The Goodson Blogson

The Riddick Rare Book Room display case currently holds an exhibit featuring items from the Robinson Everett Redistricting Cases Papers . This collection is kept in the Goodson Law Library Archives and is named after Judge Robinson O. Everett (1928-2009), who was a Duke Law faculty member for more than 50 years. The papers tell a unique North Carolina story with several close ties to Duke Law School.  After the 1990 Census increased North Carolina's seats in the U.S. House of Representatives from 11 to 12, the state General Assembly created a new apportionment plan , with one district drawn to ensure an African-American majority. The U.S. Attorney General's Office objected, stating that the population makeup of the state (78% white, 20% black, and 1% each Native American and Asian) made a single majority-minority district insufficient. In a special legislative session, the General Assembly rewrote the apportionment plan to create an additional majority-minority district....

Today marks the end of the sixth annual Open Access Week , an international effort to promote free access to scholarly research. Previous years' events and initiatives are detailed in past Blogson entries . This year, we'd like to highlight an ongoing effort at Duke Law School, which illustrates our commitment to open access: The Duke Law Scholarship Repository . Since 1998, Duke's student-edited journals have been freely accessible on the Duke Law website. The Faculty Scholarship Repositor y was launched in 2005 to provide broader access to the research of our faculty and affiliates. Today, the Repository houses both the long-running Faculty Scholarship collection as well as the complete back files of Duke Law's nine student-edited journals , which were added to the repository over the last year. Both our collection and audience continue to grow steadily; in mid-September, Duke became the first law school repository to reach 1.5 million downloads . For a glimpse ...

Law students often curse the dreaded LARW word count, but the truth is that courts can impose very similar restrictions on practicing attorneys. Consider the recent example of California entertainment lawyer (and author of Kohn on Music Licensing ) Bob Kohn, who in August sought to submit a 55-page amicus curiae brief in the Department of Justice's e-book price-fixing lawsuit. U.S. District Court Judge Denise Cote allowed his brief – on the condition that he limited it to no more than five pages (see a copy of the order at PaidContent ). To the delight of legal bloggers around the globe, last month Kohn filed his revised amicus brief in comic-strip form , condensing his argument into five pages of explanatory illustrations (see PDF at Thomson Reuters Insight ). Kohn's comic-strip brief was undeniably fun, but did it conform to court rules ? Local rule 11.1(b) of the S.D.N.Y. does specify that "The typeface, margins, and spacing of all documents presented for filing mu...

The Goodson Law Library recently updated its guide to Legal Research for Non-Lawyers . The new additions include an extensive list of local and national services for legal referrals , maintained by the Duke Law School Pro Bono Project. New links to free legal research resources like Google Scholar (for case law) and the American Bar Association's Law Reviews & Journals Search (for articles) have also been added. By far, though, the biggest change to the guide was the addition of e-book versions (where available) of popular Nolo Press self-help guides via the Legal Information Reference Center . These electronic versions may be used on-site by library visitors or off-campus by those with a current Duke University NetID. In many cases, the version available online is more recent than the library’s Reference Collection copies, which are updated less frequently. Some highlights: Paul Bergman & Sara J. Berman-Barrett. Represent Yourself in Court: How to Prepare and Try a W...

With Fall Break (a.k.a. 1L writing week) on the horizon, the semester is more than halfway over. Break week generally marks a turning point when returning students begin to buckle down and prepare for final exams and papers. As the library fills with increasingly-anxious students, it can be hard to find a place to settle in for long hours of outline review or intensive research. So with that in mind, the Goodson Law Library is pleased to announce a new option for study groups and other meetings: Room 4200B has now been added to our online reservation calendar . Like the eight study rooms on Level 2 of the library, it can be reserved by current Duke Law students up to 72 hours in advance; once reserved, its key can be checked out from the Circulation/Reserve desk. ( Note that unlike the Level 2 study rooms, Room 4200B has no built-in technology, but it can comfortably accommodate 6 people around its large table.) Room 4200B can be found on Level 4, in the area directly above the libr...

Monday, October 2 marked an important annual legal event: as required by 28 U.S.C. § 2 , the "First Monday in October" begins a new term of the U.S. Supreme Court . The Court has already begun to hear oral arguments in the cases it will decide during this term, which adjourns in June 2013. Court-watchers regard First Monday with great anticipation, and much was written earlier this week about the current docket and expected additions. See coverage at CNN , the New York Times , and the Washington Post , among others. But once the mainstream media's excitement about First Monday dissipates, how can you keep up with the goings-on at One First Street? The Goodson Blogson has some ideas. The Court's own website includes argument calendars and transcripts, links to briefs and other docket materials, and opinions and orders as they are released.  For news and commentary, many legal researchers subscribe to U.S. Law Week , which is available electronically to the Duke L...