The Ownership Delusion: When Law Libraries Buy Electronic Documents, Are They Getting More, or Simply Paying More?

This article explores the issues surrounding electronic document ownership in academic libraries. It discusses the guidelines of AALL with regard to licensing electronic materials, and how it measures up to what vendors are willing to offer. The author takes a critical stance on who benefits from the electronic document ownership agreements

Availability of Works Cited in Recent Law Review Articles on LEXIS, Westlaw, the Internet, and Other Databases

In this study, a group of recent law articles was examined to determine the proportion of cited resources that are easily findeable online. Searches were conducted in databases such as LEXIS and Westlaw, and on the Internet, for full-text versions of every source cited in seven articles. The results have been broken down into 13 categories, including: federal cases, books, foreign law, and legal periodicals pre-1990. Not surprisingly coverage differs widely between the categories. Overall the study found that 77% of the 1,984 citations in the articles reviewed are available online. This article concludes with a general discussion of why the percentage is likely to increase in the future

Infusing Technology Skills into the Law School Curriculum

Legal education has never considered technological proficiency to be a key outcome. Law professors may debate the merits of audiovisual teaching tools: do they work when they should?; do they facilitate learning objectives or are they just toys?; whom should they call when something breaks?; and so on. Teachers use course management sites like TWEN and Blackboard to share information and manage basic course functions. Many fear that laptops and other devices distract students in class, and some institute outright bans. Among many law teachers, technology is warily accepted, but only for the purpose of achieving traditional educational objectives. What if educators viewed technology as a competency that students need to master in order to succeed in practice? This paper will identify gaps between the use of technology in practice and in our classrooms; suggest ways that we can change what we teach, and the way we teach, to address the disparity; consider the benefits/drawbacks of developing new courses, or infusing technology-related outcomes throughout the curriculum; and propose methods to encourage professors to teach with technology in ways that model the practices of successful attorneys

Legal Research Assessment

Legal research instructors seek to provide their students with a working knowledge of important research tools, strategies with which to develop a rational research plan, and the skill to conduct research efficiently, among other things. A well-conceived legal research class may utilize short-answer assignments, quizzes, and scavenger hunt exercises as a means to establish a baseline of knowledge with critical sources; a series of research problems, with grading based upon students\u27 ability to describe a coherent and logical progression; and a pathfinder or process-oriented final exam, all depending on the instructor\u27s goals. Ultimately, the variety of available assessment tools suggests room for creativity and the existence of many appropriate alternatives. As long as instructors use a multifaceted approach, selecting assessment tools to suit course objectives, students will be engaged in the process and will become stronger, more confident legal researchers

Constitutional Aspects of Physician-Assisted Suicide After Lee v. Oregon

On November 8, 1994, Oregon voters narrowly passed the highly controversial Death with Dignity Act (Measure 16), which marked the first time that physician-assisted suicide was explicitly legalized anywhere in the world. In Lee v. Oregon, a group of physicians, several terminally ill persons, a residential care facility, and individual operators of residential care facilities sought to enjoin enforcement of the new law, claiming various constitutional infirmities. The U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon enjoined enforcement of the law, acknowledging that it raised important constitutional issues including possible violations of the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. This note analyzes the impact of the Lee and the debate surrounding physician assisted suicide. Part II of this Note outlines several important ethical and legal arguments both in favor of, and opposed to, legalized assisted suicide. Part III discusses the cases that have reviewed laws prohibiting physician-assisted suicide. Part IV examines Measure 16 in detail, including a review of the safeguards drafted into the act. This Note continues with a discussion of the constitutional questions presented in Lee v. Oregon as traditionally analyzed and as treated by the court. This Note concludes that one may not properly infer a fundamental right to assisted suicide. In addition, the Equal Protection Clause does not prevent states from recognizing a patient\u27s right to remove life-sustaining treatment and hydration, while prohibiting doctors from prescribing lethal medication to the terminally ill on request

William Mitchell College of Law\u27s Hybrid Program for J.D. Study: Answering the Call for Innovation

In January 2015, William Mitchell College of Law will launch the first American Bar Association (ABA)-approved, on-campus/ online J.D. program to further the college\u27s mission: to provide accessible, experiential, rigorous training for tomorrow\u27s lawyers. Known as the hybrid program, it will offer a legal education to talented, hard-working students who cannot access a traditional J.D. program because of location or family or work commitments. In this article, we explain the origins and pedagogical foundations of the program, as well as give an overview of the program

Urine tests for Down's syndrome screening

Background Down's syndrome occurs when a person has three copies of chromosome 21, or the specific area of chromosome 21 implicated in causing Down's syndrome, rather than two. It is the commonest congenital cause of mental disability and also leads to numerous metabolic and structural problems. It can be life-threatening, or lead to considerable ill health, although some individuals have only mild problems and can lead relatively normal lives. Having a baby with Down's syndrome is likely to have a significant impact on family life. The risk of a Down's syndrome affected pregnancy increases with advancing maternal age. Noninvasive screening based on biochemical analysis of maternal serum or urine, or fetal ultrasound measurements, allows estimates of the risk of a pregnancy being affected and provides information to guide decisions about definitive testing. Before agreeing to screening tests, parents need to be fully informed about the risks, benefits and possible consequences of such a test. This includes subsequent choices for further tests they may face, and the implications of both false positive and false negative screening tests (i.e. invasive diagnostic testing, and the possibility that a miscarried fetus may be chromosomally normal). The decisions that may be faced by expectant parents inevitably engender a high level of anxiety at all stages of the screening process, and the outcomes of screening can be associated with considerable physical and psychological morbidity. No screening test can predict the severity of problems a person with Down's syndrome will have. Objectives To estimate and compare the accuracy of first and second trimester urine markers for the detection of Down's syndrome. Search methods We carried out a sensitive and comprehensive literature search of MEDLINE (1980 to 25 August 2011), EMBASE (1980 to 25 August 2011), BIOSIS via EDINA (1985 to 25 August 2011), CINAHL via OVID (1982 to 25 August 2011), The Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness (The Cochrane Library 2011, Issue 7), MEDION (25 August 2011), The Database of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses in Laboratory Medicine (25 August 2011), The National Research Register (archived 2007), Health Services Research Projects in Progress database (25 August 2011). We studied reference lists and published review articles. Selection criteria Studies evaluating tests of maternal urine in women up to 24 weeks of gestation for Down's syndrome, compared with a reference standard, either chromosomal verification or macroscopic postnatal inspection. Data collection and analysis We extracted data as test positive or test negative results for Down's and non-Down's pregnancies allowing estimation of detection rates (sensitivity) and false positive rates (1-specificity). We performed quality assessment according to QUADAS (Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies) criteria. We used hierarchical summary ROC (receiver operating characteristic) meta-analytical methods to analyse test performance and compare test accuracy. We performed analysis of studies allowing direct comparison between tests. We investigated the impact of maternal age on test performance in subgroup analyses. Main results We included 19 studies involving 18,013 pregnancies (including 527 with Down's syndrome). Studies were generally of high quality, although differential verification was common with invasive testing of only high-risk pregnancies. Twenty-four test combinations were evaluated formed from combinations of the following seven different markers with and without maternal age: AFP (alpha-fetoprotein), ITA (invasive trophoblast antigen), ß-core fragment, free ßhCG (beta human chorionic gonadotrophin), total hCG, oestriol, gonadotropin peptide and various marker ratios. The strategies evaluated included three double tests and seven single tests in combination with maternal age, and one triple test, two double tests and 11 single tests without maternal age. Twelve of the 19 studies only evaluated the performance of a single test strategy while the remaining seven evaluated at least two test strategies. Two marker combinations were evaluated in more than four studies; second trimester ß-core fragment (six studies), and second trimester ß-core fragment with maternal age (five studies). In direct test comparisons, for a 5% false positive rate (FPR), the diagnostic accuracy of the double marker second trimester ß-core fragment and oestriol with maternal age test combination was significantly better (ratio of diagnostic odds ratio (RDOR): 2.2 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.1 to 4.5), P = 0.02) (summary sensitivity of 73% (CI 57 to 85) at a cut-point of 5% FPR) than that of the single marker test strategy of second trimester ß-core fragment and maternal age (summary sensitivity of 56% (CI 45 to 66) at a cut-point of 5% FPR), but was not significantly better (RDOR: 1.5 (0.8 to 2.8), P = 0.21) than that of the second trimester ß-core fragment to oestriol ratio and maternal age test strategy (summary sensitivity of 71% (CI 51 to 86) at a cut-point of 5% FPR). Authors' conclusions Tests involving second trimester ß-core fragment and oestriol with maternal age are significantly more sensitive than the single marker second trimester ß-core fragment and maternal age, however, there were few studies. There is a paucity of evidence available to support the use of urine testing for Down's syndrome screening in clinical practice where alternatives are available

Constitutional Aspects of Physician-Assisted Suicide After Lee v. Oregon

On November 8, 1994, Oregon voters narrowly passed the highly controversial Death with Dignity Act (Measure 16), which marked the first time that physician-assisted suicide was explicitly legalized anywhere in the world. In Lee v. Oregon, a group of physicians, several terminally ill persons, a residential care facility, and individual operators of residential care facilities sought to enjoin enforcement of the new law, claiming various constitutional infirmities. The U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon enjoined enforcement of the law, acknowledging that it raised important constitutional issues including possible violations of the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. This note analyzes the impact of the Lee and the debate surrounding physician assisted suicide. Part II of this Note outlines several important ethical and legal arguments both in favor of, and opposed to, legalized assisted suicide. Part III discusses the cases that have reviewed laws prohibiting physician-assisted suicide. Part IV examines Measure 16 in detail, including a review of the safeguards drafted into the act. This Note continues with a discussion of the constitutional questions presented in Lee v. Oregon as traditionally analyzed and as treated by the court. This Note concludes that one may not properly infer a fundamental right to assisted suicide. In addition, the Equal Protection Clause does not prevent states from recognizing a patient\u27s right to remove life-sustaining treatment and hydration, while prohibiting doctors from prescribing lethal medication to the terminally ill on request

Availability of Works Cited in Recent Law Review Articles on LEXIS, Westlaw, the Internet, and Other Databases

In this study, a group of recent law articles was examined to determine the proportion of cited resources that are easily findeable online. Searches were conducted in databases such as LEXIS and Westlaw, and on the Internet, for full-text versions of every source cited in seven articles. The results have been broken down into 13 categories, including: federal cases, books, foreign law, and legal periodicals pre-1990. Not surprisingly coverage differs widely between the categories. Overall the study found that 77% of the 1,984 citations in the articles reviewed are available online. This article concludes with a general discussion of why the percentage is likely to increase in the future