From the “What’s New” page of the July 2008 issue of Bloomberg Markets (p. 176):
Tracking Congressional Bills
The Bloomberg Law Search function now lets you set alerts to notify you of the progress of U.S. House or Senate Bills. To track House bills related to hedge funds, for example, . . .
Wisconsin’s Public-Records Law: Preserving the Presumption of Complete Public Access in the Age of Electronic Records, by Leanne Holcomb and James Isaac, 2008 Wisconsin Law Review 515 (2008).
Under Wisconsin’s public-records law, the public is permitted access to the actions of government officials in order to act as an effective check on government power and give force to the democratic system. This policy translates into the legal right of inspection by any person of any public record, . . . Over the last three decades, however, statutes have not kept pace with technological advancements that have dramatically transformed public records, threatening the presumption of complete public access. The emergence of electronic documents as the preeminent record of government activity has complicated the application of existing public-records law to records-retention practice and the disclosure of public records. As e-mail illustrates, primary electronic documents are often capable of being “deleted,” but not in the traditional sense of this term. this difference begs the question whether deleted e-mail, and other deleted electronic documents like it, belongs to the public record and should be disclosed upon request. This Comment argues for an answer in the affirmative.
Additionally, the creation of each primary record in electronic form includes numerous unseen secondary records, such as metadata, that do not accompany traditional paper records. While secondary records are unintentionally created, they nonetheless provide a considerable amount of information about the creation and history of the record, information that is sometimes of great use to the requester and arguably in line with the existing statutory definition of record. Wisconsin needs to address these electronic-records issues in order to maintain an up-to-date and relevant public-records law. This Comment therefore suggests adapted statutory language and continued judicial recognition of electronic documents’ peculiarities, aiming to modernize the public-records law and provide a solid platform from which the legislature can address inevitable technological advances in the future.
Shrinking access to EU documents? This is from a press release on the European Ombudsman site:
“The European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, has called on the European Parliament (EP) to defend the European Union’s commitment to transparency and the citizens’ right of access to EU documents. This follows the European Commission’s recent proposals to revise the law on public access to documents. In his contribution to today’s public hearing in the EP’s LIBE Committee (Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs), the Ombudsman said:
“The Commission’s proposals would mean access to fewer, not more, documents. This raises fundamental issues of principle about the EU’s commitment to openness and transparency.”
Read the entire contribution given by the Ombudsman
The EU proposals sharply limit the definition of what is a “document” — ”The Commission’s proposed definition of a document would mean that, in many cases, citizens could only apply for access to a document if it appeared in a register.”
Read the full text of the EU proposal to revise Regulation 1049/2001: “Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents” [4/30/2008]
Hat tip to the lawlibrarians blog for tracking this!
Bless the university presses. They produce fascinating — and affordable! — titles. And their catalogs are fun to peruse too. Yesterday I received the Fall 2008 catalog from the University of California Press and picked out numerous books to buy, including this one:
Joel Best
Stat-Spotting
A Field Guide to Identifying Dubious Data
$19.95 [Thank you!]
978-0-520-25746-7
140 pages, 5-1/2 x 8-1/4 inches, 1 b/w photograph, 1 line illustration, 4 tables
October 2008, Available worldwide
“If you ever scan the newspaper, watch the TV news, or surf the blogs, you should read this charming book. If you’re a journalist [or reference librarian], read it twice.” — James M. Jasper
“As we now swim in information, much of it bogus or biased, spotting dubious data is super important. In Stat-Spotting, Joel Best plays off the format of field guides to give readers good, common sense ways not only to sense bad data but to understand what’s wrong. Broken up into short independent sections much like field guides to various flora or fauna, the book is easy and enjoyable to read. Easy, enjoyable, and valuable. I will recommend it to my students, and to others, as a resource for critical consumers of numbers.” –Bernard Madison, University of Arkansas
Description
Are four million women really battered to death by their husbands or boyfriends each year? Does a young person commit suicide every thirteen minutes in the United States? Is methamphetamine our number one drug problem today? Alarming statistics bombard our daily lives, appearing in the news, on the Web, seemingly everywhere. But all too often, even the most respected publications present numbers that are miscalculated, misinterpreted, hyped, or simply misleading. Following on the heels of his highly acclaimed Damned Lies and Statistics and More Damned Lies and Statistics, Joel Best now offers this practical field guide to help everyone identify questionable statistics. Entertaining, informative, and concise, Stat-Spotting is essential reading for people who want to be more savvy and critical consumers of news and information.
Stat-Spotting features:
* Pertinent examples from today’s news, including the number of deaths reported in Iraq, the threat of secondhand smoke, the increase in the number of overweight Americans, and many more
* A commonsense approach that doesn’t require advanced math or statistics
You are thinking of attending law school? Consider watching the documentary film, “The Trials of Law School” to supplement the film and televison adaptations of “The Paper Chase.”
“Trials of Law School”
Director: Porter Heath Morgan
Zone IV Productions, 2006
http://www.thetrialsoflawschool.com/
Synopsis (from the film Web site) The Trials of Law School provides a captivating and real, in depth look at eight students, with different backgrounds and expectations, through their first year of law school as they encounter a new language, a new way of thinking, and a new way of life.
A heart-felt look at the lives of eight students, the film captures both the stress and emotion, both inside the classroom and out, as they try to juggle family and relationships with school commitments. These students, including a single mother looking for a fresh start, a husband and father of four, and a military wife trying to raise six children, compete with competitive and highly successful peers for grades and jobs that will determine their future.
Their journey is contrasted with insight from over 25 acclaimed law professors and legal scholars from around the country.
In an equation set up for disappointment and failure, some succeed and some don’t, and others learn to redefine success. Who will make it, who won’t?
