New on the shelves – January 2016

book coverOur list of new books is now updated. Last month, the Law Library received books on a variety of topics, including updated print editions of several treatises that are highlighted on our guide to legal treatises grouped by subject at libguides.law.uci.edu/treatises.

One of these new titles is the 4th edition of LaFave’s Criminal Procedure. Of interest to research buffs: In print, this set’s finding aids (e.g. tables laws and rules grouped by jurisdiction and a 76-page index) take up over half of the last volume. Online in Westlaw, this content seems to be entirely unavailable. As I noted in 2012 about another online legal research provider, librarians and other researchers are still waiting for “beautifully-designed and highly-usable digital titles from legal publishers.” For now, you can come visit us in the law library to browse the index.

Check it out upstairs in the Reading Room at KF 9619 .L34 2015.

The Law Library’s collection is constantly growing as we purchase books and other resources to support the scholarly and clinical work of faculty and students. Please let us know if you have a suggestion for a new book.

Oxford University Press Online

logo-footer-oupExact print-replica versions of Oxford University Press Scholarship Online monographs are rolling out this month. Print-replica PDFs for all UPSO law titles should be available by the end of March, 2016.

This development has been implemented primarily to ensure that UPSO titles conform to the requirements of the Bluebook citation rules in the United States, but also benefits those of our users worldwide, whether they be students, scholars or practitioners, where the issue of citing a print work is also important.1

The UCI Law community has access to a wide selection of Oxford titles covering law and related subjects. If you’re on the UCI network, see www.universitypressscholarship.com/browse?t=OSO:law .

1. www.universitypressscholarship.com/newsitem/485/upso-law-books-will-now-have-exact-printreplica-pdfs

New on the shelves – November 2015

dissentCoverOur list of new books is now updated. Last month, the Law Library received books on a variety of topics, including several casebooks that’ll be on course reserve for Spring classes.

One of our new titles was reviewed in the New York Times by Supreme Court expert Dahlia Lithwick:

“[L]egal historian Melvin I. Urofsky’s ambitious new look at the role of dissents throughout our constitutional history offers some useful tools for making sense of the Roberts court’s recent predilection for personal, non sequitur and ad hominem dissents.”

“Urofsky is riveting when detailing the arguments and rhetorical workings of the nation’s great dissenters….”

Ambitious! Riveting! That’s quite an endorsement. Check it out upstairs in the Reading Room at KF 8748 .U76 2015.

The Law Library’s collection is constantly growing as we purchase books and other resources to support the scholarly and clinical work of faculty and students. Please let us know if you have a suggestion for a new book.

New on the shelves – September 2015

water-coverOur list of new books is now updated.

Last month’s new books included titles on intellectual property, academic success for law students, and international law, among other topics. One of these “other” books covers a newsworthy topic in Southern California right now—water. Historian John R. Burch, Jr surveys the history of this area in Water Rights and the Environment in the United States : a Documentary and Reference Guide. From the publisher’s abstract:

“[The author] reviews the conflicts among state, federal, and international agencies in dealing with water supply and points to competing legal rulings and laws as undermining the creation of a cohesive policy for all. Through an analysis of key documents, [the author] examines the recent calamities befalling the American water system—including droughts, oil spills, and natural disasters—and considers the future of water distribution to the American people. Organized into six parts, sections include doctrines and rights, waters of the West, border regions water management and flood control, environmental issues, and water supply and safety.

Check it out upstairs in the Reading Room at KF 5569 .B87 2015.

And for a more current, on-the-ground take on state and local water issues, come to the law school’s October 28 lunchtime talk with guest speaker Felicia Marcus, Chair of the California Water Resources Control Board.

The Law Library’s collection is constantly growing as we purchase books and other resources to support the scholarly and clinical work of faculty and students. Please let us know if you have a suggestion for a new book.

New on the shelves – August 2015

new-book-making-modern-american-fiscal-stateOur list of new books is now updated.

Last month’s new books included titles on education, climate change, and legal careers. We also received a few new “non-legal” titles that are shelved with the social sciences titles, downstairs in the stacks. One of these, Making the Modern American Fiscal State: Law, Politics, and the Rise of Progressive Taxation, 1877-1929, by Ajay K Mehrotra, was highlighted on the TaxProf Blog earlier this year:

Mehrotra’s award-winning book is a tour de force. It chronicles a transformative period in the development of the American fiscal state during which the old order — characterized by indirect, hidden, mercilessly regressive, and partisan taxation — gave way to a direct, transparent, steeply progressive, and professionally administered tax regime. …Mehrotra identifies and informs all of the relevant schools of thought about state-building at the turn of the century, including the influence of national crises, the “corporate liberal” view that Progressive Era reforms were designed to deflect more radical change, “progressive” historical accounts of ineluctable advancement and “great men,” and “democratic-institutionalism” as advanced not just by historians but also political scientists, sociologists, and economists.1

Check it out downstairs in the Stacks at HJ 2373 .M44 2013.

The Law Library’s collection is constantly growing as we purchase books and other resources to support the scholarly and clinical work of faculty and students. Please let us know if you have a suggestion for a new book.

1 Dennis J. Ventry Jr., Book Review, 46 J. Interdisc. Hist. 133 (2015), via Paul Caron, Ventry Reviews Mehrotra’s Making the Modern American Fiscal State, TaxProf Blog, (Jun. 3, 2015), http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2015/06/ventry-reviews-mehrotras-.html.

New on the shelves – July 2015

Our list of new books is now updated.dying-with-dignity-cover

July was an eclectic month for new books, with subjects ranging from grocery store law, to a history of legal aid in the U.S., to law in the work of philosopher Slavoj Žižek.

One of our new books is Dying with Dignity by Professor Giza Lopes. Assisted death has been in the statewide news this month1 as the California legislature reconsiders right-to-die legislation, and UCI is hosting a public debate on Doctor Assisted Suicide in September with Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and School of Medicine Professor Aaron Kheriaty. Dying with Dignity provides historical and comparative context for the issue. From the publisher’s abstract:

“Spanning a period from 1906 to the present day, [the book] examines how and why pleas for legalization of “euthanasia” made at the beginning of the 20th century were transmuted into the physician-assisted suicide laws in existence today, in the United States as well as around the world. After an introductory section that discusses the phenomenon of “medicalization” of death, author Giza Lopes, PhD, covers the history of the legal development of “aid-in-dying” in the United States, focusing on case studies from the late 1900s to today, then addresses assisted death in select European nations. The concluding section discusses what the past legal developments and decisions could portend for the future of assisted death.”

Check it out downstairs in the Stacks at K 3611.E95 L67 2015.

The Law Library’s collection is constantly growing as we purchase books and other resources to support the scholarly and clinical work of faculty and students. Please let us know if you have a suggestion for a new book.

1. See, e.g., Patrick McGreevy & Chris Megerian, California Lawmakers Revive Measures on Assisted Suicide, Smoking Age, L.A. Times (Aug. 18, 2015), http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-california-lawmakers-bring-back-aid-in-dying-bill-for-special-session-20150817-story.html.

Orientation 2015

book iconLaw Library tours and related Library orientation activities are this week! Here’s some useful information for 1Ls, transfers, and visiting students.

1L Survival Guide – Law Library basics, plus books and resources for law school success, legal research & writing, and exam prep.

Hours for the Law Library are updated on our website. Some popular library resources include:

  • Printing, scanning, and copying. See UCI Law Library > About > Computing
  • Study rooms. See UCI Law LIbrary > Students > Study Rooms
  • Phone & laptop chargers, blankets, and other amenities. See UCI Law Library > About > Using the Law Library

Course & study materials – a few places to start:

  • Course Reserves Search – for textbooks and other readings that professors put on reserve.
  • Study Aids – how to find them in ANTPAC.
  • CALI online lessons – ask me for the code.

Books in print or online – three places to start:

  1. ANTPAC – for books and journals at UCI campus libraries, including the Law Library.
  2. Melvyl – for books, journals, and other resources at libraries all over the world — resources that you can borrow via ILL (Inter-library loan.)
  3. Encore – for books at UCI, plus journal articles from 5 databases.

Off-campus access to Law Library resources usually needs the VPN (Virtual Private Network.) Check VPN Instructions from UCI Law IT.

Westlaw, Lexis, and Bloomberg questions can go to representatives.

  • Lexis: Michelle C. Yacoob, michelle.yacoob@lexisnexis.com
  • Westlaw: Kristen Knepper, kristen.knepper@thomsonreuters.com
  • BloombergBNA: Tania Wilson, twilson@bna.com

New on the shelves – May 2015

whats-wrong-with-copying-cover Our list of new books is now updated.

In May, the Law Library received books on women and the law, human rights, intellectual property, and international law, among many other topics.

One of our new books is What’s Wrong with Copying? by Professor Abraham Drassinower. From the publisher’s abstract:

“[The author] frames an author’s work as a communicative act and asserts that copyright infringement is best understood as an unauthorized appropriation of another person’s speech. According to this interpretation, copyright doctrine does not guarantee an author’s absolute rights over a work but only such rights as are consistent with both the nature of the work as speech and with the structure of the dialogue in which it participates.”

Check it out upstairs in the Reading Room at K 1447.15 .D73 2015.

The Law Library’s collection is constantly growing as we purchase books and other resources to support the scholarly and clinical work of faculty and students. Please let us know if you have a suggestion for a new book.

The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (20th ed. 2015)

old bluebook covers
Outdated copies from the personal collections of law librarians Ellen Augustiniak and Christina Tsou.

Time to toss your old Bluebook! The 20th edition is now available.

An overview of changes is available from our law librarian colleagues at William Mitchell College of Law:  Bluebook 20th edition changes @ drive.google.com

Here at UCI, the Law Library will get several copies in print. (Our vendor will be shipping them soon!) We tend to have a few on reserve, so ask for one at the counter if you forget yours at home. You can also check on the shelf out in the Reading Room at KF 245 U55.