Due Process: The Georgetown Law Library Blog - News for Students

Georgetown University Law Library Holds the Second Screening in the Law at the Movies Series

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:58:00 -0500

The Friends of the Georgetown Law Library invite you to the second screening in the Library's Law at the Movies series.

Film: Breaker Morant
Date: Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009
Time: 6:00 P.M.
Location: Hart Auditorium

Breaker Morant is an Australian film based upon a true story of a British court-martial of two Australian soldiers accused of a war-crime killing, authorized by their commanders. Join us for this examination of military and criminal law as well as the independence of the military legal system.

After the screening we will lead a discussion about the ethical and cultural issues in the film. The panel will include:

Michael Frisch, Georgetown Law's Ethics Counsel and Adjunct Faculty;
Naomi Mezey, Georgetown Law Faculty;
Kumar Jayasuriya, Associate Law Librarian for Patron Services;
Marylin Raisch, Associate Law Librarian for International and Foreign Law.

The next film in our series will be My Cousin Vinny on December 2 at 6:00.

To learn more about the Friends of the Georgetown Law Library and to consider becoming a member, please look at the Friends Website.

An Online Review of Legal Scholarship

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:33:41 -0500

Feeling overwhelmed by the plethora of legal articles and treatises to read, take a look at Jotwell.com (The Journal of Things We Like (Lots)). This brand new electronic publication, sponsored by the University of Miami School of Law, provides brief reviews of recent legal scholarship that the academic and practicing attorney-reviewers find worthy of greater dissemination. The site hopes to "celebrate works that make an original contribution" to legal scholarship.

The major areas of law currently featured include:

Administrative Law
Constitutional Law
Corporate Law
Criminal Law
Cyberlaw
Intellectual Property Law
Legal Profession
Tax Law

The Leadership Library on the Internet replaces the Yellow Books

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:47:00 -0500

Members of the Georgetown law community who used to rely on the print Yellow Books for detailed directory information should now try the dynamic electronic resource which replaced them called the Leadership Library on the Internet. Whether you're searching for a job, preparing for an interview, networking with alumni of your alma mater or tracking down subject specialists, the Leadership Library can provide you with brief biographies of attorneys, judges and corporate executives, as well as federal, state and municipal government employees, association executives and members of the news media.

Researchers can use the Leadership Library to "Find a Person", "Find an Organization" or search by keyword. Individual entries provide the best contact information, often including e-mail addresses, as well as career and educational history.

Feel free to stop by the Reference Desk if you have any questions about this invaluable resource.

Use CALI Lessons to Review Class Material and Test Your Knowledge

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:33:00 -0500

With the semester in full swing, are you in need of extra help in understanding some of the legal issues discussed in your courses? Would you like to test what you've learned before exam season approaches? Then you should take advantage of CALI Lessons. The majority of the lessons have been written by law professors and are designed to take less than an hour. Students may browse lessons by topic, author, casebook, or by those recently added.

Some of the most popular CALI Lessons for 1Ls are:

Some of the most popular CALI Lessons for all students are:

To access CALI lessons over the web, you must create a CALI.org account using your school's institutional authorization code. Please email the Reference Desk for Georgetown Law's code.

New Maroonbook (Chicago Manual of Legal Citation) now available

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:18:00 -0500

The 20th anniversary edition of the University of Chicago Manual of Legal Citation, a competitor to the Bluebook, is now available for free online.

Federal Court Rules Research Guide updated

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:46:00 -0500

Our Federal Court Rules Research Guide has just been updated. The guide describes resources for finding both common (e.g., Federal Rules of Civil Procedure) and obscure (e.g., Rules of the Courts of Military Criminal Appeals) federal court rules. It also briefly explains the rule-creation process and describes sources for researching the legislative history of the rules. Finally, it recommends secondary sources that help with rule interpretation and practice.

Jury Verdicts and Jury Instructions Research Guide updated

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:59:34 -0500

Legal researchers cannot rely on regular case reporters to locate jury verdicts and settlement decisions. However, a number of specialty publications exist which do report jury verdicts and the library's updated research guide outlines some of the resources available in the library and online through our database providers.

The guide also includes direct links to the model jury instructions available for the federal circuits and access to the American Bar Association's publications on topical jury instructions.

One new feature of the revised guide is the link to resources which research jury decision making and the jury process, such as the American Judicature Society's Jury Center and the National Center for State Courts Jury InfoCenter.

Guide to the Bluebook

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:48:00 -0500

For those of you who are struggling with the rules of legal citation, the Law Library maintains a quick reference guide to the Bluebook. The guide includes an introduction to the Bluebook and its structure, as well as explanations of how to cite the most common legal materials, including cases, statutes and treatises. These explanations include references to the applicable Bluebook rules, to help you navigate this often confusing citation manual.

Law Library Sponsors Inaugural Law at the Movies Screening Thursday Oct. 1 at 6:00

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:11:00 -0500

Law at the Movies
Hart Auditorium
Thursday, October 1 @ 6:00 pm

The Friends of the Georgetown University Law Library invites you to join Georgetown Law Professors Naomi Mezey and Randy Barnett as they introduce and discuss The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

In this film classic Jimmy Stewart is the big-city lawyer determined to bring the rule of law to the untamed West. John Wayne, Lee Marvin, and Vera Miles also star.

This is the inaugural event in the Law Library’s series of popular feature films that illustrate legal themes. Each screening will start with a discussion led by members of the Georgetown Law Faculty. Future events will include movies like Anatomy of a Murder, A Few Good Men, and many more.

Help Us Help You, With Better Research Skills for the Workplace

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:06:00 -0500

The law library is organizing a focus group of law students to help us better understand your research experiences in your summer positions. Our interest is in both your research successes and your research failures, as your feedback will help us better tailor our offerings in legal research instruction to reflect your real-world research experiences in the workplace.
The session will be held on Monday, Oct. 5, at 12:00 noon, in Rm. 320 of Williams Library.
Lunch will be provided.
To participate, sign up at: http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/students/signupfg.cfm.

New Congressional Investigations Research Guide

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:16:00 -0500

The law library has created a new guide to researching Congressional investigations. The guide provides guidance on how to find relevant primary source documents, such as Congressional hearing transcripts, as well as case law dealing with the authority of Congress to conduct investigations. We have also listed some valuable secondary sources to help you get started on your research.

Spring 2009 Law Library Survey Response; or What The Library Did This Summer

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:49:00 -0500

During the Spring 2009 semester, the Law Library conducted a survey asking students to comment on various aspects of the library. 573 students completed the survey, providing more than 1,300 separate responses. We thank everybody who completed the survey. We read every comment.

In May, the library published initial findings from the survey, focusing on qualitive responses.

Based upon student comments, the library used the Summer break to make several improvements so that the buildings, equipment,, and services better meet student current usage and needs.

Highlights from the survey responses are:

The purchase of new chairs for the Reading Room;
The instalation of three new free self-serve digital scanners;
The move of the Wolff reference desk to a new location;
The implementation of changes to the library's catalog, GULLiver, which will make it easier to locate library materials;
The creation of a new online system for students to remotely reserve group study rooms.

The library has posted a page with the most frequent comments from the Spring Student Survey alongside library responses.

We greatly appreciate student input. Please feel free to continue this dialog through our Law Library Feedback Blog, a place where we post answers to your student questions. You can send us your comments through our suggestion page, linked from the library's home page. The library will use the Feedback Blog to respond.

A Window on the World of Law Firms

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:41:54 -0500

Fee Fie Foe Firm is a new law firm search engine that promises to be the most comprehensive of its kind. It monitors the websites of U.S. law firms and provides access to firm profiles, media releases, client seminars, case notes and other legal analysis, as well as newsletters, bulletins and legal publications.

Instead of using Google to track a specific lawyer or law firm, try running a search in Fee Fie Foe Firm to retrieve a more targeted list of results. This could be especially useful for job searching and interview preparations.

1L Case Research Training

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:05:00 -0500

Librarians will conduct training on how to search for cases on Lexis and Westlaw from September 17 through 28 for some legal writing classes. The schedule and sign-up system is available online. Please direct any questions to libref@law.georgetown.edu.

All of the classes will be held in the CLC (in the Williams Library Reading Room) and last for about 50 minutes.

Library Training for Faculty Research Assistants

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:43:00 -0500

The Library will be holding three RA orientation training sessions. In the orientation, RAs will learn about library services and policies and will gain an introduction to our databases and to best research practices.

The sessions will be:

Friday September 25, 2009 from 11 am to noon
Friday September 25, 2009 from 4-5 pm
Friday October 2, 2009 from 11 am to noon

All sessions will be held in EB Williams Room 320

Please RSVP to Thanh Nguyen (nguyent2@law.georgetown.edu) with which session you plan to attend.