Moritz Legal Information Blog

For those of you who are currently under a lot of stress smoking maybe your release valve, for others it is another point of stress; regardless of which side you take Ohio has passed a new smoking law. This posted page by the ODH (the Ohio department of Health) has links to the text of new law and an FAQ (frequently asked questions). However, the ODH has “agreed that no citations, warning letters or civil fines would be imposed upon ‘any business, organization, proprietor, employer, employee or individual’ until rules are drafted, which must be done no later than June” (see this Columbus Dispatch article from Friday, December 08, 2006 for more information).

George Washington University Law Professor Daniel Solove has posted a very funny Guide to Grading Exams . Although the techniques discussed by Professor Solove are not used here at Moritz, many former law students from other schools will undoubtedly enjoy a scholarly explanation of the law exam grading process.

A significant change to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure is scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2007. Rule 32.1 will prohibit courts from restricting citations to unpublished court decisions issued after January 1, 2007. The new rule can be viewed here . From Tech Law Prof Blog .

Library and Archives Canada has created an online exhibit called Detecting the Truth - Fakes, Forgeries and Trickery : This website will let you discover why and how people have changed documents, paintings, maps, books, stamps and money throughout history. It will also show you the techniques and tools that experts such as conservators, archivists and librarians at the Library and Archives of Canada use to spot a fake. From Library Boy .

beer, Santa, and commercial speech Mistletoe & the Law Comedians Think Humor Books Aren’t Very Funny Players Sue NBA Over New Balls, Tighter Calls

From the American Constitution Society website : On December 5, 2006, ACS and the Federalist Society co-sponsored A Conversation on the Constitution: Perspectives from Active Liberty and A Matter of Interpretation with U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justices Stephen Breyer and Antonin Scalia. In this conversation, which was moderated by ABC News Legal Correspondent Jan Crawford Greenburg the Justices discussed the interpretive methodologies described in their books, and conversed on the Constitution itself. Nine hundred lawyers, law students, judges and journalists attended the event. Video of the discussion is available at the American Constitution Society website . From The Volokh Conspiracy .

The Iraq Study Group Report is now available from GPO Access . It can be downloaded here .

The Washington & Lee Law Library has updated its law journal submission and rankings information . The stated purpose of the webpage "is to allow authors to find law journals by subject, country, or journal rank (where available), to display journal editorial information, and to facilitate an author's article submission to those journals." From BarclayBlog .

CALI has podcasts with law professors discussing their advice for studying for and writing final exams. These podcasts include: Tips for Multiple Choice Exams in Law School Top 10 Tips for Successfully Writing a Law School Essay Conversations With Law Professors About Preparing For and Taking Exams From Law Librarian Blog .

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) have just released their joint report, Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2006 . According to the report, "[t]he rate of serious violent crime –– rape, sexual assault, robbery and aggravated assault –– at the nation's schools fell from six victimizations per 1,000 students in 2003 to four per 1,000 in 2004." Read the press release or download the full report . From beSpacific .

New Online Digitized Document Capability Offered by Supreme Court of Ohio : Digital images of case documents filed with the Supreme Court of Ohio will be available starting Friday, Dec. 1, on the Supreme Court of Ohio's Web site. This new feature is accessible through the Clerk of Court's online case docket search. All case documents filed with the Court as of Dec. 1 will be available online, however, some case filings from earlier dates also will be online as they were scanned in the last month while the software was being tested. Case documents are expected to be posted within one business day of being filed with the Court. To view case documents online, visit the Clerk of Court's Web page and search the case docket. Filings can be accessed by clicking on an icon next to a docket entry, which denotes that a corresponding digital document is available to view as a PDF file. “Scanning will allow for quick and easy access to public case filings,” said Marcia Mengel, Supreme

Stanford Law School Dean Larry Kramer has announced a "new model" for legal education : Stanford Law School Dean Larry Kramer said the pedagogical changes the school is spearheading are focused on the second and third year curriculum. He hopes Stanford’s reform—which began last year and should be fully implemented by 2009—will provide a model for legal education generally. “Talk to any lawyer or law school graduate and they will tell you they were increasingly disengaged in their second and third years,” Kramer said. “It’s because the second and third year curriculum is for the most part repeating what they did in their first year and adds little of intellectual and professional value. They learn more doctrine, which is certainly valuable, but in a way that is inefficient and progressively less useful. The upper years, as presently configured, are a lost opportunity to teach today’s lawyers things they need to know. Lawyers need to be educated more broadly—with courses beyond

Revenge of the Paralegal Anderson Kill Discovers 'Associate' Is Not a Lawyer Massachusetts Lawyers Debate Racy Ad In Trade Publication The Most Litigious Circus on Earth?

The N.Y.U. Journal of International Law and Politics has recently published the 1st edition of its Guide to Foreign and International Legal Citation . The Guide can be downloaded here as a PDF file. From beSpacific .