Welcome to Blawg Review #23, hosted by yours truly, Dave! here at Preaching to the Perverted.
As the Editor ‘n’ Chef noted in his gracious introduction, I am a part-time law student in Chicago, who also has a full-time job, also in Chicago. As luck would have it, I’ve been traveling a lot for work this summer so this edition of Blawg Review is brought to you from merry old England, London to be specific, where the internet connectivity is great–but they could use more ice in their Diet Cokes.
This edition of the Blawg Review is an eclectic mix, owing mostly to my own varied interests. Katrina is still very much in the news, so it seems fitting that we still have a number of related posts. Also, I’m keenly (see? the Queen’s English is rubbing off) interested in China as well as Intellectual Property Law, so you’ll see a lot of that reflected in the links.
Finally, I owe a big debt of gratitude to Political Calculations, and the Carnival of the Capitalists for the idea of using dynamic, sortable tables for this week’s edition. (Just click on any header to re-sort the table by that header.)
As a further innovation (which is definitely facilitated by the format) if there’s a post you think was really essential last week (between 9/5-9/10) send it to me directly. I’m going to update the Blawg Review over the course of the week with new suggestions (from those dates only, please) and corrections. So keep coming back and inflate my hit count!
Now, for your reading pleasure I present:
| Blawg Review #23 | September 12, 2005 |
| Post | Description | Contributor | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| Katrina Update | Monica Bay, from The Common Scold gives us a Katrina update, including a link to the efforts of “legal tech troops” to help out colleagues who have been affected by the storm. | The Common Scold | Katrina |
| Taking Away Their Guns in New Orleans | Prof. Orin Kerr sets the ball rolling over at VC regarding the confiscation of guns in New Orleans. He notes, “I have a feeling that this story is going to get a lot of attention at the VC one way or another, so I figure I may as well be the first to raise it,” well, that is probably an understatement. Many follow up posts and comments to, uh, kill time with. | The Volokh Conspiracy | Katrina |
| Blogging from New Orleans | It’s hard to imagine blogging from New Orleans, but many did manage, including Ernie the Attorney. Blogpulse catches up with Ernie through e-mail and a friend’s cell phone to bring you this interview. | Blog Pulse | Katrina |
| White Washing the Black Storm | I knew the Katrina race issue had gone mainstream when I heard Wolf Blitzer describe the evacuees from the Superdome as being, “So Poor… So Black.” Now we have White Washing the Black Storm, “Two Houston Law Professors’ First Hand Blog Accounts of the Real Treatment of Black Americans in Hurricane Katrina’s Aftermath” | White Washing the Black Storm | Katrina |
| FEMA’s Brown Padded Resume: Hardly a Lawyer, Either | The Daily Kos brings you the low-down on dissecting Brownie’s resume. In light of his recent demotion, this seemed appropriate. Especially since Brownie’s a lawyer. | Daily Kos | Katrina |
| Price Gouging | Iain Murry claims, “Price gouging is one of the great myths of our time. Because it doesn’t exist, one should be wary of the motives of anyone who claims it does.” Prof. Dave Hoffman offers a counter-point. | Prawfsblawg | Katrina |
| Is Price Gouging Efficient? | Following on the heels of Prof. Hoffman, Prof. Christine Hurt from Conglomerate chimes in. for some reason, everyone decided to comment on Hoffman’s original post here instead of at Profsblawg which means 1) read the comments here, and 2) people obviously aren’t rational, they’re lazy. | Conglomerate | Katrina |
| Not the Usual Solemn Proceeding | Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog reports that the funeral of the Chief Justice, William H. Rehnquist, was not the usual solemn proceeding. | SCOTUS Blog | Judicial |
| St. John Roberts? | Judge John Roberts might be praying for his appointment as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. David Giacalone notes that there is a St. John Roberts to whom the practicing Catholic nominee could be praying for intercession. Depending on how the judicial confirmation hearings go this week, St. John Roberts could emerge as the patron saint of judicial nominees or the patron saint of martyrs drawn and quartered. | f/k/a…. | Judicial |
| Robert’s Views on Splitting the Ninth Circuit | Howard Bashman asks, “Who will ask Chief Justice nominee John G. Roberts, Jr. for his views on splitting the Ninth Circuit?” I’ll volunteer, if they’d let me. I have a few other questions, all in good taste, I assure you. | How Appealing | Judicial |
| Law Profs Opposed to John Roberts: Show, Don’t Tell | “The weakness of the letter, as I see it, is that it fails the basic lesson of writing: show, don’t tell.” I think Prof. Yin has now become a hero to legal writing students everywhere. I need to check the list of professor’s signing that letter to see if I had/will have any of them. | The Yin Blog | Judicial |
| Higher Education: Good News and Bad News | Prof. Bainbridge puts on airs about higher education in America. Of course, he laments his own school ranking lower than UC Berkeley and UCSD, noting that UCLA needs to pull up their socks. See? The students at Berkeley don’t wear socks with their Birkenstocks. Maybe that’s the problem at UCLA. | Professor Bainbridge | Education |
| Where Are The Conservative Law Professors? | Over-represented in legal blogs?Yes, where are the conservative law professors, I think we’d all like to know. But in actuality, this article wonders why the 160 professors who ignore their own legal writing advice are primarily liberal and calls on conservative law professors to ignore their own legal writing advice, too, and offer their own “patently polemic” letter. | Objective Justice | Education |
| Do You Need a PhD to Do Competent and Cutting Edge Legal Interdisciplinary Work? | I certainly hope not. Otherwise, I’m screwed. | Prawfsblawg | Education |
| Schiess’s Plain Legal Writing | I’m always looking for ways to improve my writing–whether or not you can tell from Preaching to the Perverted. So this is a site I just discovered dedicated to legal writing by Prof. Wayne Schiess. It’s nice to see a blog from a professor at the University of Texas. Really. | Schiess’s Plain Legal Writing | Education |
| Got All My Thangs, In My Momma’s Name, but I’m Hood-Rich | “I hope my intellectual elitism remains finely tuned enough to weed out the vapid educated individuals from the intelligent hard-working individuals.” Me, too. | Woman of the Law | Education |
| Preparing For Class | Dennis Tonsing asks and answers the question, “When you were in law school, did you use abbreviations when taking notes?” Notes? I’m supposed to be taking notes?! | Academic Support | Education |
| Asking Some Tough Questions About Legal Education | Dennis Kennedy points to some good posts, including this gem from Diane Murley on Out of the Jungle. As I plunge further into debt and exhaustion (working full-time, law school in the evening) I have a lot of thoughts about the efficiency of legal education. I’m glad to see other’s thinking about this, too. | Between Lawyers | Education |
| China Joins IP Standards Group | Although I’m blogging from England this week, I’m very interested in China. Especially IP law in China. | Pierce Law IP News Blogs | IP |
| Robert�s Record on IP Issues | With Robert’s slim judicial record, groups like the EFF are wondering, what are Robert’s views on IP issues? I’m wondering, too. | Pierce Law IP News Blogs | IP |
| Guide to Cyber ID Theft and Financial Fraud | beSpacific has this link to an excellent resource about on-line ID theft and fraud. Not just for lawyers, this is stuff everyone should be concerned about. | Be Spacific | IP |
| The Latest IP Crime: “Box-Wrap” Patent Infringement | This is an interesting case in the IP world. Lexmark wins a case allowing them to enforce their “single-use” license term, which prevents consumers from putting new ink into the old Lexmark cartridges when they run dry. There are some interesting comments. | Copyfight | IP |
| False Advertising in China | Colin Samuels contemplates the legal recourse possibilities for Chinese restaurant patrons who thought they were served illegal tiger meat but were actually consuming donkey meat marinated in tiger urine. | Infamy or Praise | China |
| Criticism of Yahoo’s Role in Prosecution of Journalist Shi Tao | This case presents some interesting issues about international law. Especially with the rise of China and increase activity by American companies there. | Chinese Law Prof Blog | China |
| China, Inc. | Prof. Gordon Smith chimes in with some thoughts about China and the role of the Chinese government in private companies. | Conglomerate | China |
| New Paper on Shareholder Activism | Prof. Bainbridge announces that his new paper, “Shareholder Activism and Institutional Investors” is available on SSRN. It promises to be a pretty interesting paper, given the rise of the shareholder in recent years. He also takes a look at the institutional shareholder and their role (or lack thereof) in policing corporate governance. | Professor Bainbridge | Corporate Law |
| Labor Day Special:Labor Law Stories | George Lenard offers a book review of Labor Law Stories as a tribute to Labor Day. | George’s Employment Blawg | Labor Law |
| Does Punishment Work? | Ken Lammers, a Virginia criminal defense lawyer, shares his opinion on whether and when punishment works. | Crimlaw | Criminal Law |
| First Survivor Richard Hatch Indicted on Ten Counts | What happens when a person reneges on a plea deal? The government fires back with both barrels, so to speak. Is Hatch still a Survivor? Burned once, don’t look for the government to offer any sweet deals this time. | White Collar Crime Prof Blog | Criminal Law |
| Batson Redux: Can We Ever Eliminate Racially Motivated Peremptory Strikes? | The Jurygeek, Clay Conrad, takes a look back at Batson, in which Justice Thurgood Marshall argued that the only way to eliminate racist peremptory strikes was to eliminate peremptory strikes. | Jurygeek | Practice |
| An Astute Kansas Jury | After rendering a not guilty verdict, a juror asks the prosecutor, “I just wanted to know if you were a jerk all the time, or if it was just in the Courtroom?” | Jurygeek | Practice |
| Breakdown of Civility Among Lawyers | Robert Ambrogi is, “appalled that members of the legal profession would call for unbridled, vigilante street justice,” in response to looting during Katrina. He links to some prominent legal blogger’s thoughts on the subject, whose views may (or may not) surprise you. | Robert Ambrogi’s LawSites | Practice |
| LexThink BlawgThink | LexThink BlawgThink is coming to my home town, Chicago! I had to miss the last one (being in school and working and all) but this one I’m not missing. If you’re reading this, you should go, because you can meet me there. And isn’t that reason enough? | Dennis Kennedy | Practice |
| No Duty To Disclose Racist Beliefs | Professor Volokh is skeptical of a lawsuit by the Missouri Attorney General against a Katrina fundraiser sued for violating state fund-raising law and for “omitting the material fact that the ultimate company behind the defendants’ Web sites supports white supremacy.” | The Volokh Conspiracy | Practice |
| On Surviving the Lion’s Den | Evan Schaeffer has returned from the American Enterprise Institute, where he spoke about the Vioxx verdict. His speech was titled, “In Defense of the Jury System, Post-Ernst.” As testament to Evan’s oratory skills, he survived. | Legal Underground | Practice |
| Mississippi’s Insurance Commissioner Drops Some Subtle Hints | Katrina is causing a lot of causation challenges for insurance adjusters who are now beginning to deal with claims. Most homeowners policies cover losses caused by wind or caused by water that gets into the home because of wind (such as rain after the roof has flown off), but they don’t cover losses caused by surface waters and flooding. | Declarations and Exclusions | Practice |
| “We’re So Good We’ll Be Fine,” And Other Fairy Tales | Leadership and law practice. Two words that probably don’t go together as often as they should. Bruce MacEwen offers some thoughts about the differences between management and leadership. | Adam Smith, Esq. | Practice |
| Mediation Mensch | The Mediation Mensch isn’t a lawyer, but with the meteoric rise of mediation in the past 10 years, maybe more lawyers should be mediators. | Mediation Mensch | Practice |
| Safeguarding Client Information | Katrina has got many firms re-thinking their disaster recovery plans. The folks at Freedman Consulting offers some starting points for your firm to start re-evaluating how you protect client information from disaster. | Law Practice Management | Practice |
| Is Space Law Like Sex? | You can take the professor out of space law and blast him into an impossibly alluring orbit of fame and fortune in the blogosphere and beyond, but you can’t take the space law out of Professor Reynolds. | Space Law Probe | Practice |
| For more information or past issues, please visit BlawgReview.com |
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the format and I hope you return to Preaching to the Perverted to check out some of my other ramblings.
Blawg Review has information about next week’s host, and instructions how to get your blawg posts reviewed in upcoming issues.