Monthly Archives: December 2011

Library Intersession Hours

During Intersession (December 15 – January 7), the Law Library hours are:

  • Monday – Saturday, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
  • Closed Sundays

We will be closed on Saturday, December 24, Monday, December 26, and Monday, January 2 in observance of the holidays.

Have a great break!

The Bar Exam Cometh

The Law Library has a slew of bar exam preparation materials available for those taking the upcoming February Arizona Bar Exam.  We know that your studying is probably well underway, so be sure to check out some of the following study materials:

Past Arizona bar exam essay questions (Feb. 2011 back to Feb. 1995)
Bar Prep Series – videos reviewing bar exam subjects, prepared by College of Law faculty

Materials in the Study Skills Collection

CALI Lessons

Many of the over 300 CALI tutorials cover bar subjects, including civil procedure, commercial transactions, con law, contracts, professional responsibility, evidence, property, and torts. To access the College of Law’s subscription to CALI, please visit our Using CALI  website.

Finally, in case you need a break from studying, some bar exam humor:

ASU Alert System and Campus Safety

Last night we had a little excitement in the vicinity of the Law Library, and police advised everyone to stay indoors until things settled down.  Fortunately no one was harmed.

During this situation, the ASU Alert System sent out important updates to keep us apprised.

While these kinds of events are rare, it never hurts to be informed. So we want to take this opportunity to remind you of some safety resources.

ASU Alert

 

Campus Safety Resources

 

Highlighting new books at the Law Library, part 12

Today is the last day of exams! Because you probably have not done much pleasure reading for the last five months, this semester’s final installment of the New Book Series features a book you may enjoy reading over winter break.

Five Chiefs: A Supreme Court Memoir
By John Paul Stevens
Law Treatises KF8745 .S78 A3 2011

In his new memoir, Justice John Paul Stevens reminisces about his tenure on the U.S. Supreme Court, and his experiences with five chief justices.  Justice Stevens opens with a brief discussion of the twelve chief justices who came before him, and then transitions to speaking about the five most recent chief justices.  The first is Fred Vinson, who Stevens interacted with while he was a law clerk to Justice Wiley Rutledge.  The second is Earl Warren, who Stevens argued before during his only Supreme Court appearance as an attorney.  Warren Burger is the third – he was the chief justice when Stevens joined the Court as an associate justice.  Next is William Rehnquist, who was a contemporary colleague of Stevens’ before he was elevated to chief justice.  The final chief justice with whom Stevens worked is the current one, Justice John Roberts.

Justice Stevens provides fascinating pieces of information about himself and the Supreme Court throughout his memoir.  His discussion of the chief justices shows how Supreme Court processes have changed (such as how oral argument time has been reduced from one hour to 30 minutes), sheds light on various time periods of his life (law clerk, attorney in private practice, and justice for the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals), and gives insight into multiple landmark cases.  Some of the most interesting portions of the book come when Justice Stevens discusses his vote to uphold the death penalty, a vote he wishes he could take back, and speaks about his time as the senior associate Justice, a post he refers to as the “second among equals.”

Overall, Five Chiefs: A Supreme Court Memoir is a great read, one that displays Justice Steven’s wit well, and offers a glimpse of what life is really like as a Supreme Court justice.

Research Guides at the Law Library

Did you know that the Law Library has a number of research guides and portals on its webpage?  These guides and portals are meant to help individuals researching specific areas of law find the materials they need.  They provide both explanation of subject matter and direction for locating resources.   The guides and portals may be particularly useful to you as you research for a paper or prepare materials for your externship or summer job.

Library research guides cover Arizona-specific subjects, such as state legislative history and Arizona public records, as well as federal subjects, including  federal bills and proposed legislation and the U.S. Supreme Court. There are also many topical research guides – bankruptcy, foreclosure, immigration, and tax law are just a few.  The Library has three research portals in addition to its many guides – Biotechnology and Genomics, Indian Law, and International Law.  The portals provide a centralized location for accessing in-depth resources.

Our most recent research guide, the tax law research guide, provides information for finding the statutes, treaties, regulations, rulings, and judicial decisions from the government’s executive, legislative, and judicial branches which compose federal tax law.  The guide also offers sources for current awareness in tax law, including updates on case law, legislation, and legal news.

Be sure to consult these resources when taking on legal research in the future!

CALI Can Help You Study for Exams

Don’t forget that CALI lessons are a free way to help you prepare for exams.

CALI lessons are interactive, computer-based tutorials published by the non-profit Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI, www.cali.org).

CALI publishes over 800 CALI lessons in 33 different legal subject areas listed at cali.org/lesson.

Please note that you must register to use CALI lessons on the Web. Registration will allow you to create your own password to use the lessons. In order to register, you will need an authorization code. The code can be found in the Law Library’s CALI Guide.  You will need to login to this page using your ASURITE ID and password. 

Good luck with exams!

Puppy Day at George Mason Law

We love animals here at the Law Library, and thus were very excited when we heard about Puppy Day at George Mason University School of Law.

Yesterday, Forever-Home Rescue Foundation volunteers brought four litters of recently-rescued puppies to George Mason for stressed-out law students to play with and enjoy.  The puppies’ visit came the week before exams, and provided a welcome study break for students.

Read more about Puppy Day at the Wall Street Journal Law Blog.  A brief video featuring some adorable puppies and more photos of the event are available at this Washington Post website.

We hope that you too can enjoy the therapeutic company of a four-legged friend before finals start!