“Cite Wikipedia in an argument to a judge, and you are likely to get a disapproving glare in response. ‘Give me solid precedent,’ the judge is likely to say, ‘cases and statutes and respected authorities.’
But a team of scientists from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and Maynooth University, Ireland, has concluded that, in fact, Wikipedia has a measurable impact on judicial decision making. …”
Read the rest of Bob Ambrogi’s article on LawSites.
Review: The Multiple Faces of Textualism (Jot Well, Jan 15, 2021)
Article reviewed: Tara Leigh Grove, Which Textualism?, 134 Harv. L. Rev. 265 (2020).
Excerpt: “In her wonderfully-titled article, Which Textualism?, Tara Leigh Grove uses the recently decided Bostock v. Clayton County case to highlight a truth about statutory interpretation theory that scholars have largely ignored: Textualism is not a monolithic interpretive approach, but one that contains multiple competing strands. This observation is long overdue, and Bostock is an excellent vehicle for exploring its implications, given that the three separate opinions issued by the Court all claimed to employ a textualist interpretive approach—while reaching different outcomes….” [Link to full blog post and article.]
If you haven’t discovered Reith Lectures (BBC, Radio 4), here is your chance. Topics vary and this year’s (2019) lecturer was Jonathan Sumption. The lectures and Q&A that follow are enlightening and entertaining. (It’s a 5-part series.)
The Reith Lectures
Hilarious April 2019 story out of England, via the BBC:
Judge asked to be relieved of jury duty – because he was the judge in the case.
But it gets worse! The Jury Central Summoning Bureau first told him, no, you’ll have to serve. Ha ha ha. Read the story:
Nation book review: “Why Does Our Justice System Fight So Hard to Keep Innocent People Behind Bars? Mark Godsey was a “prosecutor’s prosecutor” who didn’t think there were any innocent people in prison. Then he began supervising his law school’s Innocence Project, and realized his assumptions were all wrong” by Joshua Holland, in The Nation, January 24, 2018:
Excerpt:
“In the criminal-justice system romanticized by Hollywood films, those convicted of crimes are generally guilty. And a protagonist need only prove that someone’s been wrongly imprisoned to get them freed by a judiciary that values truth and justice….
While there are many excellent legal self-help initiatives, there are few studies that evaluate those self-help programs after the fact, i.e. after the self-represented litigant has used the software or the court forms and system (e.g. in small claims court) to resolve a problem or right a wrong.
But the surveys that do exist can be helpful to others. See, for example, this report, which you can find at the SRLN Stories page – and here is the direct link:
The Oregonian has posted the Oregon Commission on Judicial Fitness and Disability report to the Oregon Supreme Court on Marion County Circuit Court Judge Vance Day.
You can find the report’s link at their 1/25/16 article:
“Judge Vance Day should be ousted from job, in part for refusing to marry gays, commission says,” by Aimee Green, Oregonian, January 25, 2016.
“The Fastcase 50 for 2015 highlights entrepreneurs, innovators, and trailblazers — people who have charted a new course for the delivery of legal services….“
From Dewey B Strategic (“Risk, value, strategy, libraries, knowledge and the legal profession“)
“Ravel Law Launches Judges Analytics: Precedential Behaviour Analysis Made Easy.“
Courthouses can be happy places on rare occasions and weddings can cheer up the otherwise gloomy edifices since wedding parties usually dress more colorfully than litigants (not to mention smile more) and that can brighten up almost everyone’s day (except of course for gloomy Gus in the bushes shouting “don’t do it!“)
For example, visit the Washington County Circuit Court Weddings website for information about getting married at their Courthouse.
Or, what about Clatsop County Courthouse?
Oregon Legal Research Blog