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Daily Archives: September 14, 2021

Citation Stickiness, Computer-Assisted Legal Research, and the Universe of Thinkable Thoughts

Kirschenfeld, Aaron and Chew, Alexa, Citation Stickiness, Computer-Assisted Legal Research, and the Universe of Thinkable Thoughts (April 19, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3860978 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3860978

“Legal information has been available in widespread digital format for more than forty years. In that time, law librarians have wondered whether this digital switch has changed how law students and lawyers conduct research and, if so, what those changes are. Does legal research differ when conducted in print sources rather than computerized sources? What influence did the systems of organizing law in the print era have on the digital systems that followed? While we cannot put these questions to rest, we hope to shed some light on those difference by studying the work of lawyers and courts from the print era, the transition-to-digital era, and the digital era. Using a metric called “citation stickiness,” we studied how often parties to an appeal and the judges hearing that appeal agreed on the cases relevant to resolve the issues on appeal. This, we hoped, would also show whether there were perceptible differences in coherence and stability of the legal information landscape. Citation stickiness works like this: a citation is “sticky” if it appears in at least one party’s brief and then again in the court opinion. In an initial study of 325 federal court cases from 2017, 49% of the 7,552 cases that were cited in the courts’ opinions had been cited by at least one party in a brief. This study considers cases from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit decided in 1957, 1987, and 2017. After examining the citations in the briefs and opinions in our sample of cases, we compare our findings from the pre-digital era and from the digital era. What we learned surprised us.”

Fall Foliage Prediction Map

“The 2021 Fall Foliage Map is the ultimate visual planning guide to the annual progressive changing of the leaves. While no tool can be 100% accurate, this tool is meant to help travelers better time their trips to have the best opportunity of catching peak color each year.” Continue Reading

They Knew: How the U.S. Government Helped Cause the Climate Crisis

Yale Environment 360 – “James Gustave Speth has been calling for action on climate since serving in the White House in the 1970s. In an e360 interview, he talks about his new book, which chronicles how successive U.S. administrations repeatedly failed to act in response to scientists’ increasingly dire warnings. Few people have followed the… Continue Reading

Government Lawyers: Technicians, Policy Shapers and Organisational Brakes

Lewis, Philip S.C. and Mulcahy, Linda, Government Lawyers: Technicians, Policy Shapers and Organisational Brakes (January 10, 2021). (2021) 28 International Journal of the Legal Profession 23, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3875350 “Government lawyers have been rather neglected by scholars interested in the workings of the legal profession and the role of professional groups in contemporary society.… Continue Reading

Annotated Bibliography of COVID-19 Legal Literature

AustLII Communities – “The annotated bibliography below is arranged into A) Literature B) Organisations and C) Blogs, journals and websites. Part A includes scholarship and selected professional literature. It begins with books and then other literature, which is divided into broad topics – general legal literature followed by more specific topics. Where appropriate, we have… Continue Reading

How to create a business page on Facebook

Mashable: “Facebook is infamous for the numerous ways in which folks use — and misuse — the platform, from your uncle sharing conspiracy theories to your roommate selling your couch on Marketplace. There’s one tool Facebook offers that is almost unilaterally helpful to users, though, and that’s the option for business owners to create a… Continue Reading

2021 Global Retirement Index

“In 2021, the world is full of uncertainties for retirees and those saving for retirement. Security is a critical issue — from the immediate challenges of more waves of the pandemic, to longer-term questions about the environment, geopolitics, and inflation. Retirement is clearly among the top issues for investors. In fact, 40% of investors say… Continue Reading

Recent Steps Toward Improved Access to Federal Legislation

Information Today – Barbie E. Keiser – “During recent virtual meetings, representatives of several government entities showed how they had used the time during the pandemic to increase the public’s access to legislative information. The real takeaway from each online meeting is the degree to which these entities collaborate on projects. The Library of Congress… Continue Reading

Supreme Court to Continue Live Audio Streaming of Arguments Through Fall

EPIC: “The U.S. Supreme Court announced Wednesday that it will continue streaming live audio of its oral arguments at least through December of this year. The justices will also resume holding arguments in person, though the Court building will remain closed to the public. The Court’s announcement came the same day that EPIC and a… Continue Reading