Articles Posted in General Legal Research Resources

Citing to digital legal resources with specificity (and confidence in the URL’s permanence) is tricky business.

Documents and websites have a habit of moving around cyberspace – a lot. Corporations aren’t the only non-human entities that have “people“-rights to move cross-country, so to speak; digital documents change their addresses (URLs) as frequently as human-people do and there is no law stopping them from doing so.

KCLL Klues has this blog post, with references that will give you a good start when researching this subject:

(The Law Librarian Blog has an interesting update to this story: What Would Professor Kingsfield Say? Conan O’Brien-NBC Contract Dispute Awakens Sleeping 1L Contract Students, posted, January 16, 2010.)

I read recently that “Conan’s Lawyers Screwed Up, Forgot To Specify “Tonight Show” Time Slot,” Henry Blodget, Jan. 11, 2010.

A lot of people exclaim “there ought to be a law,” but the reality is, in many instances, what people need is better contracts. From your condo/HOA bylaws, to your apartment lease, to employment contracts, to that CEO going-out-the-door sweetheart deal, to that prenuptial agreement, to your will, and on and on and on, it’s the words of the contract that matter.

Think about this interesting debate (and nicely written blog post) while you’re reading the new book on Interpreting Oregon Law:

“Judges Calabresi and Easterbrook Face Off on How to Interpret Statutes

When interpreting statutes, does the Constitution require federal judges to act as agents of the incarnation of Congress that enacted the legislation or the present day Congress? That was the question before Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit and Judge Frank Easterbrook of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit at the Federalist Society’s annual debate luncheon this afternoon.