Law Library Blog

[cross-posted on Legal Research Plus]

“De Minimis Curat Lex: Secrets to Success for 1st Year Law Students,” by Professor John H. Scheid, 37 Capital University Law Review 632 (2009).

“To say the least, the study of law for entering students can be frustrating.  However, there are tricks of the trade,” writes Professor Scheid in the beginning of the article.

Here is the list of the “Seven Steps to Success” excerpted from the work.  The author provides examples and reasons for the following steps:

A. Brief the Cases Before You Come to Class

B. In Each Case Come to Some Conclusion as to the Principle(s) or Rule(s) of the Case

C. Within an Hour Before Class, Review Your Briefs for That Day

D. Take Class Notes in a Separate Book, Preferably on Loose-Leaf Paper, but Definitely Not on the Brief Itself

E. Take Class Notes Only on One Side of the Spiral Notebook.  Leave Plenty of Room Between Notes.  As Soon as You Leave Class Go to the Library and Fill in Your Notes

F. Before Briefing Cases for Tomorrow’s Subject, Review the Class Notes of the Last Two Weeks for That Subject

G. Brief the Cases for the Next Day

The Presidential Pardon Power by Jeffrey Crouch. Published by University of Kansas Press in 2009.  KF9696 .C76 2009

The presidential power to pardon is granted under Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution:”The President … shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.”   The Constitution provides no standards or guidelines, and only one limitation — no pardons for the impeached.

Professor Crouch explores all aspects of the pardon from historical ones to those of recent times, arguing that more recent cases have demonstrated a disturbing misapplication of power. The framers of the Constitution wanted the President to be able to use the clemency power to act quickly to defuse volatile situations that required one person to act quickly. Alexander Hamilton, in Federalist paper 74, said: “… in seasons of insurrection or rebellion, there are often critical moments, when a well-timed offer of pardon to the insurgents or rebels may restore the tranquility of the commonwealth.”

He argues that recent presidents have misused the clemency power to pardon subordinates or reward supporters. He suggests that rather than amending the constitution to “fix” the problem of pardons that abuse the system, the Congress should use the impeachment clause of Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution to punish presidents who exploit the clemency power. However, the temptation to abuse the clemency power is strongest during the final days of a presidential term, as for example, President Clinton’s 140 pardons and 36 commutations made in the two hours before he left the presidency. Crouch concludes that “we need to decide, as a nation, that last-minute clemency abuses will not be tolerated. When a president abuses the clemency power, we need to decide that his actions will trigger real sanctions… It is only by punishing presidents who exploit the clemency power that we can uphold the rule of law, and–ultimately–preserve and defend our Constitution.”

USA.gov, which provides official information and services from the United States Government, has recently organized federal government blogs by subject.

Under the current organization there are 11 categories:

1. Business and Economics Blogs: Small business owners, economics news…
2. Defense and International Relations Blogs: Military, foreign policy, veterans…
3. Environment, Energy, and Agriculture Blogs: Agriculture, environmental protection, saving energy…
4. Family, Home, and Community Blogs: Human services, community development, middle class…
5. Health and Nutrition Blogs: Medicine, public health…
6. History, Arts, and Culture Blogs: Museums, libraries…
7. Jobs, Education, and Volunteerism Blogs: Volunteering, employment…
8. Public Safety and Law Blogs: Security, law enforcement, disasters, emergencies…
9. Reference and General Government Blogs: Grants, White House…
10. Science and Technology Blogs: Information technology, Internet security…
11. Travel and Recreation Blogs: Transportation, parks…

Hat tip to: ResourceShelf.

Cross-posted in LegalResearchPlus.com.

The library has expanded its subscription service to the Legal Scholarship Network (part of SSRN). Now you can get all of LSN’s eJournals delivered directly to your email inbox. Simply follow the instructions below to sign-up (and feel free to contact the reference desk — reference {at} law.stanford.edu– if you’re having any trouble).

Here are the signup instructions for new users.  Those who already have SSRN user-names can skip ahead to step 4.

1. Go to http://www.ssrn.com

2. In the upper left hand corner, click on Free Registration and follow the prompts.

3. Your user ID and Password will be emailed to you within several minutes.

4. Go to http://hq.ssrn.com, enter your SSRN user ID and password, and click Submit.

5. Select Subscriptions in the menu to the left.

6. Scroll down to the bottom of the Subscriptions page to where it says “Click here to join a site subscription that has been acquired by your organization.”  Click on Join.

7. A window will pop up.  Enter stanford university in the Search Criteria box (do not enter Stanford Law School) and click Search.

On the next screen, click on See Departments on the button next to Stanford University.

8.  Scroll down the list of departments to find the Law School and click on the Join button.  You will now have to check your email inbox for a confirmation email.  If your email domain is <@law.stanford.edu> you will be added immediately.  Otherwise you may experience some delay.

9. When you receive the message from SSRN saying you have been added to the site subscription, return to the Network Subscription page by following the link in your email, or go to http://hq.ssrn.com.  Log in and click again on Subscriptions on the menu along the left side of the page.

10. Scroll down the list to find Legal Scholarship Network and click on the link that says “Click here” to make journal subscription selections.

11. Select Expand All to view the LSN e-Journal lists, and select e-Journals of interest by checking their box.  After you check a box, you need do nothing further.  Your e-Journals will be emailed to you once they are published.

The Presidential Pardon Power by Jeffrey Crouch. Published by University of Kansas Press in 2009. KF9696 .C76 2009

The presidential power to pardon is granted under Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution: “The President … shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.” The Constitution provides no standards or guidelines, and only one limitation — no pardons for the impeached.

Professor Crouch explores all aspects of the pardon from historical ones to those of recent times, arguing that more recent cases have demonstrated a disturbing misapplication of power. The framers of the Constitution wanted the President to be able to use the clemency power to act quickly to defuse volatile situations that required one person to act quickly. Alexander Hamilton, in Federalist paper 74, said: “… in seasons of insurrection or rebellion, there are often critical moments, when a well-timed offer of pardon to the insurgents or rebels may restore the tranquility of the commonwealth.”

He argues that recent presidents have misused the clemency power to pardon subordinates or reward supporters. He suggests that rather than amending the constitution to “fix” the problem of pardons that abuse the system, the Congress should use the impeachment clause of Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution to punish presidents who exploit the clemency power. However, the temptation to abuse the clemency power is strongest during the final days of a presidential term, as for example, President Clinton’s 140 pardons and 36 commutations made in the two hours before he left the presidency. Crouch concludes that “we need to decide, as a nation, that last-minute clemency abuses will not be tolerated. When a president abuses the clemency power, we need to decide that his actions will trigger real sanctions… It is only by punishing presidents who exploit the clemency power that we can uphold the rule of law, and–ultimately–preserve and defend our Constitution.”

The library is pleased to announce the acquisition of the new OnLAW database from California’s Continuing Education of the Bar.  OnLAW provides access to more than 125 of CEB’s California practice guides.  OnLAW’s “libraries” organize the CEB guides by practice area, namely: business law; criminal law; estate planning; family law; litigation; and real property law.

The guides are complete and up-to-date online versions of CEB’s print practice guides, most of which are also available in the library.

OnLAW is available anywhere on campus.  To access it from outside of campus, be sure to set up your browser for proxy access by following the linked instructions from Stanford University Libraries.

For help in searching the database, feel free to stop in at the reference desk or email:
reference {at} law.stanford.edu

Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial, 1945-1958: Atrocity, Law, and History by Hilary Earl. Published by Cambridge University Press in 2009.  KZ1179 .E36 E37 2009

Based on extensive archival research, Professor Earl offers the first historical examination of the arrest, trial, and punishment of the leaders of the SS-Einsatzgruppen – the mobile security and killing units employed by the Nazis in their racial war on the eastern front. Sent to the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, four units of Einsatzgruppen along with reinforcements, murdered approximately one million Soviet civilians in open air shootings and in gas vans and, in 1947, twenty-four leaders of these units were indicted for crimes against humanity and war crimes for their part in the murders. In addition to a describing the legal proceedings, this book also examines recent historiographical trends and perpetrator paradigms and expounds on such contested issues as the timing and genesis of the Final Solution, the perpetrators’ route to crime and their motivation for killing, as well as discussing the tensions between law and history. (Taken from the preface.)

The chapter describing the defendants attempts to understand the individual behavior of the 24 men who were tried, dividing them into three types: ideological soldiers, deniers, and conflicted murderers–the result of their own characterization of their behavior during the trial.  the author  suggests that if we can understand why these men acted as they did, perhaps we can identify factors that led to their behavior, and perhaps stop the genocide that continues to this day.  The judge, Michael Angelo Musmanno, played perhaps an unusually active role in all the proceedings, questioning the defendants himself until he was satisfied they were telling the truth. The detailed description of the trials is fascinating on many levels, and the final chapter details the aftermath of the trials and what actually happened to the defendants who had been convicted of horrific crimes.

Law Library tours will be held on the following dates and times:

Thursday, Sept. 3 at 1:00pm, 1:30pm, and 4:00pm.

Friday, Sept. 4  at 1:00pm, 1:30pm, and 4:00pm.

Tuesday, Sept.8 at 1:00pm, 1:30pm, and 4:00pm.

Wednesday, Sept. 9 at 1:00pm, 1:30pm, and 4:00pm.

Thursday, Sept. 10 at 1:00pm, 1:30pm, and 4:00pm.

Friday, Sept. 11 at 1:00pm, 1:30pm, and 4:00pm.

We look forwward to showing you all the law library has to offer.

Later this week (perhaps as early as Tuesday, September 1st), the law library will have a Kindle available for law students to check out.

Stop by the Loan Desk soon to enjoy our newest toy.  To see the full list of nifty gadgets to check out, visit the “Cool Stuff You Can Borrow” page on this blog.

Internet Explorer 8 aka IE8 has problems rendering frames in CourseWork.

If you are an IE user and have upgraded to the latest version 8, you may experience problems viewing your course sites on CourseWork. The workaround solution to this is very simple.

Open the IE browser and change the compatibility mode by selecting Tools > Compatibility View Settings, check the boxes for Include updated websites lists from Microsoft & Display intranet sites in Compatibility View.

If you have any questions, please stop by the reference desk or email us at reference@law.stanford.edu.