Dodd-Frank Legislative History on HeinOnline

A legislative history of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, signed into law in July 2010, is now available in the Taxation and Economic Reform in America library on HeinOnline. This compilation includes more than 140 legislative and executive documents in PDF, arranged in nine parts: The Law; Reports on the Law; Bill Versions; Related Bills; Presidential Materials; Congressional Record materials; Related Reports; Related Hearings; and Congressional Budget Office Reports. With new regulations and federal agencies coming into being as Dodd-Frank is implemented, this legislative history will be an invaluable resource for student and faculty research, law journal source gathering, and legal practice. For help in using this or other HeinOnline legislative histories, ask a reference librarian.
Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

More Snow Law

What's on every one's mind these days, but snow. From clearing snow off your car (see post from Jan. 20), to what our local governments must do to keep us safe, snow pervades the law as well. You can read about municipal liability in the New York Law Journal article - Liability for Negligent Snow Removal. (You will need to log in to access this article. Contact the Reference Librarian for the necessary information.)

If this topic really interests you, check out the Library's display on "Snow Law".

Stay warm, dry and safe.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Practice Tests Help You Learn

This New York Times article from last week discusses scientific studies that should be of interest to law students. It seems that taking practice tests may be a more effective way of learning than other methods of studying.

Our exam archive is available to students here.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

The Effect of Laughter during Supreme Court Arguments

Have you ever thought about laughter and its effect during Supreme Court oral arguments? If so, read Ryan A. Malphurs’, “People Did Sometimes Stick Things in my Underwear”
The Function of Laughter at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Apparently, many jokes before the Court have fallen flat! However, building on an earlier study by Jay Wexler who tracked the number of (laughter) notations, Malphurs studies the effect of laughter, not humor, during oral arguments and focuses on the impact the resulting laughter has on the communication environment of oral arguments.

Malphurs suggests that “laughter enables justices and lawyers to negotiate the institutional, social, and intellectual barriers that impede human communication.” Click here to read the entire article.
Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Pres. Obama's State of the Union address

Pres. Obama gives the State of the Union address Tuesday evening. Coverage of the speech starts at 8 PM ET. Congressman Paul Ryan (Wis. - R) will give the GOP's response to the President's speech. The address may be viewed on C-Span. C-Span also archives the State of the Union Address from 1945 (Pres. Truman) to 2010. The older speeches are usually only the transcript but there are a few videos available. Transcripts and videos are provided of the SOTU from 1988 to date.
Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Google's Guide to Browsers and the Web

As technology moves forward, it appears that more and more of our daily lives depend on the Internet and Web. We have come to trust these technologies to some degree with our private information but do we even know what these technologies are and how they work? The Google Chrome Team recently published a handy illustrated guidebook entitled "20 Things I Learned About Browsers & the Web." They answer the questions we often think of when using the Web but but are afraid to ask like what is cloud computing, malware, purpose of plug-ins and more. Click here to read the entire guide.
Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

European Union Research Guide

European Union law is increasingly prominent in commerce, technology, human rights, and other fields, but researching EU legal materials can be a challenge for the typical law student or for anyone unfamiliar with the resources. Globalex, New York University School of Law's foreign and international law research site, has just published the newly revised update of Duncan Alford's "European Union Legal Materials: An Infrequent User's Guide." For an overview of EU institutions and resources and where to find them, this is a great place to start. And don't forget the Justis database, described in an earlier post, for accessing European Union documents online.
Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Constitutions

After hearing the House of Representatives read our Constitution, I started thinking about other countries constitutions.

One great resource for exploring the world's constitutions in HeinOnline's new database World Constitutions Illustrated . It includes the current constitution for every country in its original language format and an English translation, as well as substantial constitutional histories for many countries. It also includes constitutional periodicals and books as well as links to scholarly articles and online resources, and bibliographic references.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Suffolk County Lawmaker Wants You To Clean The Snow From Your Car

Citing potential road hazards, Suffolk County Legislator Jon Cooper wants to enact a law that would result in fines for those who take to the road without cleaning the snow from their cars after a snowstorm. What do you think?

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Lexis and Westlaw Training for Appellate Advocacy

Appellate Advocacy students:

To register for Lexis and Westlaw training sessions, go to lexisnexis.com/lawschool and lawschool.westlaw.com.

For Westlaw, go to http://lawschool.westlaw.com, log in, click on “training,” then “on-campus trainings,” and then “in-person at my law school.”

For Lexis, go to http://www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool/, log in, and click on “access training calendar.”

Some Appellate Advocacy professors have made this training mandatory. If you are unsure whether this training is mandatory for you, check with your professor.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat