InSITE
A Current Awareness Service of
Cornell Law Library

ISSN 1521-9046

ARCHIVE

Vol. 14, no. 24
August 10, 2009
InSITE highlights selected law-related World Wide Web sites in two ways: as an annotated publication issued electronically and in print; and as a keyword-searchable database.

The law librarians at Cornell evaluate potentially useful Web sites, select the most valuable ones, and provide commentary and subject access to them. These information can be accessed as following:

    1. Current Issue
    2. Archived Issues
    3. Searchable Database
    4. RSS Feeds RSS FEED of the Current Issue Editions [What is RSS?]
    5. E-mail subscription: send the following request to lyris@cornell.edu:
      join INSITE-L 'your name'
      where your name(include the quotation marks) is the name you want to be available to the list's administrator. You must send this message from the e-mail address where you want to receive the e-list's messages
    6. In print format for the Cornell Law School community

Open Jurist
    URL: http://openjurist.org/
    Open Jurist serves as a manifestation of the belief that because United States laws are in the public domain, "they should be accessible to the public without restriction and especially without charge." Its online collection of freely available case law consists of approximately 647,000 United States court opinions, including those of the United States Supreme Court (beginning in 1790 and published in the United States Reports) and the lower Federal courts decisions (beginning in 1880 and published in the Federal Reporter, First, Second, and Third Series). Included with the text of the cases are links to the website Justia.com which appears to share the same ambitions and the same leadership. Cases may be browsed by reporter and citation, or may be searched by the title of the case or by keyword located within the text of the case. Although no annotations are available, the site provides an excellent retrieval source for the cases themselves.
    [Author: A. Emerson]
Public Index
    URL: http://thepublicindex.org/
    Led by Professor James Grimmelmann, the Public Index was developed by the Public-Interest Book Search Initiative and the Institute for Information Law and Policy at New York Law School. The site serves to provide an objective forum within which visitors may become thoroughly familiar with all perspectives of the proposed Google Book Search settlement. Its team consists of law students, professors, and volunteers who share a broad interest in technology, the law, and thoughtful public discourse of the point where the two merge within the context of this settlement. The site provides a hyperlinked, easy to navigate, user-annotated version of the proposed settlement, or, if one prefers, a PDF version of the proposed settlement with attachments. The “Documents” tab at the top of the page not only provides access to the terms of the settlement itself, but also opens up a full reading room of documents from the lawsuit, including responses to the settlement (such as opt-outs, objections, and amicus filings), library agreements between Google and its partner libraries, procedural documents (such as complaints, scheduling orders, and interventions), and the various motions made by attorneys involved. The collection is rounded out by a video and audio library, together with links to various articles and blog entries. A very useful feature of the site is its Introduction tab, through which Google Book Settlement novices can take as little or as much time as they need to review well-organized papers, videos and links to become current on the settlement. An equally significant strength of the site is its Web 2.0 applications that transform the site from a document retrieval tool, to an interactive community within which visitors may, after registering and agreeing to the terms of use, contribute commentary, opinion, and expertise to the various discussion forums. Visitors are further invited to edit and improve the Public Index Wiki, which contains a revisable draft of the group’s amicus brief. Throughout the summer of 2009, the team is seeking the collective wisdom of individuals who are interested in correcting any erroneous facts, structuring stronger arguments, and generally improving the overall language and tone of the brief. A PDF version of the original draft is available for the review of late-comers who wish to gain an understanding of the evolution of the document. As a caveat, the site implores individuals to respect the purpose and goal of the wiki and to not engage in an editing war of perspectives. It would be interesting to learn how successful their efforts are in this regard. Made possible by a grant from Microsoft, the project is still growing and its team welcomes suggestions from its users with regard to how the site can serve other collaborative purposes within the context of the settlement.
    [Author: A. Emerson]
Typography for Lawyers
    URL: http://www.typographyforlawyers.com/
    Typography for Lawyers is an innovative concept introduced through a website created and maintained by Matthew Butterick, a civil litigation attorney based in Los Angeles, CA. Drawing on his background in graphic design and typography, Mr. Butterick makes the insightful point that legal writing stands to benefit from a clear understanding of typography. The site briefly defines typography as "the visual component of the written word." Upon first reading, one’s mind jumps to the conclusion that typography I simply another word for font, but not so. Mr. Butterick goes on to explain that typography is a matter of carefully balancing aesthetics with functionality, and therein lies its value for attorneys. The purpose of his site is to provide a typography guide specifically designed for attorneys who are concerned with being both professional and persuasive in their profession. In the interest of efficiency, the guide is divided into basic, intermediate and advanced levels, and addresses everything from office stationery and internal memoranda to court filings. He asserts that every document has room for improvement, even those whose format is more strictly confined by court rules. A well-used comment feature is enabled on most pages, so visitors to the site may gain the perspectives of others. There is also a page recommending several books for additional reading on generally improving one’s legal writing. Mr. Butterick is careful to limit the time he spends discussing the history and theory of typography, thereby maintaining the site as a practical resource for the busy practitioner. Hopefully he will overlook my use of straight quotes in this annotation – a clear violation of one of his cardinal rules – especially if I make the point of commenting on his excellent use of font, I mean typography, on his opening page.
    [Author: A. Emerson]


InSITE contributors: A. Emerson, J. Pajerek (editor)
© 2009 Cornell Law Library

The contents of this publication and any recommendations therein are the opinions of the authors and do not reflect the views of Cornell University.