Pace Law Library New Acquisitions December 2008

Here is the list of the Library's latest acquisitions. Note that when available links are offered to Google Books providing you with an overview of the book.

Sleep Your Way Through Law School

Law is Cool strikes again; this post is brought to you by the same authors who wrote Speed Read Your Way Through Law School. And just to keep up with our latest format, it is yet another tip list of ten, titled Sleep Your Way Through Law School. According to a new study, napping is found to boost sophisticated memory and it helps to see the big picture. The following 10 tips can help you sleep better.

• Reduce Screen Time Before Bed
• Exercise to Enhance Sleep
• Eat to Enhance Sleep
• Mater the Power Nap
• Avoid the Soul-Shattering Alarm Buzzer
• Solve Problems in Your Sleep
• Beat Insomnia with Visualization
• Shortcut a Long Nap with the Clattering Spoon
• Take a Caffeine Power Nap
• Teach Yourself to Lucid Dreams

10 Essential Tech Skills & Practices

And yet another list, this time it is a list of the ten technology-related "should-know-shortcuts". Dan Pinnigton, a director of practice PRO, LAWPRO's risk and practice management program, compiled a list of 10 useful technology skills, or shortcut if you would, to make your life easier. Check out the full article right here. It would be good to know how many of the tips were you aware of and what other shortcut tips would you suggest one should know. Leave your comments, we look forward to reading them.

The list includes the following:

1. Keyboard Shortcuts
2. Alt+Tab shortcuts
3. Switch between documents
4. Jumping text shortcuts
5. Cut, copy, and paste shortcuts
6. Paste special shortcut
7. Text formatting shortcuts
8. "Right click" formatting shortcuts
9. Banish the new e-mail pop-up
10. Improve your docketing habits

Top 10 Expert Witness Cases of 2008

Yet another post dedicated to the top ten. This time, it is a list of top ten expert witness cases of 2008, via blog post at IMS Expert Services. You can check out the complete list with short abstracts right here. Robert Ambrogi, a lawyer, writer and media consultant, compiled this list of what he thinks are the top ten expert witness cases of this year. Take a look and see for yourself. Let us know if you agree or not and feel free to post your suggestions.

NY Adopts New Rules of Professional Conduct

New York Law Journal has this story on the adoption of new rules of professional conduct that align New York more closely with the ABA Model Rules.

The Rules of Professional Conduct align ethics standards in form and numbering sequence with the American Bar Association's Model Rules of Professional Conduct. That change will make it easier for New York attorneys to reference ethics rules and advisory and legal opinions nationwide when researching issues, supporters of the new rules say. "It is a tremendous relief to now speak the same language as the rest of the country," said Steven C. Krane, chairman of the New York State Bar Association's Committee on Standards of Attorney Conduct, which proposed the revisions. "The code is dead. Long live the rules." Starting April 1, 2009, the Rules of Professional Conduct will replace the New York Code of Professional Responsibility.

The Weirdest Legal Cases of 2008

The Times Online features an article about the ten weirdest legal cases of 2008. Every week, Gary Slapper highlights bizarre legal disputes from around the world. This time, he lists some of the weirdest of this year.

Here is the short of the list, click here for the full article:

10. UK, workouts becoming intolerable to neighbors
9. US, a woman whose hair turned from blond to dark after using a coloring product sues L'Oreal
8. Greece, two residents of Lesbos, sued to get an exclusive right to call themselves Lesbians
7. Italy, identical twins are working one job to account for double-booking
6. Romania, legal action demanding a radio station to broadcast at least one positive news a day
5. Austria, Supreme Court is asked to rule that a chimpanzee is a person
4. US Florida, a teenager is arrested for wearing saggy pants - "fashion police"
3. Macedonia, a brown hair is accused of stealing honey
2. UK London, no parking fine car engine had to run to keep reptiles warm and awake
1. New Zealand, a nine-year-old girl with a name of "Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii" was placed under guardianship after judge rules her name being a form of abuse

Read for yourself and share 'funny' or 'weird' cases you came across!

FBI Celebrated a Century of Service

This news comes in with a bit of a delay, but still worth to be mentioned. On December 7th, 2008, the FBI celebrated a century of service. Check out the FBI news release titled Celebrating a Century 1908 - 2008, right here.

Throughout its 100-year history, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has protected the American people from threats to our way of life. Whether the greatest dangers came from gangsters, public corruption, hate crimes, cyber attacks, white-collar fraud, or terrorism, these threats have changed over the decades. And those threats have evolved, the FBI has changed to meet them head on.

ANNOUNCEMENT: 2009 FCIL Schaffer Grant

The Foreign, Comparative and International Law Special Interest Section of the American Association of Law Libraries (FCIL) is now accepting applications for the 2009 FCIL Shaffer Grant.

The FCIL Schaffer Grant for the July 25-28, 2009 Annual Meeting in Washington, DC provides a waiver of the AALL Annual Meeting full registration fee and a grant of a minimum $2,000 to assist with accommodations and travel costs.
Applicants must be law librarians, or other professionals working in the legal information field, currently employed in countries other than the United States with significant responsibility for the organization, preservation, or provision of legal information. The application deadline is March 1, 2009. The Grant Committee will not consider late or incomplete applications.
Details regarding the FCIL Schaffer Grant, as well as the application form, can be found HERE.

Please feel free to forward this announcement to interested parties, post it on your blogs, share via listservs, or spread the word otherwise!

Feel free to contact any of the Committee Members directly.

Thank you for your assistance,
Lucie Olejnikova
2009 FCIL Schaffer Grant Committee Member

And One More Post For the iPhone Users

As posted on the Wired blog, you can now read books on your iPhone. Take a look at their post here, and see for yourself.

Printing things out in order to read them away from your PC is so last century. Today, devices like the iPhone offer perfectly readable displays, and bookmarking articles to read on tiny mobile screens is no problem thanks to apps like Instapaper.

Enjoy your reading and let us know how you like it.

The Law Pod

The Law Pod is a legal resource for iPhone and iPod Touch. Law Pod's web applications can be quickly and easily installed on your iPhone or iPod Touch by following the directions on the law pod home page. The Law Pod currently features the following web applications:

• Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
• Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure
• Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure
• Federal Rules of Evidence
• Constitution & Amendments
• Federal Rules of Bankruptcy

As mentioned on the website, the following are the upcoming Law Pod web applications:

• Offline Versions Through the App Store
• Model Penal Code
• Title 28
• And Many More!

Check it out right here!

New Class at Pace Offered During Intersession

Pace Law School is offering a new class titled Advanced Research Skills for Health, Disability, and Elder Law. Margaret Moreland, a reference librarian here at Pace, will be teaching this class during the January intersession. Don't hesitate and take advantage of this incredible opportunity to learn advanced research skills in the area of health law, spend one on one time with the expert in this area, and earn 2 credits over just six days. For more information about the class and how to sign up, please visit our Podcast site at http://tinyurl.com/6kbsom, click on the picture thumbnail, or contact Margaret directly.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights 60th Anniversary

Dec. 10, 2008 is the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the UN General Assembly, which is celebrated as Human Rights Day. The UDHR is not a treaty or international agreement, but the first global statement proclaiming the importance of basic human rights to the world community. It was borne by the desire of the international community to never again suffer the atrocities of World War II. It declares, in part, that

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

The UDHR serves as a summation of important traditional civil and political rights, including freedom from slavery, equal treatment before the law, protection against arbitrary arrest, the right to a fair trial, freedom of assembly, speech, religion, and thought, the right to own property, and the right to education.

Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the UDHR drafting committee, which consisted of 18 individuals from as many countries. The group argued over every word and every comma in every language, but ultimately overcame cultural differences and, guided by the firm hand of Mrs. Roosevelt, completed the UDHR in two years. A number of events are scheduled in celebration of this important achievement at the UN and around the world.

How To Play Up Or Play Down The Facts

The (new) legal writer blog, has a post featuring an article by Raymond P. Ward, titled Techniques for Emphasis and De-Emphasis. The full article can be viewed here. The author makes his case by comparing Justice Scalia's written opinion with Justice Stevens' written opinion in Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002). Ward shares his suggestions on effective and persuasive by example and further states:

Good writers don’t need typographic gimmicks to pack their prose with power. Good writers do something else, too: they manipulate the number of sentences to increase or decrease the number of stress positions.

Take a minute to read this interesting article and let us know your experience with effective writing.

Canada: E-Laws Printouts Are Good Law!

Law is Cool strikes again. This time it is a post by Lawrence Gridin titled It's Official: E-Laws Printouts Are Good Law. It is obvious that we all are more and more reliant on technology. Some of us can't even imagine conducting legal research without electronic Lexis or Westlaw. As pointed out in the post, traditionally, legal research has been preferred to be in print and electronic printouts of legal materials, such are cases and legislation, have not been accepted in court.

In Canada this traditional belief undergone a reform, and the general rule has changed. As reported in this post, Ontario has been publishing its laws online since 2001. As of November 30, 2008, the Canadian government has gone even further.

According to MAG press release, copies of regulations and statutes published on e-laws will now be an official source of law. Further, an on-screen display of a statute or regulation viewed on, or downloaded from, the e-Laws website; and a prinout of a statue or regulation viewed on, or donwloaded from, the e-Laws website, are both going to be official.

What are your thoughts? Would you like U.S. state and federal governments to take similar steps or not, and why? Share your comments.

Some 'Stupid' ('Funny') Laws From Around the World

As posted on Law is Cool, and as a courtesy of Annie Scott and Gadling, the following are some 'non-traditional' laws from around the world. Any thoughts?

1. Australia - It is illegal to roam the streets wearing black clothes, felt shoes and black shoe polish on your face as these items are the tools of a cat burglar.
2. France - Between the hours of 8AM and 8PM, 70% of the music in the radio must be by French composers.
3. Thailand - It is illegal to leave your house if you are not wearing underwear.
4. Italy - It is an offence for women of ‘ill repute or evil looks’ to enter a cheese factory in the area of Ferrara.
5. Scotland - It is illegal to be a drunk while in possession of a cow.
6. France - It is illegal in Antibes to take photos of police officers or police vehicles, even if they are just in the background. (I hope the photo at right isn’t from Antibes!)
7. Lebanon - Men are legally allowed to have sex with animals so long as the animals are female. It is illegal to have sex with a male animal.
8. China - Women are prohibited from walking around a hotel room in the nude. A woman may only be naked whilst in the bathroom.
9. Hong Kong - A woman is legally allowed to kill her cheating husband, only if she uses her bare hands. The husband’s lover however may be killed in any manner desired.
10. Switzerland - A man may not relieve himself while standing up, after 10 P.M.

Wireless Internet in Classrooms or Not?!

Law is Cool blogged about the use (or non-use) of wireless Internet in classrooms, here. What do you think? Is it OK? Should it be OK? Is it not OK? Should it be up to you to make the decision? Can the school, or professor, or department make the decision for you? Should you be able to surf the Internet during law school lectures? Should you be able to shop for wedding dress, visit the gossip sites, catch up on the news, or take care of your personal e-mail during class? Should you not be able to do that? Is is possible it might be distracting to the professor? Can it be distracting to fellow students? Could it possibly be even distracting to you?

Chicago Law cuts classroom WiFi and Prof. Simon Fodden blogs about it, here. Inside Higher Ed also has a story (Hey, You! Pay Attention?) about the Internet-In-Classroom situation, which was also blogged about on Above the Law in an entry titled Update: Hey Teacher, Leave Those Kids (and Their Internet) Alone!

We would like to read your input, so please share your opinion on the issue right here!

New Library Acquisitions

The latest list of new library acquisitions is now available. If there are any resources that you would like the library to acquire, please do not hesitate to contact us with your suggestions.

100 Notable Books in 2008 ... by New York Times

The New York Times Sunday Book Review has selected 100 notable books. Check out the complete list right here. The list is compiled from books that have been reviewed since December 2, 2007. The books are in alphabetical order and divided into two categories: Fiction & Poetry and Non-fiction. Enjoy reading and let us know your tip on a good book to read.

Things You Should Never Put in an Email....

Things You Should Never Put in an Email is a title to a blog entry on the ABA Journal Blog. Don't forget, e-mails don't disappear and before you click the 'send' button, think again to make sure the content is what you want it to be. Take a minute and check out the useful tips of what not to put in an e-mail. Law is Cool blog also caught up to this post, here.

Pace Honors Prof. Dorothy Marie Miner

On December 3, 2008, the State of New York conferred its top Individual Achievement Historic Preservation Award on Prof. Dorothy Marie Miner. Her citation recited:

Preservation law pioneer, advocate, educator and mentor, Miner was a powerful force for civic good, a fearless voice for the rule of law and the built environment. Ms. Miner was instrumental in the development, implementation and defense of preservation laws at local and statewide levels, and her pioneering work was significant in establishing preservation law at the national level. She was informed of her award before her death on October 21, 2008.

Also, on December 3, 2008, the City of New York Law Department renamed its award for outstanding service as counsel to an agency after its first recipient, Dorothy Marie Miner. This annual award, now titled "The Dorothy Marie Miner Award for Outstanding Service as Counsel to an Agency" was conferred on Phyllis Arnold yesterday evening.

Prof. Dorothy Marie Miner's family has agreed to provide her personal legal archives on preservation law to Pace Law Library for its original archive collection. Prof. Marie Newman, the Director of Pace Law Library, is in process of arranging the deed of gift of some 65 boxes of important preservation law materials.

Today Pace's Seminar in Historic Preservation Law will honor Dorothy Marie Miner, and continue her work, through the students' presentations at the class' annual research symposium. Students present abstracts of their research findings and papers. Please join Prof. Nicholas A. Robinson, the Pace's Seminar in Historic Preservation Law, and the Pace Law School today, December 4, at noon in Preston Hall Room 403.

Pace Environmental Notes - November 2008

The latest issue of Pace Environmental Notes (PEN) is ready.

Pace Environmental Notes is a service of Pace Law Library and is compiled by Jack McNeill, Associate Library Director and liaison to the Environmental Law Program. P.E.N. offers the latest periodical publications, library acquisitions and other materials in the areas of environmental and public utilities law, ecology, and related areas.

Pace Environmental Notes is published each month during the school year, September through May. Back issues may be found by following the P.E.N. link on the Law Library’s “Internet Resources” web page.

Pace Environmental Notes is distributed to members of the Pace Law School community and other interested individuals in Adobe .pdf and Microsoft Word formats. Either version may be read online or printed out. If you would like to be added to, or removed from, the distribution list, please send an e-mail to Jack McNeill at jmcneill@law.pace.edu.

A Day In A Life Of A Case

Have you ever wondered how does a case make its way to an electronic database? Decision is rendered by the court and the opinion is written, by the judge - and then it appears on Westlaw. How? If you'd like an answer, take a look at the following Westcast to find out. Click on the title or here to access the Westcast video podcast that highlights the process.

Recycling pays off for Student Association

Take a look at how a student association at Deeside College in Flintshire in Great Britain, made some money to fund their activities. As posted on the the Deeside College news and events site.

Deeside Colleges' Student Association this week received a payment of nearly three hundred pounds as a result of staff and student's commitment to recycling plastic bottles.

As part of the innovative 'Waste Pays' scheme, the students place their used drinks bottles in recycling bins located around the College, and thereby raise money for the Student Association.

The Legal Career Guide

The fifth edition of The Legal Career Guide: From Law Student to Lawyer by Gary Munneke and Ellen Wayne (KF297.M864 2008) is a comprehensive guide to developing your legal career. There is an accompanying CD-ROM that includes some of the sample resumes and forms that are appear in the book.

This book is designed to serve as a hands-on manual for law students who are entering the job market during or after law school. It is designed to serve as a tool to help you get from start to finish in the career choice process. It is not like a novel to be read from cover to cover, or a casebook to be briefed for later regurgitation. It seeks to help you where you need help, so use the parts that help and skip the rest.

Property Tutorials for Exam Prep

Pace Law Professor John Humbach has developed online tutorials for property law. Professor Humbach's website has links to two tutorials--The Estate System and Basic Future Interests.

Professor Humbach also developed a number of CALI lessons in property law. These are available via the CALI website.

These tutorials are very useful not only in preparing for exams, but for bar preparation as well.

Is the Versatility of a Law Degree a Myth?

This article from the Dec. 1 National Law Journal discusses the pros and cons of getting a law degree if you don't plan to practice law.

The upshot for many is that, while they appreciate the knowledge they gained, they find that they are no more marketable -- and sometimes less -- than if they'd avoided the law school ordeal altogether.

What do you think? Is a law degree good for anything but practicing law?

What Makes Juries Listen?

Sonya Hamlin is considered a pioneer in courtroom communication. As featured on the Westlaw Blog,

she created and taught the first course dedicated to courtroom communication at Harvard Law School. Today, she lectures worldwide and consults on cases with law firms, analyzing jury issues about cases and what advocacy skills are needed, preparing witnesses, developing strategies and creating visual presentations of evidence.

Sonya Hamlin wrote books “What Makes Juries Listen” and ”What Makes Juries Listen Today”. These books are now accompanied by her latest title "Now What Makes Juries Listen." It reflects the changing attitudes and behaviors of today’s jury members and gives new techniques and approaches for every aspect of the trial.

Ms. Hamlin cites three major issues that she says “have changed everything radically” in the jury box:

• Technology - “We don’t talk to each other now, we type! We get our information about anything online, on our own, fast and easy,” Hamlin says. “So, learning from someone talking at us has lost its power and credibility. And our attention span is now one and a-half minutes.”
• Generational Differences - “We now have four generations sitting on the jury: seniors, baby boomers, generation X and generation Y. They’re almost from different planets. Reaching each one requires new information in order to reach and persuade them.”
• Multicultural Diversity - “We have people on juries who have become American citizens but are conditioned by other societies, other governments and other kinds of laws.”

What do you think? Are you ready to pick the jury? Feel free to share your thoughs and comments.

ABA Recalls Defective Lawyers

The American Bar Association has recalled 230,000 defective lawyers who pose a danger to the general public and the judicial system. Check out this funny post. Click on the title and listen for yourself.

Career in Health Law?

Looking to develop a career in Health Law? Check out the recent post on Law is Cool titled Building Careers in Health Law.

Health law is an emerging and exciting field in Canada. The Health Law Student Association at the University of Ottawa (HLSA) grew out of the observation that, unlike other Canadian law schools, Fauteux Hall did not yet have a student organization for those students specifically interested in health law. So far, the student response to the HLSA has been fantastic.