DipLawMatics Dialogue, Is There An Annotated European Union Code? “I have an EU directive, and I need to find some cases that interpret it.” First, having just taught a class on U.S. statutory legal research, I’m thrilled that a student thought to use an annotated code to find cases interpreting legislation. There isn’t a European Union code, not exactly. But the European Union does have a classification system for its law, and there are sources for finding cases on a particular EU directive, from the European Court of Justice and from national courts. The student was looking for cases on Directive 98/44/EC on patents for biotechnological inventions. Although European Union law isn’t codified, the closest thing to a codification would be the Directory of Legal Acts on EUR-Lex. It arranges EU legislation in force by subject and includes consolidated acts incorporating amendments. Directive 98/44/EC is classified with Intellectual Property legislation at 17.20, but with a general heading at 17 of “Law relating to Undertakings,” I’m not sure I would have found it without already having found the Directory Classification. There is also the EuroVoc thesaurus for browsing legislation (and caselaw) by subject. Either the thesaurus terms or the Directory codes can be used in the EUR-Lex Advanced Search, along with text and other criteria (including type of legislation). In this case, a text search for “biotechnology AND patents” worked just as well…”
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Daily Archives: February 25, 2019
Five Decades of Metropolitan Museum Of Art Publications Available Online
Met Publications – Available to read, download and/or search for free. [Users may search by title, author, keyword, publication type, thematic category, collection/department, and format.] Continue Reading
Drafting Only Men for the Military Is Unconstitutional, Judge Rules
The New York Times: “A military draft that applies only to men is unconstitutional, a federal judge in Houston has ruled, saying that excluding women is no longer justified because they can now serve in combat roles just as men do. Judge Gray H. Miller of Federal District Court in the Southern District of Texas… Continue Reading
Bike Commuters Are Dying in Record Numbers
Outside: “According to a report from the League of American Bicyclists released last month, 2016 went down in the record books as the deadliest year for U.S. cyclists since 1991. The report cites data from the U.S. Department of Transportation, which recorded 840 cycling fatalities in 2016—the first time the annual death toll has crept… Continue Reading
Mail and Wire Fraud: A Brief Overview of Federal Criminal Law Updated
Via FAS – Mail and Wire Fraud: A Brief Overview of Federal Criminal Law Updated, February 11, 2019. “The mail and wire fraud statutes are exceptionally broad. Their scope has occasionally given the courts pause. Nevertheless, prosecutions in their name have brought to an end schemes that have bilked victims out of millions, and sometimes… Continue Reading
CRS – U.S. Role in the World: Background and Issues for Congress
Via FAS – U.S. Role in the World: Background and Issues for Congress, Updated February 14, 2019. – “…The overall issue for Congress is how to respond to recent developments regarding the U.S. role in the world. Potential key issues for Congress include but are not necessarily limited to the following: Is the U.S. role changing,… Continue Reading
CRS Social Security Primer
Via FAS – Social Security Primer Updated, February 7, 2019 “Social Security provides monthly cash benefits to retired or disabled workers and their family members, and to the family members of deceased workers. Among the beneficiary population, almost 83% are retired or disabled workers; family members of retired, disabled, or deceased workers make up the… Continue Reading
The first library on another celestial body
Arch Mission Foundation: “The Lunar Library™ represents the first in a series of lunar archives from the Arch Mission Foundation, designed to preserve the records of our civilization for up to billions of years. It is installed in the SpaceIL “Beresheet” lunar lander, scheduled to land on the Moon in April of 2019. The Lunar… Continue Reading
How important is your privacy?
Axios: “…A full 81% of consumers say that in the past year they’ve become more concerned with how companies are using their data, and 87% say they’ve come to believe companies that manage personal data should be more regulated, according to a survey out Monday by IBM’s Institute for Business Value. Yes, but: They aren’t… Continue Reading
Researchers break digital signatures for most desktop PDF viewers
ZDNet: “A team of academics from the Ruhr-University Bochum in Germany say they’ve managed to break the digital signing system and create fake signatures on 21 of 22 desktop PDF viewer apps and five out of seven online PDF digital signing services. This includes apps such as Adobe Acrobat Reader, Foxit Reader, and LibreOffice, and… Continue Reading
A true story about smartphone addiction
The New York Times – Do Not Disturb: How I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain – “And if you’re anything like me — and the statistics suggest you probably are, at least where smartphones are concerned — you have one, too. I don’t love referring to what we have as an “addiction.” That seems… Continue Reading
Spurring AI Development With a High-Quality Face Dataset
Center for Data Innovation: “NVIDIA has released Flickr-Faces-HQ (FFHQ), a dataset of 70,000 high-resolution images of human faces. The dataset includes faces representing a wide range of ages and ethnicities, and the images also include humans wearing accessories such as eyeglasses, sunglasses, and hats. Researchers can use this dataset for multiple purposes, including training and… Continue Reading
