tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.comments2023-11-02T09:49:54.984-05:00The Life of BooksAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15177644551419050212noreply@blogger.comBlogger199125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.post-46242380995527974242013-02-02T11:19:03.863-06:002013-02-02T11:19:03.863-06:00I agree with Jason; we need a taxonomy (he tried t...I agree with Jason; we need a taxonomy (he tried to put some order in legal taxonomy through his website). But Google may prefer some searchable dissorder. I also agree with your "dream"; maybe soon will appear such app. Meantime, the "Encyclopedia of Law" (lawi.us, lawi.asia, lawin.org, etc) is trying something similar but in a small scale. I think that the Encyclopedia, as aSalvadorhttp://lawjournal.eunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.post-30632399514767475512011-12-13T11:54:54.010-06:002011-12-13T11:54:54.010-06:00Just thought I'd let others know, the PublicRe...Just thought I'd let others know, the PublicResource.org address is not correct.<br><br>It is actually Public.Resource.orgAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.post-71312030187063357572011-11-05T12:00:54.443-05:002011-11-05T12:00:54.443-05:00Discount the "surveys of recent or notable ca...Discount the "surveys of recent or notable cases" ?<br /><br />Hmmm... I wonder. In my opinion, it all depends on what you want to do and how you define "leading cases".<br /><br />As a law librarian researcher and a jurist working in a law firm, I am often asked to do complicated, thorough boolean queries, digging deep in French case law databases.<br /><br />Through my job,Emmanuel Barthe (France)http://www.precisement.org/blog/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.post-5519543217563546652011-10-20T11:51:17.604-05:002011-10-20T11:51:17.604-05:00I'm really excited to hear more about your wor...I'm really excited to hear more about your work this year, Rich! A few thoughts:<br /><br />1. Why not include citations from other judicial opinions in the analysis? Citations in law reviews might show an academic interest in cases with constitutional issues -- where citations by other judges in opinions might correlate better with precedential authority. <br /><br />We do something like Ed Waltershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10022212192941561912noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.post-44593310112297954402011-10-20T08:58:08.465-05:002011-10-20T08:58:08.465-05:00Dick, We should have a better picture of the numbe...Dick, We should have a better picture of the numbers of cases in a few weeks. I'm curious about that, too. The question about student written pieces, also raises and interesting question. It was common practice in earlier journals to have a section called, "Recent Cases," or something like that. I have to look more closely at those to see if they're worth including. But modern Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15177644551419050212noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.post-74450690907211954372011-10-20T08:35:46.495-05:002011-10-20T08:35:46.495-05:00Rich: As always your work is thought-provoking and...Rich: As always your work is thought-provoking and suggestive. A couple comments:<br /><br />For one, it is surprising to me, given the size of the law review literature, that the number of cases discussed would be as small as you think it might. This in itself would be a rather significant finding. (I am not clear from your posting, though, about the make-up of your database of “law reviews” Dick Dannernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.post-43801590165223761682011-10-17T17:34:34.462-05:002011-10-17T17:34:34.462-05:00Echoing what Tom Bruce says above. Zotero can dige...Echoing what Tom Bruce says above. Zotero can digest RDF, and it would be great to have. I'm not much of an RDF jockey (and need to read up), but it might make sense to separate the details needed for building cites and the tags etc needed for categorization into separate ontologies. There are models about that can be used for the former.Frank Bennetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12686304865100384900noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.post-41549088317857476882011-10-17T12:54:56.503-05:002011-10-17T12:54:56.503-05:00Rich,
Interesting concepts - a leap back to the fu...Rich,<br />Interesting concepts - a leap back to the future with the concept of leading cases (ALR) vs all cases (NRS). Hmmm. Isn't that what Westlaw Next is doing with its social context component - if more people who know what they are doing cite this case then it must be important and the algorithm will bubble it up higher in the returns?<br />Karl GrubenKarl Grubennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.post-86543726245979955552011-10-16T16:58:55.037-05:002011-10-16T16:58:55.037-05:00Rich:
This is the sort of thing that would work w...Rich:<br /><br />This is the sort of thing that would work well as a metadata model expressed in RDF, one that comprehends both the cases and the law review articles, and makes use of categorization schemes that might arguably be applied to each.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.post-43982508223195895342011-10-16T13:44:24.317-05:002011-10-16T13:44:24.317-05:00Suggest looking at Katz & Bommarito's work...Suggest looking at Katz & Bommarito's work on judicial citation networks: http://computationallegalstudies.com/tag/judicial-citation-network/ (scroll down)Robert Richardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00007643417836131552noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.post-52299200864509001412011-10-15T18:39:21.101-05:002011-10-15T18:39:21.101-05:00Interesting! This would tie in nicely with Zotero/...Interesting! This would tie in nicely with Zotero/CSL legal support for authoring @ http://citationstylist.org/Frank Bennetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12686304865100384900noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.post-57163223054133435992011-10-14T12:06:12.372-05:002011-10-14T12:06:12.372-05:00Also check out ..
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxp...Also check out ..<br /><br />http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2006/05/the_most_heavil.html<br /><br />..and..<br /><br />http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=785826<br /><br />..where Adam Steinman finds the 1000 most cited cases as part of the paper cited above.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.post-78345232433383555182011-10-14T11:54:21.639-05:002011-10-14T11:54:21.639-05:00Precydent was a somewhat similar effort back in 20...Precydent was a somewhat similar effort back in 2006-2009. The project folded, but the law prof who did the research is surely still around. Here's a link. <br /><br />http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/law_librarian_blog/2008/01/law-prof-as-too.html<br /><br />John Mayer<br />jmayer@cali.orgAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.post-44787989147375315962011-10-14T09:57:36.923-05:002011-10-14T09:57:36.923-05:00Time will tell whether this is a valid method for ...Time will tell whether this is a valid method for helping improve legal research and understanding of the law, but it certainly is an innovative idea and I look forward to the results.KenHirshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04646803840386211229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.post-56321364679081891912011-06-25T22:02:04.303-05:002011-06-25T22:02:04.303-05:00I should clarify, my above comment was not meant t...I should clarify, my above comment was not meant to imply that the ability to search effectively through case data is any replacement for secondary material. Far from it. What it is a replacement for is the old providers' classification and citation systems for cases. In other words, legal commentary will always be useful, but with a good public access system you no longer need their Danielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15069060425209939908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.post-86911326696960927922011-06-25T20:35:43.707-05:002011-06-25T20:35:43.707-05:00Actually, as long it's accompanied by some bas...Actually, as long it's accompanied by some basic citation tools, access to "every single case ever decided on the subject" is exactly what I want. To take an example, I can put in a simple search on Austlii for words like 'age' 'capacity' 'enter into contracts', find which cases were cited by Magistrate Jones on the issue, click on the hyperlinked citations,Danielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15069060425209939908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.post-53669325933986666002010-12-15T11:54:40.450-06:002010-12-15T11:54:40.450-06:00Jason, I agree with you. I think that it's pos...Jason, I agree with you. I think that it's possible to find (or establish) a standard taxonomy for web-based content. I'm not sure it's a horse and cart issue as much as it is a chicken and egg one. Someone, or some group simply needs to step forward and propose and begin using a standard. This should be done with much thought and care, it should also be shopped around and presented Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15177644551419050212noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.post-29855746558187176542010-12-14T15:14:07.120-06:002010-12-14T15:14:07.120-06:00Richard,
Wonderful post. One thing I see missing ...Richard,<br /><br />Wonderful post. One thing I see missing is a larger organizing principle. It is one thing to index, tag, and, generally, make the information findable, but without a clear taxonomy for certain subjects, a lot is lost without context. It is one of the advantages of digests, and it is something that SpindleLaw is trying to create with the subjects it covers. There is no doubt Jasonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11197415915742132425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.post-87291177171504886472010-11-15T23:20:24.062-06:002010-11-15T23:20:24.062-06:00Dear Richard,
We read your blog The Life of Book...Dear Richard, <br /><br />We read your blog The Life of Books and we really like your blog, especially the post Open Access Plus (we are attempting a very similar sort of project). We are currently developing a legal database, known as Jade (Judgments and Decisions Enhanced) at www.jade.barnet.com.au which is part of our OpenLaw initiative that seeks to provide free high-quality case law databaseUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13204606970320404809noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.post-57634537024753100022010-10-07T16:36:02.845-05:002010-10-07T16:36:02.845-05:00Great post, Rich! And I would go a bit farther and...Great post, Rich! And I would go a bit farther and say that without publishers, we would have to democracy, at least U.S. style. In the U.S., as you point out, we depend on commercial publishers to put out federal statutes as the U.S. Code, and I contend that democracy depends on citizen access on documents such as the Constitution and statutes, at a minimum. <br /><br />Now, consider that, asBetsy McKenziehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16824582240163409553noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.post-79106270237588827982010-10-07T11:20:42.067-05:002010-10-07T11:20:42.067-05:00Anonymous, This is fascinating! I left it out, for...Anonymous, This is fascinating! I left it out, for two reasons: First, I didn't want to detract from the observations about content that I was making. The fact that most American Law is published by foreign corporations should be a source of shame for us all. (I secretly hope that one of these days, someone like Rush Limbaugh get ahold of that information.....!)<br /><br />Second, I've Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15177644551419050212noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.post-1318109384216268722010-10-07T10:31:50.369-05:002010-10-07T10:31:50.369-05:00You left out the fact that the major U.S. law book...You left out the fact that the major U.S. law book publishers are owned by foreign publishers who come from markets where lawyers are used to paying high prices for law books because the markets are small and segmented. My editor told me that when their company was acquired, they were informed that prices were going to increase because European law publishers were used to making 30% profit Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.post-87366338407954507012010-10-07T09:28:06.892-05:002010-10-07T09:28:06.892-05:00Richard,
Excellent post. Sean Hocking had a relat...Richard,<br /><br />Excellent post. Sean Hocking had a related piece on Slaw last week calling for legal publishers to bring back "the publisher" in their businesses. Hocking, Legal "Publishing" Companies & People: That's What We Need (Sept. 30, 2010). I'm glad you pointed out the work of the independents because the face of our industry would have you believe thatJasonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11197415915742132425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.post-2725761660700854502010-09-24T15:13:28.926-05:002010-09-24T15:13:28.926-05:00These numbers are pagination guides, not headnotes...These numbers are pagination guides, not headnotes or key numbers. They match the page numbering of the official reporter for any particular case, which for U.S. Supreme Court decisions is the "U.S.Reports." Google has actually done a very good job, from what I have seen(I'm a law librarian) of the cases put up in Google Scholar Legal.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9628542.post-84494088125728640432010-06-29T09:00:46.155-05:002010-06-29T09:00:46.155-05:00Open access is good. But expertise should also be ...Open access is good. But expertise should also be prized, and paid for (at a reasonable price). As an editor and publisher of law reports I am reassured by your prediction that the virtues of selectivity and reliability will continue to be valued, while those who wish to obtain their law in its primary, unmediated state, will be able to do so, subject to caveats as to reliability and Paul Magrathhttp://www.lawreports.co.uknoreply@blogger.com