The Goodson Blogson

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...

Immigration law is highly complex, and involves a number of specialized resources. Fortunately, the Goodson Law Library has just subscribed to AILALink , a research database from the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Current Duke University students, faculty, and staff can access AILALink from the Law Library's Legal Databases & Links page, or directly here . (Access is limited to 3 simultaneous users; please click "Sign out" in the top right corner when finished.) AILALink includes primary and secondary legal materials on immigration matters, such as the full text of Kurzban's Immigration Law Sourcebook (15th ed. 2016), a leading treatise for immigration law practitioners. Other books of interest include the Occupational Guidebooks series, including Immigration Options for Academics and Researchers and Immigration Options for Artists & Entertainers . Other AILA titles include Asylum Law Primer (7th ed. 2015), Essentials of Immigration Law (4th...

Although arbitration is generally intended to be a less complex option for parties than litigation, researching arbitration decisions and practice can present unique challenges. Because arbitration decisions are often private, an estimated 90% of them are unavailable – and while the practice of citing to past arbitration decisions is cause for controversy, researchers sometimes need to track down past decisions, arbitrator profiles, or more information about arbitration practice. Reference Librarian Jane Bahnson has created a new research guide to Arbitration on the Goodson Law Library website. This guide compiles print and electronic sources for both domestic and international arbitration law and practice. Beginning with an overview of secondary sources, such as Elkouri & Elkouri's widely-cited How Arbitration Works , 7th ed. (KF3424 .E44 & online in Bloomberg Law ), the guide also describes nine major domestic and international arbitration organizations, such as the...

The Duke community now has access to two online research services for Chinese legal materials. In addition to en.pkulaw.cn (formerly known as Law Info China), the Goodson Law Library has just subscribed to Westlaw China . Both databases are available to the Duke University community, with a NetID and password required for off-campus access. The Legal Databases & Links page provides quick access to both services. Both Westlaw China and en.pkulaw.cn offer bilingual access to Chinese statutes, regulations, case law, legal news, and journal articles, but each service has unique strengths and collections. A comparison chart prepared by the Chinese University of Hong Kong Library highlights these differences: Westlaw China and en.pkulaw.cn each include the full text of laws and regulations since 1949. However, Westlaw China's case law is only available in Chinese for full text, with headnote descriptions in English. Westlaw China contains more English-language journals and tre...