BNA representative in the library for any students who are interested in learning more about BNA databases.

Where: Fred Parks Law Library, Room 2018
When: 2:15 pm, September 17th

ABOUT BNA

Independent publisher of more than 300 print and electronic news, analysis and references services.
Intensive coverage of legal, legislative, regulatory, economic and international developments on a wide range of topics.
Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, with reporters covering Capitol Hill and the world for over 75 years.
Publications include the highly respected United States Law Week.

Celebrate Constitution Day!

2009-09-16T09:26:00.009-05:00

From the Government Documents Department...

Every year on this date, Constitution Day is observed to commemorate the formation and signing of our nation's guiding document. Schools and public offices are encouraged to promote Constitution Day and to engage in activities that recognize our country's legal origins, as well as the responsibilities and opportunities that come with United States citizenship. The Law Library of Congress has compiled an excellent site about the origins of Constitution Day, and the National Archives has created a number of fascinating sites about the Constitution itself. See especially: Our Documents, Constitution of the United States and Charters of Freedom, Constitution of the United States. And finally, don't miss the Interactive Constitution presented by the National Constitution Center.

Also, see the post dated September 2, 2009 for discussion about another wonderful resource that interprets the Constitution through Supreme Court case analysis.

Happy Constitution Day!

New collections available on FDsys

2009-09-08T09:28:00.003-05:00

From the Government Documents department...

The Government Printing Office, the agency that publishes our nation's official documents, recently announced the availability of several new collections on the Federal Digital System website (or FDsys). FDsys will ultimately replace GPO Access as the source for electronic government information; the migration should be complete by the end of the year. Visit FDsys to access the following collections:

Congressional Directory (105th Congress to present)

Congressional Record (Bound) (1999 to 2001)

Congressional Record Index (1993 to present)

Economic Report of the President (1996 to present)

GAO Reports and Comptroller General Decisions (1994 to 2008)

History of Bills (1983 to present)

United States Government Manual (1995/1996 to present)

United States Statutes at Large (2003 to 2006)

U.S. Constitution analyzed and interpreted

2009-09-02T09:22:00.005-05:00

From the Government Documents department…

Spotlight on: The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation: Analysis of Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of the the United States

This annotated, one-volume edition of the Constitution is published every ten years, with biennial supplements published in the interim. The library has just received the 2008 supplement, and as I reviewed it, I discovered just how wonderful this source really is. Each article, section, and clause of the Constitution is presented, with annotations and commentary prepared by the editorial staff at the Library of Congress Constitutional Research Service. It is not a comprehensive treatment of all Supreme Court cases, but it does offer analysis of the most significant decisions, making it an excellent starting point for research on constitutional law. Be sure to browse the extensive index and the many tables included in the volume:

Proposed amendments not ratified by the States

Acts of Congress held unconstitutional in whole or in part by the Supreme Court of the United States

State constitutional or statutory provisions and municipal ordinances held unconstitutional or held to be preempted by federal law

Supreme Court decisions overruled by subsequent decisions

Table of Cases

Find this source on the fourth floor of the library at KF4527 U54 or online on GPOAccess .

Today's Legal News

2009-08-26T08:26:00.002-05:00

Today's Legal News

2009-08-25T08:13:00.002-05:00

Today's Legal News

Spotlight on Texas

2009-08-18T10:37:00.001-05:00

By Heather Kushnerick, Special Collections Librarian

Texan’s are just a little different than other folks. That difference is reflected in our legal history. From our roots as a Spanish colony to our time as an independent Republic, we have adopted what works and dismissed what does not. While our legal system is largely based on English Common Law, we kept pieces of the Spanish legal system and adopted part of the Civil Code of Louisiana. A selection of early Texas legal materials is on display in the library lobby until December, 2009

Library Map Now Available through STELLA

2009-08-05T11:07:00.009-05:00

Barbara Szalkowski, Senior Catalog Librarian

A new feature has been added to our online public access catalog, STELLA. When you do a search, some of the locations will be "hot-linked" and when you click on one, you will get a map with the appropriate section highlighted. We have not hot-linked "Main", since it is over multiple floors. All the other locations (Reference, Reserve, History, Special Collections, etc.) have been hot-linked to a map of that specific floor showing the highlighted location of the section.

If you go into STELLA directly (htttp://stexl.stcl.edu/search/) or from the library webpage (http://www.stcl.edu/library/libhome.html), you will be able to use this new function. Access to this feature is not yet available through STANLEY, but it will be soon. -- UPDATE 8/25/09: Access is now available through STANLEY. Thanks for your patience.

Digitization of rare material means better access for you

2009-07-28T10:37:00.006-05:00

Heather Kushnerick, Special Collections Librarian

This year marked two big anniversaries: the fortieth anniversary of the moon landing and the 65th anniversary of D-Day. Both of these events are awe inspiring – not only because they succeeded, but because the bravery of the participants. Thanks to what was then cutting edge technology we can watch footage of WWII and relive, or see for the first time, man's first steps on the moon. What did we do before we had cameras to preserve these historic events? People kept copious notes and wrote very detailed, descriptive books. Unfortunately, these manuscripts and books are now so old and fragile that they are kept in locked, climate controlled rooms forgotten by the public. However, thanks to technology more and more of these books and documents are being digitized. Here at South Texas, we have the Making of Modern Law Database, which contains over 21,000 treatises on British and American law dating from 1800 to 1926 as well as an ongoing project digitizing the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure starting from 1941. New projects digitizing the South Texas College of Law Newspaper, Annotations, and South Texas CLEs have just begun. You can find dozens of digitial collections on the Internet. A database that just recently came online is The Solider in Later Medieval England. This joint project between the Arts & Humanities Research Council, the University of Reading and the University of Southampton has produced a free to use, fully searchable database of tens of thousands military records dating from 1369 to 1453, from The National Archives (read the BBC article about the project here). If you prefer antiquity to the Hundred Years' War, check out the Perseus Digital Library, hosted by Tufts University, where you can read the works of Aeschylus, Aristotle, Livy and Homer, among others. They have the works of Marlowe and Shakespeare as well as a very nice collection of 19th century American historical material. One of the biggest and perhaps the most well known digital collections is Project Gutenberg. With nearly 30,000 available books you can find something on almost anything (I recommend everything by Desiderius Erasmus.) A great feature of this site is that you can search by Library of Congress Classification system – check out the KFs to find works by John Jay, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. When you have some free time try doing a search for digital collections - you might be surprised by what you can find.

Current Scholarship

2009-07-22T13:31:00.006-05:00

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

Akron Law Review -42(3) Akron L. Rev. 2009 - Neuroscience, Law & Government Symposium

As I am opposed to the death penalty, I have concluded that criminal law lags far behind neuroscience. This issue presents symposium articles that discuss neuroimaging tools, those used to look at our brain. The symposium's key note address, Law and the Revolution in Neuroscience: An Early Look at the Field, was delivered by Henry T. Greely. p. 687. He is a Stanford law professor who is, according to his profile, "A leading expert on the legal, ethical, and social issues surrounding health law and the biosciences. "

The theme of Greely's keynote speech is the advance in neuroscience compared to thirty years ago. He reminds us that everything we do and think is controlled by electrochemical reactions in the neurons. Despite the advances he posits that we are only beginning to understand the way the brain works. Here is a fascinating excerpt from his paper:

Our society is built on our understandings of the human brain as reflected in our expectations for what people will do. Soon we will be better able to understand, in new ways and using new tools, what people are thinking, planning, or doing. This will be particularly important for the law, because although the law may seem to be concerned about bodies, it is actually usually concerned about brains, or at least about minds. If my fist were to make forceful contact with Judge Rakoff’s chin, I might or might not be in legal trouble. It could matter whether I had been thrown from a car after somebody had negligently run into our car, or if I were having an epileptic seizure at the time, or if we had gotten into an argument about the Yankees and tempers flared. All that can make a difference. The law is usually worried about individuals’ motives, purposes, intentions, knowledge, and other mental states, in addition to their actions.
So knowing more about brains—and as a result being able to know more about minds and mental states—may fundamentally change, in important ways, the legal system of the United States and every other country in the world.

The other symposium articles explore neuroimaging, the fourth amendment,cognitive freedom, juror reaction to neuroimaging and juvenile justice issues in neuroscience.

Introduction to the Global Legal Information Network (GLIN) from the Law Library of Congress

2009-07-16T19:06:00.008-05:00

From the Government Documents department...

The Law Library of Congress recently produced a short video, now available for viewing, that introduces a wonderful online resource called GLIN, the Global Legal Information Network. The 8-minute video features GLIN Director Janice Hyde and Comparative Law Specialist Hanibal Goitom discussing what the network is and how it was developed. In the video you will learn that GLIN is a network of governments working together to exchange legal information, as well as a rich database of legal materials contributed by 52 countries around the world. GLIN is an excellent research and reference tool that is definitely worth checking out

DARTS now available from the FDLP & NTIS

2009-07-10T16:08:00.006-05:00

From the Government Documents department...

Did you know that The Fred Parks Law Library is a designated U.S. Federal Depository Library? That means that we can access restricted government databases for free. One such database is called DARTS (Depository Access to Reports, Technical and Scientific), a project of the National Technical Information Service (NTIS). DARTS provides access to approximately 240,000 full text documents dating from 1964 to 2000. The documents, produced by many different Federal agencies, are downloadable as full-text PDF files. Much of the content covers scientific, techinal, and medical topics, but the database also includes reports dealing with behavior and society as well as law. A few interesting titles...

Space Stations and the Law: Selected Legal Issues

Legal Constraints on Information Warfare

Legal Impediments to Information Sharing

Women in Jail: Legal Issues

Because access to the database is restricted to FDLP users, it can only be used in the library. The reference librarian on duty can log on to the site for you. The DARTS pilot program is still in the beta testing phase, so, if you have comments to share, please do. The FDLP and NTIS will appreciate the feedback.

Legal Blawgs from the Law Library of Congress

2009-07-07T10:25:00.004-05:00

From the Government Documents department...

Did you know that the Law Library of Congress has compiled a directory of legal blogs that you can access from one convenient page? Visit Legal Blawgs by Topic to find more than 100 items covering a broad cross section of legal topics, including civil procedure, constitutional law, legal ethics, and so much more.

New collections available on FDsys

2009-07-03T16:15:00.007-05:00

Compilation of Presidential Documents (1993 to Present)

Congressional Bills (103rd Congress to Present)

Congressional Calendars (104th Congress to Present)

Congressional Committee Prints (105th Congress to Present)

Congressional Documents (104th Congress to Present)

Congressional Hearings (105th Congress to Present)

Congressional Record (1994 to Present)

Congressional Reports (104th Congress to Present)

Economic Indicators (1995 to Present)

Federal Register (1994 to Present)

List of CFR Sections Affected (1997 to Present)

Public and Private Laws (104th Congress to Present)

EBSCO Titles on Google Scholar

2009-06-26T09:22:00.003-05:00

Many members of the South Texas College of Law should be familiar with the databases available via Stanley in the Electronic Resources channel on the Library tab. This conveniently allows you to access databases away from the South Texas campus.

The Fred Parks Law Library has recently joined a program with Google Scholar to allow you to access the same journals available in EBSCO databases, such as MEDLINE and Academic Search Complete, in Google Scholar search results. Now if you are on the South Texas campus and searching for titles in Google Scholar a link will automatically appear next to the title of a result linking to the full text.

There is nothing extra you as a researcher need to do. Simply type your query in Google Scholar, hit search and if the result is available in an EBSCO database there will be a link next to the result taking you directly to the article.

Judge Sotomayor's questionnaire and speeches now available

2009-06-05T09:35:00.005-05:00

From the Government Documents department...

Judicial nominees, including nominees to United States Supreme Court, are required to complete a bipartisan questionnaire compiled by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Judge Sonia Sotomayor's questionnaire and related attachment are available on the Senate Judiciary Comittee's website.

The document submitted to the committee catalogues all of Sotomayor's decisions in 17 years as a federal judge, awards she has received and groups of which she has been a member. Also included in the questionnaire are the transcripts of 83 speeches given from 1993 until April of this year. (Washington Post)

Touching the Future - Jim Alfini steps down as Dean and President

2009-06-04T11:14:00.003-05:00

by Heather Kushnerick, Special Collections Librarian

As we look forward to Dean Donald Guter joining the South Texas family, one can’t help but think that we are losing a great advocate and friend in Dean Alfini. (Ok, so we aren’t really losing him, he’s just relocating to the sixth floor.) While we look forward to the future with our new Dean and President, let’s take a moment to look back at Dean Alfini's contributions to legal education.

James Alfini became the ninth dean and president of South Texas College of Law on August 1, 2003. Prior to joining the South Texas, he served as Dean of Northern Illinois University College of Law, and taught at NIU, Florida State University College of Law, Chicago-Kent School of Law, Hamline University School of Law and Santa Clara University School of Law. He has expertise in judicial ethics and dispute resolution. He served as the Director of Education and Research of the Florida Dispute Resolution Center and was a member of the Florida Supreme Court Arbitration and Mediation Rules Committee. He has served as the chair of the ABA Dispute Resolution Section and the Chair of the AALS Alternative Dispute Resolution Section. Under his deanship, South Texas created the Centers of Excellence and stressed the importance of pro bono work. He has published numerous books and articles, a selection of which is on display in the Library lobby along with photos and other items from the Archives until the end of the summer.

Jim Alfini will step down as Dean this summer and join the faculty full-time. While we know he will still be an advocate for the school and the students, we will miss his leadership. Enjoy your "retirement," Dean Alfini!

Learn about Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor from the Law Library of Congress

2009-06-01T08:50:00.011-05:00

From the Government Documents department...

The Law Library of Congress has launched a new website on Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor. The site contains a bibliography of articles written by Sotomayor (accessible via HeinOnline on the Library tab in Stanley), along with Congressional documents, and web resources. Additional material will be added throughout the nomination process.

To access Judge Sotomayor's previous confirmation hearings on Congressional Universe (by proxy via Stanley), visit these links:

United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Confirmation Hearings on Federal Appointments, Part 9. Washington: US G.P.O., 1992. S. Hrg. 102-505, pt. 9.

United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Confirmation Hearings on Federal Appointments, Part 2. Washington: US G.P.O., 1998. S. Hrg. 105-205, pt. 2.

FantasyLaw leagues now forming!

2009-05-22T16:26:00.009-05:00

Heather Waltman, Interibrary Loan & Reference Librarian

In the Winter 2009 issue of The Green Bag (see this blog's post of May 1st), the development of a new online diversion called FantasyLaw was announced. Modeled on the fantasy leagues so popular with baseball, bass fishing, and poker fans, FantasyLaw will allow participants to build dream teams of federal legislators, chosen for their perceived ability to score well on a set of performance criteria, selected and compiled by an impartial Administrator.

Details have yet to be worked out, but an official website has already been created, though it's not yet active. FantasyLaw will open to the public in late 2009, so you have plenty of time to form a league and start thinking about your draft picks before the season opens on January 2010.

A similar experiment called Fantasy Congress (now defunct) was created a few years ago, complete with political baseball cards (or at least that was the goal). It's great to see the idea resurrected, and, if anyone can pull it off, it's the folks at The Green Bag. So don't waste any more time; call up your favorite political junkies and jump into the preseason fun. For full details, check out the full article. Play ball!

Advice for Summer Associates re: email

2009-05-22T16:16:00.005-05:00

Heather Waltman, Interlibrary Loan & Reference Librarian

As the summer begins, you may enjoy this very brief article that appeared in the June 30, 2003 issue of the New Yorker. It's a humorous look at the Summer Associate Season in New York, "that debauched perennial perkfest for rising 3Ls at Harvard and Fordham and Yale." The experiences recounted in the article may differ from yours, but they're useful in demonstrating what not to do on the job. Enjoy!

GovFresh, a new Web 2.0 source for access to official U.S. government information

2009-05-17T00:06:00.004-05:00

From the Government Documents department...

On May 1st, two web professionals based in San Francisco launched a new site called GovFresh, a live feed of official news from the U.S. Government; information is aggregated from Twitter, YouTube, RSS, Facebook, and Flickr and made accessible in one place. You can currently track feeds from the White House, the Supreme Court, the House and Senate, the Office of Law Revision Counsel, the Library of Congress, all branches of the military, four national labs, eight federal departments, six agencies, and the Democratic and Republican National Committees. As the site develops, additional feeds will be added.

Paper explores "The Next Generation of Legal Citations"

2009-05-16T23:37:00.008-05:00

From ResourceShelf

The Next Generation of Legal Citations: A Survey of Internet Citations in the Opinions of the Washington Supreme Court and Washington Appellate Courts, 1999-2005, 9 J. App. Prac. & Process 387 (2007)

As more legal research is conducted online, it is reasonable to conclude that there will be a corresponding increase in citations to the Internet by judges in their opinions. With the widespread public use of the Internet to access information along with the constant changes and impermanence of websites, citing to the Internet should be an issue of increasing concern to the legal community across the country. This paper surveys the types of Internet sources the Washington state Supreme Court and Appellate Court justices are citing. It discusses the interrelated issues of link rot and the impermanence of web pages, citation format, authentication and preservation of online electronic legal information.

Several options available for retrieval of full text including HeinOnline, accessible via the Library tab in Stanley

Hat tip: Law Librarian Blog

Law Library of Congress launches new website on the U.S. Constitution

2009-05-16T22:02:00.005-05:00

From the Government Documents department...

The Law Library of Congress has just launched a new website with links to resources about the United States Constitution. The site combines various items from the Law Library of Congress in one centralized location.

The website includes sections on Constitutional Interpretation, Executive Privilege, Military Tribunals, Presidential Inherent Powers, Presidential Signing Statements, Second Amendment, State Secrets Privilege, War Powers, War Powers Resolution, and Additional Constitutional Resources.

Are women judges different?

2009-05-04T14:22:00.007-05:00

By Heather Waltman, Interlibrary Loan & Reference Librarian

Now that U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter has announced his retirement, many are speculating that President Obama will appoint a woman to fill his vacancy. Some who support this choice argue that women bring a unique approach to jurisprudence. In a recent Newsweek article, Dahlia Lithwick sums up the argument, first asserted by psychologist Carol Gilligan in 1982:

"...female moral reasoning differs from that of males. Men...prefer their law with rigid rules, clear lines and neutral principles; women prefer to look at the totality of the circumstances and favor... an ethic of care over an ethic of rights."

This will surely be a topic of lively debate as President Obama weighs his options for the new appointment. If you'd like to explore the idea further, take a look at the 2008 award-winning paper titled, Untangling the Causal Effects of Sex on Judging. It suggests that women judges do in fact bring something different to the bench. An extensive bibliography identifies additional sources.

Best Legal Writing of 2008...and more!

2009-05-01T15:11:00.008-05:00

By Heather Waltman, Interlibrary Loan & Reference Librarian

The Green Bag is an entertaining journal of law (responsible for the production and distribution of Supreme Court Justice bobbleheads) that publishes insightful, funny, and provocative legal writing. Every year since 2006, The Green Bag has produced an annual compendium called An Almanac of Useful and Entertaining Tidbits for Lawyers for the Year to Come and Reader of Exemplary Legal Writing from the Year Just Passed. Each volume contains a selection of the best (according to a board of advisors) legal opinions, books, articles and essays of the prior year, supplemented by original writing 0n the law. The Almanac is truly a unique creation whose medley of factoids, commentaries, photographs, illustrations, and other oddities makes for a fascinating read.

The library has all volumes (2006-2009) of the Almanac in hard copy, available for check-out, on the third floor of the library at K184 .G742. Visit The Green Bag website to read about the Almanac. While you're there, check out the rest of their interesting and entertaining offerings. The library also subscribes to the journal in print (available at K7 .R43).

Tracking swine flu activity

2009-04-30T08:21:00.014-05:00

From the Government Documents department...

An excellent compilation of government documents covering the Swine Flu outbreak of 1976 is available here thanks to Daniel Cornwall at the Alaska State Library. This list of sources is also available on his page on WorldCat.org. Included are Congressional documents (bills, reports, hearings) that address some the same issues we are facing with the current outbreak -- very interesting! Many of these documents are available in full text (PDF) on Congressional Universe, which is available on the Library tab in Stanley. Please see the reference librarian for assistance in accessing these documents.

A librarian at Bowling Green State University has posted a library guide about The Swine Flu Scare of 1976. Sources for further exploration are included. Also, don't forget the check the CDC website for up-to-date information, including this page dedicated to coverage of the swine flu outbreak and this guide to proper handwashing.

Google has created an interesting resource that harnesses the power of its search engine to track trends in the spread of swine flu. Google analyzes popular search terms and the geographic origins of queries that are thought to indicate flu activity. See especially Experimental Flu Trends for Mexico. During past flu seasons, Google was able to accurately estimate the pattern of outbreak even before published CDC reports were released. The CDC is also teaming up with Twitter, using the power of real-time, online social networks to track the flu and disseminate information about the progress of the illness.

Law review publishing in plain English

2009-04-27T11:18:00.007-05:00

Heather Waltman, Interlibrary Loan & Reference Librarian

If you'd like to read the latest scholarly publishing in a condensed, accessible format, take a look at LegalWorkshop.org. This site makes available the abbreviated versions of law review articles from seven different law reviews. Articles published in Stanford Law Review, New York University Law Review, Cornell Law Review, Duke Law Journal, Georgetown Law Review, Northwestern Law Review and University of Chicago Law Review are summarized in "op-ed" pieces designed for a more generalist audience. According to the website,

"Each Legal Workshop Editorial undergoes the same rigorous editorial treatment and quality screening as the journals’ print content, but readers are able to offer comments and esteemed academics have the option of submitting response pieces, which are checked for citations and substance."

Other schools plan to contribute their law review content in the near future. For the layperson, as well as those who simply don't have time to pore over the latest journals in detail, LegalWorkshop.org is a site worth checking out.

Today's Legal News

2009-04-20T07:57:00.002-05:00

Today's Legal News

Release of President's and Vice President's Tax Returns

2009-04-19T00:15:00.008-05:00

Heather Waltman, Interlibrary Loan & Reference Librarian

News from the Government Documents department...

Honoring its pledge to achieve greater transparency in government, the White House has made public the President's and Vice President's 2008 state and federal income tax returns. You can view PDF copies of the returns on the White House blog.

Today's Legal News

2009-04-16T08:21:00.002-05:00

Today's Legal News

2009-04-15T09:11:00.002-05:00

Today's Legal News

2009-04-14T08:20:00.002-05:00

Today's Legal News

2009-04-09T08:49:00.001-05:00

Today's Legal News

2009-04-08T08:04:00.002-05:00

Today's Legal News