The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act now in HeinOnline

HeinOnline's recently added Taxation & Economic Reform in America Library now contains more than 140 legislative documents related to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Public Law No. 111-203, 124 Stat. 1376 (2010). Compiled by William H. Manz, Senior Research Librarian at St. John's Law School, this collection includes all versions of the bill, related bills, congressional hearings, reports and debates, presidential materials, Congressional Budget Office reports, and the full text of the law itself.

The voluminous Reform Act (849 pages in the Statutes at Large) has been criticized for not going far enough in changing the U.S. financial system. Nevertheless, it has imposed new regulations on hedge funds, derivatives, private equity funds, and corporate governance. Large hedge and private equity funds are now required to register with the SEC, bringing them under federal oversight for the first time. Derivatives markets are also brought under federal oversight by the Act. The issue of excessive executive compensation has been addressed by requiring the SEC to establish compensation disclosure rules for annual reports, as well as "clawback" provisions for recovering unjust compensation. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been established and given authority to write new consumer protection rules for banks and other financial firms.

Hein's Taxation and Economic Reform in America Library is a great resource on U.S. tax laws, banking laws, securities laws, and financial reforms passed by Congress as far back as the 1800s. In addition to the recent Dodd-Frank Act, it contains resources on the Great Depression, the Wall Street Crash of 1987, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2008, and 2010 staff reports of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.

Prof. Nolon on Sustainable Development

Today, November 10, 2010, at 4:00 pm,  Prof. John Nolon, James D. Hopkins Professor of Law at Pace Law School, will present on Sustainable Development Law: Keeping Pace as part of the Hopkins Lecture.  The event will be held at the Judicial Institute at Pace Law School.  For more information, email bthornton@pace.law.edu.

Professor John R. Nolon is Counsel to the Land Use Law Center and Director of the Kheel Center on the Resolution of Environmental Interest Disputes.  Prof. Nolon has been Visiting Professor of Environmental Law at Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies since 2001.  He served as a consultant to President Clinton's Council on sustainable Development in the mid-1990s and, during that time, studies and wrote about sustainable development in South America as a Fulbright Scholar.  In 2009, he was presented the National Leadership Award for a Planning Advocate by the American Planning Association.  Prof. Nolon's current focus is on sustainable development law and managing climate change through land use practices.  He participates in the Experts meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  He has written a book on climate change and sustainable development law and is redrafting his law school casebook to include chapters on these topics.  

Can't make it here on time?  You can still attend by watching the lecture video in real time.

Civil Litigation Management Manual

The Federal Judicial Center (FJC) has recently published the Civil Litigation Management Manual, Second Edition. The entire manual (220 pages) is available online in PDF along with a list of appendices including various sample forms.

This manual provides trial judges a handbook on managing civil cases.  It sets out a wide array of case-management techniques, beginning with early case screening and concluding with steps for streamlining trials and final disposition.  It also discusses a number of special topics, including pro se and high visibility cases, the role of staff, and automated programs that supports case management.  This new edition incorporates statutory and rules changes and contains updated advice on electronic case management, electronic discovery, and ways of containing costs and expediting cases. 

After Gender? Examining International Justice Enterprises

Since 1982, the Pace Law School has hosted a yearly event, the Dyson Distinguished Lecture series.  This year's title is After Gender? Examining International Justice Enterprises. The Pace Law School will welcome Janet Halley, Royall Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, and an impressive group of exciting moderators, panelists, and commentators, as they all engage in a series of conversations about international law, sex, gender, and sexuality.

This one-day conference will explore contemporary thinking about gender in international law.  Traditionally, international law's gender analysis focused on women to the exclusion of other sexes.  More recent efforts to understand the complexities of gender in the international arena, including those in international criminal law, the United Nations, and other international organizations, have attempted to move toward a broader understanding of gender identity.  Do these efforts continue to rely on the exclusive centrality of "women" to understand "gender?"  If so, what are the costs to gender-related projects, if any? 

This event is scheduled on November 12, 2010 at 9:30 am and will be held in the Judicial Institute Lecture Hall on the Pace Law School campus. For more information, email plr@law.pace.edu.

The lecture will be available online in real time here.

2010 Manual on Recurring Problems in Criminal Trials

Federal Judicial Center (FJC), created in 1967, is the education and research agency for the federal courts. On its website it provides information about its publications & videos, international judicial relations, federal judiciary history, and educational programs & materials.  Recently, it has published the sixth edition of the Manual on Recurring Problems in Criminal Trials.

This Manual is not meant to be a comprehensive treatise on criminal law, but rather a basic guide to the law governing many of the procedural matters that arise frequently in criminal trials.  Consequently, it should not be cited as authority in opinions or other materials, nor should the case summaries, which have been updated through August 15, 2009, be considered substitutes for the judicial opinions they reference.