The Goodson Blogson

If you’ve ever tried to trace a historical state code section back through its various amendments and re-numberings, or track down proceedings from early state or territorial constitutional conventions, then you already know the unique challenges involved. A good portion of these historical sources are available in the library’s print collection, but not every state’s collection is 100% complete, and many of the oldest materials are in fragile condition. Fortunately, these early primary source materials are becoming increasingly available online. The Goodson Law Library has just purchased access to the Making of Modern Law database Primary Sources, 1620-1926 , one such collection of early United States and American primary sources. It includes primary sources like early state and territorial codes and constitutional conventions, city charters, and even some historical law dictionaries and case digests. The Primary Sources database joins other “ Making of Modern Law ” products which are...

Here at the Goodson Law Library, the summer’s biggest blockbuster has no explosions, car chases, or teenage vampires. Instead, we’re camping out for the new edition of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Legal Citation (19th ed. 2010). The new edition was released in early June, and we expect our copies to arrive any day now. Once the books arrive and are processed by library staff, copies of the new Bluebook will be available to borrow from the library’s Reserve collection. Maybe you aren’t as excited as we are about this, but there are certainly some readers who will be affected by any changes to the 18th edition’s rules—such as journal members or faculty research assistants. The Pace Law Library blog has already compiled a helpful PDF chart of new or updated rules in the 19th edition . For those who learned legal citation from previous editions of the Bluebook , the chart is thankfully short, with the majority of the changes focused on Rule 18 (governing citation of electronic mate...

One of this week’s most-watched YouTube videos depicted a Seattle police officer punching a 19-year-old woman in the face . Bystanders recorded the tense confrontation, which began when Officer Ian Walsh stopped the woman and her 17-year-old friend to issue a citation for jaywalking. The younger woman angrily disputed the detainment and resisted Walsh’s repeated attempts to physically restrain her; when her older friend attempted to pull the 17-year-old away (shoving the officer in the process), Walsh responded with a quick punch that stunned the nearby crowd and ignited debate online about the appropriate use of force. Although the general consensus on this particular video seems to be that putting one’s hands on a police officer tends to invite this sort of reaction, there have certainly been other police incidents caught on camera which have created more controversy about officers’ behavior, from the 1991 Rodney King beating in Los Angeles to another incident in Seattle earlier thi...

Rising 2Ls and 3Ls who did not request a summer extension to their Westlaw and/or LexisNexis passwords are starting to receive some unpleasant news when they try to log in. June 1 is generally the cutoff date for educational passwords which are not extended for academic or non-profit purposes. In some cases, access to the full range of research databases will be reduced to only employment-related sources; in other cases, users will see a message like “You have exceeded your monthly usage allotment” and be denied access to the research system. Never fear! If you meet one of the many criteria for a summer password extension, it’s not too late to request one now. For either site, you will need to log in to the homepage with your existing account and simply look for information about summer extensions. Westlaw : Log in to http://lawschool.westlaw.com and look for the graphic labeled “Need access to your Westlaw account this summer?” LexisNexis : Log in to http://lawschool.lexis.com a...

Former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill famously declared “ All politics is local ,” meaning that even a national politician’s success was inextricably linked to his or her connection with local constituents and their concerns. The maxim is equally applicable to law—not only because of local constituents’ impact on their U.S. or state congresspersons’ votes, but also for the large amount of county, city, and other municipal legal materials which govern a good deal of daily life in America. Since legal education tends to focus mostly on the federal system, law students generally don’t learn how to research local and municipal legal materials until they enter full-time law practice. But no need to wait—knowing how to navigate local ordinances now can help you answer such burning questions as “ What time can I officially pull the plug on my neighbor’s heavy-metal music? ” (in Durham, NC: after 11 p.m. on weekdays) to “ Can I shoot the pesky squirrel that eats all my birdseed? ” (sorry, ...

The Goodson Law Library has just purchased access to Kluwer Arbitration , a one-stop shop for news, primary source documents and analytical publications related to international commercial and investment arbitration. The database includes easy access to the text of bilateral investment treaties and international conventions, a library of online treatises such as Law and Practice of Investment Treaties (2009) and the Yearbook, Commercial Arbitration (1976- ), and a backfile of periodicals like the Journal of International Arbitration . The News tab includes the latest additions to the database, news stories and analysis, and conference/event announcements. There’s even a blog featuring expert analysis of the latest developments in commercial arbitration, from law professors and practitioners around the world. You can access Kluwer Arbitration from the library’s Legal Databases & Links page, under the “Foreign & International” column. For help navigating the content of Kluwe...