The Goodson Blogson

Summer is the peak season for music festivals and concert tours, which means that promoters across the country are currently combing through visiting artists’ backstage concert riders . "Riders," defined by Black’s Law Dictionary as an “attachment to some document […] that amends or supplements the document,” are frequently used by musicians to clarify technical needs and specifications for the concert, and just as often are used to specify minutiae like dressing room décor, dietary preferences, and personal needs (towels, private bathrooms, and even condoms are frequent requests). The Smoking Gun's "Backstage Pass" archive reprints or excerpts more than 250 riders from a wide variety of touring acts, both classic and contemporary. From Van Halen’s infamous 1982 demand that all brown M&Ms be picked out of their candy bowl , to Jennifer Lopez’s request for expensive French candles in her dressing room at a recent charity event , to megawatt pop star Lady Ga...

Think the Law Library is full of dusty and boring books? Well…okay, we have 600,000 volumes, and we can’t pretend that every single one of them is filled with excitement. But every so often, something fun and different finds its way to our shelves, like last year's noteworthy Killer Robots or the latest novels in the Cox Collection . Searching the Duke University Libraries’ online catalog for whatever strikes your fancy can yield some interesting surprises. Here’s a selection of the more unusual books which have arrived in the last few weeks. The Law and Harry Potter (Cox Collection PR 6068 .O93 Z7565 2010) : Is Sirius Black a classic case study in wrongful conviction? What does Gringotts teach us about banking regulation? And how does Hogwarts’ culture compare to the typical law school learning experience? These questions and more are tackled in this collection’s 22 chapters from a variety of wizard-loving law professors, practicing lawyers, and economists. Law and Magic: A Col...

Effective the last day of exams, the Goodson Law Library is now operating on its summer access and service hours . During the summer months, the Law Library and Academic Technologies staff are available from Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m . Evening and weekend services will resume in the Fall 2010 semester. Over the summer, current members of the Duke Law community continue to enjoy 24-hour access to the library and Law School. Members of the Class of 2010, please consult our previous post for instructions on extending your building access for the summer once your student ID is deactivated. The Goodson Law Library wishes everyone a happy (and safe!) summer.