Image by flickr user expressmonorail

Congratulations to all our 1Ls for completing your first law school exam! If you’re looking for ways to relax this weekend and take your mind off the test, we humbly offer a few suggestions:

1. If you’re still clinging to Halloween, there are still two nights left of Netherworld.

2. For a bit more sophistication, there’s a European wine festival starting at 7 p.m. tonight.

3. Chomp and Stomp, a bluegrass/5K run/chili cookoff event, happens tomorrow in Cabbagetown.

4. A bunch of movies are opening this weekend (natch), including Wreck-It Ralph, Flight, and The Man With the Iron Fists.

5. And speaking of movies, remember to watch V For Vendetta in anticipation of November 5.

And, if all else fails, stay home and relax! You made it!

When you think Halloween, you often think about delicious candy and costumes.  But what about the law?  What impact does Halloween have on the legal profession?

A Buffalo attorney, Daniel B. Moar, wrote an interesting article for the New York State Bar Association Journal on this very topic.  The article, entitled “Case Law From the Crypt,” discusses situations were common Halloween traditions, like haunted houses and provocative costumes, have landed some people in hot water.

Here are just a few of my favorite cases from Moar’s article:

• Haunted House:  “In Mays v. Gretna Athletic Boosters, Inc., the plaintiff was so startled by a haunted house ‘monster’ that she ran straight into a cinder block wall, crushing her nose.  The plaintiff argued that the lack of lighting and darkened wall presented an unreasonably dangerous condition that the defendant owed a duty to protect her from. The court disagreed, noting that the conditions complained of were the very attributes of a haunted house.”
• Provocative Costumes:  “In Devane v. Sears Home Improvement Products, Inc., a female sales employee filed a sexual harassment lawsuit based in part on comments made by a male manager regarding her doctor costume.  Specifically, upon seeing the employee’s costume, the manager unbuckled his pants and while pointing to his groin, said ‘here Doctor. It hurts here.’  The Court of Appeals of Minnesota affirmed the district court’s judgment against the employer for sexual harassment and hostile work environment.”
• Egg Throwing: “Courts have also imposed civil and criminal liability on egg throwers. For example, in one case a married couple made the ill-advised choice to ignore trick-or-treaters that visited their house, with the inevitable result that their house was then pummeled with eggs.  However, the couple identified one of the egg throwers as a neighborhood child (specifically, the child who lived directly next door to them). The child was convicted of felony vandalism and ordered to pay civil restitution.”

For more interesting stories of Halloween intersecting with the law, checkout Moar’s article.

Image by Flickr user mars_discovery_district

In Italy, six researchers and a government official have been convicted of manslaughter in connection with the April 6, 2009 L’Aquila earthquake. Prior to the earthquake, the city had been experiencing 2-3 minor shocks each day for four months. The group was called in to give their assessment of the risk of a possible earthquake, and the reports seemed to suggest the possibility of an earthquake was low. A week later, the city was hit by a 6.9 quake that killed 309 people. The group members now each face 6 years in prison. While citizens of L’Aquila seem to agree with the verdict, the scientific community has expressed wide-spread dismay. The group currently plan to appeal the conviction. [Full story from the BBC]

The library has a number of books on the Italian legal system, as well as access to electronic resources, like the Italian Yearbook of International Law. You can also get a quick primer of Italian law on Foreign Law Guide and Globalex.

Image by Flickr user Ashitakka.

On October 24, 1945, the Charter of the United Nations entered into force, and October 24th has been recognized since 1948 as U.N. Day.  The United Nations celebrates U.N. Day with various activities, including a concert that is broadcast for free on the web. (This year’s featured performer is Stevie Wonder.)

The United Nations is a vast organization which works in numerous areas, including in human rights, children’s rights, international security, international trade, and environmental issues. The U.N. is also diligent about posting its documents online in the U.N. Official Documents System; the ODS contains documents from 1993 to the present, and documents from before 1993 are added daily.

The United Nations is also the home of the largest repository of international treaties in the world. The U.N. Charter requires that member states deposit their treaties with the U.N. Secretariat; the Secretariat, in turn, must publish the treaties it receives. These treaties have been published in the United Nations Treaty Series, which is freely available online in the United Nations Treaty Collection. This collection contains not only the text of treaties deposited with the Secretariat, but also includes such important information as the dates of accession/succession/ratification for each member state and any reservations or declarations made by a signatory country.

The U.N. also has its own folk tales, the most enduring of which may be the story of Nikita Khrushchev banging his shoe on a desk during a U.N. General Assembly meeting in 1960. Which, like many good folk tales, may or may not have actually happened.

by Joe Brock

Image found at: http://www.stmarytx.edu/law/index.php?site=advocacyPrograms#loneStarClassic

I think congratulations are in order for the GSU Student Trial Lawyers Association (STLA) team that placed second at the Lone Star Classic this year. Team members Lauren Smith, Joshua May, Alex Galvan, and Lynette Jimenez did an outstanding job in the competition that featured Baylor, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Cumberland, Denver, Emory, Faulkner, Florida Coastal, Fordham, Houston, Loyola of Los Angeles, Michigan State, South Texas, Stetson, and University of Texas.

As many of you law students have probably noticed, GSU boasts an impressive resume in trial advocacy, which is evidenced by the numerous awards that adorn the entry to our school. The coaches and members of the team Tom Jones, Paige Boorman, Joe Burford, Alison Burleson, Cheryl Champion-White, Rebecca Davis, Rudjard Hayes, Kristen Spires, and faculty advisor Professor Gable put in a great deal of time preparing for the competition. And while the accomplishment is certainly outstanding for the team members we should all be proud because GSU did a great job in front of some outstanding schools, including our in-state competitor, Emory.

So, if you see any of these folks around campus make sure to say congrats. They did a fantastic job representing all of us.

Back in the good ole days, before libraries had computers and fancy online catalogs, librarians  used card catalogs to organize and locate books.  Fast forward to today, and most people have never used one except when they were a small child.  While card catalogs may go the way of the dinosaurs in libraries, they still have a few uses in a home or apartment setting…

Like a mini bar:  http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/an-old-card-catalog-as-a-minib-82087

A bookshelf: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/look-card-catalog-bookshelf-an-78031

Or a kitchen island: http://www.homejelly.com/one-of-a-kind-repurposed-kitchen-islands/

So the next time you think about throwing out that old card catalog, or you see one at a yard sale, remember that there is more to this little jewel than simply organizing books.

Unless you have been under a rock, or working tirelessly on Legal Bibliography assignments, you know that Georgia State Law is in the process of planning for a new building.  The Law Library will make up a significant portion of that new building.  The chance to design a new building does not happen often, so of course everyone had their “wants” as well as their “needs.”  To signal the end of Law Library week, here are a few items that some of the law librarians thought would be a good addition to the Law Library if they had it their way.  Keep in mind, many of these are over the top and inspired in part by Cornell Law Library’s Squash Court.

Nancy Johnson, Associate Dean for Library and Information Services and Professor of Law

Windows, terraces, and views!  Lucky for us, we will have all of these great features in the new Law Library.

Trina Holloway, Acquisitions/Serials Librarian

Because law school can be stressful, how about a hot tub and Legoland.

Austin Williams, Reference/Student Services Librarian

Who needs a squash court when you can have an indoor soccer field.  Anyone can have a coffee shop in the library, but nothing hits the spot after a long study session like some Bojangles’ Famous Chicken ‘n Biscuits.

Terrance Manion, Director of Information Technology and Librarian

How about a library hawk? Better yet, Supreme Court bobbleheads and  a pair of 300-thousand year old wooly mammoth tusks.

By Lindsay Anglin

Would you like to see Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New York State Bar Association Application? Or read John F. Kennedy’s national security files from the Cuban Missile Crisis? Or see menus from White House dinners during Bill Clinton’s presidency? Or read about the three-and-a-half tons of Jelly Bellies that were shipped to the White House for Ronald Reagan’s 1981 Inaugural festivities? Or read the condolence mail President George W. Bush received following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks? Then explore the Presidential Libraries!

The Office of Presidential Libraries coordinates a nationwide network of thirteen Presidential Libraries, each housing the papers, records, and other historic materials of U.S. Presidents. These libraries are great sources for researchers studying our presidents and our nation’s history. Since President Herbert Hoover, these libraries have been archiving presidential documents, media, and electronic materials to preserve the evidence of the Presidency for future generations.

Presidential libraries are both archives and museums, bringing together documents and artifacts of the President and his administration and displaying them in exhibits to millions of visitors each year. The libraries preserve not only official presidential records and documents, but also personal papers of Presidential family members, associates, and friends and audio and visual collections. If you cannot visit the libraries in person, each Presidential library has an electronic database to make researching more accessible.

Visit the Presidential libraries online:

• Herbert Hoover Library
• Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
• Harry S. Truman Library
• Dwight D. Eisenhower Library
• John F. Kennedy Library
• Lyndon B. Johnson Library
• Richard Nixon Library
• Gerald R. Ford Library
• Jimmy Carter Library
• Ronald Reagan Library
• George H. W. Bush Library
• William J. Clinton Library
• George W. Bush Library

Image by flickr user gbaku.

It’s fall TV season, and there’s a crop of new shows vying for your attention. There’s even another new show about a lawyer, Made in Jersey, on CBS. But what if the new shows all leave you feeling kind of flat? What do you do then?

Well, we’re here to help you out with that. In addition to the shows you’d expect us to have (Law & Order, Matlock, and Perry Mason, mainly), we also have full-season sets of shows you may not have expected from us – or even heard of. Try one of these out:

• Drop Dead Diva – A model dies and winds up in the body of a plus-size attorney. And it turns out she’s pretty good – and funny.
• Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law – Fred Flintstone on trial for racketeering? Boo Boo Bear accused of being the UnaBooBoo? Harvey Birdman is who cartoon characters turn to when they need legal representation.
• Arrest & Trial – Before there was Law & Order, there was Arrest & Trial. Same concept, but with a couple of twists: it takes place in L.A., and the “Order” part of the show focuses on the defense attorneys.
• House – Yes, that House. In case you’re missing now that it’s off the air, we have it.
• The Guardian – Before he was The Mentalist, Simon Baker was  The Guardian, a corporate attorney who works part time as a child advocate. A rare show that features children and family law issues.
• Eli Stone – Jonny Lee Miller (now on Elementary as Sherlock Holmes) is Eli Stone, an attorney who has visions – or hallucinations, depending on who you ask.

All of these, and more, are available in our Leisure Collection!

By Mark Edwards

Have you ever wanted to do something just because someone told you that it was not allowed?  Well now it is your time to read a book that is currently on the banned book list.  (See below).     Banned Books Week celebrates its 30^th anniversary this year.

The purpose of the event is to celebrate the freedom of information and expression of ideas.  Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community – librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types – in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.

The movement was started 30 years ago by the American Libraries Association (hereinafter “ALA”) in response to a closely divided Supreme Court in which it was held that the First Amendment limits the power of local school boards to remove library books from junior high schools and high schools. (457 U.S. 853).  The ALA provides a timeline of the movement – Click here.

The Top Ten Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2011 include the following titles; each title is followed by the reasons given for challenging the book: 

1)      ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
Offensive language; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

2)      The Color of Earth (series), by Kim Dong Hwa
Nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

3)      The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins
Anti-ethnic; anti-family; insensitivity; offensive language; occult/satanic; violence

4)      My Mom’s Having A Baby! A Kid’s Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler
Nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

5)      The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Offensive language; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

6)      Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Nudity; offensive language; religious viewpoint

7)      Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Insensitivity; nudity; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit

8)      What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
Nudity; offensive language; sexually explicit

9)      Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily Von Ziegesar
Drugs; offensive language; sexually explicit

10)  To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Offensive language; racism