The Goodson Blogson

As the trial of John Edwards drags into its ninth day of jury deliberations, you might wonder what is taking so long. The former U.S. Senator and 2004 vice-presidential candidate was indicted in 2011 for violating federal campaign finance laws in order to conceal his pregnant mistress, Rielle Hunter, during his 2008 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Yesterday, the News & Observer reported that the members of the jury "have been behind closed doors for twice as long as it took the defense to present its side of the case." A note from one juror prompted several closed-door sessions between U.S. District Court Judge Catherine Eagles and the attorneys on each side of the case. In addition, the four alternate jurors (who have not participated in the deliberations thus far) were allowed to return to their daily lives rather than spend more time waiting at the courthouse, although they remain “on call” if any of the twelve regular jurors are dismissed, and are st...

Earlier this spring, we invited you to test-drive the online version of International Encyclopaedia of Laws , a looseleaf set whose volumes provide a general overview of 25 legal topics, as well as country-specific monographs which describe individual nations’ legislation and case law in those areas. The set is edited by practitioners in the field, making the volumes an excellent introduction to comparative practice on a particular topic. The library had long received 20 of the available 25 topics in print ( catalog record ), but their looseleaf format made them cumbersome for researchers. The Goodson Law Library is pleased to announce that the online version of International Encyclopaedia of Laws is now active, and will replace the print set for current information (although the historical volumes will remain on the library shelf, where they are kept in call number order with other materials on the set's topic). Researchers can access any of the topical sets through a search...

[ On Saturday, June 30, Duke University access to Blackboard course sites will expire. Digital Initiatives Librarian Hollie White offers some advice to help students, faculty and staff prepare for the transition to Sakai , Blackboard’s replacement system. ] For Students: Although the last four years of Blackboard content have been migrated to Sakai for faculty access, students will not see these past courses in Sakai. If you want to save some of your work from a previous course (such as final products from group projects) which used Blackboard, sign on to Blackboard before June 30 and find the class(es) from which you want to save material . Please remember that handouts and slides are the property of the faculty member and you should not copy, save, or redistribute these without permission from your instructor. For Faculty: The last four years of Blackboard content has already been copied from Blackboard into Sakai. To explore your migrated classes, log in to Sakai . Class...

The Goodson Law Library now provides campus-wide access to Investor-State Law Guide (ISLG) , a new research resource for international investment treaty law materials. ISLG includes the text of international agreements and decisions interpreting them from various tribunals, in addition to the rules of these tribunals. Documents are linked together by a "mapping" system, allowing researchers to quickly access case law which interprets a particular provision or article of an investment treaty. ISLG’s collections of NAFTA and ICSID materials are particularly robust; other subject areas continue to grow. A brief online demo is available, illustrating the mapping feature and other search options within ISLG. The database can now be accessed through its link in the Foreign & International column of our Legal Databases & Links page; a current NetID is required for off-campus access.  For more resources related to researching international law, check out our online Rese...