Florida State Law RC Tech News

Hurricane Katrina Litigation

On October 17, 2005, Maples & Kirwan filed suit on behalf of Rocco and Thomas Tommaseo  (1:05-cv-01119-SGB) in the Federal Court of Claims against the United States, alleging that the Army Corps of Engineers' creation of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet was a "taking" for which compensation should be given to owners of real property flooded by Hurricane Katrina.  The Washington Post has excerpted some of the counts in the complaint in Verbatim.  The complaint is not available through PACER.

Posted by Mary McCormick

New Tutorial for International Legal Research

Students of international law wanting to develop their legal research skills will want to visit International Legal Research Tutorial, a new online tutorial developed by two law librarians from University of California, Berkeley and Duke University.

"This tutorial is designed to teach students research strategies and methodology for researching both print and electronic sources of international legal materials. The tutorial includes review questions and a final review to give students an understanding of how these materials are organized, and to teach them how to locate international legal documents such as treaties, agreements and the documentation of international organizations."

Posted by Margaret Clark

Illegal Beings

One day human cloning may be possible, and once so, there will be no way of stopping this technology. People--infertile couples and others--will choose to use cloning even if it breaks the law.

The Island, a provocative movie that makes an intelligent attempt to tackle the weighty moral questions of human cloning, provides an interesting aspect to consider: Human clones will most likely be seen as "subhuman and possibly unworthy of existence."

Will anti-cloning laws reinforce stereotypes and further stigmatize human clones? Can the same reasoning that was used to invalidate racial segregation be valid here?

For a fresh perspective on this controversial subject, take a look at a recent law library acquisition: Illegal Beings.

Posted by Toni Urquhart

Lawyers in Blogland

Florida lawyers are joining the blogging bandwagon, and they're finding that it enhances their work.  See Lawyers in Blogland in The Florida Bar News October 15, 2005 issue.

Posted by Faye Jones

Genetic Privacy

In 2003 Iceland's Supreme Court ruled in a controversial case that had to do with the development of a genealogical database of the Icelandic population, a genetic database of DNA sequence and other information produced from blood samples and most importantly the development of a database containing the medical records of every Icelander living or dead.  The Health Database Ace of 1998 was challenged in court by someone who did not want her father's medical records in the database.   The Court ruled that she could not opt out of the database but could prevent the transfer of records because it would be possible to infer information about her from her father's hereditary characteristics. Read the Opinion:  Iceland Supreme Court  Decision
Also a Google search will produce many hits on this topic.

Posted by Jon Lutz

MS Word Help

For help with Microsoft Word, there is an online guide here.  The guide covers basic word features such as: setting margins, adding bullets, modifying autocorrect settings, adding symbols, adding a watermark, adding pagination including x of y numbering, footnotes and more. It also covers some advanced features such as: the pleading wizard, creating a table of contents and creating a table of authorities.

Posted by Jon Lutz

Publishers sue Google

A group of publishers sued Google yesterday, alleging that Google's Print Library Project violates federal copyright law.

Posted by Mary McCormick

New Bankruptcy Law

The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 takes effect today.  There is a great deal of information about this act, including a redline summary showing changes from the previous law (here) as well as other bankruptcy news, at the website of the American Bankruptcy Institute.

Posted by Robin Gault

Child Offenders Sentenced to Life

A new report published jointly this week by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch finds that 2.225 child offenders have been tried as adults and sentenced to life in prison. The report, The Rest of Their Lives: Life without Parole for Child Offenders in the United States can be found here.

Posted by Margaret Clark

Leak of Identity of CIA Operative Valerie Plame

Federal Prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, is in the final stage of his investigation into the outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame. The grand jury will be ending its session on October 28th. To access documents and reports related to this case, go to the Findlaw web site.

Posted by Margaret Clark

more on Healthcare Whistleblowing and Ethics

An interesting article online here, discussing healthcare whistleblowing and virtue ethics.
Practical virtue ethics:  health care whistleblowing and portable digital technology
    From the Abstract:  The authors examine whether healthcare whistleblowing should be considered central to any medical ethics emphasising professional virtues and conscience. They consider possible causes for the paucity of professional or academic interest in this area and examine the counterinfluence of a continuing historical tradition of guild mentality professionalism that routinely places relationships with colleagues ahead of patient safety. Journal of Medical Ethics 2005;31:612-618

Posted by Jon Lutz

RSS

Really Simple Syndication
RSS is a format for syndicating news or any other content that can be broken into discreet parts.  Many news sites or other content sites provide an RSS feed.  The RSS feed will 'push' content to the user, and the user can subscribe to many RSS feeds.  To access the RSS feed you will need an RSS reader.  The user of an RSS reader will have access to that content without the need of going to multiple sites. 

Two brief examples of many available:  The Litigation Section of the American Bar Association has an RSS feed available  here and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission News is available via RSS here. 

To receive RSS feeds you must first download an RSS reader.  There are many available, some for a fee and some free.  One that I've used is Awasu and available is here.  Installation instructions are available here.  Once you've installed the RSS reader, web pages that have an RSS feed such as the examples above usually have a small rectangular orange box labeled 'XML'.  There are variations, sometimes it might be labeled 'RSS' or 'Subscribe'.  Click on that box to subscribe to the RSS feed.  You can see a librarian for more assistance. 

Posted by Jon Lutz

"Intelligent Design" in Public Schools

In December 2004 eleven parents filed suit against the Dover (Pennsylvania) Area School Board in federal district court after the school board established a policy that biology teachers must read a statement about Intelligent Design at the beginning of the unit on evolution.  The trial, Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School Board, is going on now.  For more information, see the website of the National Center for Science Education (which opposes the teaching of Intelligent Design) and the Discovery Institute (a proponent of Intelligent Design).

Posted by Robin Gault

Trial of Saddam Hussein

The trial of Saddam Hussein will begin on October 19, 2005. The Frederick K. Cox International Law Center at Case Western Reserve University School of Law has launched 'Grotian Moment: The Saddam Hussein Trial Blog'.  The blog features key documents, expert commentary and breaking news.

posted by Anne Bardolph

Is There Life After Rankings?

An article in Atlantic Monthly explores the ranking system of American institutions of higher learning, with a focus on the U.S. News and World Report's ranking system.
Atlantic Monthly November 2005

Posted by Jon Lutz

Freakonomics

"Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool?  What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers  have in common?  Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? What kind of impact did Roe v. Wade have on violent crime?  These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask.  But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist."  The  Law Library owns this title as does Strozier, but both libraries have wait lists.  Purchase your copy at Amazon.

Posted by Trisha Simonds

TCNY: Not a Matter of Settled Law

The New Yorker has released its entire archives in an eight-DVD set. Every article and cartoon that the magazine has published in the last 80 years--this is material covering over 4,000 issues--has been condensed into this one volume. (Here's a demo.)

According to Boston Globe columnist, Alex Beam, this significant resource presents an interesting copyright question: What gives them the right to publish this? Have New Yorker contributors such as William Maxwell and John Updike "signed over their electronic rights to the Tilley gang?" He further asks, "...does the ghost of Rachel Carson have a cause of action?"

General counsel for the magazine, Edward Klaris, explains "that The New Yorker can publish the DVDs because of a Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision in March involving National Geographic, which put out a digital version of the 'Complete National Geographic' in 1997."

Beam has discovered that the copyright question is, "as our friend John Roberts might say ... not a matter of settled law."

For now, keep in mind "the lawyer's motto: Every proposition is arguable."

Posted by Toni Urquhart

FSU Classical Music

FSU's Warren D. Allen Music Library has a campus-wide classical music subscription.  It is not, alas, yet available via off-campus access. 

Posted by Mary McCormick

State of the World's Mothers 2005

Mothers are the first teachers of the next generation, yet in many developing countries there are barriers to the education of the young girls who will become those mothers.  Poverty, cultural norms and religious customs can discourage girls from learning the role education can play in breaking the cycles of poverty, malnutrition and disease.  "Save the Children,"  one of the world's premier humanitarian organizations, has issued the 6th annual "State of the World's Mothers,"  a report that this year focuses on "The Power and Promise of Girls' Education."  For an overview of the report, see http://www.savethechildren.org/news/releases/release_050305.asp?stationpub=i_hpos_050305&ArticleID=&NewsID=  From there you can follow further links to download the entire report, and find out more about "Save the Children's" global education programs.

Posted by Patricia Bingham-Harper

Baseball - spectator injuries - limited duty rule

The New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled that while a baseball fan assumes a risk of injury, “[o]nce the fan has disengaged him--or herself from the activity on the field and has left the stands, that individual is no longer trying to catch foul balls or even necessarily watching the game. It is all "harmless fun-- until that one foul ball comes screaming at the wrong time and in the wrong place." (citing Gil Fried, Baseball Spectators' Assumption of Risk: Is It 'Fair' or 'Foul'?, 13 Marq. Sports L. Rev. 39, 57 (2003).) Held: "...the limited duty rule, which restricts the tort liability of owners, applies in situations where an injury occurs in the stands. However, public policy and fairness require application of traditional negligence principles in all other areas of the stadium, including, but not limited to, concourses and mezzanine areas." Maisonave v. Newark Bears Professional Baseball Club, Inc., 2005 WL 2205663 (N.J. Sept. 13, 2005).

Posted by Mary McCormick