Contracts: The Cartoon?

One might think that combining law school classes with cartoon doodles wouldn't exactly be a prescription for success. Georgetown Law grad Nathaniel Burney would beg to differ. Burney is the author of The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law, a book which teaches the fundamentals of a first-year Criminal Law course in cartoon format. An entire series of books is planned, with each book covering one core first-year law school course. Interested in more information about this unique project? The ABA Journal recently interviewed Burney and a podcast of the interview is available here. Burney also maintains a website dedicated to the project at www.lawcomic.net.

(This entry was originally written and posted by Sarah Kammer)

Rolling Out the Red Carpet in the Law Library

In a movie-watching mood after this year's Oscars? The law library has recently acquired several DVDs of movies with a law focus. The new titles include:

The Trials of Darryl Hunt
"A feature documentary about a brutal rape/murder case and a wrongly convicted man, Darryl Hunt, who spent nearly twenty years in prison for a crime he did not commit." (from IMDB.com)

Gideon's Trumpet starring Henry Fonda
"The story of Clarence Earl Gideon and his fight for the right to have publicly funded legal counsel for the needy." (from IMDB.com)

Hot Coffee starring Joan Claybrook
"[T]his documentary . . . examines the case of Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants, the so-called 'hot coffee lawsuit' in which a woman sued the fast-food giant after she spilled her coffee and burned herself." (from Amazon.com)

The People vs. Larry Flynt starring Woody Harrelson
" . . . [F]ilm of the controversial pornography publisher and how he became a defender of free speech . . . " (from IMDB.com)

The DVDs will be featured as part of the New Books Display as soon as they are processed.

(This entry was originally written and posted by Sarah Kammer)

Law School to Host 2013 Lavender Lecture

This Thursday, February 28, the USD Law School will host former Iowa Supreme Court Justice Michael Streit as the speaker for the 2013 Lavender Lecture. In 2009, Streit joined in an unanimous decision of the Iowa Supreme Court in the case of Varnum v. Brien, which struck down a statutory same-sex marriage ban as unconstitutional. Streit and two fellow Iowa Supreme Court justices recently received the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award for their role in the Varnum decision.

The library is currently featuring a display which highlights biographical information about Streit, the Varnum decision and briefs filed in the case, a law review article on the topic of the Iowa judicial retention election, as well as several of the library's print resources regarding the topic of same-sex marriage.

The lecture will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday in the Law School Courtroom. It is free and open to the public. 

(This entry was originally written and posted by Sarah Kammer)

Thomson Reuters Sales Law School Publishing Business (Foundations Press, West) to Eureka Growth Capital

Thomson Reuters sold its print publishing for law schools business. On Friday, February 2nd, the law school publishing wing of the legal research provider was sold to Eureka Growth Capital, a private equity firm located in Philadelphia. According to spokesman John Shaughnessy, "It's a segment of the market that, longer-term, we didn't see as within the core of our legal research offerings...", which suggests that Thomson Reuters will be focusing solely on electronic content in the near future. WestlawNext, Westlaw Classic, and other e-resources that Thomson Reuters provides will continue to be available. The publishing wing, which was sold for an undisclosed sum, will continue to publish various textbooks and study guides, but will now go under the name "West Academic Publishing". For additional information see Eureka Growth Capital's press release or read the blog entries regarding the sale from TaxProf Blog or the Wall Street Journal Blog.

(This entry was originally written and posted by Darla Jackson)

A Copyright Win for Westlaw and Lexis

Last Friday, a federal judge in New York dismissed a lawsuit filed by an attorney who claimed that Westlaw and Lexis violated copyright law by providing copies of his legal briefs in their databases.

Westlaw and Lexis countered that the inclusion of the briefs in their databases should be protected under the “fair use” exception to copyright law. They also contended that they sufficiently transformed the documents by making them searchable.

The case is Edward White v. West Publishing Corp, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 12-1340. The “brief” ruling from U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff is available here. A subsequent opinion is expected to lay out the Judge’s reasoning for dismissing the lawsuit.

Click here for a news article discussing the opinion, and here for a blog post discussing the issue.

Want to learn more about copyright law and fair use? Check out some of the library’s copyright titles:

Copyright Law in a Nutshell by Mary LaFrance

Copyright Law and Practice by William F. Patry

(This entry was originally written and posted by Sarah Kammer) 

Canon Law Display

In the Western Christian church calendar, today is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the Lenten season. Also, the Roman Catholic Church soon will begin the process to elect a new pope to replace Pope Benedict XVI, who announced on Monday that he will resign on February 28th. In light of these events, the McKusick Law Library has compiled a display of Canon Law primary and secondary materials. Included in the display, assembled by Sarah Kammer and Kim Paz, are the Code of Canon Law, as revised in 1983, Canon Law: Letter and Spirit, a commentary and guide to the revised Code, 100 Answers to Your Questions on Annulments, Hamilton Hess's The Early Development of Canon Law and the Council of Serdica, and the table of contents to a volume of The Jurist, a publication of the School of Canon Law at The Catholic University of America. The display also provides the URL to the Vatican online archives, containing the Bible in Chinese, English, Italian, Latin and Spanish, as well as the Code of Canon Law in Traditional Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

(This entry was originally written and posted by Marsha Stacey)

African American History Month Display

On January 31st, President Obama proclaimed February 2013 as National African American History Month. In observation of this special month, the McKusick Law Library has displayed selected books and materials concerning cases involving race relations in America and prominent African Americans. These items, chosen by library assistant and third-year law student Kim Paz, include Plessy v. Ferguson: A Brief History with Documents, edited by Brook Thomas, about the planned challenge to the law requiring "separate accomodations" for blacks on Louisiana passenger railways, The Battle for the Black Ballot, by Charles L. Zelden, concerning the case of Smith v. Allwright and the defeat of the Texas All-White Primary, and One Man's Castle, by Phyllis Vine, the story of Dr. Ossain Sweet's right, regardless of his race, to protect his life and his property.

(This entry was originally written and posted by Marsha Stacey)

Gov. of South Dakota Signs Prison Bill

Governor Dennis Daugaard yesterday signed a bill which will cut the state’s prison costs. While South Dakota still needs prisons for its violent offenders, the bill recognizes that prisons should not be a place for non-violent offenders that can receive treatment and then supervision. The bill will create a new system for treating and rehabilitating non-violent offenders, and will avoid the building of two new prisons. Governor Dennis Daugaard is optimistic that the reform will be effective overall.
For a news story discussing the bill, click here.

(This entry was originally written and posted by Gordana Filipovic)

Bill to Establish Assistance for USD Law Students

The legislature is begining to consider Senate bill 218 which would allow the Unified Judicial System to establish a program to provide assistance to USD Law students who would commit to practicing in a qualified rural area for a minimum of 5 years after graduation. The UJS would maintain a list of counties that qualify for recruitment assistance.

Students eligible for the program are those students who are enrolled at USD Law School or have been a resident of the state for at least 3 years and enrolled in an ABA accredited law school outside of South Dakota. If an attorney fulfills this requirement, the attorney can receive an incentive payment equal to 150% of the USD Law School resident tuition. For details on the program read the entire bill at the above link. For a KELO News interview with a former USD law student now practicing in a rural community click on KELO news link.

(This entry was originally written and posted by Candice Spurlin)

Law Library New Books Display

Recently the McKusick Law Library introduced a New Books display. The display is conveniently located at the right side of the entrance to the library. New books are selected for the library’s collection based on a number of criteria, including current legal issues that are of interest to students and faculty, with the ultimate goal of creating a place where students and faculty can learn, write, study, research and collaborate. The top shelf will consist of the most recent and most popular new titles, which will be rotated to the bottom shelves as new books arrive.

Currently there are several very popular books on display, including the following titles:
Veterans Benefits Manual, 2012 edition
1000 Days to the Bar – But the Practice of Law Begins Now, 2nd edition
gender & JUSTICE, 2013 edition 

(This entry was originally written and posted by Gordana Filipovic)