The Legal Research Society

Judge Mirjam Škrk, Vice-President of the Constitutional Court of Slovenia will deliver two lectures at School of Law, University of Edinburgh on 11 and 12 October 2007. Here are more details on the lectures: "A Constitutional Court in a New Member State", 5pm, Europa Institute, School of Law, University of Edinburgh, Old College, 11 October 2007 Venue TBC "The Agreement on Succession to the Former SFRY: Some International and Internal Legal Implications", 12 October 2007, School of Law, University of Edinburgh, L05, 6-8pm.

A couple of factors have put me in a contemplative mood this morning. The first is an outstanding article by Alec Scott, Exile on Bay Street , which details the life of lawyers in big North American law firms. Second, we arrived in Aberdeen two years ago today. In that time I've had a difficult time answering a common question. Why Aberdeen? I wanted to escape, just like Scott did. His account focuses on Toronto, but surely echoes the experience of any lawyer in any large law firm in any large North American city. Here’s what you won’t read in the glossy law school brochures, what many practising lawyers know, but deny: the practice of law has become a lousy way to make a living; it breaks all but the highest spirits. The profession can no longer lay claim to being a calling; it has become a soul-destroying business. The big downtown Toronto firms, which used to draw some of the country’s best and brightest, continue to draw its brightest, but no longer hold on to its best.

US diplomats in Iraq are currently unable to leave the Green Zone in Baghdad. On Wednesday Prime Minister al-Maliki complained about killings of Iraqi's in "cold blood". What has prompted these reactions? The shooting of at least eight Iraqi civilians (Iraqi officials estimate the number is closer to 20). Blackwater says it was acting defensively in protecting a diplomatic convoy. They were responding to a car bomb which was nearby a diplomatic convoy, and the contractors opened fire on a car which mistakenly entered a traffic circle. Iraqi officials acknowledge there was a bomb, but argue the contractors shot wildly. This is only the latest in a long line of shootings. Blackwater has been hired to provide security for diplomats, and there are a number of troubling accounts of overzealous contractors. NPR has a good story, and Terry Gross has an outstanding interview with Jeremy Scahill back in March. As an aside, the company's activities are not just limite

In a week where the highlights from the environment side of the legal research area cou nt goods and bads including the ruling by a federal court in Vermont, US, approving state regulation aimed at curbing carbon emission in lack of federal initiatives; new outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in Surrey, UK; and the publishing of the IUCN’s (the World Conservation Union) annual report sounding the alarm bell over the state of worlds wildlife, inter alia , pointing out that 188 further species are in danger of extinction compared to last year, yesterday’s list of the World’s most polluted places only seems to add to the list of bads. The list, compiled by the New York based environmental group The Blacksmith Institute, list the ten most polluted places in the world and includes sites in Russia , Azerbaijan , China , India , Ukraine , Peru and Zambia . Compared to the list from last year, this year’s new entries include Tianying , China and Sukinda in India . The site of Tianying in C

I came across a really helpful, but sometimes off-color list of advice for graduate students. I found them to be really excellent, and I wish I would have had some of these in mind the last couple of years. Here they are, from the total drek blog : (1) It is important to realize as soon as possible that you are not an undergraduate any longer. In fact, you're not really even a student. Grad school is more like an apprenticeship program than traditional schooling. As such, you're here to learn by doing. Stop thinking about what you do as "school" and start thinking of it as "work" and particularly as "your career." You're no longer practicing for your future- you're doing it right now. (2) Along these lines, keep in mind that nobody is impressed with your ability to get by while doing as little as possible. If you didn't want to do the work, you shouldn't have come to grad school. The idea here is to work hard and accomplish a lo