Articles Posted in News from Organizations

Global Climate Change and U.S. Law Michael B. Gerrard, editor

“This is a spectacular book. Offering both impressive breadth and depth in its description and analysis, Global Climate Change and U.S. Law provides the legal community with an extraordinarily useful tool for understanding the wide ranging ways that current and quickly emerging laws address what promises to be the nation’s greatest environmental challenge. Wholly accessible to those not themselves expert in environmental law, any lawyer or policymaker seriously interested in the global climate change should have a copy.”

Richard Lazarus Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center

The John Marshall Award was established to honor those dedicated to the improvement of the administration of justice. The 8th annual Award will be presented at the 2008 ABA Annual Meeting in New York, NY.

For additional information on the Award and how to make a nomination, please visit the Award homepage at http://www.abanet.org/justicecenter/johnmarshall.html.

The deadline for all nominations is March 14, 2008.

We received the following letter from William H. Neukom President of the American Bar Association on December 3, 2007 and are forwarding it for your consideration:

Dear Fellow Lawyer,

Each day, evidence mounts that pressure brought by Americans and people of other nations is forcing Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf to soften his assault on the rule of law. But he has failed to address some of his most destructive actions.

On October 18, 2007 a coalition of major media and technology companies released a set of guidelines designed to halt online piracy. Media companies involved include CBS, NewsCorp, Fox Enertainment Group, NBC Universal, Viacom Disney, and MySpace. Google was notable absent from the list. A You Tube spokesperson who asked not to be named said that Google had talked to Disney and You Tube about the guidelines but decided not to join the group out of concdrn that ‘ “industry-wide mandates would stifle innovation’ “. I

In a posting on LEXOLOGY by four attorneys from Arent Fox LLP “…The joint collaboration aims to eliminate infringing content on services providing user-uploaded and user-generated audio and video content (UGC) services, encourage uploads of wholly original and authorized user-generated content, and accommodate fair use of copyrighted content, and protect user privacy interests.” It is interesting to note that many of the concerns reflected in the guidelines are similar (except perhaps in context) to those confronted by libraries in their own efforts to resolve issues the reproduction and transfer of materials.

To provide added context for those interested in this topic, this posting includes the full text of an article published on FindLaw Corporate Counsel by Julie Hilden. Finally,some additional links to other sources are listed.

The 2007 Annual Report of the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct was released last Thursday. In his article in the November 19, 2007 New York Law Journal Daniel Wise writes that the Commission ” opened more investigations in 2006 [the year covered by the Annual Reporrt] and had more matters pending against judges than at any time in its 29 year history…”.

INTRODUCTION TO THE 2007 ANNUAL REPORT

The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct is the independent agency designated by the State Constitution to review complaints of misconduct against judges of the State Unified Court System, which includes approximately 3,400 judges and justices.

The following announcement appeared in the November 2, 2007 issue of the New York Law Journal

“Justice Stephen G. Crane of the Appellate Division, Second Department, said yesterday he will resign on Feb. 4 to join Judicial Arbitration & Mediation Services in Manhattan. JAMS, a California-based dispute resolution firm, employs several prominent retired New York state judges, including Milton Mollen, Betty Weinberg Ellerin, Stanley S. Ostrau and Richard M. Rosenbaum. ‘They came to me, I hadn’t thought about it till then,’ Justice Crane, 69, said yesterday in an interview. ‘I thought it was time to move on to a new challenge.’ He called the decision to step down a ‘terribly wrenching one.’ Justice Crane, who has been at the Second Department since 2001, is a former Criminal Court judge, Supreme Court justice and administrative judge of the civil branch of Manhattan Supreme Court. — Joel Stashenko”

Justice Crane has also served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the New York County Public Access Law Library since it first opened on February 14, 1995.

I”n response to the discussion about the far-reaching changes to the Federal Civil Rules of Procedure, we have posted a 5 minute video featuring the authors of the Federal Civil Rules Handbook. The authors, Steven Baicker-McKee and Professor William Janssen, discuss the dramatic amendments to the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure, and why every major rule and form is changing on December 1, 2007. The video can be found under the “What’s New for Law Librarians” section at: www.west.thomson.com/librarian.”

“The changes have mostly come about as a result of a comprehensive overhaul by a federal style committee. There are stylistic and substantive changes, and all the forms have changed as well.”

“Thomson West has published the Federal Civil Rules Handbook just in time for the coming rule changes. All rule changes will be in this volume, along with all the new forms, and a great deal of annotated commentary. There will also be a “roadmap” at the end of each rule indicating the Style Project changes and the non-stylistic (substantive) changes to the rules”

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