The Suffolk County Legislature (Long Island, New York) passed a bill this week establishing the country’s first animal abuse registry.  The new law requires individuals convicted of animal abuse to submit their contact information and a photograph to the registry database and pay a $50 annual maintenance fee so that taxpayers are not footing the bill.  See this article from the North Shore Sun and this press release from the Suffolk County Legislature.  I have not located the full text of the new law; it looks like it is not available yet. UPDATE: the text of the law is now available here. Please post the link in the comments section if you have it.  Another bill is pending in Suffolk County that would forbid pet stores from selling animals to individuals listed in the animal abuse registry..

The new law seems like a good idea, especially if it includes offenders who have been found guilty of neglect.  Some people simply should not have pets.  Nevertheless, supporters are overstating the law’s ability to prevent abuse.  The first problem is the irony that pet stores, which may be prohibited in the future from selling animals to abusers, purchase many of their animals from abusers–puppy mills.  The ASPCA estimates that 99 percent of  pet store animals come from puppy mills.  This figure is impossible to verify but nevertheless indicative of the prevalence of the puppy mills.  Abuse needs to be confronted at the supply pipeline also.

Another potential problem is that many animal abusers do not shell out big bucks to purchase their victims at pet stores, from reputable breeders, or adopt from rescue organizations, all of which are either likely or potentially required to use the registry to screen their customers.  Abuse is often a crime of opportunity, with abusers targeting the pets of family, friends, or neighbors.  Secondly,  supporters argue that the law protects not just pets, but people too, since many killers including Jeffrey Dahmer and David Berkowitz (the Son of Sam) tortured animals before murdering people.  This claim is overblown; I do not see how the registry will prevent people from developing into serial killers, especially since they all obtained access to animals through family, friends, or neighbors.

What do you think? Will the new law be as effective as supporters claim?

Peace PalaceFrom September 5 – September 9, 2010, the International Association of Law Libraries hosted its 29th Annual Course on International Legal Information and Law entitled “Dutch Gateways to International Law” at The Hague, The Netherlands.   The meeting took place at the Peace Palace, where I joined approximately 200 librarians, attorneys, and professors in attendance from around the world.  The course is designed to provide international researchers with a clear understanding of the wider legal environment in which we operate.  In addition to presenting attendees with a review the legal system of the host country, the conference also featured several sessions in international law, including an assessment of the ongoing role of The Hague Conference on Private International Law, a review of recent cases at the International Court of Justice and the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and presentations from various distinguished speakers regarding international criminal law, water law, law of the sea, maritime, harbor and transport law, air law, and The Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property, among many other topics.

Image:  IALL Annual Meeting attendees in front of the Peace Palace, The Hague, Netherlands.

PLC LogoWe are excited to inform you about a new online resource available for law students interested in transactional work: Practical Law Company.  PLC gives plain English guidance on transactional practice in corporations, securities, and finance.  This resource is a real world complement to your business law courses.  PLC gives you succinct overviews of practice areas, provides model documents and checklists, and updates you on the current transactional landscape.  The service is free for law students.  All you have to do is register at PLC’s Web site for your username and password.  The service is a great way to prepare for summer jobs.  There is an Interview Survival Guide and a Summer Associate Survival Guide designed to quickly bring you up to speed.  PLC is a subscription service for law firms and legal departments and is used by Baker & McKenzie, Shell International Limited, and Barclays Bank PLC, among others.  PLC could give you an edge.

The first Monday in October is the official start of the U.S. Supreme Court’s new term.  The nine justices, for the first time including three women, start right in on October 4 with oral arguments: 2 on Monday, 3 on Tuesday, and 2 on Wednesday.  The cases on Wednesday focus on very personal stories.  Snyder v. Phelps pits the grieving father of a marine killed in Iraq against infamous Rev. Fred Phelps, whose group displayed hateful signs such as “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” near the funeral.  In Bruesewitz v. Wyeth, the Court will rule on the legal right of parents to sue when their children have been injured by vaccines, such as Hannah Bruesewitz who developed a seizure disorder after getting a vaccine when she was six months old.

A great web site to find all the briefs on the merits and the amicus briefs is the ABA’s site for “PREVIEW of United States Supreme Court Cases,” which provides “expert analysis of the issues, arguments, background, and significance of every case slated for argument.”  Another great resource for case previews is the Cornell Legal Information Institute‘s Supreme Court Bulletin, which provides case summaries and analysis written by Cornell Law students.  If you can’t be in Washington this week, you can still find the transcripts and audio of the oral arguments.  Check out “U.S. Supreme Court Oral Arguments: A Research Guide” by Cornell Research Attorney Matt Morrison for guidance.

Bloomberg Law LogoBloomberg recently joined the online legal research scene with their special brand known as Bloomberg Law.  Law students and faculty at Cornell are already using this subscription Web service that pulls together case law and statutes with the unique financial data, news, and company information that Bloomberg does so well.  Indeed, Bloomberg positions its product in direct competition with Lexis and Westlaw, so if you have a corporate interest, this product is a must for your legal research.  Recognizing the reliability and authoritativeness of Bloomberg Law, the new 19th edition of The Bluebook authorizes citation to Bloomberg for unreported cases.  Here’s a sample citation from Bluebook rule 18.3:

Ortho-McNeil Pharm., Inc. v. Teva Pharm. Indus., Ltd., No. 2008-1549, 2009 BL 181480, at *4 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 26, 2009).

If you don’t have your own Bloomberg password yet, come see our Bloomberg representative next week in the Reading Room on Thursday, October 7, to sign up for access to this treasure trove of legal and financial data.

The National Assembly Library of the Republic of Korea hosted the joint GLIN/International Legal Information Conference from September 6-10, 2010 in Seoul, Korea.  The theme of the conference was “The Future of Legal Information Service: Promoting the Global Open Access.”  Some 22 countries presented reports on how they post laws and court decisions (and sometimes legal literature) online as part of the Global Legal Information Network (GLIN), the infrastructure run by the Library of Congress, but with decentralized local workstations.  The process is government to government, transferring authenticated official legal information.  GLIN has been particularly useful in using technology and a common platform/search engine/thesaurus to help emerging countries in Latin America and Africa make their laws available online.  Korea, Argentina, Brazil, Kuwait, and others are major contributors to GLIN.  The slides from my presentation at the conference on “Digitizing the World’s Laws: Evolution and Revolution” are available here.  For more on the conference, click here.

In 2008 Latham & Watkins attorney Kirk Davenport developed a list of 750 need-to-know terms for corporate and deal attorneys.  Now that list is available as a free iPhone/iPad Touch/iPad app courtesy of the IT and business development teams at Latham.  The app, called “The Book of Jargon,” is missing some important terms like “credit default swap,” but it still does a good job of covering the obvious (“common stock”) to the more advanced (“Macaroni Defense”).  You can search or browse for terms.  I would have liked to see an example for each entry as well as links to other resources illustrating the terms–but hey, it’s free.  And how much free time can Kirk Davenport have?  Recommended for aspiring corporate lawyers, perhaps as a supplement to that pricey but highly functional Black’s Law Dictionary app.

Have you ever wanted to borrow a book held by the Cornell University Library system only to find out it is checked out, on reserve, or missing?  Even though Cornell has almost 8 million volumes, this can certainly happen.  What to do?  If the book is signed out to another reader you can recall the book from the reader who has it, which can take up to two weeks.  Or, you can go to Borrow Direct and request it.

The Borrow Direct group consists of Ivy League schools that have agreed to loan each other books for a month–so you have just gained access to seven additional university libraries.  The books generally arrive within four working days.  Now you can even renew books obtained through Borrow Direct.

To obtain a book through Borrow Direct online, go to Requests in the Online Catalog, doing a search, and requesting the book.  Your request is tracked and you are kept informed when your request has been received, when it has been filled by the lending library, and when it has arrived at Cornell.  You can then pick up the book at the circulation desk in the Law Library.

So, not only do you have the libraries at Cornell subject to your requests, you have those other Ivy League Schools library materials available to you.  If you have any problems making a request, please see someone at the circulation desk.  They will be happy to assist you.

PiratesPiracy is funny when it involves parrots with risqué vocabularies, saying “Argggh” a lot, and Johnny Depp proudly debarking from his sinking jalopy of a raft.  Piracy is deadly serious when it is a form of terrorism in which routes of commerce are disrupted, people die, and a sea captain in Swiss Family Robinson makes his granddaughter dress like a boy to protect her from…well, I could never figure out from what when I was eight years old.  But something really, really bad.

In honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day this coming Sunday (September 19th every year), here are some resources for learning about the not-so-funny legal aspects of piracy.

Digital libraries

Books

  • The Law of Piracy. Alfred P. Rubin. 2nd ed. Irvington-on-Hudson, New York: Transnational Publishers, Inc., 1998.  Law Library call number K5277 .R89 1998.  This book traces the development of piracy and piracy law in the Greco-Roman world, England, and the United States.
  • La Piraterie au Vingtième Siècle: Piraterie Maritime et Aérienne.  Corinne Touret.  Paris: Librairie Générale de Droit et de Jurisprudence, E.J.A., 1992.  Law Library call number K5277 .T68 1992.  This book takes an international law approach.
  • Patriot Pirates: The Privateer War for Freedom and Fortune in the American Revolution.  Robert H. Patton.  New York: Pantheon Books, 2008.  Olin Library call number E271. P27 2008.  Patriot Pirates describes of the history of American colonial privateers during the Revolutionary War (like Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind, except in a different war), their motivations, and the questionable legality of their actions.

Articles (links to HeinOnline)

Web sites

Image: “The Pirates” Under False Colors-Can They Capture the Ship of State? from Cornell University Library’s Collection of Political Americana, available on flickr.com.

BNA is providing training for Cornell Law students on Monday, September 27 at 2:30 in room 279. The training ends at 2:55.

A special training for members of the law journals will be held in room 279 from 3:00 until 3:25.

The BNA representative will be passing out information in the foyer from 11a.m.-2p.m.

BNA publishes looseleaf services that help lawyers stay abreast of the latest developments in their practice areas.  BNA employs attorneys who report on legal news. BNA also publishes articles from high-profile attorneys analyzing the latest developments.  Some BNA resources include primary law sources such as cases and verdicts.

There are BNA resources for a wide variety of topics, from international trade to intellectual property, from environmental law to securities law, from employment law to criminal law.  View the full list of BNA titles available at Cornell Law School here.

A good BNA publication for all law students to subscribe to is United States Law Week, which provides a weekly report on the most significant U.S. legal news for all areas of law. Get the news delivered to your inbox by clicking “Sign Up For E-Mail” on the U.S. Law Week home page.

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