The recent release of Netflix’s “The Railway Men,” a series centered on the 1984 gas leak at the American-owned Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, India, has reignited global interest in one of the most devastating industrial accidents in history. The lethal gas killed several thousands immediately and many more in the succeeding weeks and months. The series narrates the efforts of railway workers and others who played a crucial role in rescue operations during this crisis.
University of Wisconsin Law School alumni may remember that there used to be an area of the building affectionately known as the Reality Checkpoint. This stairway to nowhere became a landmark for a generation of law students. Today, the UW Law Library brings this unique piece of history back to the law school.
Having outgrown the original 1893 brownstone, the UW Law School building underwent a series of renovations in the mid-20th century. The stairway, which was
Continue Reading “Reality Checkpoint” Returns to UW Law School
The University of Wisconsin Law Library regularly engages in strategic planning and assessment to ensure consistency with our mission, realization of our goals, and alignment with the research and learning needs of our students and faculty.
I’m pleased to share our 2021-22 Strategic Planning and Assessment Report which describes the following strategic initiatives and our efforts to realize them.
Continue Reading UW Law Library Strategic Planning and Assessment Report
Last week, the State Democracy Research Initiative from the University of Wisconsin Law School launched two new interactive websites highlighting the uniqueness of state constitutions: The Democracy Principle & Tracking Constitutional Change.
“State constitutions are unique documents—in the rights they confer, the governmental structures they establish, and the ways they change over time,” notes Bree Grossi Wilde, Executive Director at SDRI. “They are not miniature federal constitutions, and they should be studied on their own terms. SDRI’s new
Continue Reading Two New Interactive Websites Highlight the Uniqueness of State Constitutions
Here is the latest faculty scholarship appearing in the University of Wisconsin Law School Legal Studies Research Papers series found on SSRN.
This essay begins with an exploration of the role of law and “proto lawyers” in imperial China, followed by a survey of the legal profession and its regulation in Republican China before 1949
Continue Reading Recent UW Law Faculty Scholarship
To rank well in most legal scholarship ranking systems which count “all-time citations,” scholars must have thirty to forty years of nearly continuous scholarly output. This leads to an undercounting of women and other time-limited groups and prevents existing rankings from surfacing the current top scholars according to Rob Willey, Melanie Knapp, and Ashley Matthews from George Mason University Law Library.
They have designed A New Inclusive Scholar Rank that includes more women as well as newer scholars and
Continue Reading New Legal Scholarship Ranking is More Transparent, Inclusive of Women, Newer & Non-Traditional Scholars
Since 1973, the University of Wisconsin Law School’s Hastie Fellowship has been a leader in guiding and increasing opportunities for lawyers of color and other underrepresented communities to become law professors. In celebration of its 50th anniversary, the UW Law Library has created a display that explores the history of the fellowship and honors Professor James E. Jones, Jr., the guiding force in its creation.
The display also celebrates the more than 50 Hastie Fellows who have gone
Continue Reading Display Celebrates the 50th Anniversary of UW Law School’s William H. Hastie Fellowship
The UW Law Library is thrilled to announce the launch of a new repository collection: the Herman Goldstein & Problem-Oriented Policing Collection. Longtime UW Law professor, Goldstein was an international leader in policing and criminology and is credited with introducing more just and effective strategies for police to carry out their duties.
Goldstein’s work covered the most important aspects of policing in democratic societies: the broad nature of the police function, political accountability of the police, the exercise
Continue Reading UW Law Launches Herman Goldstein & Problem-Oriented Policing Collection
The University of Wisconsin Law Library is very pleased to welcome our newest librarian – Scott Park! Scott joins us as the Digital Collections & Reference Librarian which is a new position at the Law Library. Scott will oversee our rapidly growing UW Law School Digital Repository, curating new collections, working closely with law faculty and students, and supervising student workers. He’ll also be part of our dynamic and talented team of reference librarians.
With nearly a decade
Continue Reading UW Law Library Welcomes Scott Park as Digital Collections & Reference Librarian
BadgerLink recently announced that it has renewed contracts for two newspaper collections featuring content from Wisconsin. These are great collections for researching local and state-wide issues and events. Almost 500 Wisconsin newspapers are available in BadgerLink collections.
Newspapers published in large Wisconsin & U.S. cities
U.S. Newsstream includes current and archival (to 1980s) U.S. news featuring key national and regional sources including The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Newsday,
Continue Reading BadgerLink Renews Contracts for Wisconsin+ Newspaper Databases
Here is the latest faculty scholarship appearing in the University of Wisconsin Law School Legal Studies Research Papers series found on SSRN.
We know that pro se litigants often lose. However, we know almost nothing about the circumstances in which they win. One such circumstance, this Article finds, is when they can take advantage of favorable precedent. This Article calls those favorable
Continue Reading Recent UW Law Faculty Scholarship
Here’s a trio of articles about the use of generative artificial intelligence in legal writing:
Using AI to assist in the representation of a client is neither new nor an automatic violation of the Rules of Professional
Continue Reading Trio of Articles Explore Questions about the Use of AI in Legal Writing
The Wisconsin Document Depository Program is a statutorily mandated program that requires Wisconsin state agencies to provide copies of their documents to preserve and make available a record of major state government programs. Documents are made available in two ways: at depository libraries like the University of Wisconsin Law Library and online through the Wisconsin Digital Archives.
Continue Reading Three Digital Collections of Wisconsin State Government Documents
This summer, UW Law Library will be refreshing our fifth-floor space with new carpeting. To that end, the library will be closed Monday, June 26 to Friday, June 30 as new carpet is installed at and around the fifth-floor entrance. In addition, furniture and equipment on the fifth floor may be moved or unavailable in the weeks before and after the closure.
However, if you have a legal research question or need library materials, staff will still be available
Continue Reading UW Law Library Closed from June 26-June 30
Feedspot, a social feed reader that curates news feeds from online sources, has recently compiled a list of the Top 80 Wisconsin Law Blogs. What a great round-up of content from legal experts in the Badger State. I’m honored that WisBlawg appears as #2.
The ranking is based on
Continue Reading WisBlawg Ranks #2 in List of Top 80 Wisconsin Law Blogs