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Rare Books: Legal history on the web

Mike Widener — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:09:00 PDT

A quick round-up of new sources for legal history on the web...

From Prof. Robert C. Palmer, University of Houston: "The Anglo-American Legal Tradition website now has available the acquisitions from Spring 2008. The site contains about 2.1 million frames of documents from the U.K. National Archives from the years 1218 to 1650. If you have not used the site in the last few months, you will find it much more user-friendly ... The main document series on the site are CP40 (court of common pleas plea rolls), KB27 (court of king's bench plea rolls), KB26 (king's bench and common pleas plea rolls from Henry III), E159 and E368 (exchequer memoranda rolls), C33 (chancery orders and decrees), CP25(1) (feet of fines), DL5 (duchy decrees and orders), and REQ1 (court of requests orders and decrees) ... The AALT website runs through the O'Quinn Law Library at the University of Houston under a non-commercial license from the U.K. National Archives."

http://aalt.law.uh.edu

Legislación Mexicana, offered by the Biblioteca Daniel Cosio Villegas of the Colegio de México, is a project to digitize the contents of an essential work for the legal history of 19th-century Mexico, Legislación mexicana: ó, Coleccion completa de las disposiciónes legislativas expedidas desdé la independencia de la República [1821-1906] / ordenada por Manuel Dublán y José María Lozano (42 vols.; México, 1876-1912). Thanks to the Philobiblos blog for the heads-up.

http://www.biblioweb.dgsca.unam.mx/dublanylozano/

The 1582 edition of the Corpus Juris Canonici has been put online by UCLA's Charles E. Young Research Library. This edition is known as the "Correctores Romani" edition, because it was prepared by a Vatican-appointed panel of editors charged with ridding the text and gloss of corruptions that had crept in over the centuries. the site also features corrected, expanded and searchable versions of indexes to the Liber Extra and its gloss.

http://digidev.library.ucla.edu/canonlaw-dev/

From Vicenç Feliú, Paul M. Hebert Law Center Library, Louisiana State University: "On the occasion of the Bicentennial of the Louisiana Digest of 1808, the Paul M. Hebert Law Center’s Center for Civil Law Studies has published an electronic version of the Digest of the Civil Laws now in Force in the Territory of Orleans (enacted on March 31, 1808) on its Civil Law Online website ... The original French and the English translation can be viewed separately or together on the same screen ... In addition, the manuscript notes of 1814, attributed to Louis Moreau-Lislet who, with James Brown, drafted the Digest, are available on this website. These notes are extracted from the De la Vergne Volume, a copy of the Digest bound in 1808 with interleaves between the English text on the left and the French text on the right. The manuscript notes on the interleaves give reference mainly to Roman and Spanish laws, but also mention French sources, such as Domat and Pothier ... This volume belonged to the de la Vergne family for generations, and is presently in possession of Mr. Louis V. de la Vergne." I add my congratulations to my good friend Louis de la Vergne for helping make this project possible.

http://www.law.lsu.edu/index.cfm?geaux=civillawonline.mainclohome

From the University of Georgia: "The Civil Rights Digital Library promotes an enhanced understanding of the Movement by helping users discover primary sources and other educational materials from libraries, archives, museums, public broadcasters, and others on a national scale. The CRDL features a collection of unedited news film from the WSB (Atlanta) and WALB (Albany, Ga.) television archives held by the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia Libraries. The CRDL provides educator resources and contextual materials, including Freedom on Film, relating instructive stories and discussion questions from the Civil Rights Movement in Georgia, and the New Georgia Encyclopedia, delivering engaging online articles and multimedia."

http://publish.crdl.usg.edu/voci/go/crdl/home/

English Medieval Legal Documents AD 600 - AD 1535: A Compilation of Published Sources. Prepared by Hazel D. Lord, Senior Law Librarian, University of Southern California School of Law: "The goal of this project is to create a collaborative database on the published sources of English medieval legal documents, and to provide links to the growing number of online sources currently being developed."

http://emld.usc.edu/tiki-index.php

MIKE WIDENER
Rare Book Librarian

Rare Books: African-American History in our American Trials Collection, #4

Mike Widener — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 08:55:00 PDT

Among the most uncommon and interesting of our trial pamphlets is Isaiah Lanson's Statement and Inquiry, Concerning the Trial of William Lanson, Before the New Haven County Court, November Session, 1845, probably printed in New Haven in 1846. Ours is the only copy recorded in the online library dabase, WorldCat.

William Lanson was an African American and a successful New Haven construction engineer. He extended Long Wharf in 1810, built the East Haven Bridge, and helped develop Wooster Square. He also owned the Liberian Hotel. He was arrested repeatedly for allegedly illegal activities at the hotel, and put on trial for operating a house of ill repute.

In this pamphlet, Lanson's son Isaiah comes to his father's defense. He asserts that "If Mr. L. had been a white man, he would have had at least some advantages which he has not had. Some evidence of his would have been taken as good. We have no hesitation in saying that the jury were in a measure prejudiced." Isaiah Lanson sets out an impassioned but also well-documented defense of his father's conduct and reputation.

The pamphlet provides considerable information on the operation of a boarding house, and life in New Haven's African American community in the early 19th century. It also provides evidence that African Americans in New Haven were not only literate but also sophisticated in their employment of print media.

MIKE WIDENER
Rare Book Librarian

Rare Books: The most creative books in American law

Mike Widener — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 06:26:00 PDT

Robert F. Blomquist surveyed 426 law professors who have taught legal history for his paper, Thinking About Law and Creativity: On the 100 Most Creative Moments in American Law (Valparaiso University Legal Studies Research Paper No. 08-04, May 2008). Below I've extracted the books and articles that appear in Blomquist's top 100. I provide links for those books that are in the Yale Law Library's online catalog, MORRIS. Legislation and court cases make up the majority of the list, and I did not include these, although arguably The Federalist (1788) is a component of the #1 creative moment, "The Constitution of the United States (1787) and the ratification debates (1787-1788)."

You can find a brief critique of Blomquist's paper on Mary Dudziak's Legal History Blog.

Most Creative Books in American Law...

15. James Kent, Commentaries on American Law (1826-30).
16. Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1833).
17. Christopher Columbus Langdell’s initiation of the case method of study at Harvard Law School initiated by his casebook, A Selection of Cases on the Law of Contracts (1871).
18. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., The Common Law (1881).
27. Benjamin Cardozo, The Nature of the Judicial Process (1921).
43. Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (1962).
44. Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac (1949).
46. Charles Reich, The Greening of America (1970).
54. Richard Posner, Economic Analysis of Law (1973).
55. Hart & Sacks, The Legal Process (1958).
68. Al Gore, Earth in the Balance (1992) and An Inconvenient Truth (2006).
79. The Politics of Law (1982).

Most Creative Law Review Articles in American Law...

45. Justice Douglas’ dissent in Sierra Club v. Morton (1972) (citing Christopher D. Stone, Should Trees Have Standing?--Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects, 45 Southern California Law Review 450 (1972).
75. Samuel D. Warren & Louis D. Brandeis, Right to Privacy, 4 Harvard Law Review 193 (1890).

MIKE WIDENER
Rare Book Librarian

Reference: Investing and retirement, what to do?

John Nann — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:27:00 PDT

Take a look at this recent article.

Ayres, Ian and Nalebuff, Barry J., "Life-Cycle Investing and Leverage: Buying Stock on Margin Can Reduce Retirement Risk" (May 27, 2008). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1139110

Abstract: By employing leverage to gain more exposure to stocks when young, individuals can achieve better diversification across time. Using stock data going back to 1871, we show that buying stock on margin when young combined with more conservative investments when older stochastically dominates standard investment strategies - both traditional life-cycle investments and 100%-stock investments. The expected retirement wealth is 90% higher compared to life-cycle funds and 19% higher compared to 100% stock investments. The expected gain would allow workers to retire almost six years earlier or extend their standard of living during retirement by 27 years.

Rare Books: Rare Book Acquisitions, Spring 2008

Mike Widener — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 19:44:00 PDT

Spring 2008 has been a busy season for acquisitions in the Yale Law Library's Rare Book Collection.

The American trials collection grew by thirty titles in Spring 2008. These included The Fall River Tragedy: A History Of The Borden Murders (1893); a bizarre recreation of the Lindbergh kidnapping (Criminal File Exposed!, 1933): the Amistad trial (New England Anti-Slavery Almanac, 1841; see image ar right); the adultery trial of the Rev. Joy Fairchild (Boston, 1845); censorship of abolition literature (Remarks on the Decision of the Appeal Court of South-Carolina, in the Case of Wells, 1835), sidewalk preaching in New York City (Account of the Trial of John Edwards, 1822); Rev. Henry Ward Beecher's adultery trial (True History of the Brooklyn Scandal, 1878), and murder trials aplenty (The Most Foul and Unparalleled Murder in the Annals of Crime: Life and Confession of Reuben A. Dunbar, 1851; Account of the Short Life and Ignominious Death of Stephen Merrill Clark, 1821; Trial of Henry G. Green, for the Murder of His Wife, 1845; Trial of Rev. Mr. Avery, 1833; Report of the Trial of William Henry Theodore Durrant, 1899).

Seven titles were added to the William Blackstone Collection. The most notable is an apparently unrecorded variant of Eller 180, Commentaire sur le code criminel d'Angleterre (2 vols., 1776), still in its original paper wrappers. Two somewhat ephemeral items testify to Blackstone's role in debates through the years. Our Legal Heritage (2001), by Judge Roy Moore, the Chief Justice of Alabama who lost his judgeship for refusing to remove the Ten Commandments from his courtroom, contains a lengthy excerpt from Blackstone with commentary by Judge Moore. An 8-page pamphlet by the English mystic John Ward is titled This penny book proves clearly that the bishops and clergy are religious imposters, who falsely pretend to an extraordinary commissio[n] from Heaven, and terrify and abuse the Peop[le] with false denunciations of judgment, and as suc[h] by the present laws of England, according [to] Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. IV, p. 62, a[re] liable to fine. imprisonment, and infamo[us] corporeal punishment. This pamphlet also contains a true song, of 18 verses, against priestcraft and oppression to be sung to the tune of the Vicar and Moses (Birmingham, 1832).

Another 18 volumes of Italian statutes and related treatises were acquired, including statutes of Vicenza (1675), Trento (1640), and Milan (1800), as well as ordinances for the notaries' guild of Cremona (1597), the Bergamo marketplace (1701), the legal profession in Bergamo (1795), and the pawnbrokers of Vicenza (1676). The 1718 edition of the agricultural statutes of Rome, Gli statuti dell' agricoltura, includes illustrations of the life cycle of locusts.

In all, thirty of the titles acquired in Spring 2008 sported illustrations. San Antonio tax attorney Farley P. Katz donated two long-sought French codes filled with colorful and humorous images by the illustrator Joseph Hémard: the deluxe edition of Code général des impôts directs et taxes assimilées (1944; see image at right), and Code civil: Livre premier, Des personnes (1925). Katz recently published a study of Hemard's tax code that reproduces several of the illustrations: "The Art of Taxation: Joseph Hémard's Illustrated Tax Code," 60 Tax Lawyer 163 (2006). We acquired two more illustrated French codes perhaps inspired by Hémard: the Code Napoléon rendered into verse with 60 risqué woodcuts by Pierre Noël (1932-33), and the Code Pénal (1950) with illustrations by Jean Dratz (1950). The Coutumes generales d'Artois (1756) has eight large woodcuts depicting the judicial process. Joost de Damhoudere's Practycke in criminele saecken (1642) has dozens of woodcuts depicting crimes and criminal procedure.

I highlighted gifts from Mrs. Beverly M. Manne and Mr. Harold I. Boucher in previous posts, and I am happy to repeat my thanks again.

MIKE WIDENER
Rare Book Librarian

Foreign & Int'l: UNdata - a New Portal for UN Statistical Data

Evelyn Ma — Fri, 30 May 2008 09:08:00 PDT

The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), the statistical arm of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), has launched a new web-based data service UNdata. Instead of clicking through data sets scattered in the websites of different UN agencies, users can now search and download a variety of statistical resources of the UN system through a single entry point.

The new portal provides useful features such as Country Profiles, Advanced Search and Glossaries to aid research. Currently, there are 14 databases and 6 glossaries containing over 55 million data points and covering a whole range of statistics relating to Population, Industry, Energy and the Environment, Trade and National Accounts. The UNdata wiki provides links to the sources' homepages and includes information about the methodology by which data sets are collected.

Rare Books: Special collections, present and future

Mike Widener — Thu, 29 May 2008 05:45:00 PDT

I recommend two recent meditations on the present and future roles of rare book libraries and special collections:

The Library in the New Age by Robert Darnton, incoming director of the Harvard University Library (New York Review of Books, June 12, 2008).
Meditations on the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, a talk given by the Beinecke's director Frank Turner, on Jan. 8, 2008 at the Grolier Club.

Both Darnton and Turner argue that today's digital information world makes rare books & manuscript collections more important, and not simply as mines for content creators.

Several of my favorite "oldies but goodies" in this vein are by Daniel Traister at the University of Pennsylvania.

Finally, two blogs worth checking out:

On Bibliophagist the rare book dealer Garrett Scott encourages "low-spot collecting" (see The Gee-Whiz Factor) and muses on The Modern American Library, as well as extolling the virtues of the Bug-House Poet.
BibliOdyssey, dedicated to "Books - Illustrations - Science - History - Visual Materia Obscura - Eclectic Bookart", is a consistently satisfying feast for the eyes and the mind, as well as an instructive exercise in data mining. The curator, Paul K. of Sydney, brings together an incredible variety of graphic material in books, manuscripts, advertising, and ephemera from around the world.

MIKE WIDENER
Rare Book Librarian

Reference: Constitutional Limits on State's foreign affairs activities

John Nann — Tue, 27 May 2008 09:00:00 PDT

Douglas Kysar (YLS) and Bernadette Meyler (Cornell) have a new paper up at SSRN. The paper is also published in the UCLA Law Review: Kysar, Douglas A. and Meyler, Bernadette A., "Like a Nation State" . UCLA Law Review, Vol.55, No. 6, 2008.

Here's the abstract:

Abstract:

Using California's self-consciously internationalist approach to climate change regulation as a primary example, this Article examines constitutional limitations on state foreign affairs activities. In particular, by focusing on the prospect of California's establishment of a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions trading system and its eventual linkage with comparable systems in Europe and elsewhere, this Article demonstrates that certain constitutional objections to extrajurisdictional linkage of state GHG emissions trading systems and the response that these objections necessitate may be more complicated than previously anticipated. First, successfully combatting the Bush Administration's potential claim that state-level climate change activities interfere with a federal executive position of withholding binding domestic GHG reductions in advance of a multilateral agreement including key developing nations, will require demonstrating that the executive branch is not acting with congressional support and has, furthermore, declared its position too informally to constitute an exercise of any of the president's independent constitutional powers. Second, state efforts to link GHG emissions trading systems with those of other nations may well take them into territory abutting that which is constitutionally impermissible under the foreign affairs and Foreign Commerce Clause doctrines. Finally, state efforts to integrate with other trading schemes or to otherwise protect the integrity of their own trading schemes must be carefully constructed lest they invite challenge as being discriminatory or overreaching, in light of more conventional dormant Commerce Clause constraints on state regulation.

Reference: Terrorism Talk

John Nann — Wed, 21 May 2008 11:08:00 PDT

The Law Library of Congress hosted a talk by Australian barrister James Renwick discussing the UK and Australian legislative responses to terrorism since 9/11 and comparing their responses to the response of the United States.

Reference: Guns and the SCOTUS

John Nann — Wed, 21 May 2008 11:03:00 PDT

The Law Library of Congress has created a page that pulls together material about the second amendment and the Court.

Reference: What paradigm for the gay rights movement?

John Nann — Wed, 21 May 2008 10:55:00 PDT

In a new paper posted at SSRN and post to Balikinization, Professor Heather Gerken argues that equality and, therefore, the equal protection argument, not liberty is the proper and mpst promising paradigm for future gay rights litigation. Here is the abstract to the paper:

This essay - penned as a tribute to Larry Tribe - argues that equality, not liberty, represents the most promising framework for future gay-rights litigation. The paper begins by arguing that the stylistic differences between the two opinions in Lawrence v. Texas signal something important about the shortcomings of the liberty paradigm. As Larry Tribe has written, a liberty claim is won or lost based on what level of generality a court uses to describe it. We thus see Justice Kennedy, with his penchant for abstract prose, describing the case at a high level of generality in vindicating Lawrence's challenge to Texas' sodomy law. But note that the opinion's fluid prose ends precisely when the opinion moves from the general to the specific. Kennedy's high-flown abstractions are ill-suited to addressing facts on the ground. If Justice Kennedy is too abstract in his prose, Justice Scalia is too concrete. Scalia's groundedness makes him the wittiest dissent in cases involving sex, for everything funny about sex lies in our discomfort with the gap between the particular and the abstract. But Scalia's insistence that the case is about nothing more than the right to engage in a particular type of sex act ensures that his opinion, too, misses something important about what is at stake in Lawrence.

Having outlined the shortcomings of the two opinions, the remainder of the essay argues that equal protection, not liberty, is the right paradigm for future gay-rights litigation. Equal protection is pitched at the right level of generality; it captures what we are fighting about. Larry Tribe may find it easy to toggle between liberty and equality when writing about substantive due process. Like Justice Brandeis, he is "the master . . . of both microscope and telescope." In the parts of his work where he connects the Court's liberty decisions, he shows us constellations where the rest of us saw only a random collection of stars. In other parts of his work, he offers a granular view, describing the relationship between liberty and equality as a double helix. For everyday judges and lawyers, however, doctrinal analysis starts with doctrinal categories. It thus seems inevitable that Tribe's double helix will be split. And if courts must choose between these admittedly intertwined paths, we will get closer to the vistas Tribe describes if judges follow the path of equal protection, not liberty. That is because what is a stake in these debates is not whether all humans should enjoy a right, but whether gays and lesbians, in particular, should do so, and that is an idea better capture by the equal protection paradigm. Somewhere between Justice Kennedy's high-flown right to intimate relations and Justice Scalia's down-and-dirty discussion of sodomy is the status of the LGBT community. Equal protection begins with that issue while allowing the Court to write with a worthy tradition behind it.

Rare Books: Finished! The ABCNY Roman-Canon Law Collection is completely cataloged.

Mike Widener — Mon, 19 May 2008 07:54:00 PDT

The Yale Law Library has finished cataloging the Roman-Canon Law Collection of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York (ABCNY). This means that all of this rich and valuable collection is accessible to researchers via the Law Library's online catalog, MORRIS.

A round of applause is due to Susan Karpuk and the two catalogers who worked under her direction on this project, Ruth Alcabes and Maureen Hayes. Susan described this cataloging project in a recent article, "Processing a Large Acquisition of 16th-19th Century Roman-Canon Law Books at the Yale Law Library," LH&RB 14:1 (Winter 2008), which is available online at <http://www.aallnet.org/sis/lhrb/>.

The Law Library is grateful for the generous support from the Oscar M. Ruebhausen Fund, Yale Law School, for funding the acquisition and cataloging. Thanks also to Richard Tuske, Director of Library Operations at the ABCNY, and to the ABCNY's Board of Directors, for making this acquisition possible.

The ABCNY's Roman-Canon Law Collection contains 1197 titles in 1754 physical volumes, and arrived in August 2006 on permanent loan. Its acquisition represents a quantum leap in our already strong holdings in Roman and canon law, making the Yale Law Library's Rare Book Collection one of the premier libraries for research in European legal history.

The work pictured at right, Martin Sánchez' Arbor dividui et individui (1538) is one of several that are the only copies in U.S. libraries according to WorldCat. The oldest imprint is a 1501 compilation of the regulations for the Papal Chancery. The collection also includes one manuscript volume, an 18th-century digest of Roman-Dutch law.

There are 80 volumes of the decisions of the Rota Romana, the Vatican's highest court and for centuries one of Europe's most important courts. There are 16 collections of consilia, the legal opinions given out (for a fee) by leading jurists at the request of institutions, rulers and others.

The collection is valuable not only for legal history but for the history of the book. Many of the early volumes retain their original bindings. Six of the volumes were once academic prizes, presented to outstanding students in the 17th-18th centuries in elegant bindings. The bindings and ownership marks suggest that most of the books were originally in German or Austrian collections. The ABCNY acquired many of the volumes in 1904 from the library of Konrad von Maurer (1823-1902), professor at the University of Munich and an influential historian of Scandinavian law.

I could go on and on about the treasures and curiosities in the ABCNY's Roman-Canon Law Collection. I've highlighted some of the individual volumes in recent posts and there is more to come. For now, you can browse the entire collection via a collection-level record in our online catalog, MORRIS. Feel free to contact me with questions or comments.

MIKE WIDENER
Rare Book Librarian

Foreign & Int'l: Finders keepers? Spain claims sunken treasure

Teresa Miguel — Mon, 19 May 2008 07:23:00 PDT

NPR reported this morning on Spain's battle to reclaim the treasure from a sunken Spanish vessel recovered in international waters in the Atlantic Ocean by Odyssey Marine Exploration of Tampa, FL. The 19th century shipwreck contained some 17 tons in silver coins, cuff links and other personal items, and other artifacts; it may be the most valuable treasure ever discovered. Exact details of the discovery have yet to be revealed.

A Federal District Court in Tampa is reviewing Spain's claim to the treasure that Odyssey recovered. Spain insists that Odyssey's claim to the warship Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes is immoral and illegal. Spain compares the Nuestra Señora site to the grave sites of Gettysburg and the U.S.S. Arizona, as the sinking of Nuestra Señora precipitated Spain's entry into the Napoleonic wars. Odyssey maintains, however, that they found no vessel and no human remains, just the cargo, and there is nothing to prove that it is the cargo of La Senora. In PACER, the federal court's password-protected electronic filing database (which is available free to the public in several federal depository libraries), you can review court filings for this case (8:07-cv-00614-SDM-MAP) as well as several others in which the Kingdom of Spain has filed a claim (ask a reference librarian for assistance if needed).

So just what is the law pertaining to sunken treasures? Finders keepers? Return to rightful owner?

The Yale Law Library has several books pertaining to the law of sunken treasure and cultural patrimony. See, for example, Legal Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage: National and International Perspectives. This book compares the laws, traditions, and perspectives of various countries, including the United States and Spain. Note the Subject Headings at the bottom of the record: Cultural property -- Protection -- Law and legislation; Shipwrecks; Salvage; Treasure-trove; Underwater archaeology -- Law and legislation. Click on any of them to find more works pertaining to that topic.

In comparison, see, The Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage: National Perspectives in Light of the UNESCO Convention 2001, for an international law focus and analysis. Under the Subject Heading, underwater archaeology - law and legislation, you will find books in several languages other than English, including French German, Spanish, Russian and Italian. Admiralty law also comes into play, specifically the Supplementary Admiralty Rules. See also, Admiralty and Maritime Law, available in print and electronically.

There are several international law databases you might try as well to find case law and law review articles. See our Foreign and International Resources page for the plethora of electronic resources at your fingertips, or ask a reference librarian for assistance.

News & Events: Summer Library Hours

Tom Boone — Sat, 17 May 2008 13:00:00 PDT

Monday - Friday
7:30 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. (L2 access)
8:30 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. (Level 3)
Reference Desk: 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. & 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Circulation Desk: 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. & 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Saturdays
10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
No Reference or Circulation Desk Services

Sundays
CLOSED – No Services

July 4th - CLOSED

News & Events: Library Information for the Summer

Tom Boone — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:00:00 PDT

Summer Borrowing Privileges
Returning Law students may borrow circulating books over the summer. They will be due on September 10, 2008. Any book that has been recalled must be sent via First Class Mail to the Law Library. Please check with staff at the Circulation Desk for further details.

Carrel Assignments
Carrel Assignments for this academic year end on June 11, 2008. Please return all books to the lending library and remove all personal belongings. Personal belongings left behind will be discarded. If you wish to use a carrel during the summer, you may sign up in the Library Administrative Office.
Sign up for a carrel for the 2008-2009 academic year begins in early September in the Library Administrative Office.

Foreign & Int'l: Israel Turns 60

Teresa Miguel — Wed, 14 May 2008 07:42:00 PDT

Joe Hodnicki, Associate Director for Library Operations at the University of Cincinnatti Law Library, has written and excellent and informative documentary history of Israel on his Law Librarian Blog

Reference: Market Damages, Efficient Contracting and the Economic Waste Fallacy

John Nann — Tue, 13 May 2008 09:15:00 PDT

is the title of a new paper by Alan Schwartz and Robert E. Scott (Columbia) posted on SSRN. Here's the paper and here's the abstract:

Market damages - the difference between the market price for goods or services at the time of breach and the contract price - are the best default rule whenever parties trade in thick markets: they induce parties to contract efficiently and to trade if and only if trade is efficient, and they do not create ex ante inefficiencies. Courts commonly overlook these virtues, however, when promisors offer a set of services some of which are not separately priced. For example, a promisor may agree to pay royalties on a mining lease and later to restore the promisee's property. In these cases, courts compare the cost to the promisor of providing the service that was not supplied to the increase in the market value of the promisee/buyer's property had the promisor/seller performed. When the cost of completion is large relative to the "market delta"- the increase in market value - courts concerned to avoid "economic waste" limit the buyer to the market value increase. This concern is misguided. Since the buyer commonly prepays for the service at the ex ante market price, a cost of completion award actually has a restitution element - the prepaid price - and an expectation interest element - the market damages. The failure to recognize the joint nature of cost of completion damages causes courts to deny these damages more frequently than they should. In this paper, we argue that the unappreciated virtues of market based damages justify removing the courts' discretion to deny them no matter how high they appear to be. The rule that denies buyers market damages induces excessive entry into these service markets. Moreover, buyers are under-compensated when they prepay and cannot recover the price paid for the breached services but instead are restricted to the market delta. As a result, too few buyers contract ex ante for the relevant service and surplus maximizing contracts are forgone. Finally, sellers often can take actions in the interim between making the contract and the time for performance of the service that would reduce the service cost to manageable proportions. Sellers are less likely to take these precautions if they are required to pay buyers only the market delta rather than the full performance cost that their actions could have avoided.

Reference: SSRN

John Nann — Mon, 12 May 2008 11:22:00 PDT

Another fascinating paper from Professor Hathaway, "The Continuing Influence of the New Haven School." Originally published in 32(2) Yale Journal of International Law in 2007. Here is the abstract:

This Commentary examines the deep and abiding influence of what has been called the New Haven School of international law. It considers the connection between the past and the present the ideas first formulated by Myres S. McDougal and Harold D. Lasswell more than a half-century ago, and those, both near and far, whose work they have influenced.

Reference: Paper on SSRN

John Nann — Mon, 12 May 2008 11:16:00 PDT

Professor Hathaway has posted a paper originally published in the journal International Organization in 1998 (v. 52, no. 3) on SSRN, entitled "Positive Feedback: The Impact of Trade Liberalization on Industry Demands for Protection".

Here is the abstract:

This article proposes a theory of dynamic industry preferences and strategies to explain variation in industries' demand for trade protection over time. This theory shows how the characteristics of industries affect their demand for trade policy and how, in turn, trade policy transforms industry characteristics. An important implication of this theory is that trade liberalization tends to reduce, rather than increase, industry demand for protection over the long term. The article begins by developing a static model of industry decision making that illustrates how producers faced with a reduction in trade barriers weigh the costs and benefits of political action and economic adjustment. It then explains how the strategic choices of an industry are determined by key industry characteristics that evolve over time in response to changes in trade policy and market conditions. In particular, it demonstrates that reductions in trade barriers may have a positive feedback effect that dampens rather than amplifies domestic protectionist sentiment. To test this model, the article examines the dramatic postwar transformation of three industries that have historically demanded and received extensive import protection: the footwear, textile, and apparel industries. The article concludes with an assessment of the model and a discussion of its possible implications for our understanding of the politics of trade policy.

Rare Books: Gift to Rare Books honors Henry G. Manne, Law & Economics founder

Mike Widener — Sat, 10 May 2008 04:00:00 PDT

Henry G. Manne, one of the founders of the Law & Economics movement, celebrates his 80th birthday on May 10, 2008. To mark this event, his sister-in-law Beverly M. Manne of Houston, Texas, has funded the acquisition of a book in his honor for the Yale Law Library's Rare Book Collection.

Professor Manne, Dean Emeritus of the George Mason University School of Law, is a distinguished alumnus of the Yale Law School (LL.M. ’53, S.J.D. ’66). His 1966 S.J.D. thesis at Yale Law School, Inside Information and the Entrepreneur, was the basis for his widely reviewed and controversial book, Insider Trading and the Stock Market (New York: Free Press, 1966). He is also known as an innovator in U.S. legal education.

The book that Ms. Manne and I selected to honor Professor Manne is Thomas Mortimer’s Every Man His Own Broker: or, a Guide to Exchange-Alley (London, 1765). This vade mecum for investors includes an overview of the laws governing brokers. Elizabeth Hennessy described Mortimer and his book in Coffee House to Cyber Market: Two Hundred Years of the London Stock Exchange (2001):

One of the most knowledgeable and persistent critics of brokers’ trade in securities was Thomas Mortimer whose book Every Man His Own Broker appeared in fourteen editions between 1761 and 1801, and was translated into German, Dutch, French and Italian. According to his own account he wrote because of an unhappy experience at Jonathan’s in 1756, and the work is certainly hostile to jobbers and speculators; like many of his contemporaries he was deeply perturbed by what he saw as unnecessary trading in Government funds. However, his detailed advice to the public on how to buy and sell successfully gives one of the best pictures of stock broking in the second half of the eighteenth century.

Professor Manne has provided an excellent capsule history of the Law & Economics movement in his online essay, An Intellectual History of the George Mason University School of Law. See also the biographical sketch of Professor Manne at the end.

Thanks to my fellow Texan, Ms. Beverly Manne, for her generous and thoughtful gift. And to Professor Manne, Happy 80th Birthday!

MIKE WIDENER
Rare Book Librarian

News & Events: Law Library Laptop Computers During Exam Period

Tom Boone — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:00:00 PDT

As has been our practice, long term and overnight use of Law Library laptop computers is suspended during the Law School Exam Period. This year that begins on May 10 and runs through May 23, 2008.

Questions may be directed to staff at the Circulation Desk.

Reference: Review of Kahn, Out of Eden: Adam and Eve and the Problem of Evil

John Nann — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:41:00 PDT

Nice review in the Times Literary Supplement by John Habgood, the former Archbishop of York:

A book which begins with the sentence “Evil makes us Human” must surely compel attention. This is no ordinary account of what is usually meant by the problem of evil, where the main emphasis is on justifying the ways of God to man. Instead, Paul W. Kahn’s aim is to explore the nature of evil itself. He interprets it, not just as doing or experiencing bad things, but as “a way of being in the world”. Evil, he claims, is about making ourselves the source of our own meaning, a meaning inevitably negated by death, the certainty of which gives urgency and depth to the way life is lived. It is this consciousness of our mortality, and the refusal to accept its implications, which can lead to the worship of false gods. Ascribing ultimate value to what is essentially nothing at all results in what he calls “a pathology of the will”. Personal evil is essentially about wilfulness rather than reason, nor can it be subsumed within our rational understanding. Evil in this sense, as part of our humanity, is not a fashionable concept, but we have good reasons to recognize it, not least in ourselves.
--- more ---

Reference: Faculty Publications

John Nann — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:35:00 PDT

Three recent law review articles by members of the faculty:

Ian Ayres and Gideon Parchomovsky, Tradable Patent Rights, 60 Stan. L. Rev. 863 (2007)

Daniel Markovits, Luck Egalitarianism and Political Solidarity, 9 Theoretical Inquiries L. 271 (2008)

Judith Resnik, No Daubert Hearing Necessary: The Extraordinary Expertise of Margaret Berger, 16 J.L. & Pol'y 6 (2007)

Foreign & Int'l: Myanmar

Teresa Miguel — Thu, 08 May 2008 09:38:00 PDT

Cyclone Nargis has thrust Myanmar into the public spotlight, as pressure increases to allow foreign aid to help cyclone victims.

In February, Myanmar had announced its intention to hold a democratic referendum on a draft constitution this month, and to hold democratic elections in 2010. Immediately prior to the cyclone, on May 2, 2008, the U.N. had taken official notice of Myanmar's intent and encouraged an open process. However, today the U.N. is urging Myanmar to delay this process.

Myanmar is being monitored by the United Nations for human rights violations. On March 18, 2008, the UN Security Council held a meeting during which Ibrahim Gambari, the Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Myanmar, reported on his March 6 - 10, 2008 visit to Myanmar. Mr. Kyaw Tint Swe, the government representative from Myanmar, was present and also spoke at the meeting. The meeting was transcribed in S.PV/5854, the provisional record of the public briefing.

The United Nations Human Rights Council has spoken many times to the human rights situation in Myanmar. Most recently, on March 28, 2008, the Council adopted resolution A/HRC/7/L.36 wherein the Council strongly deplored the "ongoing systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people of Myanmar" and extended the mandates of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. In a separate but related resolution A/HRC/7/L.37, the HRC, in accordance with Commission on Human Rights resolutions 1992/58 and 2005/10 of 14 April 2005, extended for one year the the Special Rapporteur's mandate, and urged, inter alia, the Government of Myanmar to "cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur and to respond favourably to his requests to visit the country and to provide him with all information and access to relevant bodies and institutions necessary to enable him to fulfill his mandate effectively."

Watch the U.N. Human Rights Council, 7th Session UN Webcast on the two resolutions: the "Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar" (A/HRC/7/L.36), and "Mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar" (A/HRC/7/L.37). both from March 28, 2008 at the Palais de Nations in Geneva. See also, an archived video of "The Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar" from October 2, 2007 at the Palais de Nations in Geneva.

Find Security Council and other UN documents related to Myanmar on the website of the Security Council Report - Myanmar. SCR is an NGO headquartered in New York City.

The Yale Law Library collects human rights and interdisciplinary materials pertaining to Myanmar; they are cataloged and located with other human rights publications or social science materials on the Upper East Side rather than in the Myanmar/Burmese legal collection (KNL) on the Lower East Side. If you conduct a Morris Subject Heading search: Human Rights - Burma, you'll return 26 hits. You can then sort Newest First and you'll find several books written in the last few years, including a 2008 publication entitled Promoting Human Rights in Burma: A Critique of Western Sanctions Policy.

The Yale Law Library has a 2005 volume of Myanmar Laws, our most current compilation of laws from Myanmar. This is an English translation of the yearbook of Myanmar laws originally published in Burmese. You will find older materials if you do a Subject Heading search on Morris: Laws - Burma. Note that the laws of Myanmar are still cataloged by Library of Congress using Burma rather than Myanmar. Why is that? During a 2006 interview, Barbara Tillett, chief of the Library of Congress Cataloging Policy and Support Office, explained: "The Library of Congress is the national library for the United States and to some extent we reflect US policy (for example using Burma not Myanmar)." Read the BBC's take on this issue. You will see that our collection of law from Myanmar is quite small; there is not a lot being published nor do we heavily collect from this country. See our Country-by-Country guide to foreign legal research: Myanmar, for more print and electronic resources.

For assistance researching Myanmar law, please contact the reference team.

Rare Books: African-American History in our American Trials Collection, #3

Mike Widener — Tue, 06 May 2008 07:49:00 PDT

History of the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue (1859) is a lengthy and detailed account of the arrest of John, a fugitive slave belonging to John G. Bacon of Kentucky who was residing in Oberlin, Ohio. John was liberated by a band Ohio citizens, led by Simeon Bushnell and Charles Langston. The two leaders were put on trial for interfering with the arrest of a fugitive slave, and the trial was followed by Ohio indictments against the slavehunters on kidnapping charges. All these events are narrated in detail in the 280-page book, as well as the mass meetings organized throughout the North by abolitionists to drum up support for the rescuers.

History of the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue demonstrates that accounts of fugitive slave trials had become profitable publishing ventures. It was produced by a consortium of three publishers (John P. Jewett and Co. of Boston, Henry P.B. Jewett of Cleveland, and Sheldon and Co. of New York City). The American Antiquarian Society has a broadside advertisement for the book:

"AGENTS WANTED! To sell The History of the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue!! A book that everybody wants! And will buy at the first opportunity! ... We want agents enough to canvass every school-district in Ohio, and every state north of Mason's and Dixon's line. So saleable a book on such lucrative terms is offered only once in a long while, as everybody knows. Now is the time! Arrangements can be made for agencies west of Cleveland with H.P.B. Jewett, Cleveland; eastward, with John P. Jewett & Co., Boston. Any inquiries answered by Jacob R. Shipherd, Oberlin."

The American Memory site at the Library of Congress provides the full text and images of History of the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue.

[From Race on the Stand: African-American History in the Law Library’s American Trials Collection, presented Feb. 20, 2008, at the Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University.]

MIKE WIDENER
Rare Book Librarian

Rare Books: African-American History in our American Trials Collection, #2

Mike Widener — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:09:00 PDT

The Arrest, Trial, and Release of Daniel Webster, A Fugitive Slave (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, 1859) is a journalistic narrative. The anonymous author records not only the trial, but the pre-trial proceedings, conversations with the sheriff, and the actions of the crowds that were on hand. The pamphlet provides evidence on the communications networks of abolitionists and how they rallied supporters to intervene in the proceedings. It preserves the voices of the participants, including Mr. Webster, who won his freedom in a hearing before a U.S. Commissioner.

Like many other accounts of fugitive slave trials, this pamphlet was published by an interest group, the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. It was inexpensive, quickly produced, and easily mailed.

[From Race on the Stand: African-American History in the Law Library’s American Trials Collection, presented Feb. 20, 2008, at the Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University.]

MIKE WIDENER
Rare Book Librarian

Rare Books: African-American History in our American Trials Collection, #1

Mike Widener — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:36:00 PDT

Early American trials is one of the collecting priorities for the Yale Law Library's Rare Book Collection. In the past two years we added over a hundred titles to an already large collection. About two dozen of these were trials involving African Americans, and nearly all are the only copies at Yale.

Trials involving African Americans figure prominently in the collection, because of their prominent role in American history and their continuing interest for researchers. I gave a presentation on them, Race on the Stand: African-American History in the Law Library’s American Trials Collection, on Feb. 20, 2008, for a Black History Month event organized by the Standing Committee on Professional Awareness of the Yale University Library.

Trial accounts are valuable and fascinating documents for several reasons. By recording testimony and court debates, they capture voices from the past. In contrast to appellate proceedings -- where lawyers and judges are talking among themselves -- trials capture a broader range of voices. Trial accounts are unique primary sources, capturing the proceedings in lower courts that usually can’t be found anywhere else. Through testimony and fact-finding, trials provide a window on social conditions, living conditions, and attitudes.

For African-American history in particular, battles over slavery and race were often fought in the courts.

What do I mean by "American trials"? They are typically small, cheaply produced pamphlets like the 8-page item shown at right, Case of the Slave Isaac Brown: An Outrage Exposed (1847?).

The case itself involved a trumped-up charge that an African American in Pennsylvania was a fugitive from justice. Brown had been punished for an assault two years before in Maryland, and then sold to a planter in Louisiana. Somehow he made it to Pennsylvania. His former owner in Maryland obtained an arrest warrant. Two attorneys took Brown's case and won his freedom. The case itself shows how both pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups made of the courts to further their goals.

The pamphlet itself demonstrates how trial pamphlets were used as propaganda, and also to publicize the tricks used by slave catchers. The anonymous author concludes:

"The case of Isaac Brown shows with what facility any honest citizen of Pennsylvania may be seized under a requisition from the Executive of another State, on some false and malicious charge ..., banished from his native soil, tried among strangers before a foreign tribunal, and convicted and punished by the perjury of those who committed the crime, and who escape by fastening it upon him. It is a lesson to our Governor, our Courts and our People."

Abolitionists are here telling their readers: "This could happen to YOU." They argued that slavery laws threatened the white population as well as African Americans.

The American Memory site at the Library of Congress provides the full text and images of The Case of the Slave Isaac Brown.

I'll be posting other examples from my presentation in the next several days.

MIKE WIDENER
Rare Book Librarian

Foreign & Int'l: Brandeis Institute for International Judges

Teresa Miguel — Fri, 02 May 2008 06:46:00 PDT

The Brandeis Institute for International Judges (BIIJ) "provides international judges with the opportunity to meet and discuss critical issues concerning the theory and practice of international justice. Institutes are held approximately every 18 months, bringing together judges serving on international courts and tribunals around the world to reflect on both the philosophical aspects and practical challenges of their work. The most recent Institute was held from July 23-28, 2007, in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, USA. The next Institute is scheduled for January 4-9, 2009, in Trinidad."

The BIIJ website has reports for each of the previous institutes along with a group photo of each year's participants. The BIIJ is just one of the Brandeis Programs in International Justice and Society, which is part of the The International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life at Brandeis University.

Reference: Law Day, May 1st 2008

ct286 — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:44:00 PDT

The theme of this year's Law Day, "The Rule of Law: Foundation for Communities of Opportunity and Equity," recognizes the fundamental role that the rule of law plays in preserving liberty in our Nation and in all free societies. View President Bush's proclamation here.

Reference: Law Professor Accuses Students of Defamation

ct286 — Thu, 01 May 2008 07:52:00 PDT

By LYNNLEY BROWNING, New York Times.
Published: May 1, 2008.

At the University of Arkansas in Little Rock, a law professor has sued two of his students, alleging that they defamed him by unfairly describing him as a racist. Read more here.

Rare Books: Legal "trees"

Mike Widener — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 07:35:00 PDT

One focus of my collecting efforts is law books with illustrations. These illustrations are often portraits of the authors or allegorical images, but I am especially interested in illustrations used to describe legal concepts.

Tree diagrams have been used since the Middle Ages, particularly in legal texts from the European continent on Roman, canon, or feudal law. They were most commonly used to diagram family relationships: trees of consanguinity dealt with relationships by blood, while trees of affinity described relationships by marriage.

In 16th-century law books, trees were often used to describe other legal concepts and relationships. The "arbor dividui et individui" at right is one example. It comes from Arbor dividui et individui by Martin Sanchez (1538), bound at the end of Luca da Penne's commentary on the Code of Justinian. The "arbor dividui et individui" diagrams different types of legal actions regarding stipulations and contracts having to do with divisible and indivisible things (thanks to my colleague Jennifer Nelson, reference librarian at the Robbins Collection, UC-Berkeley, for deciphering the meaning).

See my gallery of legal "trees" on Flickr for other examples.

The Arbor dividui et individui by Martin Sanchez is quite rare. The first edition (Toulouse, 1519) is held by the Robbins Collection, the Bavarian State Library, and France's Bibliotheque Nationale. The only other copy of our 1538 edition is at the Baden-Württemberg State Library. Our copy is part of the Roman-Canon Law Collection of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

MIKE WIDENER
Rare Book Librarian

Foreign & Int'l: The Old Bailey Proceedings, 1674-1913, Go Online

Evelyn Ma — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:39:00 PDT

London's Old Bailey Criminal Court cases 1674-1913 are now searchable online. The Proceedings of the Old Bailey,1674-1913 include transcripts of 197,745 criminal trials held at London's Central Criminal Court between the years 1674-1913. Other than chronicling a string of sensational trials in London in the period, the free website was also billed as "the largest single source of searchable historical information about British lives that has ever been published". See full story here.

Foreign & Int'l: The Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal

Teresa Miguel — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 07:58:00 PDT

NPR reported this morning that Tariq Aziz, former Iraqi Foreign Minister under Saddam Hussein, begins trial today for the execution of forty-two food merchants in 1992. Aziz, 72, has been in prison for over 5 years and is challenging the charges. In the Anfal Campaign Trial, Gen. Ali Hassan Majeed, aka Chemical Ali for his use of poisonous gas against villagers, has already been sentenced to death by hanging for the mass killings of Kurds during the Sadaam era. Here you can find an English translation of the Anfal Campaign Judgment. Of course, Saddam Hussein was convicted, sentenced to death, and executed by the Iraqi Special Tribunal on December 30, 2006.

The Iraqi Special Tribunal, also known as the Iraqi High Tribunal or the Special Iraqi Criminal Tribunal (SICT), was initially created in 2003 by the Statute of the Iraqi Special Tribunal (also found here), issued by the now-dissolved Coalition Provisional Authority and enacted by the Iraqi Governing Council. Due to legitimacy questions raised as a result of the Tribunal being established by an occupying force, the Iraqi Interim Government passed a new statute (pdf) in 2005 creating the current Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal (SICT). The SICT, like its predecessor, is an independent tribunal located in Baghdad devoted to the prosecution of Saddam Hussein and the leaders of his regime for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and other crimes committed between 1968 and 2003.

The Law Library of Congress has an excellent website on the trial of Saddam Hussein. The site includes primary documents and secondary resources pertaining to Saddam Hussein's trial, the creation of the Special Tribunal and appeal, and the laws, treaties, and resolutions related to the Tribunal and relevant trials.

The Yale Law Library has many books written on the Hussein trial, the Tribunal, and Iraq generally. See, for example, Saddam on Trial: Understanding and Debating the Iraqi High Tribunal. Also try a Subject Heading serach: Hussein, Saddam. All Iraqi foreign law is classified under KMJ and can be found on the Lower East Side. For electronic resources pertaining to Iraqi law, see our Country-by-Country guide to legal research. Finally, for research assistance, don't hesitate to contact the reference team.

Reference: Were patent appeals judges unconstitutionally appointed?

ct286 — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:42:00 PDT

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office may have a major problem on its hands -- the possibly unconstitutional appointment of nearly two-thirds of its patent appeals judges. Read more about this case here.

Translogic Technology, a company whose patent was rejected, is raising this issue in a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court. A copy of the petition is available for viewing at the Law Library Reference Desk.

Reference: Lawyers Open Their File Cabinets for a Web Resource

ct286 — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:24:00 PDT

By ANNE EISENBERG, New York Times

Published: April 27, 2008.

Services are appearing on the Web that may make it easier for consumers to do their own preliminary homework on legal issues before seeking professional help. Read more here.

Rare Books: Provenance puzzle #1 -- solved!

Mike Widener — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 06:24:00 PDT

A hearty thanks to Stephen Ferguson, Curator of Rare Books at the Princeton University Library, for providing the answer to my Provenance puzzle #1. The stamp is a portrait of Augustus, Elector of Saxony (1526-1586). Stephen used Google Books to find a reference to the stamp in Konrad Haebler's Rollen- und plattenstempel des XVI. jahrhunderts (Leipzig: O. Harrassowitz, 1928-1929), vol. 2, pp. 79-81.

See the Wikipedia article on Augustus of Saxony, where you will learn that Augustus, a Lutheran, played an important and influential role as a peacemaker in the religious conflicts of the early German Reformation.

The stamp is on the front cover of our copy of Practica eximia atque omnium aliarum praestantissima by Giovanni Pietro Ferrari (Frankfurt: Sigmund Feyerabend, 1581), part of the Roman-Canon Law Collection of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

Additional images of the covers are in my Flickr gallery in the "Provenance markings" set.

Finally, check out Stephen Ferguson's excellent blog, Rare Book Collections @ Princeton, a favorite of mine.

MIKE WIDENER
Rare Book Librarian

Reference: House Hearing on Executive Branch Electronic Communications Preservation

ct286 — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:31:00 PDT

The House Oversight and Government Reform’s Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives held a hearing yesterday to address the Electronic Communications Preservation Act (H.R. 5811), sponsored by Chairman of the Committee Henry Waxman (D-CA-30), Chairman of the Subcommittee Wm. Lacy Clay (D-MO-1), and Rep. Paul Hodes (D-NH-2). The bill directs the Archivist of the United States to establish standards for the capture, management, retrieval, and preservation of White House e-mails and other electronic communications. The Committee’s Press Release, summary of the bill, and full text of the bill is available here. Transcripts from the hearing are posted here.

Under the Federal Records Act, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is responsible for assisting Federal agencies in maintaining adequate and proper documentation of federal records. Given the increased use of electronic communications, federal agencies are potentially creating (and discarding) messages that have the status of federal records. According to a new report issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), when GAO reviewed the e-mail management practices of four senior agencies officials they found that, although the agencies’ e-mail records management policies addressed the regulatory requirements, these requirements were not always met for the senior officials.

News & Events: Law Library Access in April/May

Tom Boone — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:35:00 PDT

Responding to requests from law students, the Law Library will again be open 24 hours a day during Law School reading/exam period (May 9 through May 23) and we will restrict non-law student access during this period and undergraduate reading/exam period.

Effective the evening of Monday, April 28 and continuing through the afternoon of Friday, May 23, admission to the Law Library will be limited to Law School affiliates, University faculty, and Law Library pass holders. (Passes will be given to non-law students doing legal research and presenting a letter from a faculty member or college dean.)

During this restricted period, law students must show their ID card with the Law School sticker every time they enter the library to gain admission to the Law Library.

The library monitors will be intending conscientiously to enforce this policy so please help them by having your card when you come to the library. If for some reason you do not have the Law School sticker on your card, you can get one from the Registrar's Office. In general, we ask for your cooperation with staff who will be implementing the rules in the stressful environment that exams create for all of us.

Restrictions must always be implemented with caution because we are committed to participating in the University community. If you have suggestions about these policies, please feel free to communicate them to me.

Fred Shapiro
Associate Librarian for Collections and Access
Lillian Goldman Law Library
Yale Law School

Foreign & Int'l: Open CRS and New CRS Reports on Tibet and East Asian Monetary Policies

Evelyn Ma — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:37:00 PDT

Congressional Research Service, funded by taxpayers' dollars, provides members of Congress with reports on current political, legal and socio-economic issues. Open CRS provides citizens access to CRS Reports already in the public domain and encourages Congress to make all CRS Reports available in the open source. Recent CRS Reports of interest to those following current affairs relating to Asia include East Asia's Foreign Exchange Rate Policies and Tibet: Problems, Prospects, and U.S. Policy.

Rare Books: Legal fiction reviews

Mike Widener — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 05:24:00 PDT

The Law and Politics Book Review, one of my favorite electronic journals, has just put out a special issue on Legal Fiction, with reviews of 22 American, British, and European novels from the 19th to 21st centuries. The goal of the editors was "to find out how others who teach courses in political science, criminal justice, or law use novels in their teaching." The standard law-and-literature canon is well represented -- Dickens' Bleak House, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Kafka's The Trial -- but there were a few surprises as well, including two science fiction titles (Isaac Asimov's I, Robot and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World) and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.Highly recommended for librarians and collectors interested in the law-and-literature or law-and-popular-culture fields.

MIKE WIDENER
Rare Book Librarian

Rare Books: Recommended reading

Mike Widener — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:09:00 PDT

There are several articles of interest to legal historians and legal bibliographers in the latest issue of The Green Bag (N.S. vol. 11, no. 2, Winter 2008). These include Michael Hoeflich's "Law Blanks & Form Books", part of Hoeflich's ongoing interest in legal ephemera (see also his blog, TheLegalAntiquarian. In addition, there's a reprint of an extremely useful 1961 bibliographic essay, "History of the Printed Archetype of the Constitution of the United States of America" by Denys P. Myers. This article is preceeded by "Which is the Constitution?" by Ross E. Davies, discussing the issue of determining the authoritative text of the Constitution, an issue which has come up in the recent U.S. Supreme Court case on gun control, District of Columbia v. Heller.

On a different front, Fabio Arcila, Jr. demonstrates the usefulness of early American justice of the peace manuals in his new article, "In the Trenches: Searches and the Misunderstood Common-Law History of Suspicion and Probable Cause," University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 10:1 (Dec. 2007), 1-63. Librarians and rare law book enthusiasts will want to check the bibliography of American j.p. manuals that Arcila includes as an appendix.

MIKE WIDENER
Rare Book Librarian

Foreign & Int'l: Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal

Teresa Miguel — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:10:00 PDT

The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, established on January 19, 1981 and located in the Hague, was created in an effort to resolve the crisis between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America arising from the detention of 52 United States nationals at the United States Embassy in Tehran which commenced in November 1979, and the subsequent freeze of Iranian assets by the United States of America.

The Tribunal has jurisdiction to decide claims of United States nationals against Iran and of Iranian nationals against the United States which arise out of:

debts, contracts, expropriations or other measures affecting property rights;
certain "official claims" between the two Governments relating to the purchase and sale of goods and services;
disputes between the two Governments concerning the interpretation or performance of the Algiers Declarations; and,
certain claims between United States and Iranian banking institutions.

The Official website of the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal is in both English and Persian. It contains background information, governing documents, and a searchable database of tribunal decisions, awards, and other documents. You must register for the database; it is free and login information will be emailed to you within a week or so.

Yale Law Library also has the complete collection of decisions and awards in the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal Reports - KZ238.I7 I73 on L1. We also have monographs on L1 analyzing the tribunal and the decisions of the tribunal. See, for example:

The Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal at 25: the cases everyone needs to know for investor-state & international arbitration - KZ238.I7 D72 2007
The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal and the process of international claims resolution: a study by the Panel on State Responsibility of the American Society of International Law - KZ 238.I7 I733 2000
UNCITRAL arbitration rules as interpreted and applied: selected problems in light of the practice of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal - KZ238.I7 P45 1994

Rare Books: Gifts to the Rare Book Collection

Mike Widener — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:48:00 PDT

A hearty thanks to my Anglophile friend, Mr. Harold I. Boucher of San Francisco (LL.B. Boalt, 1930, Honorary O.B.E.), for his gift of two fine 17th-century English legal texts to the Rare Book Collection. Mr. Boucher is a longtime advocate for legal history as an integral component of law school curricula.

The gifts include Essex's Innocency and Honour Vindicated: Or, Murther, Subornation, Perjury, and Oppression, Justly Charg'd on the Murtherers of That Noble Lord and True Patriot, Arthur (Late) Earl of Essex by Lawrence Braddon (London: Printed for the Author, 1690).The Earl of Essex had been imprisoned for plotting a revolt, and the attorney Lawrence Braddon here argues that Essex's death was a murder and not a suicide as the authorities claimed. Braddon's little pamphlet earned him a trial on slander charges (we also have the account of his trial), and he remained in prison until William III's landing. Our copy includes the frontispiece, often missing, of the crime scene in the Tower of London (see below).

Mr. Boucher's other gift is John Brydall's Jura Coronae: His Majesties Royal Rights and Prerogatives Asserted, Against Papal Usurpations, and all other Anti-Monarchical Attempts and Practices (London: Printed for George Dawes . . . against Lincolns-Inn-Gate, 1680). Brydall was a conservative, monarchist barrister who published a number of legal tracts. This particular book was printed just a few steps from Wildy & Sons, Law Booksellers, where I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Boucher in person in 2002, through the good offices of Roy Heywood, Wildy's rare book specialist.

Thanks also to Meyer Boswell Books of San Francisco for its help in arranging this special gift.

MIKE WIDENER
Rare Book Librarian