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World Cup Courts in South Africa: Efficient But Costly

Determined not to have crime disrupt the World Cup, the South African Government established special courts fifty-six courts in the various cities hosting World Cup Games. The amount allocated to cover the costs of these courts is 45 million Rand, approximately 6 million U.S. dollars. The courts are reportedly efficiently dealing out justice.

To read more about the courts or listen to the NPR story about the courts click here.

Amazon Granted Continuation Patent on Social Networking System

There has been quite a buzz over the award of a Patent 7,739,139 to Amazon for a computer system that "provides various services for assisting users in locating, and establishing contact relationships with, other users." However, as explained in TechDirt's Amazon 'Friends' Patent Office: Gets Social Networking Patent, Amazon has been awarded only a continuation patent.

Hat tip to Law Librarian Blog

Sexual Orientation and the Law Display

By Presidential Proclamation, June 2010 has been designated Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month.

Visit a display of resources on sexual orientation and the law outside the reference offices. The display also includes information regarding OCU Law's Lesbian and Gay Law Student Association and information on Department of Defense review of and Congressional repeal of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy.

UPDATED: Canine DNA Database Breaks New Ground In Crackdown on Animal Cruelty

From an ASPCA Press Release: "NEW YORK--The nation's first criminal dog-fighting DNA database has been established by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), The Humane Society of Missouri (HSMO) and the Louisiana SPCA (LA/SPCA), and will be maintained at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) Veterinary Genetics Laboratory. Known as the Canine CODIS (Combined DNA Index System), the database is designed to help the criminal justice system investigate and prosecute dog fighting cases and address the growing problem of dog fighting using 21st century technology. "

Read more about Canine CODIS here.

*UPDATE* Please read the following article about the Canine CODIS database on CNN.

Photo Credit: Kim Nguyen

Google's Collection of Unsecured Wi-Fi Data Prompts Investigations

In May, the Energy and Commerce Committee of US House of Representative sent a letter to Google inquiring about the "huge amounts of data sent over private Wi-Fi networks while documenting the streets of our country for its Google Street View Product." The letter expressed specific concern that "Google did not disclose until long after the fact that consumers' Internet use was being recorded, analyzed and perhaps profiled." Google's response indicates that it "mistakenly" collected the data and that "the data has never been used in any Google product or service, nor do we intend to use it."

According to a Jurist Legal News & Research, Google data collection is also a subject of investigation in Australia and Canada; and several other nations have also become interested in data collected by Google.

Law and the World Cup

Soccer enthusiast from legal communities around the world are looking for connections between the law and the World Cup; several blogs are writing about the intersection of law and the World Cup. See the Where the Law and Soccer Collide: At a Firm in Manchester and World Cup Offers South African Lawyers Chance to Shine. Employment Law advice about employees watching the world cup at work is available here.

While some are looking for existing connections, others are simply making new connections of their own. See the World Cup Trivia on the International Law Prof Blog.

BP Purchases Sponsored Links for Search Terms Related to Oil Spill

Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of searchengineland.com, in a June 8, 2010 interview on NPR's All Things Considered spoke about BP's purchase of sponsored links as results for certain search terms, including "oil spill" and searches including "BP". The sponsored links were purchased on both Yahoo and Google.

According to Sullivan, this cost of BP's effort to "contain the PR fallout" of the spill is unclear, but this is "how things are done on the Internet.

BP is not the only entity making use of the Internet in relation to the oil spill. For example, see Thursday's post regarding the Oil Spill Law Blog.

For more information, read or listen to the story on NPR.org.

New Orleans Law Firm Launches Oil Spill Blog

The Lavis Law Firm of New Orleans has launched the BP Oil Spill Law Blog. While the firm likely intends for the site to generate clients, Law Librarian Blog indicates that the site also offers helpful information to "folks affected by the disaster."

Advances in Animal Law

From examiner.com : "Ten years ago, nine of the 196 law schools in the United States offered courses in animal law. Today, more than 90 universities do. That’s a huge advance in the outlook for legal protection for animals. In fact, professional interest in the field of animal law is outpacing the demand, at this point."

Read the rest of the article here.

Photo credit: Pat Miller

May Acquisition List

The Law Library acquired many new books during the month of May. Click on the link below to see the newest items in our collection. From this page, you can also find lists of the new books acquired over the last three months.

http://www.okcu.edu/law/lawlib/library_geninfo.php#MonthlyAcquisition

The Best Advice: Listen to Your Lawyers?

According to the ABA Journal Law News Now, in 1995, more than six years before the filing of the infamous gender-based discrimination suit against Wal-Mart, the firm of Akin Gump Strass Hauer & Feld reported that salaried men earned 19 percent more than women. The memo also reportedly made recommendations regarding Wal-Marts hiring practices. Some are questioning whether Wal-Mart could have "avoided the suit altogether" by taking the advice provided in the report.

Law School Graduates Sue National Conference of Bar Examiners for Violation of ADA

Three visually impaired law school graduates, who were allowed to use screen reading software during law school, have sued the NCBE alleging that the NCBE's denial to use computer-based aides on the Multistate Bar Examination is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Earlier this year a graduate of the UCLA School of Law brought a similar suit.

Hat tip to Law Librarians Blog

19th Edition of the Bluebook to Begin Shipping Today

According to legalbluebook.com, shipping of the Nineteenth Edition of the Bluebook has begun:

"We are now accepting orders for the Nineteenth Edition for The Bluebook! We will begin shipping on June 1. Please keep in mind that we will be experiencing a very high volume of orders during this time and all orders will be shipped on a first-come, first served basis..."

If you haven't already ordered the new edition, it is also available from other providers, including Hein. According to Hein's pre-order information, the "new edition retains the same basic approach to legal citation established by its predecessors. The layout has been updated to make information easier to access. Some citation forms have been expanded, elaborated upon, or modifies from Previous editions to reflect the ever-expanding range of authorities used in legal writing and to respond to suggestions from the legal community."

Social Media: Evidence in Investigation

Today, John Pacenti writes on http://www.law.com/ concerning how investigators and lawyers are using social networks like Facebook and MySpace in the courtoom. If profiles are not protected by the proper privacy settings, lawyers are free to reap from those websites as much information as they want. Personal blogs are another important source of information for the questioning of witnesses or the defendent.

Lawyers are also using public social networking information in choosing jurors.

To read the full article, visit http://www.law.com/jsp/lawtechnologynews/PubArticleLTN.jsp?id=1202458756486&Social_Networks_Aid_in_Investigations.

Senators Seek Compensation for Oil Spill

On May 25, democratic senators began encouraging the Department of Justice to seek compensation for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. These senators are looking for both criminal and civil charges against the oil companies involved.

BP and Transocean are the two companies facing the most liability. For more information, visit the full article on the BLT: The Blog of the Legal Times. http//legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2010/05/senators-push-doj-to-pressure-oil-spill-companies.html#more.

O'Connor Critiques State Judicial Elections

Last Friday, the New York Times published a short opinion piece by former Supreme Court justice, Sandra Day O'Connor. In this column, O'Connor expresses her dismay for the partisan election of judges at the state level. Her greatest concern is the power of campaign contributors in judicial elections and the possibility of inhibitted justice.

In contrast, she proposes a merit-based system for the selection of judges that could help states save money and bring talented candidates to the forefront.

For the full article, visit http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/opinion/23oconnor.html.

Hat tip for Karen Kalnins for the referal.

Resources For Summer Research Projects

Are you working on summer research projects? The OCU Law Library is open and available to help you answer reference questions. While you cannot use Westlaw or LexisNexis for work-related projects, below are some resources that you can use.

Fastcase-Scroll down to Fastcase and sign in with your OCU username and password. Once signed in you will have access to statutes, case law, regulations, constitutions, court rules, newspapers, federal filings, and legal forms. Since the Oklahoma Bar Association (OBA) offers this free of charge to members, learning how to use Fastcase now will give you an edge.

Loislaw-Similar to Westlaw and LexisNexis, Loislaw also provides access to case law, statutes, and regulations. Scroll down to Loislaw where you will need to sign in with your OCU username and password to get the Loislaw access code. You will need to use this code when setting up your account.

You can use all of the library databases except for LexisNexis and Westlaw.

OSCN-Freely available to anyone with Internet access, OSCN contains session laws, statutes, and case law.

Summer associate research guide

Another Resource on Supreme Court Nominations

The Library of Congress website is another credible resource for information on Supreme Court Nominees. The website has resources on the last five supreme court nominees. It includes nomination documents, web resources, and bibliographies of the nominees' published works.



Here are the links to these sites.

Find Legal Resources: Supreme Court Nominations.

Find Legal Resources: Elena Kagan.



Hat Tip to Emily Brown and the LISNews (Library and Information Science News).

New UK Prime Minister -- David Cameron

May 11, Gordon Brown stepped down from his position of prime minister allowing David Cameron to become the new prime minister and to form a coalition government.

Cameron enters office on a promise to cut government spending and lessen the budget deficit. He also begins his work without a majority in Parliament. He is currently forming a cabinet in collaboration with the Liberal Democrats. The two parties have already published an agreement that shows the compromises the two parties are willing to make to work together to cut government waste.

For more, see this BBC article. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/election_2010/8676607.stm

For information on UK Legal System, there are several helpful Internet resources.

Update to a Guide to the UK Legal System by Sarah Carter, Law Librarian at the University of Kent at Canterbury.

United Kingdom Law by the Parliamentary Library of the Parliament of Australia.

Law Links by the University of Kent at Canterbury