Vincent G. Rinn Law Library

DOJ Inspector General Testifies Re: Political & Ideological Discrimination in Hiring

From the statement of Glenn A. Fine, Inspector General, U.S. Department of Justice before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary Hearing concerning “Politicized Hiring at the Department of Justice,” July 30, 2008 :

The first report, issued on June 24, 2008, examined hiring practices in the Department’s Honors Program and Summer Law Intern Program (SLIP). In that report, we determined that Screening Committees used by the Department  to screen applications for the Honors and Summer Law Internship Programs  inappropriately used political or ideological affiliations to “deselect” candidates in 2006 and in 2002. ...

"In sum, we concluded that many qualified candidates were deselected by  the Screening Committee in 2006 because of their perceived political or ideological affiliations. We concluded that McDonald’s and Elston’s actions constituted misconduct and violated Department policy and federal law that prohibits discrimination in hiring for career positions based on political or  ideological affiliations." ...

"At the Department component level, we found that the processes individual components used from 2002 through 2006 for proposing candidates to the Screening Committee appeared to be merit based."

 

"This week, on July 28, we issued a second joint report that examined the actions of Monica Goodling, the Department’s former White House Liaison, and other staff in the Attorney General’s office regarding allegations that they inappropriately used political or ideological affiliations in the hiring process for career Department positions." ...

"Based on our investigation, we concluded that Goodling violated federal law and Department policy, and committed misconduct, by improperly considering political or ideological affiliations in screening candidates for certain career positions at the Department. ...

"We found that the most systematic use of improper political or ideological affiliations in screening candidates for career positions occurred in the selection of immigration judges, who are career employees who work in the Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR)."

EPA Union Negotiates Agreement Over Re-opening EPA Libraries

As reported in a previous blog posting, "What Part Of ‘Restore’ Doesn’t EPA Understand ?, Congress has mandated and provided funds for the restoration of the EPA libraries that had been closed by the EPA administrators. But from the response of the EPA, it was unclear whether the congressional mandate would actually be followed. Earlier this month, one of the key campaigners for the re-openings, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), achieved a measure of leverage over the process, by successfully negotiating a Memorandum of Agreement with the EPA administration.

This outcome only came about after a two-year struggle to get the EPA to bargain in good faith under provisions of the Master Collective Bargaining Agreement to negotiate with AFGE on any library network reorganization.  AFGE had to file an unfair labor practice charge to force the EPA to even participate in selecting an arbitrator. The favoral ruling for AFGE, has finally lead to a negotiated agreement.

"Steve Roy, Executive Vice President for AFGE Council 238 and Chief Negotiator for the Council commented that “One of the great features of this agreement is the establishment of a Union / Management Advisory Board." Roy hopes that the EPA Office of Environmental Information will continue to work collaboratively with the Council to monitor and improve EPA Libraries."

However, with the EPA disclosing only some its plans for the re-openings, "...AFGE Council 238 has asked Congress to oversee the adequateness of "...space and resources..." proposed by the Agency for each reopened library."

Sources:

News release from AFGE, "AFGE Council 238 Reaches Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on EPA Libraries"

Chronology included in e-mail posted to GovDoc-L  (Discussion of Government Document Issues)

Background on the International Criminal Court, If You Missed the ICC Conference

On Friday, April 25, 2008, IHRLI ( International Human Rights Law Institute) hosted the "Midwest Regional Conference on International Justice: The International Criminal Court 10 Years After The Rome Conference".

   The event looked at the achievements in creating and building the Court but also examined the challenges still facing it's future development. Distinguished speakers included persons from the Court, current and former U.S. government officials, NGO representatives and academics. DePaul's  law Professor Cherif Bassiouni who was the Chairman of the Drafting Committee that lead to the establishment of the ICC in 1998, gave the keynote address  to 300 guests at the conference luncheon.

For those of you with an interest in the ICC and its work but who were unable to attend this landmark event, here are four recommended sources to provide historical background and also some personal experiences of working with the Court .

1) A podcast of a talk with Cherif Bassiouni, Professor of Law and President of the International Human Rights Law Institute at DePaul University’s College of Law,on the WBEZ, Worldview  program on 4/23/2008.

2) A podcast of a talk with David Scheffer , Professor of Law and Director of the Center for International Human Rights at Northwestern University's School of Law, on  the WBEZ, Worldview  program on 4/23/2008.  He was U.S. Ambassador-at-Large to the United Nations for War Crimes Issues at the time of the Rome Conference.

3) From Modesto to The Hague By Donald E. Shaver
California Courts Review • Summer 2006, p.13 -15

Donald E. Shaver was a judge with the Superior Court of Stanislaus County, California  for 16 years. In this article he describes his sabbatical working for the ICC in 2006. In addtion to his personal experience, Judge Shaver describes some of the historical milestones preceding the formation of ICC.

4) Developing a System of Justice at the International Criminal Court
By Joshua Weinstein,  California Courts Review  Fall 2007 - Winter 2008, p.24 -27

Joshua Weinstein is a senior appellate court attorney for the Court of Appeal, First Appellate District of California who spent two and a half months at the ICC. His article points out the hybrid nature of the court, part common law (adversarial) system and part civil law ( inquisitorial) system and the "tension in trying to meld those two contradictory systems". He also raises questions about the accountability of the Court.

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Library staff member, Dan Ursini, who  attended the conference will have an article with some his reflections in the upcoming Rinn Law Library Newsletter in early September 2008.

New Online Government Resource Available To DePaul Users

The Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS) has been providing free automatic access to the Homeland Security Digital Library (HSDL), for all federal, state, and local government agencies, research institutions, and U.S. military instillations. Recently the Government Printing Office (GPO) and the Naval Postgraduate School announced their partnership to provide for  access to the Homeland Security Digital Library to all Federal depository libraries. GPO is the parent agency of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). The DePaul Rinn Law Library is a member of this program. Through GPO, the Rinn library has requested and received access to this valuable collection which will also be available to the users of the other DePaul libraries.

HSDL is a database of over 50,000 non-classified Presidential directives, policy and national strategy documents as well as specialized resources related to Homeland Security. The library offers a collection of over 45,000 homeland security-related policy and strategy documents to include:

•    Presidential directives, executive orders, and key U.S. policy documents
•    Homeland Security related reports from federal, state, and local agencies from around the globe
•    Homeland Security related theses and research reports
•    Featured documents on terrorism, public health, school violence, emergency response,border security, and more            
•    Quick links to state homeland security offices

DePaul users can access the Homeland Security Digital Library (HSDL) by clicking on the link for the that resource, which can be found on either the Law Library database list or the General Library's database list.

Fugitive From War Crimes Tribunal Arrested in Belgrade After 13-year Manhunt

A previous blog posting described the contribution of law Professor Cherif Bassiouni  and the DePaul International Human Rights Law Institute to the initial work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at the Hague (ICTFY). Yesterday, a key indicted defendant of this tribunal, RADOVAN KARADŽIĆ, was finally captured  after 13 years, apparently living a double life in Serbia as a practioner of alternative medicine. ( See stories : "Alleged War Criminal Hid in Plain Sight, as Well-Known New-Age Doc", abajournal.com  and "Serbia plans to extradite Karadzic to face trial for war crimes", Jurist legal news )

The press release from the tribunal states:

"The Tribunal confirms that it has been advised today of the arrest by Serb authorities of the former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic. The Tribunal welcomes the arrest and looks forward to Karadzic's prompt transfer to the Tribunal in The Hague in order to stand trial.

Aware of the serious charges brought against him by the prosecution, the Tribunal is mindful that Karadzic enjoys the presumption of innocence and is committed to do all within its competences to ensure a fair and public trial in accordance with the highest standards of international law.

This arrest may be considered another milestone in the development of international law and further fulfillment of the Tribunal's mandate to bring to justice the most senior persons alleged to be most responsible for war crimes in the Yugoslav conflicts."

An overview of the case can be found on the Tribunal’s website

The Missing Lawyering Skill - Legal Research

Law professor and law library director, Richard Leiter, has an article in the current AALL Spectrum magazine, entitled "The Missing Lawyering Skill - New book on legal education demonstrates the lack of attention paid to legal research training". Mr. Leiter, uses the Carnegie Foundations' book, "Educating Lawyers", to draw some important lessons about the role of legal research in the system of legal education in the U.S. He describes the well-supported critique of legal education that "... modern legal education places too much emphasis on teaching analysis and not enough on teaching skills..." While the importance of clinical experiences and the development of skills such as writng, negotiating and counseling are highlighted. There is barely a mention of what Mr. Leiter also considers a basic lawyering skill, legal research.

He posits some reasons why this may so. The book authors characterize legal research in the 1870's as almost happening automatically.“Students taught from Langdell’s case books were being introduced by their professors to legal research, much as a laboratory or seminar professor in the arts and sciences of those days would have led students to grasp the principles organizing the particular domain.” So something so easily absorbed, almost by osmosis, did not  seem to require much specific attention.

But the legal system and legal publishing have undergone a huge transformation since Langdell's casebook. As Mr. Leiter says, " The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw the industrialization of legal publishing...", "the explosion of New Deal policies and regulation, the eventual rise of administrative law," which  meant ,"the process of legal research moved from being simply finding and reading cases and treatises to knowing where to read about what and when." He argues that the "perception of conducting the research hasn't kept up with reality".

According to Mr. Leiter, some of the fault for this situation lies with the law librarians themselves who he says have been very poor advocates for their own role in teaching legal research skills. He makes several recommendations to equip law librarians to take a more active role in this broader process of re-evaluating our legal educational system.

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Richard Leiter has been director of the law library and professor at the University of Nebraska College of Law since 2000. He earned his J.D. degree in 1981 from Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles, where he was an editor of the law review. In 1986 he received a M.L.I.S. ( Masters Library Information Science) degree from University of Texas at Austin. He is also the author of several books and many articles about law librarianship, legal research and information technology.

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HeinOnline User Support Now Includes YouTube Channel

HeinOnline has developed multiple types of user support for subscribers to their products. The HeinOnline Weblog at www.heinonline.blogspot.com has relevant news, information about enhancements, content releases, tips, tricks and much more. Check out the HeinOnline Main Page on their wiki for a quick description of their offerings such as Training Guides, Collection Specific Help Pages , Frequently Asked Questions, Training Videos.

Training videos can be accessed from the "HeinOnline:Videos", wiki page and since April, also on HeinOnline's own  You Tube Channel. 

So if you can use some help with a search or additional information to take full advantage of the growing number of Hein Online products, be sure to explore the sites mentioned above.

Selected May 2008 Law Library Acquisitions

      

      

 

         
   

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For the full list of May 2008 acquisitions, broken down by subject, Click Here                                 

Harvard Law Makes Scholarly Articles "Open Access"

"The Harvard University Law School  (HLS) faculty last month followed the lead of their colleagues in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) ( See previous blog post " Harvard Faculty To Make Articles Open Access") by voting unanimously to make their scholarly articles available online for free, making HLS the first law school to commit to a “mandatory open access policy” via an institutional repository."

( Source: SPARC Highlights Open Access,By Andrew Albanese, Library Journal, 6/15/2008 )

From the Harvard Law School News of May 7, 2008 :

"Under the new policy, HLS will make articles authored by faculty members available in an online repository, whose contents would be searchable and available to other services such as Google Scholar. Authors can also legally distribute the articles on their own websites, and educators here and elsewhere can freely provide the articles to students, so long as the materials are not used for profit."

"This exciting development is something in which the whole Harvard Law School community can take great pride," said John Palfrey '01, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and newly appointed vice dean of library and information resources."

Harry Potter and the Law ??

The AALL ( American Association of Law Libraries) conference to be held next week in Portland,Oregon has many sessions on such issues as information technology, library management, research services and government  documents. But along with these more serious issues there will be some programs on less weighty matters. One such program is entitled "Harry Potter and the Law". The moderator for this program, Joel Fishman, from Duquesne Allegheny County Law Librirary, has co-athored a law review article in the Texas Wesleyan Law Review with the same title.

The introduction states, "This collection of essays about the law and Harry Potter explores the intersections between law, culture and the Harry Potter stories".  While being a creative and speculative collection, it can still serve to show, "...the limitations of law and legal institutions as depicted in the Harry Potter narratives". In some of the essays the author , "...uses the narratives to explore the roles of excuse and justification in their relationship with legal authority and rule of law", and "that in spite of legal and institutional limitations, the wizarding world allows for individual moral choice, which is a recognition of the importance of individual liberty". So weightier matters do get addressed by this seemingly fanciful collection.

However, the  great publicity about  the legal case over the publication of a portion of the online fan site known as the Harry Potter Lexicon , pitting Warner Bros and author J.K. Rowling against RDR Books and  Vander Ark, the originator of the Lexicon  before  Manhattan federal judge Robert Patterson, will probably be the primary basis for disscusion at the conference program. It will probably be a case where real-life copyright issues overtake those related to  Harry and the Ministry of Magic.

You be the judge ! Check out the legal arguments (courtesy of Justia.com) and decide who should be sent to Azkaban !

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. et al v. RDR Books et al
Plaintiff's Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law

Defendant's RDR Books' Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law