Database Trials Available Through HeinOnline

The McKusick Law Library would like to make all law students and faculty aware of two databases that are available on a trial basis from HeinOnline through April 15.

The two databases are:

U.S. Federal Agency Documents, Decisions, and Appeals

Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (IFLP) These databases can be accessed either through HeinOnline on campus, or through HeinOnline remotely, by authenticating with a USD network login.  Both options are available from the Research Databases link on the Law Library homepage.  Once you have accessed HeinOnline, the trial databases should appear under "Browse Collections" as shown below.  Feedback and comments on these trial databases is welcomed.  If you have any questions about the content or application of these databases, please feel free to ask a member of the law library staff.

South Dakota State Bar Law School Committee Visit is Today, March 27

The South Dakota State Bar Law School Committee will be visiting the Law School on March 27, 2014.  For more information on the Law School Committee, please see here for the State Bar's committee roster.  The members of the Law School Committee are listed at page 3.

All Law School students are reminded that an Open Comment session will be held in the Courtroom at 12:45 p.m.  Law School students are encouraged to attend.

Edward Snowden Speaks at SXSW Conference on Encryption and Internet Privacy

The SXSW (South by Southwest) Interactive Festival was held in Austin, TX last week.  The annual event combines presentations and panels on emerging technology with film, music, and networking events.  Click here for more information on the SXSW Festival. 

While this year's festival was sadly marked by the tragic car accident on March 13, which has now claimed the lives of three festival-goers, another important headline from the SXSW event was a live video presentation by Edward Snowden on March 10.  Snowden's speech discussed how U.S. citizens can protect their internet privacy, especially focusing on encryption for web traffic.  An article discussing Snowden's speech is available here from ABC News.

The Prairie Law Blog has previously posted on data and internet privacy issues in conjunction with Data Privacy Day, which was January 28.  See our blog post here for further information and library resources dealing with internet privacy and the law. 

South Dakota Supreme Court To Hold March Term of Court at Law School - Library Display and Resources

The University of South Dakota Law School welcomes the South Dakota Supreme Court, which will hold their March Term of Court at the Law School March 24 to March 26.  The official press release is available here, which discusses the cases that will be heard during the Term.  Additionally, the press release includes the link to the Court's Current Term of Court Calendar (also available by clicking here), which provides additional information about each of the cases as well as options for downloading the related briefs. 

The McKusick Law Library is also featuring a display which provides the case schedule, as well as print copies of the briefs associated with each of the cases (an additional copy of each brief is also available in the Reserve Room).  The display also offers biographical information about each of the Supreme Court Justices, available from the UJS website, as well as a print copy of the Photographic History of the South Dakota Supreme Court, also available electronically here. 

Furthermore, the display includes a print copy of the March Term of Court Booklet, which provides official case summaries as well as important information on Supreme Court process and courtroom protocol.

Women's History Month Display

Each year, the month of March is celebrated as Women's History Month. This year's theme, as declared by the National Women's History Project, is titled "Celebrating Women of Character, Courage, and Commitment." President Obama's proclamation of Women's History month also urges us to "recognize the victories, struggles, and stories of the women who have made our country what it is today."

Accordingly, the Law Library is featuring a Women's History Month display which highlights several biographies and autobiographies of women who have made important contributions to our nation's history through their involvement in the law and legal profession.

Featured in the display are the following titles:

Without Precedent: The Life of Susie Marshall Sharp / by Anna R. Hayes
(Susie Marshall Sharpe was the first woman to become Chief Justice of a State Supreme Court - North Carolina)

Fight Back and Win: My Thirty-year Fight Against Injustice, and How You Can Win Your Own Battles / by Gloria Allred (with Deborah Caufield Rybak)
(Gloria Allred is a civil rights lawyer who has represented clients in high-profile cases concerning women’s rights issues)

America’s First Woman Lawyer: The Biography of Myra Bradwell / by Jane M. Friedman
(Myra Bradwell appealed the denial of her admission to the Illinois State Bar to the U.S. Supreme Court - Bradwell v. Illinois, 83 U.S. 130 (1873))

Equal Justice Under Law: An Autobiography / by Constance Baker Motley
(Constance Baker Motley wrote the original complaint in Brown v. Board of Education and was the first African-American Woman to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court)

Indomitable Sarah: The Life of Judge Sarah T. Hughes / by Darwin Payne
(Judge Hughes swore in President Lyndon B. Johnson on Air Force One in 1963 and was on the panel of judges that heard Roe v. Wade in Texas, which was later affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court)

Sandra Day O’Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court Became Its Most Influential Justice / by Joan Biskupic
(Sandra Day O'Connor was the first woman to serve as a Justice on the United States Supreme Court, nominated by President Regan and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 1981)

More information on Women's History Month is available from the Library of Congress here.

An International View Into U.S. Access to Justice Issues

The National Law Journal recently reported that the United Nations Human Rights Committee will question the United States on its efforts to improve access to justice at a meeting in Geneva later this week. Especially in question at the meeting will be what steps the U.S. has taken to "improve legal representation in civil proceedings for litigants belonging to racial, ethnic and national minorities, and for victims of domestic violence."

Included below are several links to documents, programs and entities discussed in the article:

U.N. Human Rights Committee

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

ABA Basic Principles for a a Right to Counsel in Civil Legal Proceedings and ABA Model Access Act

U.S. Department of Justice Access to Justice Initiative

For further reading on this topic, consider the following titles available in the McKusick Law Library:

Access To Justice as a Human Right / edited by Francesco Francioni

Access to Justice / by Deborah L. Rhode

 

USD Spring Break is This Week - Library Hours

No classes will be held at the USD School of Law during the week of Spring Break, Monday, March 10 to Friday, March 14.  The Law Library will remain open to all patrons, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.  Reference and circulation assistance will be available from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.  In addition, law students will continue to have 24/7 access to the Law Library using their ID cards for the entirety of Spring Break.

Symposium on Rural Practice To Be Held March 20-21 at USD Law School

The University of South Dakota School of Law and the South Dakota Law Review will host a symposium on rural practice on March 20 and March 21 at the School of Law. The symposium will focus on the issues facing rural practitioners across the nation. South Dakota's unique rural practice legislation and Project Rural Practice will also be discussed. The official press release for the symposium is available here.

The Law Library has recently published a LibGuide to accompany the symposium, which provides links to Law Library resources and other information on the topic of rural legal practice. Click here to access the LibGuide. The LibGuide also provides general information about the symposium, as well as biographical information about the symposium presenters. This LibGuide will continue to be updated with new information.

In related news, Patrick Goetzinger, Co-Chair of South Dakota's Project Rural Practice and symposium presenter, recently accepted the Louis M. Brown Award for Legal Access in Chicago during the American Bar Association’s Midyear Meeting on behalf of PRP. Information on the Louis M. Brown Award is available here from the ABA. As the ABA's site states, the Award is presented annually "to those who have made creative contributions to the delivery of legal services in ways that are exemplary and replicable."

March Madness is Here Again!

With less than two weeks to go until Selection Sunday and Monday, the Law Library is gearing up for March Madness with a new display. The display features many of the Library's print and electronic resources regarding sports law, amateur athletics, and careers in entertainment and sports law.

A new book featured in the display is The Little Book of Basketball Law, which is part of the ABA's Little Books of Law series. Other titles include:

Sports Law in a Nutshell / by Walter T. Champion

An Athlete’s Guide to Agents / by Robert H. Ruxin

Sports Law and Legislation: An Annotated Bibliography / Compiled by John Hladczuk, et al.

Breaking Down Barriers: A Legal Guide to Title IX / National Women’s Law Center and DLA Piper

Sporting Equality: Title IX Thirty Years Later / Rita J. Simon, editor

Essentials of Amateur Sports Law / by Glenn M. Wong

Sports Law: Cases and Materials / by Ray Yasser, et al.

Taking Sports Seriously: Law and Sports in Contemporary American Culture / by Jeffrey Standen

Sports and the Law: Major Legal Cases / edited by Charles E. Quirk

FEATURE POST: Law Professor Tom Simmons Reviews New Title, The Origins of Adversary Criminal Trial

Professor Tom Simmons is contributing to the collection development effort of the USD Law Library. Under a recently adopted program, professors make recommendations for titles to be added to the Law Library collection. Consistent with the Collection Development Policy of the Law Library, titles recommended for acquisition by the faculty are given priority consideration. If the recommended title is acquired, the faculty member provides a brief review of the title for publication on the Law Library Blog.

Below Professor Simmons provides the second review for a title acquired under the new program. Thank you Professor Simmons!
 
John H. Langbein, The Origins of Adversary Criminal Trial
(Oxford University Press 2003)

The lawyer-dominated mode of a criminal trial took form, without any preconceived plan or direction, from roughly 1690 to a century later in England. Langbein’s history of this development relies heavily on contemporary published pamphlet accounts at the Old Bailey only recently utilized by scholars. He traces the fascinating development of the modern criminal trial—the origins of defense counsel, of a public prosecutor, of the law of evidence, of the diminishing pressure on the accused to speak on his own defense—are intertwined and interdependent. The changes were almost breathtakingly rapid as the eighteenth century trials at the Old Bailey, which rarely lasted more than half an hour. Writes Langbein: “So characteristic was the brevity of trial that when an exceptional criminal trial lasted for some hours, its duration became a subject of remark.”

Ultimately, however, Langbein is critical of the outcome. He casts the Anglo-American trial with its active evidence-gathering lawyer as disadvantaged relative to European procedure which vests this function in judges or judge-like investigators. He criticizes the advantage the Anglo-American system bestows on the wealthy who can afford to hire skilled counsel and investigations.

It’s regrettable that such an interesting history is narrated by one with a negative view of its accomplishments, but this does not detract from the narrative, skillfully told. Langbein does raise appropriate criticisms of the adversary system, though this reader remains unconvinced in the superiority of the European alternative.

 

New Position Open at McKusick Law Library

The McKusick Law Library is currently seeking candidates to fill a new position. It is anticipated that the Head of Public, Faculty, and Student Services will provide necessary coordination of existing and new services offered to the patrons of the McKusick Law Library. The position description is available via the American Association of Law Libraries Career Center and the South Dakota Board of Regents Employment Website.