David Segal wrote the article discussing how American Bar Association accreditation standards contribute to tuition costs at law schools. The first paragraph is actually the only part of the article discussing the standards for law libraries. You can find these standards on the A.B.A. website. (Standards of Rules and Procedures for Approval of Law Schools.)
The standards for law libraries are in Chapter 6. Segal's article talks about how a school in Appalachia, the Duncan School of Law, copes with the requirement that the library maintain a "core collection." Duncan meets this requirement by providing online access to the core collection. The required core collection is:
Interpretation 606-5
A law library core collection shall include the following:
(1) all reported federal court decisions and reported decisions of the highest appellate court of each state;
(2) all federal codes and session laws, and at least one current annotated code for each state;
(3) all current published treaties and international agreements of the United States;
(4) all current published regulations (codified and uncodified) of the federal government and the codified regulations of the state in which the law school is located;
(5) those federal and state administrative decisions appropriate to the programs of the law school;
(6) U.S. Congressional materials appropriate to the programs of the law school;
(7) significant secondary works necessary to support the programs of the law school, and
(8) those tools, such as citators and periodical indexes, necessary to identify primary and secondary legal information and update primary legal information.
Interpretation 606-6
The dean, faculty, and director of the law library should cooperate in formulation of the collection development plan,
While the requirements for a core collection may be straightforward, the more abstract principle and one that almost necessarily requires a large expenditure of money on materials and access is:
Standard 601. GENERAL PROVISIONS
(a) A law school shall maintain a law library that is an active and responsive force in the educational life of the law school. A law library’s effective support of the school’s teaching,scholarship, research and service programs requires a direct, continuing and informed relationship with the faculty, students and administration of the law school.
(b) A law library shall have sufficient financial resources to support the law school’s teaching, scholarship, research, and service programs. These resources shall be supplied on a consistent basis.
(c) A law school shall keep its library abreast of contemporary technology and adopt it when appropriate.
While refraining from getting into Segal's arguments on ABA accreditation, one can contend that a library located in a large and sophisticated community like Harris County and contending with schools like the University of Houston and the University of Texas law libraries, requires at least a "Mercedes library." Our alumni also practice in sophisticated and demanding specialities like international arbitration, intellectual property and maritime law. Of course our library is a Rolls-Royce, "Silver Cloud." Our students, faculty, and alumni deserve no less!
Showing posts with label Legal News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Legal News. Show all posts
South Texas College of Law Closing due to Weather
The South Texas College of Law, including the Fred Parks Law Library will be closed from noon Thursday February 3 until Saturday February 5, when we will resume normal business hours. During this time no library services will be available.
Labels:
Legal News
The Government Tweets?
Would you be surprised to find out your government officials were tweeting? Would you approve? Well let the surprise end here, your government officials are in fact tweeting. After a presidential campaign in which social networking stole the show, there should be no wonder that over 2500 agencies and individuals in the public sector currently have a Twitter account.
What is Twitter? According to Twitter's website it is a " real-time information network powered by people all around the world that lets you share and discover what’s happening now." Tweeters can alert their followers to bits information in a timely manner.
GovTwit is a website that provides a directory of all government agencies, public officials, and other individuals or organizations that report on the government. You can access the website at:
http://govtwit.com/. The site also keeps statistics about these Twitter accounts, like which are most active, which have the most followers, and which are the newest. The site also has a blog which discusses new information about government tweeting at http://www.blog.govtwit.com/.
Do you want to know what your Senator is up to right now? Chances are, they have a twitter account you can follow to find out. Do you want to know what the CDC is working on? Become a follower of one of their Twitter accounts. Everyone from the President of the United States to the local Houston fire department has a tweeting stream that you can follow.
Whether you approve of it or not, social networking activities like tweeting seem to be a permanent part of government today. What better way to keep up with the people you elect?
What is Twitter? According to Twitter's website it is a " real-time information network powered by people all around the world that lets you share and discover what’s happening now." Tweeters can alert their followers to bits information in a timely manner.
GovTwit is a website that provides a directory of all government agencies, public officials, and other individuals or organizations that report on the government. You can access the website at:
http://govtwit.com/. The site also keeps statistics about these Twitter accounts, like which are most active, which have the most followers, and which are the newest. The site also has a blog which discusses new information about government tweeting at http://www.blog.govtwit.com/.
Do you want to know what your Senator is up to right now? Chances are, they have a twitter account you can follow to find out. Do you want to know what the CDC is working on? Become a follower of one of their Twitter accounts. Everyone from the President of the United States to the local Houston fire department has a tweeting stream that you can follow.
Whether you approve of it or not, social networking activities like tweeting seem to be a permanent part of government today. What better way to keep up with the people you elect?
Labels:
government documents,
Legal News
Legal News from Jurist.org
The site Jurist.org is the foremost site for current legal news. Check out today's postings.
Labels:
Legal News
Obama Backs Off a Reversal on Secrets
The New York Times reports on the closely watched case of Mohamed et al. v. Jeppesen:
In a closely watched case involving rendition and torture, a lawyer for the Obama administration seemed to surprise a panel of federal appeals judges on Monday by pressing ahead with an argument for preserving state secrets originally developed by the Bush administration.
In the case, Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian native, and four other detainees filed suit against a subsidiary of Boeing for arranging flights for the Bush administration’s “extraordinary rendition” program, in which terrorism suspects were secretly taken to other countries, where they say they were tortured.
In a closely watched case involving rendition and torture, a lawyer for the Obama administration seemed to surprise a panel of federal appeals judges on Monday by pressing ahead with an argument for preserving state secrets originally developed by the Bush administration.
In the case, Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian native, and four other detainees filed suit against a subsidiary of Boeing for arranging flights for the Bush administration’s “extraordinary rendition” program, in which terrorism suspects were secretly taken to other countries, where they say they were tortured.
Labels:
Legal News
Family Of Man Cleared By DNA Still Seeks Justice
NPR reports on the nearly 25 year old case of Timothy Cole who was wrongly convicted of rape and died in prison: Family Of Man Cleared By DNA Still Seeks Justice
"In 1985, Timothy Cole was a student in Lubbock when he was arrested and accused of being the Texas Tech rapist. A string of coeds had been raped, and the young African-American man from Fort Worth, who'd never been in trouble with the law before, was convicted largely on the eyewitness account of one rape victim.
"The Innocence Project of Texas sought relief in court to clear Cole's name, but no judge in Lubbock would grant them a hearing. Darnell, the former district attorney who later became a local family court judge, did not respond to repeated requests for an interview. However, he told the Lubbock paper that he regretted what happened to Cole. "
"In 1985, Timothy Cole was a student in Lubbock when he was arrested and accused of being the Texas Tech rapist. A string of coeds had been raped, and the young African-American man from Fort Worth, who'd never been in trouble with the law before, was convicted largely on the eyewitness account of one rape victim.
"The Innocence Project of Texas sought relief in court to clear Cole's name, but no judge in Lubbock would grant them a hearing. Darnell, the former district attorney who later became a local family court judge, did not respond to repeated requests for an interview. However, he told the Lubbock paper that he regretted what happened to Cole. "
Labels:
Legal News
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