New lawyers and attorneys transplanted to Kentucky are often unprepared for the way that the commonwealth's political history has shaped, framed and explained the law. This short piece attempts to guide the perplexed with a highly selective annotated bibliography. The article lists books in three areas. First, books that illustrate the history and politics that lies just under the surface of Kentucky jurisprudence are discussed. Then, works on Kentucky's legal culture are surveyed. Finally, the short list of commentaries on the state's constitution are described.

The expansion in the use of arbitration means that many people, including lawyers, are somehow involved in the process of settling a dispute through arbitration. Persons who establish the procedures governing an arbitration, handle an arbitration, or teach a course about it often have questions about what the best practices for an arbitration hearing are. This article suggests that one important source of best practices for arbitration, which the literature too often ignores, is litigation and

Data on the incidence of mental impairment or substance abuse and addiction is difficult to obtain, but there is evidence that lawyers and law students have a high rate of depression and substance abuse. Because of the high stakes involved in the legal profession and the stigma attached to mental health and substance abuse problems, individuals with these problems are often reluctant to seek help. Even if the prevalence of mental health or substance abuse problems were no higher for lawyers com

The growth and influence of nontraditional media and the convergence of these technological platforms on mainstream media brings a host of new issues surrounding media coverage of high profile trials. Hardly a new phenomenon, the media has made a business of covering high profile trials since before the founding of this nation. But the advent of blogs in 1999 and the growing influence they have on the public further complicates the issue. In addition, adoption of more nontraditional delivery pla

The growth and influence of nontraditional media and the convergence of these technological platforms on mainstream media brings a host of new issues surrounding media coverage of high profile trials. Hardly a new phenomenon, the media has made a business of covering high profile trials since before the founding of this nation. But the advent of blogs in 1999 and the growing influence they have on the public further complicates the issue. In addition, adoption of more nontraditional delivery pla

Data on the incidence of mental impairment or substance abuse and addiction is difficult to obtain, but there is evidence that lawyers and law students have a high rate of depression and substance abuse. Because of the high stakes involved in the legal profession and the stigma attached to mental health and substance abuse problems, individuals with these problems are often reluctant to seek help. Even if the prevalence of mental health or substance abuse problems were no higher for lawyers com

The Court, in its race jurisprudence, has employed a narrative structure of Rhetorical Neutrality, an approach that "privileges individualism over the substantive claims of historically oppressed groups." The Louisville school case represents the Court's colorblind constitutionalism: history and context are ignored, the Fourteenth Amendment is reinterpreted so that race-conscious remedial approaches are rejected, and the present day effects of past discrimination are explained in neutral terms

Because the international intellectual property is based on a purely territorial model, a party who desires to obtain intellectual property rights in multiple jurisdictions must seek protection in each nation. This system creates unique and largely unforeseen problems involving the attorney client privilege. Although the party will be conveying much of the same information to legal counsel in all nations in which she seeks protection, the attorney-client privilege rules in various nations differ

This paper explores various reasons why Congress might elect to protect the traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expression of Indian tribes. It also addresses whether Congress would have the constitutional authority to enact such legislation.

Because the international intellectual property is based on a purely territorial model, a party who desires to obtain intellectual property rights in multiple jurisdictions must seek protection in each nation. This system creates unique and largely unforeseen problems involving the attorney client privilege. Although the party will be conveying much of the same information to legal counsel in all nations in which she seeks protection, the attorney-client privilege rules in various nations differ

Looking for movies or video clips to use in your legal writing class? Thinking about blogging? Simply want an interesting document to use on the document projector? This draft of a piece forthcoming in The Second Draft provides quick tips about easy ways that one professor has successfully used technology to enhance her students' learning. Like the forthcoming piece, this draft provides footnotes about where to locate materials. But it also provides additional footnotes recommending scholar

Looking for movies or video clips to use in your legal writing class? Thinking about blogging? Simply want an interesting document to use on the document projector? This draft of a piece forthcoming in The Second Draft provides quick tips about easy ways that one professor has successfully used technology to enhance her students' learning. Like the forthcoming piece, this draft provides footnotes about where to locate materials, but it also provides additional footnotes recommending scholarship on wikis and podcasts.

A specter is haunting agriculture, the specter of agroecological ideology. Extreme agroecological rhetoric transparently disguises a willingness to sacrifice environmental objectives whenever they conflict with the pecuniary interests of incumbent farmers. Agroecological ideology conceals an ugly truth about agriculture: farming is not an environmentally benign activity. In particular, the legal controversy over recombinant bovine somatotropin demonstrates how an agroecological response to ne

A specter is haunting agriculture, the specter of agroecological ideology. Extreme agroecological rhetoric transparently disguises a willingness to sacrifice environmental objectives whenever they conflict with the pecuniary interests of incumbent farmers. Agroecological ideology conceals an ugly truth about agriculture: farming is not an environmentally benign activity. In particular, the legal controversy over recombinant bovine somatotropin demonstrates how an agroecological response to new biotechnology can favor producer incomes over consumer welfare and environmental integrity. O brave moo world, that has such creatures in it!

The presidencies of William J. Clinton and George W. Bush are in many ways kindred. It seems certain that both will be noted by historians for their determined and mechanistic evasions of public scrutiny. The misleading insinuations, failed memories, perjuries, obstructions of justice, and novel assertions of executive privilege have been exposed sharply and criticized roundly by Congress, academics, and the press. Still, there is a particular tactic of presidential evasion, utilized by C

Data on the incidence of mental impairment or substance abuse and addiction is difficult to obtain, but there is evidence that lawyers and law students have a high rate of depression and substance abuse. Because of the high stakes involved in the legal profession and the stigma attached to mental health and substance abuse problems, individuals with these problems are often reluctant to seek help. Even if the prevalence of mental health or substance abuse problems were no higher for lawyers com

Data on the incidence of mental impairment or substance abuse and addiction is difficult to obtain, but there is evidence that lawyers and law students have a high rate of depression and substance abuse. Because of the high stakes involved in the legal profession and the stigma attached to mental health and substance abuse problems, individuals with these problems are often reluctant to seek help. Even if the prevalence of mental health or substance abuse problems were no higher for lawyers compared with the general population, the consequences of such impairment are significant for the individuals, the public, law schools, legal employers, and bar admission authorities. The article provides an overview of the policies, practices, and procedures affecting individuals with mental and substance abuse impairments at various stages of entering and continuing in the legal profession and reviews how these policies are applied in the admission to and enrollment in law school, professional ...

The growth and influence of nontraditional media and the convergence of these technological platforms on mainstream media brings a host of new issues surrounding media coverage of high profile trials. Hardly a new phenomenon, the media has made a business of covering high profile trials since before the founding of this nation. But the advent of blogs in 1999 and the growing influence they have on the public further complicates the issue. In addition, adoption of more nontraditional delivery pla

In 1996, Congress, as part of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, amended the list of noncommercial tort exceptions to sovereign immunity in the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act ("FSIA") in response to a federal court's determination that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction over Libya and alleged Libyan terrorists in Smith v. Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, one of many cases resulting from the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. T

In 1996, Congress, as part of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, amended the list of noncommercial tort exceptions to sovereign immunity in the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act ("FSIA") in response to a federal court's determination that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction over Libya and alleged Libyan terrorists in Smith v. Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, one of many cases resulting from the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The ambiguously worded amendment appears to give federal courts both subject matter jurisdiction, which Congress clearly intended, and personal jurisdiction over the seven nations currently listed by the Executive Branch as "state sponsors of terrorism." The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, the only court to address the amended FSIA, unconstitutionally interpreted it as according the court personal jurisdiction over Libya in the re-filed suit by the survivors, ...