The Status of Users in Archival Enterprise

T. R. Schellenberg, the dean of modern archival enterprise, set a dual objective for the profession. The end of all archival effort is to preserve valuable records and make them available for use, he wrote. When Schellenberg wrote these words some thirty-five years ago, archivists were oriented primarily toward the materials they worked with and perceived the users of these materials as a relatively small, elite group of scholars, mainly historians

The Civil Law Collection of the Texas Supreme Court

Mr. Widener inventories and analyzes an unusual collection of 319 volumes of Roman law, canon law, and European law formed by the Texas Supreme Court. He reviews the collection\u27s contents, origins, history, use, and destiny. He argues that this seemingly exotic collection was probably the handiwork of Chief Justice John Hemphill (1803-1862) as an attempt to introduce civil law principles into a common law system, an attempt that was only partially successful. He concludes with reflections on institutional collections of rare law books. Earlier versions were presented at Lund University (June 2007), the University of Kansas (August 2000), and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (September 1997), and published as El derecho hispano y neorromano en la antigua biblioteca de la Corte Suprema de Texas, 1854-1944: un estudio de procedencia, Anuario Mexicano de Historia del Derecho 10 (1998), 797-827

The Five-Tool Mediator: Game Theory, Baseball Practices, and Southpaw Scouting

This essay borrows heavily from the fields of game theory, baseball business strategy and neuropsychology. Knitting these together, the author advocates that mediators become inciters and advocates for an outcome that solves problems, irrespective of the amount in controversy and the initial gap between offer and counter-offers of settlement. This is not an essay on how to do facilitator’s tasks in settlement negotiations; instead, the reader should consider how to think about the mediator’s role in the process, advancing the value proposition in negotiations. This essay does not propose that mediators become group therapists but instead urges them to relentlessly expose (1) the essence of each party’s intentions and purpose within the controversy, and (2) a range of satisfactory outcomes from the perspective of each party. Once that is accomplished, the second, incitement, phase may commence. In that phase, three transitions must occur. First, the concept of wounding must fade into the background while the concept of amelioration – the path of most proximate to making each party whole – assumes the foreground. In that initial transition, the warriors – those for whom the encounter’s savagery matters equally with the outcome – must be disarmed and converted into fellow seekers of imaginative solutions to the joint problems to be resolved. This requires foremost that the mediators alter the mind-set of the adversaries from the binary thinking realm. The second transition converts each party’s belief that a win is the ultimate goal to understanding that there is a problem to be solved at the lowest possible cost to him in the most expeditious manner feasible – and that such an outcome is as close to victory as he may be realizable. This transition requires moving from pragmatic to imaginative thinking about a controversy’s resolution. A realistic perspective in a controversy, while helpful, is not all-sufficient to achieving a resolution in many cases unless a third-party adjudicator intervenes and directs the dispute’s outcome. The pragmatist’s perspective, that the dispute is a transaction whose terms have been written down but not agreed to, yet, will not guide the parties down the path to resolution. The appropriate perspective sees the dispute environment as writ on a white board, the problem set forth at its top margin and the resolution schematic remaining to be written. Here, every possible solution is available for capture, evaluation and incorporation into an overall solution. The third transition relates to trust: Learning to accept evidence of trust extended by the other disputant and to extend indications of trust without expectation of reciprocity from the adversary. Adopting these attitudes will set the facilitator on the path to becoming a five-tool mediator. For the person not engaged in the business of facilitation, this essay offers a lens through which to evaluate the talent of a prospective facilitator or to gauge a current facilitator’s ongoing performance

Chasing the Atticus Code - Preserving Adjudication Integrity in Local Administrative Hearings

In the United States administrative law realm, there purportedly exist more than 19 thousand municipal governments, 16 thousand town or township governments; three thousand county governments, 13 thousand school districts and 35 thousand special district governments. This essay argues that these local adjudicative loci largely neglect the ethical guidance or direction of lawyers serving in government-official capacities without holding elected nor judicial positions. I dub these decision-makers “Atticus.” Citizens support the notion of external codes of professional responsibility for such persons not necessarily because they believe that “lawyering rules” are well constructed or property enforced, but because they doubt lawyers truly are self – governing in ways promoting fairness or basic cultural values. The failure of the attorney regulatory process is especially acutely felt in the local government realm. There, attorneys adjudicate through administrative hearing processes while serving as unelected and temporary. The public is intimately acquainted with those processes as direct participants. There are thousands of local governments in America, with estimates ranging to upwards of 90,000 such jurisdictions. Substantial numbers of attorneys act as hearing officers in those communities in a variety of roles. Some are independent contractors; others volunteer their services. Irrespective of compensation, I argue in this essay that, in a “non-counselor” role, Atticus is essentially ungoverned by codes of attorney professional conduct. Thus, potential for mischief abides, a circumstance worsened by the failure of many communities to impose standards of ethical behavior on these contractors or volunteers. I argue that in many instances the lone governing ethic affecting such lawyers’ behavior as they fulfill their hearing officers’ roles is their oaths of admission to practice before the bar. These oaths, sworn at the commencement of bar admission, are marginalized if not ignored altogether in discussions of appropriate lawyer professional conduct where the representation of clients is not implicated. Ultimately I recommend ways for communities and state supreme courts to implement standards appropriate for Atticus’s role and concurrently satisfy public expectations for the local adjudicative process

The Latinization of Oklahoma : case studies on Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Guymon.

Latin Americans have been a part of the geography and history of Oklahoma since the sixteenth century. Over the past two centuries, Latinos have trekked to Oklahoma to escape odious conditions in their mother countries. Hispanic immigrants came and continue to migrate to the United States. Oklahoma's employment opportunities made this state an attractive homeland for many Latinos and continue to draw new immigrants. Hispanics helped construct much of Oklahoma's infrastructure, albeit the Great Depression led many immigrants to return to their mother countries or search for refuge elsewhere. Since World War II, the Latino population has increased significantly in Oklahoma, just as it has in many other U.S. states. The sheer number of Latinos, concomitant with the support of various Latino agencies in Oklahoma, has facilitated the process of Latinization in many Oklahoma towns and cities. This study examines three of those places: Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Guymon. Each city has its own story of the way Latinization occurred. The findings suggest that Latinization is not simply a spontaneous result of the presence of so many Hispanics in these areas but is rather a palpable result of the combination of their perseverance through hard times, their innate yearning to establish a sense of place, and the invaluable support from Latino assistance organizations