Cocky Law Blawg

On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Senate Bill S.744, entitled the Border Security, Economic Security, and Immigration Modernization Act, in a 13-5 vote.  The bill aims to create a thirteen year path to citizenship for current undocumented immigrants, but is contingent upon strengthening security along the Mexican-U.S. border.  The bill also seeks to improve the process used to bring high-skilled immigrants into the U.S. workforce.  The bill next goes before the full Senate.

On Tuesday, the Southern Poverty Law Center sued the South Carolina Department of Social Services (SCDSS) on behalf of couple whose adopted child, M.C., underwent sex re-assignment surgery while in the custody of the state.  The suit was also filed against individual doctors and social workers. SCDSS decided to have the child, who was born with both testicular and ovarian tissue, undergo surgery to make M.C. a girl at the age of sixteen months.  Now eight years old, M.C. identifies as a boy.

The Southern Poverty Law Center filed lawsuits on behalf of the family in both state and federal court.  The lawsuits allege that the SCDSS violated the child’s due process rights to bodily integrity, privacy, and liberty by subjecting M.C. to a procedure that was both painful and medically unnecessary.  The parents are seeking a declaratory judgment as well as compensatory damages.

On Tuesday, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Switzerland’s law on assisted suicide failed to provide sufficient guidelines on the extent of one’s right to die, as it was never clarified whether those guidelines applied only to those suffering from a terminal illness.  This violates Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects every individual’s right to respect for private and family life.  The question arose when an elderly Swiss woman, Alda Gross, who wished to end her life instead of becoming increasingly frail could not find a doctor to prescribe a lethal dosage because she had no clinical illness.  The court limited its ruling, deciding that Gross’s right to respect for her private and family life was violated without making a decision in regards to the substance of the Swiss law.

On Sunday, the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights took effect.  The Protocol allows a United Nations committee to review complaints from people/groups who’ve exhausted all options for justice within their own countries for violations of economic, social, and/or cultural rights.  The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights will examine complaints, and then send its views and recommendations to all parties involved.  The state party is required to give consideration o the committee’s recommendations and submit a written response within six months.

With only ten countries having ratified the Protocol, however, it’s not clear how great an effect this will have.  Because nations must opt in, some critics suspect that those nations likely of violating these types of rights will not be governed by the Protocol, leaving the people living in those countries from protection.

Click here to see the list of the Coleman Karesh Law Library’s new acquisitions for the month of April.

Out working this summer?  Here are just a few of the new books you might find helpful!

A Student’s Guide to Trial Objections, by Charles B. Gibbons — KF 8935 .Z9 G46 2010.

The Elements of Contract Drafting with Questions and Clauses for Consideration, by George W. Kuney — KF 801 .A7 K86 2011

A Handbook of Criminal Law Terms — KF 9217 .H36 2000.

Courtroom Evidence Handbook, by Steven Goode & Olin Guy Wellborn III–KF 8935 .Z9 G63 2012

A Student’s Guide to Elements of Proof, by Ronald L. Carlson — KF 8935 .Z9 C373 2012

There are also books on everything from antitrust’s role in baseball to illustrated biographies of the Supreme Court justices, so come check them out!

Here’s a great new resources for those of you doing international criminal law research on gender issues!  The War Crimes Research Office and the Women and International Law Program at American University’s Washington College of Law have launched a new website, the Gender Jurisprudence and International Criminal Law Project: www.genderjurisprudence.org.  The website includes the Gender Jurisprudence Collections, an excellent new database containing over 26,000 documents from international criminal courts and tribunals relating to gender-based violence.  Document types range from pre-trial to appeals proceedings, and include judgments, indictments, chamber decisions, and orders, among others.

The database allows you to search documents by tribunal, date, name of the accused, document type, and stage of the proceeding, to browse the collection, or to perform a keyword search.  The database allows allows you to search by sexual or gender-based issue or by sexual and gender-based charges.

Check it out!

On Thursday, April 18, the Digital Public Libraries of America launched a beta version of a portal to American archival and historical materials. Visit the DPLA at http://dp.la and be amazed! And there’s more! Visit the South Carolina Digital Library for historical and archival materials at the state level. Hat tip to Kate Boyd of USC’s Thomas Cooper Library for getting the word out about these great resources.

Doing some international legal research this summer?  Check out the Dag Hammarskjold Library’s United Nations Resources Research Guides.  The UN Resources research guide allows you to find appropriate research tools alphabetically, by organization, or by theme.  It also has links to the library catalogs for the different groups within the United Nations and a list of resources to find UN statistics.

Looking specifically for UN documents?  Try the UN Documentation Research Guide.  Organized by type of document, it explains the different type of documents and how to find different types of documents.  There are also separate research guides to find materials of the General Assembly, the Security Council, the International Court of Justice, and the Economic and Social Council.   Finally, there are research guides organized to find resources by theme, on topics such as disarmament, the environment, human rights, international law, and peacekeeping.

These are definitely work checking out if you’re looking for primary source UN documentation.

Click here to see the list of the Coleman Karesh Law Library’s new acquisitions for the month of March.

Consider checking out one of our excellent, new study aids:

• The Glannon Guide to Civil Procedure: Learning Civil Procedure Through Multiple-Choice Questions and Analysis
• The Glannon Guide to Constitutional Law: Individual Rights and Liberties: Learning Constitutional Law Through Multiple-Choice Questions and Analysis
• The Glannon Guide to Criminal Procedure: Learning Criminal Procedure Through Multiple-Choice Questions and Analysis
• The Glannon Guide to Property: Learning Property Through Multiple-Choice Questions and Analysis

There are also new books on the Fifth Amendment, intellectual property law (trademarks, patents, and copyright), expert witnesses, and much, much more!