This week we’re teaching low cost and free legal resources, cost effective searching, researching administrative law, focusing on citation resources, celebrating Arab American Heritage Month, and previewing Ohio Oral Arguments.
This Week’s Research Sessions
Monday, April 3, 2023
Advanced Legal Research
Legal Technology & Research Instructional Services Librarian, Shannon Kemen & Electronic Resources & Instructional Technology Librarian Ron Jones
1:30pm – 2:55pm
Room 107
Lawyering II, Advocacy, section 1
Instructional & Reference Services Librarian Laura Dixon-Caldwell
Low Cost & Free Legal Research
1:30pm – 2:55pm
Room 145
Lawyering II, Advocacy, section 6
Interim Director Susan Boland
Cost Effective Legal Research
1:30pm – 2:55pm
Room 135
Lawyering II, Advocacy, section 2
Interim Director Susan Boland
Low Cost & Free Legal Resources
4:40pm – 6:05pm
Room 135
Wednesday, April 5, 2023
Advanced Legal Research
Legal Technology & Research Instructional Services Librarian, Shannon Kemen & Electronic Resources & Instructional Technology Librarian Ron Jones
1:30pm – 2:55pm
Room 107
Thursday, April 6, 2023
Lawyering II, Advocacy, section 5
Electronic Resources & Instructional Technology Librarian Ron Jones
Introduction to Administrative Law Research
1:30pm – 2:55pm
Room 145
Lawyering II, Advocacy, section 2
Interim Director Susan Boland
Cost Effective Legal Research
4:40pm – 6:05pm
Room 135
Oral Argument Help
As you get ready for oral arguments in your Advocacy class, be sure and check out the resources on our Oral Advocacy Guide and last week’s featured resources!
Featured Study Aids
Legal Citation in a Nutshell
Available via the West Academic Study Aid subscription, this nutshell provides a useful reference resource to aid students in formulating citations. Learning legal citation is one of the difficult (and sometimes admittedly annoying) tasks that students new to the law face. This book is designed to ease that task. It initially focuses on conventions that underlie all accepted forms and systems of legal citation. Building on that understanding and an explanation of the process of using citations in legal writing, the book then discusses and illustrates the particular rules of The Bluebook and the ALWD Citation Guide for citing cases, statutes, and all other major legal sources.
Legal Writing: Examples & Explanations
Available via the Aspen Learning Library, this study aid covers different types of legal writing. Part IV covers revising and rewriting.
Skills & Values: Lawyering Process, Legal Writing & Advocacy
Available via the LexisNexis Digital Library, Chapter 7 in this text covers legal citation. It includes practice exercises. Chapters 8 & 9 cover writing, editing, and proofreading.
Featured Guides
Bluebook Citation 101 — Academic Format
If writing a seminar paper, you will need to provide correct attribution to your sources. Failure to do so can result in plagiarism issues! This guide covers Bluebook rules and styles for academic legal writing.
Bluebook Citation 101 — Practitioner Format
The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation is generally the default legal citation manual. It is compiled by the editors of the Columbia Law Review, the Harvard Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and The Yale Law Journal and began in 1926. It is now in its 21st edition. Other general legal citation manuals include ALWD, and The Redbook. Additionally, each jurisdiction and court may have its own citation rules. Ohio, for example, has its own writing manual.
Featured Treatise
Scholarly Writing for Law Students
Available in the Law Reference KF250 .F35 2011, this book teaches law students how to write scholarly papers for seminars, law reviews, and law-review competitions and how to have their work recognized. It helps novices and more experienced scholars alike to write papers with a minimum of anxiety and a maximum of creativity. Employing a process theory of writing, the text first describes the enterprise of scholarly writing and then discusses techniques for brainstorming topics and theses, researching, drafting, and revising for substance and style. It covers both traditional doctrinal topics and newer areas like empirical studies. There are also chapters on footnotes, avoiding plagiarism, law review practice, and dissemination of student work through publication and submission to national writing competitions. Appendices provide a sample law-review competition paper, answers to in-text exercises, sample syllabi for scholarly writing courses, and a rubric for evaluating and editing scholarly papers and articles.
Featured Website
Introduction to Basic Legal Citation
This online publication is indexed to both ALWD and Bluebook citation manuals. The content of this guide is also available in three different e-book formats: 1) a pdf version; 2) a version designed specifically for use on the full range of Kindles as well as other readers or apps using the Mobi format; and 3) a version in ePub format.
Featured Videos
Tips & Tricks for Citation for Moot Court Part 1: Bluebook Organization & General Rules
This video provides a guide to citation for those participating in Moot Court. Part I of the video series covers major changes in the 21st edition of the Bluebook, the organization of the Bluebook, and general rules 1-9. The video is 12:05 minutes long and features closed captioning.
Tips & Tricks for Citation for Moot Court Part 2: Cases, Statutes & Legislation, Administrative Regulations
This video covers the specific source rules 10 (cases), 12 (statutes and session laws), and 14 (administrative regulations) in the Bluebook. It is 9:58 minutes long and features a table of contents and closed captioning.
Tips & Tricks for Citation for Moot Court Part 3: Brief Formatting & Citation Tools
This video looks at using Word and citation tools such as Lexis for Microsoft Office to help you with Bluebook citation. It is 6:54 minutes long and features closed captioning and a table of contents.
Celebrate Arab American Heritage Month
April is National Arab American Heritage Month (NAAHM) and celebrates the heritage, culture, and contributions of Arab Americans. Immigrants with origins from the Arab world have been arriving to the United States since before our country’s independence and have contributed to our nation’s advancements in science, business, technology, foreign policy, and national security. The Arab American Foundation and Arab America initiated the National Arab American Heritage Month in 2017. States and other organizations began recognizing April as National Arab American Heritage Month and this year President Biden issued an official proclamation.
According to the Arab American Institute, “Today, it is estimated that nearly 3.7 million Americans trace their roots to an Arab country. Arab Americans are found in every state, but more than two thirds of them live in just ten states: California, Michigan, New York, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Metropolitan Los Angeles, Detroit, and New York are home to one-third of the population.” Ohio has one of the fastest growing Arab populations in the country.
Selected Resources to Learn More for Arab American Heritage Month
Beatrice Alvarez, Celebrate Arab American Heritage Month, PBS (Mar. 31, 2023)
Every April, PBS celebrates Arab American Heritage Month by sharing films about Arab American communities and documentaries by Arab American filmmakers.
Arab American National Museum (AANM)
The Arab American National Museum (AANM) is the first and only museum of its kind in the United States devoted to recording the Arab American experience.
Arab American History and Culture, Smithsonian
In 1962, Dr. Alixa Naff set out to tell the story of Arab immigrants from Syria and Lebanon. In addition to investigating an area that had received little scholarly attention, her use of oral history as the basis of the research was innovative. In 1984, Naff donated her collection including the oral histories, archival materials, and artifacts to the National Museum of American History. You can read about her in “Voices from the past: Arab American Oral Histories” and explore items from her collection and others related to Arab American history and culture from across the Smithsonian. Faris and Guide to the Faris and Yamna Naff Arab American Collection.
Arabic Newspapers Published in the Diaspora
Arab communities in the diaspora have been active in publishing their own newspapers and journals all over the world. Although not all these newspapers are published primarily in Arabic, they all deal with the news of the Arab communities in those countries, as well as the Arab World as a whole, each from its own perspective.
Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies
The Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies was established as a research and outreach center for the production and dissemination of knowledge about Lebanese immigration to the United States and around the world.
April Oral Arguments at the Ohio Supreme Court
You can view the live stream of oral arguments on the Court’s website or see them after the arguments take place in the Ohio Channel archives.
Tuesday, April 4, 2023
State v. Tancak – whether a trial court’s failure to advise of mandatory consecutive sentences as it relates to the maximum penalties provision of Crim.R. 11(C)(2)(a) on one count invalidates the remaining counts that do not have mandatory consecutive sentences. Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview
Bd. of Commissioners Mill Creek Park Metro. Dist. v. Less – (1) whether the appellate court decision substituted itself for and eliminated the statutorily required necessity hearing to be held pursuant to Ohio Rev. Code sec. 163.09(B)(1) at the trial court level, and (2) whether the appellate court unlawfully restricted the scope of the property acquisition authority of all Ohio park boards operating pursuant to Ohio Rev. Code sec. 1545.11 Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview
In re Application for Correction of Birth Rec. of Adelaide – (1) whether the plain language of Ohio Rev. Code sec. 3705.15 precludes probate courts from hearing a transgender person’s application to correct the sex-marker of her birth certificate; (2) if Ohio Rev. Code sec. 3705.15 were ambiguous, the statute should be construed to avoid the unappealed constitutional injuries found in Ray v. McCloud, 507 F. Supp. 3d 925 (S.D. Ohio 2020), which have prompted the relevant state agencies and a number of courts (including the Ohio Supreme Court) to adopt implementing guidance; and (3) whether state courts should give persuasive weight to the federal court’s conclusion in that case. Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview
Wednesday, April 6, 2023
Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Ass’n v. Cleveland – (1) whether the appealing party must provide notice to the attorney who represented the opposing party during the arbitration proceedings when appealing an arbitration award, and (2) whether an application to vacate an arbitration award can be filed in a form other than a motion as long as the documentation required by Ohio Rev. Code sec. 2711.14 is provided. cities can tax nonresident workers who did their jobs outside of the city during the pandemic. Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview
State v. Mills – (1) whether the appeals court should order the trial court to hold a hearing if there is a reasonable doubt of the defendant’s competency upon review of a claim that a criminal defendant was not competent to stand trial, and (2) whether a criminal defendant waives the right to claim incompetence by refusing to submit to a competency evaluation. Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview
State v. Schilling – (1) whether the Supreme Court of Ohio ruling in State v. Henderson (2020), which disallowed the correction of a sentencing error outside of a direct appeal, applies when a trial court gives the wrong registration requirements to a sex offender and the mistake isn’t appealed; and (2) whether a sex offender convicted in Ohio can receive credit toward the registration obligations when the offender lives in another state and registered there. Court News Ohio Oral Argument Preview