Year archives: 2016

Locating Foreign Civil Codes

Lyonette Louis-Jacques expertly guides us with this pathfinder on the research required to comprehensively address the frequently asked foreign and comparative law research question – how do I to find a country’s civil code?. A researcher might not know they need a civil code, but they often do. A civil code is the key to accessing all types of private law for many civil law jurisdictions. Modeled after the Code Napoléon or Code civil des Français (1804), a civil code usually contains laws relating to personal status, contracts, torts, “delict”, “obligations”, real and personal property, inheritance and succession, marriage, divorce, family, parent and child, private international law (conflict of laws/choice of law).

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Subjects: American Association of Law Libraries, Comparative/Foreign Law, Government Resources, Legal Research, Online Legal Research Services

Green Files 2016

Marcus Zillman’s guide is a comprehensive listing of green resources and sites on the Internet. These focused actionable resources will assist researchers to discover many subject and topic specific sources published and maintained by sectors and groups including: private, public, NGO, and advocacy communities.

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Subjects: Energy, Environmental Law, Legal Research

Pain Science and the Administration of Justice

Ken Strutin’s article is a survey of legal scholarship and medical research concerning the study of pain and its significance for the administration of civil and criminal justice. The complexity of pain’s impact on each individual’s life is increasingly relevant in the context of the administration of civil and criminal justice. Strutin’s subject matter expertise in issues of law and justice is further articulated in this this article as he undertakes a timely review of an increasingly relevant issue that impacts the lives of defendants and complainants alike.

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Subjects: Criminal Law, Human Rights, Legal Ethics, Medical Research, Publishing & Publishers (Legal)

Text to speech in new $80 Kindle demolishes lobbyists’ case against legally required TTS

David Rothman argues forcefully for uniform, immediate government and industry support for and implementation of text-to-speech technology. Rothman highlights Amazon’s use of Bluetooth-based TTS in the new $80 Kindle. The reader permits blind individuals as well as those with reading challenges to use Bluetooth headphones to hear the TTS via a wireless connection without the requirement for any special adapter.

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Subjects: E-Books

Making Lemons into Lemonade: Libraries and the Challenge of the Website Transition

At the beginning of the spring semester, Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law school transitioned to a new website with a more modern look but a much more rigid architecture. As often happens with new website launches, there were obstacles to overcome – 404 errors to fix, a new navigation to learn, resources to update – as well as old website simply not transferring to the new site. In this article Ashley Ahlbrand describes some key issues her team faced and how they were addressed as a Lessons Learned for other groups pursuing the same transition.

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Subjects: Information Management, Internet Resources, Law Library Management, Libraries & Librarians, Library Marketing, Program Planning

Should Colorado court documents be free on public library computers?

Jeff Roberts of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition raises the question of expanding free public access to court documents in Colorado. Specifically, he identifies the only location where a non-lawyer can view and request copies of all civil court documents from ICCES, the Integrated Colorado Courts E-Filing System. This location is the Colorado Supreme Court’s law library in the Ralph L. Carr Judicial Center in downtown Denver. Fees and access to PACER have been the topic of discussion in the legal community for many years. The urgency of this discussion and a resolution that ensures free public access to court filings is critically dependent upon the future of court law libraries.

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Subjects: Court Resources, Courts & Technology, E-Government, Electronic Court Filing, Government Resources, Legal Technology, Online Legal Research Services
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