Monthly Archives: September 2009

Afghanistan Legal Education Project

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Stanford Law School just launched the Afghanistan Legal Education Project (ALEP) Web site. Here you find the ALEP Blog, links, and full-text of publications, including “Introduction to the Law of Afghanistan” and “Introduction to Commercial Law of Afghanistan.” Additional resources are planned for the future.

Afghanistan Legal Education Project

http://www.afghanistanlegaleducation.com/

About  ALEP

Founded in 2007, the Afghanistan Legal Education Project (ALEP) at Stanford Law School is dedicated to developing innovative legal curricula to help Afghanistan’s universities train the next generation of lawyers and leaders.
Afghanistan’s legal sector requires urgent attention. While other institutions are transitioning more quickly, reconstruction of the legal system lags behind. At the heart of this problem is a dire shortage of qualified lawyers. Because the assistance of skilled practitioners is crucial to the efforts of the people of Afghanistan to reconstitute their justice system, training the attorneys that will guide the rebuilding of Afghanistan is of chief importance. The students of today in Afghanistan are also the leaders of today, and familiarity with the justice system is essential for them to work in government, business, and virtually any other field.
In 2007-08, ALEP developed an introductory textbook on the laws of Afghanistan based on Afghanistan’s 2004 Constitution and current legal codes. It was the first legal textbook specifically on the law of Afghanistan created in the last thirty years. Afghan and international law experts reviewed the textbook at a symposium hosted by Stanford University and during a trip by the ALEP team to Kabul in March 2008. The textbook is the foundation of the first Legal Studies class at the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF).
Already, over fifty students have taken the class, which was taught by Professor Mohammad Haroon Mutasem, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Law and Political Science at Kabul University and Lecturer in Law at AUAF. The introductory text will be available for free in Dari and Pashto by August 2009.
A common refrain among the students enrolled in the introductory law class was that they want still more offerings. To that end, in 2008-09, ALEP has continued to refine the introductory textbook and has drafted two new textbooks—one on commercial law and the other on criminal law. The textbooks will be taught in two new courses at AUAF in the fall and spring semesters 2009-2010, forming the core requirements of a certificate in law from AUAF.
In addition to writing textbooks, the ALEP team is in constant contact with rule of law experts in the region and at home in the United States. The project has forged a close alliance with the Afghanistan Legal Educators project at the University of Washington, of which Professor Mutasem is a graduate. In the future, ALEP will continue to write and develop textbooks and teaching materials for free distribution to AUAF and around Afghanistan

Local Rules in the Wake of Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32.1

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“Local Rules in the Wake of Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32.1″

DAVID R. CLEVELAND, Nova Southeastern University – Shepard Broad Law Center

Adoption of the Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32.1 has had a ripple effect throughout the federal courts of appeals, but it has not brought uniformity on the issue of unpublished opinions. The federal judiciary’s practice of issuing unpublished opinions traditionally ascribed three characteristics to such opinions: unpublished, non-citeable, and non-precedential. However, local rules of the Courts of Appeals are widely varied on these characteristics. The most fundamental jurisprudential question: “what is law?” has varying answers across a supposedly uniform federal system. From the types of cases eligible for unpublication to the limits of citation of unpublished opinions to the precedential status afforded such opinions, uncertainty and ambiguity abounds.

This article, Local Rules in the Wake of Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32.1, examines the federal judiciary’s desire for uniform rules on publication and citation (and its persistent avoidance of the precedent issue) regarding unpublished opinions. It then categorizes and analyzes the circuits’ local rules regarding publication, citation, and precedent in the wake of Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32.1. Finding significant discrepancies between circuit local rules in each of these three categories, the article argues for truly uniform publication, citation, and precedent rules – the most direct of which would be to end the experiment with unpublished opinions and recognize the full value of all circuit court opinions.

 

Source:  LSN Law & Courts Vol. 3 No. 59,  09/07/2009

Clear as Mud: How the Uncertain Precedential Status of Unpublished Opinions Muddles Qualified Immunity Determinations

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“Clear as Mud: How the Uncertain Precedential Status of Unpublished Opinions Muddles Qualified Immunity Determinations”

DAVID R. CLEVELAND, Nova Southeastern University – Shepard Broad Law Center

Denying precedential status to unpublished opinions muddles the already unclear law surrounding qualified immunity. Government officials may claim qualified immunity as a defense to claims that they have violated a person’s civil rights. The test is whether they have violated “clearly established law.” The federal circuits differ on whether unpublished opinions may be used in determining clearly established law. This article, Clear as Mud: How the Uncertain Precedential Status of Unpublished Opinions Muddles Qualified Immunity Determinations, argues that unpublished opinions are ideal sources for determining what law is clearly established. The article reviews the purpose of both civil rights actions against government officials and the qualified immunity defense available to such officials. It also analyzes the characteristics of unpublished opinions and finds them, by definition, to be ideal sources to help determine the clearly established law. It then examines the circuit courts’ variation in the use of unpublished opinions in their qualified immunity analyses. Finally, it proposes a resolution to this problematic circuit split through jurisprudential or rulemaking means. Opinions that are issued as unpublished are by definition clearly established law; opinions that make new law or expand or contract existing law must be published under the federal circuit rules. Denying precedential status to unpublished opinions has relegated these opinions to a second class status, which is unjustified and unconstitutional, but also obfuscates their inherent suitability to demonstrate clearly established law.

 

Source:  LSN Law & Courts Vol. 3 No. 59,  09/07/2009

Electronic Public Access Fees and the US Court’s Budget: New Working Paper

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New working paper from Stephen Schultze:
Electronic Public Access Fees and the United States Federal Courts’ Budget: An Overview
by Stephen Schultze, Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard

Abstract: This draft working paper examines the role of user fees for public access to records in the budgeting process of the federal courts. It sketches the policy principles that have traditionally motivated open access, describes the administrative process of court budgeting, and traces the path of user fees to their present-day instantiation. There has been considerable confusion about motivation and justification for the courts charge for access to PACER, the web-based system for “Public Access to Court Electronic Records.” Representatives from the Administrative Office of the Courts describe the policy as mandated by Congress and limited to reimbursing the expenses of operating the system. This paper identifies the sources of these claims and places them in the context of the increasing push to make government data freely accessible.

Download here.

Best Guide to Canadian Legal Research

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Catherine Best, a research lawyer at Boughton Law Corporation, maintains the eponymous Best Guide to Canadian Legal Research. This is an easy to navigate site that not just lists resources, but also includes explanatory notes for specific titles or databases.  Both free and pay sites are discussed. Additional guides are available for Australia, European Union, International Law, New Zealand and the UK.  

Hat tip to George W. for finding this great site.

Best Guide to Canadian Legal Research

http://legalresearch.org/

Law Librarians: “No more sacred cows”

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Law Librarians: “No more sacred cows”

By Alan Cohen
The American Lawyer
September 3, 2009

“Doing more with less” has long been a goal, even a mandate, for law librarians, but now it’s “do much more with far less.” Money is part of the story according to The American Lawyer’s 14th annual survey of law firm library directors. And “Nothing is a sacred cow anymore.”

Maritime Claims Reference Manual

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The U.S. Department of Defense maintains an online version of the Maritime Claims Reference Manual. Arranged by country, each entry provides geographical and legal details on maritime claims. For example, the manual provides the legal basis for a country’s territorial sea claims, fishing zones, and continental shelf designations.  This is useful for  researching marine resources, Law of the Sea, and international humanitarian law.  

Maritime Claims Reference Manual – Maritime Claims of Coastal States

http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/html/20051m.htm

Pew Center on the States: 2009 State Legislative Review

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The Pew Center on the States (PCS) has released — thru Stateline.org, a project of PCS –  its annual state legislative review for 2009.

Key points:

  • Budgets overshadow social, political highlights
  • States plug budget holes, for now
  • Recession pounds states’ budgets

Some interesting statements:

State lawmakers this year made deep cuts, raised taxes, and borrowed funds to cover a staggering $215 billion in estimated budget gaps for 2009 and 2010—the equivalent of nearly $700 for every man, woman and child in the country.

Even with the federal stimulus package providing billions of dollars in assistance, states such as California, Kentucky, New York, Nevada and Washington struggled with their largest deficits in modern history.

Hat tip to DocuTicker.