The Goodson Blogson

LexisNexis Academic, the campus-wide version of the Law School's Lexis Advance platform, will be retired at the end of the year. In preparation, the Duke University Libraries have already switched over to the new campus-wide Lexis platform, dubbed Nexis Uni . Links on the Law Library website and research guides have been changed to this new platform. Nexis Uni contains case law from the federal courts and all 50 states, as well as current statutory and regulatory codes, law reviews and journals, news resources, and company information. The easiest way to view available materials is by the link to Menu > All Sources in the top left corner, although the home page's search builder and the Advanced Search feature will help format a search across Nexis Uni. A key resource in Nexis Uni for campus legal researchers is the encyclopedia American Jurisprudence 2d , a helpful starting place for unfamiliar legal topics (also available in print in the Law Library’s Reference colle...

At Washington, D.C.'s Memorial Continental Hall, a distinguished group of federal officials, legal academics, and law enforcement representatives gathered to discuss crime prevention strategies. They traded the latest police investigation techniques, expressed concerns about the exploding narcotics trade, and debated the effects that media coverage of crimes has on society. While it sounds like this could be happening right now, it was actually at the Attorney General's National Conference on Crime , which took place more than 80 years ago: December 10-13, 1934. Attorney General Homer S. Cummings ( biography ) announced the conference plan in July 1934, shortly before boarding a ship from Los Angeles to Hawaii ("in connection with land condemnation proceedings of the government," according to the Chicago Tribune ). The Wall Street Journal reported that the planned December "crime parley" would include discussion of "prisons, paroles, bar ethics, and ...

It's about that time of year when May graduates lose their extended access to Lexis Advance and Bloomberg Law . Both services allow recent Law School graduates to continue using their academic passwords for 6 months. ( Westlaw 's post-graduation access lasts a little longer; see Library Services for Recent Grads/Alumni for an overview.) No need to despair, though – several legal research options are available for no cost or low-cost. First, check with your state or local bar association, which may offer free access to the low-cost legal research services Fastcase or Casemaker . Currently, the bar associations in 49 states and the District of Columbia include at least one of these research services as a membership benefit (California, the only holdout, contains many county and local bar associations which provide members with access to one or the other). The Goodson Law Library's map of Legal Research via State Bar Associations has been updated to reflect the latest ch...

The Goodson Law Library's research guide to Federal Tax law has recently been updated. Tax is a complex area of the law, with frequent changes and unique sources. For new researchers, it may be beneficial to begin with one of the research guidebooks listed in section VI, such as the BNA Tax Management Portfolio Legal Authorities in U.S. Federal Tax Matters - Research and Interpretation (online in Bloomberg BNA & Bloomberg Law ), for more guidance about specific sources and their authoritative weight. Although the legal research services Westlaw, Lexis Advance, and Bloomberg Law contain valuable tax research primary and secondary sources, specialized resources like Thomson Reuters Checkpoint   are commonly used by tax practitioners. Checkpoint contains Federal Tax Coordinator 2d and United States Tax Reporter , both of which provide detailed guidance on all aspects of federal tax practice. Checkpoint also includes Citator 2nd , which connects researchers to subsequent case...

The Goodson Law Library has created a group subscription to Financial Times (FT.com) for the Law School. Current Law students, faculty, and staff may use their Duke Law email address to register for an account, which will allow access to the full text of unlimited articles. To take advantage of this group subscription, you will first need to visit FT.com on a networked Law School computer ( e.g. , library workstations or office computers). When you attempt to access a desired article from a networked computer, the following message should appear: Duke Law Library purchased a group subscription to FT.com. Current Law School students, faculty, and staff may join the group subscription using their school email address, which includes unlimited access to FT content on your desktop and mobile. Scroll down to the "Join Now" button and follow the steps to register an account with FT.com. If you had previously created an account using your Duke Law email, in order to acces...

The Goodson Law Library recently received the centenary 7th edition of Satow's Diplomatic Practice , a classic text on diplomacy first published in 1917. (The original edition, then called Guide to Diplomatic Practice by Ernest Satow, can be accessed online through the Making of Modern Law database .) Over the years, Satow's Diplomatic Practice has expanded by hundreds of pages, as the fields of international law and foreign relations have similarly grown and evolved. The current edition begins with "a short introduction" to the history of diplomacy, as well as a separate chapter on the development of international law. Subsequent sections detail the functions of diplomats and consulates, unpack such concepts as diplomatic immunity, and describe the roles of international organizations and agreements in facilitating diplomatic relations. The final chapter, "Advice to Diplomats," provides practical guidance to diplomatic staff about negotiation strategies a...

Get the drop on your holiday shopping this year with the Goodson Blogson's 2017 roundup of legal-themed gifts for the lawyers and law students in your life. (Be on the lookout for other lawyer gift recommendations from attorney Reid Trautz's Reid My Blog , whose annual gift guide has been providing great suggestions for more than a decade.) Many legal thinkers on your holiday list would appreciate a gift subscription to The Green Bag: An Entertaining Journal of Law . This quarterly periodical is well-known for its tongue-in-cheek humor, and for its popular U.S. Supreme Court Justice bobbleheads . The limited-edition bobbleheads are hot commodities at PILF Auctions and an online secondary market – but lucky random subscribers might receive a redemption certificate along with an issue. The "Extravagant" subscription option (only $20/year more than the Basic subscription) promises four other (non-bobblehead) "surprises" per year (see past examples ). Both B...

In 1953, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson famously said of his place of work: "We are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible only because we are final." Brown v. Allen , 344 U.S. 443 (1953) (Jackson, J., concurring). This week, ProPublica released the results of a study which examined Supreme Court opinions for factual errors . While the sampling of eighty-four cases from 2011-2015 is too small to draw sweeping statistical conclusions, the researchers did uncover factual errors, both large and small, in seven of the twenty-four sampled SCOTUS cases which contained "legislative facts." (The report also highlights five earlier opinions containing additional factual mistakes.) ProPublica notes that the sources of the mistakes varied: some apparently originated with a justice's extrajudicial research, while other errors had been repeated from faulty filings and amicus briefs. The impact of the errors also varied – some were minor er...

The Goodson Law Library research guide to North Carolina Practice was updated recently. One of the most important changes? This year's move of the Clarence W. Walker North Carolina Alcove itself – from its former home on Level 2 to its current place on Level 3! (Materials from the former Federal Alcove are located nearby on Level 3, in the William F. Stevens Federal Area .) The North Carolina Alcove, which contains important primary and secondary state law materials, moved to the main floor of the library in order to provide alcove users with convenient access to state materials, as well as to assistance from the library service desk. What else is new in the N.C. Practice research guide ? Here are a few highlights: Updated editions of print treatises like Arrest, Search and Investigation in North Carolina , the North Carolina Personal Injury Liens Manual , and North Carolina Manual of Complaints . Pattern Jury Instructions for North Carolina civil, criminal and motor vehic...

Monday, October 2 marks the opening of the U.S. Supreme Court's new October term. The "First Monday in October" has been the Court’s official start date for more than a century, and is codified at 28 U.S.C. § 2 (2012) . As shown in the 1916 law's compiled legislative history , available to the Duke University community in the ProQuest Legislative Insight database, the change to "first Monday" (from the second Monday in October) was intended "to shorten the vacation and give the court an extra week when the weather is favorable to work." In the House debate printed in the Congressional Record , Illinois representative James Robert Mann expressed his concern that since the change "is a matter largely of the convenience of the members of the Supreme Court, may I ask […] that that change is entirely satisfactory to them?" (He was assured that the change was actually at the Justices' request.) While inclement weather was likely a great...

Sunday, September 17 marks the 230 th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution. "Constitution Day" was established in 2004, piggybacking on the existing federal recognition of September 17 as "Citizenship Day." See 36 U.S.C. § 106 (2012) . Celebrate Constitution Day at the Goodson Law Library by picking up a free pocket Constitution at the library service desk, courtesy of the U.S. Government Publishing Office. (GPO also sent us some government information notecards with QR codes to key federal resources, as well as bookmarks promoting Ben's Guide to the U.S. Government , its educational site for children. These are also available at the service desk giveaway rack, while supplies last.) Throughout the year, the service desk also has free pocket Constitutions courtesy of LexisNexis. You can also read the text of the Constitution online through the U.S. Senate , the National Archives , and at the start of every print or online version of the United...

Like primary law from the other two branches of government, federal legislation is a living entity, subject to frequent changes. Every legal researcher knows that sections of the U.S. Code can be later amended, repealed, invalidated by a court, or rendered indirectly obsolete by subsequent changes in the law. However, there is another potential fate for federal statutes, less dramatic but no less important: the ability of editors to pick up an existing statute section and relocate it elsewhere in the Code , as part of an editorial reclassification . Effective September 1, that's what happened inside Title 34 of the U.S. Code , which sat empty for decades after its former subject area (The Navy) was repealed in 1956. Title 34 has finally been repurposed into a new subject area, Crime Control and Law Enforcement , by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel. This editorial reclassification simply moves existing Code sections in force from their previous locations in Title 18 (Crimes...

The Duke University community now has access to Oxford Bibliographies in International Law , a peer-reviewed, encyclopedic collection of annotated bibliographies on international law topics. The database (which can be found on our Legal Databases & Links page) contains more than 150 entries by respected international law scholars, each with references to texts, commentaries, encyclopedias, databases, journals, case law, treaties, and other research resources. These bibliographies are excellent starting places to learn basic concepts and to find additional resources on a particular international law topic. Individual bibliographies can be searched, browsed alphabetically by title, or sorted by Date Added to view the most recent additions. The database is updated on an ongoing basis. One of the most recent additions, Fair and Equitable Treatment in International Investment Agreements (updated August 23), illustrates the typical bibliography style: an introduction and overview of ...

The Goodson Law Library research guide to Legal Research for Non-Lawyers was updated this summer with several new resources in our collection. The library maintains a small print reference collection of legal books written for a general audience, many published by the self-help law publisher Nolo Press . Some newly-added or updated titles in the guide (and the library Reference collection) include: Emily Doskow & Frederick Hertz, Making It Legal: A Guide to Same-Sex Marriage, Domestic Partnership & Civil Unions , 4th ed. (Ref. KF539.A23 .M25 2016). Updated Nolo Press title on same-sex marriage and other legal unions. Cora Jordan, Neighbor Law: Fences, Trees, Boundaries & Noise , 9th ed. (Ref. KF639.Z9J67 2017). Updated Nolo Press title dealing with all aspects of neighbor disputes. Deanne Morgan, Become an Informed Caregiver: What You Should Know When Caring for an Aging Loved One (Ref .RA645.3 .M68 2016). Written by a Duke Law legal research instructor, this is an ...

This past February marked 50 years since the ratification of Amendment XXV to the U.S. Constitution . Written to clarify the procedures for presidential and vice-presidential succession in the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination, the amendment also allows for a U.S. President to be sidelined by either his own declaration of incapacity, or by a declaration of "the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide." Since Donald Trump's inauguration, the 25th Amendment has been discussed on social media and in op-eds, in response to concerns about erratic presidential behavior. In May, the Atlantic summarized the growing discussion . More recently, UW law professor Hugh Spitzer explored the possibilities last week in the Seattle Times . In April, freshman U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin introduced H.R. 1987 , a bill which would establish an "Oversight Committee on P...

We hope you already know about the Goodson Law Library's research guides . Written and maintained by our reference librarians, these pages provide detailed guidance for researching more than three dozen legal subjects – and are great starting places (if we do say so ourselves!). Some of our recently-updated topics include Federal Legislative History , Court Records & Briefs , and Legal Research for Non-Lawyers . As proud as we are of our law library research guides, though, we know there will be times when you need to research a subject which they don’t cover. So here are some quick tips for finding a roadmap to your research topic. You could, of course, always use your favorite search engine to locate a research guide for your topic, with a search like international tax law research guide . But you could also use CALI.org's custom Law School Search Engine , which will automatically limit your results to those on the sites of ABA-accredited law schools. This custom sear...

Since 1861, federal publications have been issued by the U.S. GPO . Originally known as the Government Printing Office, GPO was renamed the Government Publishing Office in 2014 to reflect the increase in digital publication. The new book Keeping America Informed, The U.S. Government Publishing Office: A Legacy of Service to the Nation, 1861-2016 tells the story of GPO's evolution from massive printing-press operation to modern digital and print publisher, illustrated with beautiful photographs from GPO's history. A copy of Keeping America Informed is available in the Goodson Law Library's Documents collection on level 1. (A free digital edition is also available from – where else? – GPO.) From Keeping America Informed : "The Monotype keyboard section in 1915. 'The biggest battery of composing machines in the world,' according to the Monotype Co." In addition to printing and digitizing millions of pages of government information every year, GPO i...

The Almanac of the Federal Judiciary , a valuable resource for biographical information about federal judges, recently moved to a new online platform. In addition to the usual profiles on current federal judges, the new site now includes an interactive map, links to court websites, and – perhaps most notably – an archive of inactive judge profiles. When it debuted in 1984, the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary was a looseleaf notebook of active federal judges, updated periodically with new pages as judges joined the bench or retired from it. Each judge received a basic biographical profile, along with selected notable opinions, and anonymous comments from a survey of attorneys who have appeared before the judge. The lawyers' evaluations assess such topics as legal ability, courtroom demeanor, leanings and impartiality, and provide valuable (sometimes scathing) insight for attorneys who may appear before the judge in the future. The new platform on Wolters Kluwer ...

Late last week, the Lilly Library announced that its extensive collection of videos and DVDs can now be requested by faculty, graduate students, and library staff for delivery and pickup at staffed library service points across campus, including the Goodson Law Library. (Previously, Duke users needed to visit the East Campus library in person to borrow these items.) Lilly videos and DVDs may be borrowed for one week at a time, with a one-week renewal possible for items without a recall or hold list. Up to 3 DVDs from the regular collection, as well as 1 devilDVD (a collection of recently released popular titles) may be borrowed at one time. This new option to pick up Lilly videos and DVDs at the Law Library is in addition to the Goodson Law Library's own DVD collection in the Leisure Reading area on Level 3, featuring law-related movies and TV shows. Items in the Law Library DVD collection may be borrowed for 3 days at a time by bringing the empty case to the Circulation/Re...

Our research guide to Court Records and Briefs has just been updated with some new resources. What's changed over the last year? Increased access to oral argument recordings : Effective April 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit joined the majority of federal appellate courts in providing audio recordings of oral arguments on its website. As Law360 noted in December , this change leaves the 10th Circuit as the lone holdout of federal appellate courts which do not provide some free access to audio. In addition, the research guide now includes a link to the Free Law Project's Court Listener Oral Argument Audio , which allows users to search more than 20,000 federal and state oral argument recordings by case name, keyword, docket number, and/or judge. A new source for U.S. Supreme Court records and briefs : A link to the ProQuest Supreme Court Insight database was added to the section on compiled U.S. Supreme Court records and briefs. Although the database is...

On June 29, 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in Furman v. Georgia , which held that imposing death sentences on three inmates would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Expressing concerns about "arbitrary and discriminatory" imposition of capital punishment, the Court's per curiam opinion effectively suspended death sentences in the U.S. (Just four years later, the Court would reinstate the death penalty with its 7-2 opinion in Gregg v. Georgia , which reviewed amended Georgia statutes concerning capital punishment.) As discussed in both Supreme Court opinions, and in countless articles and books, capital punishment in America has a long and controversial history. While the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibited "cruel and unusual punishment," the death penalty was common in every state, and the federal Crimes Act of 1790 (1 Stat. 112, c. 9) included death as the punishment for treason against the United States, willful murd...

From continuing discussions of Brexit, to the Paris Agreement withdrawal announcement, to concerns over the legality of U.S. airstrikes in Syria, international law is a frequent topic in the news lately. If you'd like to learn more about international law, the Goodson Law Library's recently-updated International Law research guide recommends some good starting places. Just need to brush up on the basics? Try the Study Aids section for some titles like Understanding International Law and International Law: A Very Short Introduction . Want an explanation of core concepts? Check out the Treatises section for some seminal works from notable scholars. Need guidance in researching a specific international law topic? Try the Research Guides section, or explore the print and online series of Research Handbooks in International Law . The Goodson Law Library collection contains thousands of titles on international law topics; additional titles are available across campus, or e...

Today, LexisNexis announced that it has acquired Ravel Law ( press release ). Developed by a team of Stanford Law graduates in 2012, Ravel quickly became known for its visual presentation of case law search results ( ABA Journal 2014 cover story ), and later for its ambitious partnership with Harvard Law Library to digitize historical case reporters and make them freely available to researchers. (Lexis, Ravel, and Harvard each confirmed in separate statements that the acquisition will not change the Caselaw Access Project 's mission to provide open access to historical case law materials.) Ravel also became known for its data analytics products, including Judge Analytics and Court Analytics, both featured in the Goodson Law Library research guide Directories of Courts & Judges . (A new product, Firm Analytics , was also recently announced, but is not yet available for subscriber trial access.) Ravel will continue to operate under its current web interface until the end ...

"Get it in writing" is important advice for even relatively straightforward legal matters – disputing a credit card transaction, lending money to a friend, unloading an old car in a private sale. But most people would like guidance on how even simple legal documents might be expected to look. Form books provide a starting point for many researchers, offering templates and tips for creating demand letters and agreements for common legal issues. The Goodson Law Library's research guide to Legal Forms was recently updated, and includes resources for non-lawyers, as well as form sets used by legal professionals. For non-lawyers, Nolo's 101 Law Forms for Personal Use (Reference KF170 .L46 10th ed. 2016) contains general templates for everyday legal situations, such as creating simple wills, selling personal property, or drafting agreements with various service providers. The forms are not specific to any particular state’s laws, and the introductory text to the forms ...

What are other nations doing to combat the financing of terrorist organizations? How do the United States' laws on family medical leave compare to the United Kingdom? What are the differences and similarities in corporation laws around the world? The Goodson Law Library's research guide to Foreign & Comparative Law has just been updated with a number of sources to help you find the answer to these and other comparative law questions. In particular, the new HeinOnline database Multinational Sources Compared: A Subject and Jurisdiction Index is a great starting place to locate treatises and other publications which compare multiple countries' domestic practices on a particular topic. The database can be searched by keyword, browsed by subject, or browsed by country to see available publications. For example, a subject search or browse for "Terrorism Finance" will identify three books comparing anti-money laundering law and practice in dozens of countries,...

Yesterday, a revised version of the American Health Care Act , intended to reverse a number of insurance measures enacted as part of the President Barack Obama-era Affordable Care Act, narrowly passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday afternoon, in a 217-213 vote. The bill passed despite vocal opposition from citizens concerned about a return to heightened insurance rates for patients with pre-existing conditions, as well as pushback from both health care providers and the insurance industry itself . The controversial House bill now heads to the U.S. Senate, which is expected to draft its own version of Affordable Care Act repeal-and-replace legislation. As the Washington Post noted today , though, the future of such legislation in the Senate is uncertain. One major reason? The Senate cannot take up consideration of the bill until the Congressional Budget Office completes its report: First, the Senate's parliamentarian — or rules-keeper — cannot review the legisl...

The 2013 and 2017 chemical weapon attacks on civilians in Syria have generated ongoing conversations about the role of international criminal courts in humanitarian crises. A new book in the Goodson Law Library, Christopher Rudolph's Power and Principle: The Politics of International Criminal Courts (KZ7230 .R83 2017), explores the history and politics behind international criminal courts, and their role in humanitarian law. To learn more about international criminal tribunals, check out the Goodson Law Library's recently-updated research guide to International Criminal Law . This brief guide links to print and electronic resources for researching the International Criminal Court and other specialized international criminal tribunals, as well as guidance for locating books and other materials in the Law Library's collection. A more extensive overview of online research resources for international criminal law can be found on the American Society for International Law...

The Goodson Law Library has recently subscribed to ProQuest Supreme Court Insight , a source for U.S. Supreme Court case histories and records. By the end of 2017, this database will include records and briefs dating from 1975-2016. (Currently, the service covers from 2004-2016; earlier dates will be added throughout the year.) At the moment, the new database duplicates years of SCOTUS brief and docket materials which are freely available through the Court's own website and through the ABA's Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases . Once complete, though, Supreme Court Insight will fill in gaps for electronic coverage of U.S. Supreme Court case materials, picking up around the tail end of The Making of Modern Law: U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs 1832-1978 . (Records and briefs earlier than 1832 are not available at Duke Law, although they can be requested via interlibrary loan service from the set Appellate Case Files of the Supreme Court of the United States .) ...

Whether you're heading to a summer job or graduating this May, your access to legal research services like Westlaw , Lexis Advance , and Bloomberg Law will change. Continuing Students For rising 2Ls and 3Ls, your Law School access generally continues uninterrupted over the summer. Lexis Advance and Bloomberg Law both allow student usage over the summer for educational as well as for commercial purposes . (However, check with your employer before using your Law School accounts for paid work – many employers prefer that summer associates avoid using their school accounts for researching firm matters.) Westlaw restricts students' summer access to Westlaw, Practical Law and other Thomson Reuters products to non-commercial research purposes only . The eligible categories for summer access include: Summer Coursework Research Assistant Assignments Law Review or Journal Research Moot Court Research Non-Profit Work Clinical Work Externship Sponsored by the S...

Since its founding in 1920, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has been involved in some of the most well-known constitutional law cases in American history. In the "Scopes Monkey Trial" of 1925 (which inspired the acclaimed play and film Inherit the Wind ), the ACLU partnered with attorney Clarence Darrow to defend a biology teacher arrested for teaching evolution in his Tennessee classroom. In the 1960s, the ACLU provided free legal assistance to Richard and Mildred Loving, arrested for violating Virginia's ban on interracial marriage; the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia subsequently struck down prohibitions on interracial marriage on equal protection grounds. More recently, the ACLU has challenged Trump administration executive orders concerning immigration and border security. Researchers at Duke now have access to archival materials from the ACLU ' s work in the twentieth century. The Goodson Law Library has just subscribed to The M...