Legal Research

Five for a Friday

By Simon Fodden

This entry’s a mixed bag of five items of interest, each of which deserves a post on its own. But here in blogland news and links come rushing by and are easily lost in the wake if they aren’t at least noted in passing. Herewith, then, NB:

FreeLegalWeb

U.K. publishing consultant Nick Holmes’s grand dream of 

. . . a collaborative project designed to join up and make sense of publicly accessible law and authored commentary, and to encourage ongoing contribution and participation, for the benefit of lawyers, advisers and the public at large . . .

is now a reality in beta. FreeLegalWeb launched three days ago with a focus on housing law. There’s a pleasingly constructed “Citator” that lets you search or browse through legislation and judgments in any area of law, and an offer to anyone with “a legal background” to write explanatory pieces. There’s much more here, so I’ll return in the near future to see if I can’t do justice to this bold project at that time.

Bodleian Law Blog

Oxford University’s Bodleian Law Library has a blog, the amusingly named Law Bod Blog, that’s been in existence since 2008. Posting is sporadic — an average of maybe a post a week — but, as you’d imagine, the content is worthwhile. Recently, for example, there have been posts on a website for copyright history, the U.K. Treaties Library on BAILII, and the revitalization of the International Criminal Court.

Aboriginal Statistics

Statistics Canada recently released a large set of important data concerning Canada’s aboriginal peoples. Aboriginal Statistics at a Glance provides data and summary discussion in the following areas: Population counts, Population growth, Median age, Provincial/territorial distribution, Mobility, Family composition, Housing conditions, Aboriginal languages, Education, Employment, Income, Health, Life expectancy, Justice. 

As you might imagine, much of this paints a disgraceful picture of Canada’s treatment of its aboriginal popularion, none so telling, perhaps, as the fact that though aboriginal people represent 3.1% of all adults they account for “25% [of all adults] admitted to provincial/territorial sentenced custody and 18% of all adults admitted to federal custody.”

MyHein

According to the Law Librarian Blog, the marvelous HeinOnline will have held a webinar yesterday on “What is MyHein & How to Use It”. (Presumably, it will be archived shortly and viewable online.) But I have to ask: am I the only one who finds “MyHein” just a trifle . . . comic? For me, probably because I speak a little German, this pulls irresistably towards “MeinHein.” And then there’s the problem of “Hein” and “heinie” — as in the disparaging expression “in a hen’s heinie,” meaning buttocks (from “hind end”?). But it’s probably just me, even though I’m no longer in 4th grade. Honestly.

Indian Bar Exam

The Indian blog Legally India reports that of 171 candidates only 11 passed the recent examination set by the Bombay Incorporate Law Society to become Bombay solicitors. Not a single person taking the examination for the first time passed it. These results are not out of line with results from prior years. As might be expected, the maximum failure rate was with respect to the taxation exam. Because the weekend’s upon us and you’ll have a bit of time on your hands, I’m providing a link to three of the exams [PDF] so that you can test yourself. 

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on June 25, 2010 (boomark / email).