The U.S. Federal Judiciary launched a radical redesign of its website recently.

As part of the redesign, it even created its own YouTube channel.

Other law-themed YouTube channels I have come across include:

• euTube (European Union)
• ICLR Channel (Incorporated Council of Law Reporting – publisher of the Law Reports in the UK)
• Law Library of Congress
• Courthouse Libraries BC
• HeinOnline

Those are just a few examples of what is out there. . . . [more]

I learned a lot at the recent CALL/ACBD/MichALL Conference. I am very happy to report (just in case my management team wonders why they send me to these things) that I am putting one of the things I learned into immediate practice.

Susan Gibbons, Vice Provost and Andrew H. & Janet Dayton Neilly Dean at River Campus Libraries at the University of Rochester, gave a plenary presentation on May 11 titled “Avoiding Obsolescence: Understanding and Engaging the Net Generation”. Susan’s talk had several objectives including understanding what the new generation of library users expect from libraries. She discussed . . . [more]

SCC upholds Alberta courts in limitation periods in international arbitrations.

An event perhaps long overdue, today May 20, 2010 is the day Duke University will shut down the Internet’s first discussion forum. The “Users Network” or its more recognizable name ‘Usenet’ was started in 1979, and evolved to more than 120,000 newsgroups on almost every subject imaginable.

We could call Usenet the Twitter of yesteryear, and that wouldn’t be too far off. But even as we say good-bye, I see attributes in Usenet that are still somewhat unique. Will we ever see the Internet offer a single source and location of global discussion? It’s not likely.

I also find . . . [more]

LEAF lobbies to defeat or amend Bill-C3 on discrimination in the Indian Act

General consultations on Quebec’s Bill 94, An Act to establish guidelines governing accommodation requests within the Administration and certain institutions started on May 18, 2010. Much to my annoyance, many journalists and media outlets are referring to the bill as “the facial covering bill” or “the niqab bill”. To summarize, the bill says...

“Psychotic kindergartens.” According to this piece from guardian.co.uk, Robert Martin, professor of law, emeritus, at the University of Western Ontario used this term and the term “feminist seminary” to describe Canadian law faculties. Martin’s article, in the October 2009 edition of the scholarly journal Interchange, is behind a paywall. I have not read it, but thought it worth pointing to nonetheless. . . . [more]

The government of Quebec recently proposed regulations (February 2010) to better control who may provide provincial immigration services to immigrants. Specifically, under the proposed regulations, only Quebec-licensed lawyers, notaries and immigration consultants will be entitled to represent clients in Quebec immigration matters.

These days, service levels are an integral part of outsourcing relationships. Reflecting the principle that “What gets measured, gets managed.” , the parties to an outsourcing relationship will establish specific metrics to be achieved by the supplier in performing services under the agreement, e.g. 99.99% server uptime in an infrastructure outsourcing or a call abandonment rate of less than 6% for help desk services. The service levels will be linked to penalties for failure to perform and termination rights in the event of consistent under-achievement. Suppliers may not love the idea of committing to service levels, but they recognize the . . . [more]

French laws against the niqab -- and against cross-dressing.

I thought for my first post on the shiny new Slaw format, I should talk about a shiny new object. Over a million iPads have been sold so far. Many comments about the iPad can be found on Slaw, including my thoughts that the iPad will be the disruptive tipping point that will define the category. This kind of device will fundamentally change how we consume information.

Several competing products are expected to be on the market within the next few months, some of which will address some of the iPad’s missing features. Of course, fans will say that the . . . [more]

Water law issues, public trust doctrine, virtual water, Maude Barlow, environmental issues, water use and management in Canada: Ted Tjaden