Danner on Transnational Law, International Law, and Open Access to Law and Legal Scholarship

Senior Associate Dean Richard A. Danner of the Duke University School of Law, has posted two new papers on open access to legal information, on SSRN:

Open Access to Legal Scholarship: Dropping the Barriers to Discourse and Dialogue (2011), forthcoming in Journal of International Commercial Law and Technology. Abstract:

This article focuses on the importance of free and open access to legal scholarship and commentary on the law. It argues that full understanding of authoritative legal texts requires access to informed commentary as well as to the texts of the law themselves, and that free and open access to legal commentary will facilitate cross-border dialogue and foster international discourse in law. The paper discusses the obligations of scholars and publishers of legal commentary to make their work as widely accessible as possible. Examples of institutional and disciplinary repositories for legal scholarship are presented, as are the possible impacts of such initiatives as the Durham Statement on Open Access to Legal Scholarship.

Defining International Law Librarianship in an Age of Multiplicity, Knowledge, and Open Access to Law (2011). Abstract:

Many law librarians are experts in international law and legal research. The concept of ‘international law librarianship,’ however, encompasses something more than a field of study in which a group of experts practice their profession. In the broader sense, the idea suggests a common calling, similar interests, and goals shared by librarians with a range of specialties beyond international law, working in all types of law libraries. What commonalities create and sustain the concept of international law librarianship? This paper suggests that they can be found in: law librarians’ common need to respond to the ‘multiplicity’ of information sources facing twenty-first century legal researchers; the development and nurturing of a shared base of professional knowledge; and a common commitment to work toward ensuring free and open access to legal information globally.

HT @cottinstef.

Danner and Palfrey on Open Access to Legal Information

Senior Associate Dean Richard A. Danner of the Duke University School of Law, and Vice Dean John G. Palfrey of the Harvard Law School, presented papers at a program on Open Access to Legal Information, at CAFLL 2011: The Chinese and American Forum on Legal Information and Law Libraries, on 22 July 2011, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

For full text of the papers, please contact the authors.

Click here for the conference program.

Danner and Winterton: IALL International Handbook of Legal Information Management

Senior Associate Dean Richard A. Danner of the Duke University School of Law and Professor Jules Winterton of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies have published The IALL International Handbook of Legal Information Management (2011).

Here is the publisher’s description:

Around the world, legal information managers, law librarians and other legal information specialists work in many settings: law schools, private law firms, courts, government, and public law libraries of various types. They are characterized by their expertise in working with legal information in its many forms, and by their work supporting legal professionals, scholars, or students training to become lawyers. In an ever-shrinking world and a time of unprecedented technological change, the work of legal information managers is challenging and exciting, calling on specialized knowledge and skills, regardless of where in the world they practice their profession. Their role within legal systems contributes substantially to the administration of justice and the rule of law. This International Handbook addresses the policy and strategic issues with which legal information managers and law librarians need to engage in the context of the diverse legal environments in which they work. It provides resources, analysis, and considered studies on an international basis for seasoned professionals, those about to enter the field, and anyone interested in the evolution of legal information in the twenty-first century.

New on VoxPopuLII: Eiseman: Time to Turn the Page on Print Legal Information

Jason Eiseman of the Yale Law School Library has posted Time to Turn the Page on Print Legal Information, on the VoxPopuLII Blog, published by the Legal Information Institute at Cornell University Law School.

In his post, Mr. Eiseman poses the question, “Is there a good reason why judges should not be blogging their opinions?” In his response, Mr. Eiseman discusses a range of timely issues related to the transition to digital legal publishing, including the costs of print publication, the official status of digital legal information, authentication, preservation, citations and identifiers, and open access to legal scholarship.

This post will be of interest to legal professionals, legal publishers, and the legal technology community.

October 22: Duke Open Access Law Journal Conference

A conference entitled Implementing the Durham Statement: Best Practices for Open Access Law Journals will be held 22 October 2010 at the Duke University Law School, in Durham, North Carolina, USA.

The conference is being organized by Senior Associate Dean Richard A. Danner of Duke University Law School.

Here is a description of the conference, from Dean Danner’s announcement:

Sponsored by the Duke Law School J. Michael Goodson Law Library and the Harvard Law Library: A workshop aimed at student law review editors, designed to present and discuss best practices for law journals as increasing numbers move into electronic publishing. The workshop is also open to law librarians, law review advisers, and all others who are interested in open access and legal publishing. It will be webcast and promoted to all ABA-accredited law schools. For more information and to register, please contact Professor Richard Danner at zad@law.duke.edu . Registration is free, but requested for catering.

For more information, please see the conference announcement.

Click here for Dean Danner’s recent paper about the Durham Statement.

Click here for the full text of the Durham Statement.

HT Dean Danner and @jpalfrey.

Danner on The Durham Statement on Open Access One Year Later: Preservation and Access to Legal Scholarship

Senior Associate Dean Richard A. Danner of the Duke University School of Law, has posted a new paper entitled The Durham Statement on Open Access One Year Later: Preservation and Access to Legal Scholarship (2010). Here is the abstract:

The Durham Statement on Open Access to Legal Scholarship calls for US law schools to stop publishing their journals in print format and to rely instead on electronic publication with a commitment to keep the electronic versions available in “stable, open, digital formats.” The Statement asks for two things: 1) open access publication of law school-published journals; and 2) an end to print publication of law journals. This paper was written as background for a July 2010 American Association of Law Libraries conference program on the preservation implications of the call to end print publication.

Danner on Law Librarians, Legal Scholarship, and Access to the Law

Senior Associate Dean Richard A. Danner of the Duke University School of Law is giving a presentation entitled Taming Multiplicity in the Post-Print Era: Law Librarians, Legal Scholarship, and Access to the Law, today, 29 April 2010, at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.

The Twitter hashtag for the presentation is #danner.

Click here for archived Twitter tweets from the presentation.

Click here for Dean John Palfrey’s liveblog of the presentation.

Audio (and possibly video also) of the presentation should be available shortly here.

Click here for the Durham Statement on Open Access to Legal Scholarship.

Danner on the Role of the Academic Librarian

Dean Richard A. Danner of the Duke University School of Law has posted Supporting Scholarship: Thoughts on the Role of the Academic Librarian, forthcoming in 39 Journal of Law & Education (Apr. 2010). Here is the abstract:

“Discussing the role of the law library in legal education is necessary and essential, both because of the demands libraries place on increasingly tight law school budgets and space, and the challenges that libraries face as the information they collect and organize has moved largely from print to digital formats. This paper explores the roles of academic law librarians in supporting faculty scholarship within the context of the forces affecting libraries, librarians, and legal education in the (still early) twenty-first century. Although it has been more than 30 years since the widespread adoption of the legal research databases in the 1970s, the legal information environment continues to be seen as changing and uncertain, roiled by such new developments as working paper services providing pre-publication looks at new articles, growing interest in blogs and other varieties of short form legal scholarship, and the potential for open access publishing to reduce or eliminate reliance on printed law journals. As these developments continue to affect the processes of legal research and scholarly communications in law, what implications do they have for the role of law librarians in those processes?”