Monthly Archives: August 2010

Cracking the Code to Writing Legal Arguments: From IRAC to CRARC to Combinations in Between

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Since the Dashboard for this blog tells me that a frequent search term that brings visitors here is “IRAC,” I thought I’d include this new item from the Legal Scholarship Network:

“Cracking the Code to Writing Legal Arguments: From IRAC to CRARC to Combinations in Between”

New York State Bar Association Journal, Vol. 82, No. 6, July/August 2010

GERALD LEBOVITS, Saint John’s University – School of Law, Columbia University – Law School

This article discusses how to organize the argument section of trial and appellate briefs and discusses the IRARC/CRARC methods as options to IRAC, BaRAC, CIRAC, CRAFADC, CREAC, CRuPAC, FIRAC, FORAC, IDAR, IGPAC, ILAC, IRAAAPC, IREAC, MIRAT, RAFADC, TREACC, and TRRAC.

Source:  LSN Law & Courts eJournal Vol. 4 No. 78,  08/13/2010

Normattiva – Database of Italian Legislation

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Normattiva Il Portale della Lege Vigente

http://www.normattiva.it/

Normattiva is a database of Italian legislation since 1946 published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale. The databsde provides full-text of legislation and links to subsequent acts that have modified the statute. (click on “aggiornamenti all’atto”). The goal of the database is to provide access to the statute  as originally passed, as it currently stands, and as it read in a specific year.

Con questo termine si intende che le leggi presenti nella banca dati “Normattiva” potranno essere consultate nelle tre seguenti modalità: nel loro testo originario, come pubblicato nella Gazzetta Ufficiale; nel testo vigente, e quindi effettivamente applicabile, alla data di consultazione della banca dati; nel testo vigente a qualunque data pregressa indicata dall’utente.

http://www.normattiva.it/static/progetto.html

Please note that these are not official versions:

From the Avviso Legale:

I testi presenti nella banca dati “Normattiva” non hanno carattere di ufficialità.

Salalm 2010 Blog

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For those of us who could not attend SALALM (Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials) in Rhode Island last week,  the Salalm Blog provides some of the highlights.

Salalm Blog

http://salalm.blogspot.com/

hat tip to Adan Griego.

Searching through RECAP

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[Post updated -- see note at bottom]

The folks at the CITP have just improved RECAP.

How? They have now added search functionality.

By going to Archive.recapthelaw.org, you can search all the documents gathered by the RECAP Firefox Extension. The simple search allows you quick access to documents from U.S. Federal District and Bankruptcy Court documents, without charge. Further, the search will pull up the full docket sheet for a case, alerting and allowing you to acquire documents that are on PACER (and not yet in RECAP).

There is a simple and an advanced query page. The advanced query allows you to search by case name, number, court and dates of filing.

Two great features: it provides an RSS feed and an e-mail alert option for your query if you want to track the case.

Further, once you are viewing a case, you can add tags and connect related cases. For the case that I was searching, it even showed that it had been viewed 2 other times (by me).

As to privacy concerns, when you view case details, there is a button for reporting privacy violations. Although we hope that these privacy mistakes won’t occur, this button does help remove that data from the searchable RECAP archive.

The site mentions that it is still in the experimental phase and they welcome feedback.  I might suggest a page of search tips (for example, should we use quotation marks for exact searches? etc).  Also, I am not sure if this is searching full-text through all the downloaded documents and the tags that users might supply.  Or, is this searching just through a few fields in the documents (attorney name, nature of suit, etc)?  So, a bit more information on the searching will be helpful.  [I will find out more and add to this post with details.]

But, all that being said, what a great resource.  Now, what should we ask the folks at CITP to do for us next?

[UPDATE: this comes from Dhruv Kapadia, one of the Archive.Recapthelaw.org developers: "Right now the search is limited to the contents of the docket - the descriptions of each document as well as some parts of the metadata
associated with the docket. In the future, we may try to incorporate the OCRed text of the documents themselves, but we aren't doing that currently."]

Aberdeen Student Law Review

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A new student edited legal journal from Scotland:

Aberdeen Student Law Review

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/law/aslr/

Inaugural issue (Vol.1, July 2010)

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/law/documents/Volume_I_ASLR.pdf

From the Web site description:

The Aberdeen Student Law Review is a journal written and edited by the students of the University of Aberdeen’s Law School. Only the second of its kind in Scotland, the ASLR is a platform for students (both at undergraduate and postgraduate level) to submit scholarly essays and case notes on an area of law of their choice.

The purpose of the Review is to showcase the work of the students of Aberdeen, highlighting the many areas of law which are taught and researched at this university. As such, we welcome submissions on any area of Scots law, as well as articles with an international or historical focus.

The supremely expensive Supreme Court Reporter Advance Sheets Service

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Our friend Carl Malamud just sent out a tweet:

If law librarians remain content to be purchasing agents, law libraries will die. *do* something! talk is easy, action requires effort.

Carl’s tweet arrived while I was reviewing our latest West monthly invoice.  I see that the Supreme Court Reporter advance sheet subscription has jumped up 34% from $ 547 last year to $ 730.69, and that’s with a $ 120.83 “Product Dependency Discount” (whatever that is).  Apparently the full sticker price for this subscription is $ 851.52.

I remember well when professors would sit in the faculty library,  smoke their pipes and read the advance sheets.  But those days are long, long gone.  Arguably SCOTUSblog.com and its wiki have more up-to-date information than the West advance sheets.  And SCOTUS itself does an admirable job of posting opinions.

Isn’t this service really quite obsolete?  If you think otherwise, I would welcome comments posted as we mull over whether or not we will cancel.

U.S. State Immigration-Related Laws/Resolutions (First 6 Months of 2010)

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The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) recently posted

2010 Immigration-Related Laws and Resolutions in the States (January-June 2010)

explaining:

With no federal immigration reform in the foreseeable future, state legislatures continue to step up to the plate to address the complex and challenging issue of immigration. In the first six months of 2010, every state in regular session considered laws related to immigrants or immigration. State legislators introduced 1,374 bills and resolutions in 46 states relating to immigrants and refugees. The number of bill introductions is comparable to the first half of 2009, when 50 states considered more than 1,400 bills and resolutions pertaining to immigrants. Montana, Nevada, North Dakota and Texas are not in regular session in 2010.
As of June 30, 2010, 44 state legislatures passed 191 laws and adopted 128 resolutions. Five bills were vetoed, for a total of 314 enacted laws and resolutions, a 21 percent increase over 2009. An additional 10 bills were pending governor’s approval. For the same period in 2009, 44 states had enacted 144 laws and adopted 115 resolutions; 23 were pending governor’s approval and three bills were vetoed. Delaware and North Carolina have introduced bills but have yet to enact legislation.
Getting the most attention this year has been Arizona’s immigration enforcement laws (SB.1070 and HB.2162). Key provisions include: law enforcement must attempt to determine the immigration status of a person involved in a lawful stop, detention or arrest when the officer reasonably suspects the person is an illegal immigrant; state residents may sue state and local agencies for noncompliance; and failure to carry an alien registration document is now a state violation. More information on these Arizona laws can be found under the omnibus category, and online.
As of June 30, bills similar to Arizona’s had been introduced in five state legislatures:  South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Rhode Island and Michigan.  Minnesota and South Carolina legislative sessions have ended.
State laws related to immigration have increased dramatically in recent years:
  • In 2005, 300 bills were introduced; 38 laws were enacted and 6 vetoed.
  • In 2006, 570 bills were introduced, 84 laws were enacted and 12 resolutions adopted.
  • In 2007, 1,562 bills were introduced, 240 laws were enacted and 50 resolutions adopted.
  • In 2008, 1,305 bills were introduced, 206 laws were enacted and 64 resolutions adopted.
  • In 2009, more than 1,500 bills were introduced, 222 laws were enacted and 131 resolutions adopted.

The posting helpfully includes summaries as follows:

Enacted laws and resolutions as of July 20 2010 by state

Enacted laws and resolutions asof July 20 2010 by subject

Hat tip to Docuticker.com.