Law Ratchet - A (fairly) new app for legal news

Law Ratchet, currently only available for the iPad, is a news app that delivers legal news collected from law reviews, blogs, regulatory websites, magazines and newspapers.   The app offers dozens of categories to choose from, covering everything from administrative news up to trust & estates. Once customized it is possible to release news in the area of interest with one click, read it and share it as desired. While the app allows to log-in with a LinkedIn, Google or Facebook account, this is not necessary in order to read or share the news.   The creators of the app are attorneys Derek Chau and Will Mouat, previously with Ropes & Gray in Boston.

Europeana announces iPad app

Europeana,  just announced the release of its first iPad app. 

So what is Europeana? It is a multilingual internet platform containing digitized content from more than 2,000 institutions throughout Europe. Whether looking for paintings from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, or the Louvre in Paris  you will find it here. Among other things, it also offers access to archives from the British Library, the Museum of Architecture of the Technische Universität Berlin and the wonderful Bodleian Library, the main research library at the University of Oxford. Take a look and explore.

Link of the Month: Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) is located within the Office of Management and Budget and was created by Congress with the enactment of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 (PRA). OIRA carries out several important functions, including reviewing Federal regulations, reducing paperwork burdens, and overseeing policies relating to privacy, information quality, and statistical programs.

The Regulatory Review Dashboard at www.reginfo.gov, is the offices public website disclosing information about OIRA's review of draft regulations, as well as allowing access to a number of publications surrounding regulations and rulemaking produced by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the General Services Administration (GSA).

The “Unified Agenda” tab is the entry point for the semiannual Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions and the annual Regulatory Plan, both required by Executive Order 12866, "Regulatory Planning and Review” and gathered and published by GSA's Regulatory Information Service Center (RISC).

Through the “regulatory review” tab the website gives access to federal regulations and information reviewed by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) as well as other services provided by the OIRA, for example government-wide policies on information technology, information quality, privacy, and statistics, which have been developed and overseen by the agency. The search of regulatory review allows search by agency, stage of rulemaking and other advanced criteria.

In addition, under the “Information Collection review” tab the ICR Dashboard provides an up-to-date and easy-to-follow graphical representation of information collections currently under review. The ICR Dashboard displays these information collections by agency, length of review, and type of ICR.

"China Guiding Cases Project" by Stanford Law launched

On Monday, January 9, 2012, Stanford Law School launched its latest initiative in the area of international law, the website of the China Guiding Cases Project (CGCP).

The website will post “guiding cases”, a recent development in Chinese law, as released by China’s Supreme People’s Court. The CGCP team translates these released opinions into English and posts them on the above mentioned website.

As of today the following cases are posted:

Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Limited v. TAO Dehua, An Intermediation Contract Dispute | 指导性案例1: 上海中原物业顾问有限公司诉陶德华居间合同纠纷案

WU Mei v. Meishan Xicheng Paper Co., Ltd. of Sichuan Province, A Sale and Purchase Contract Dispute | 指导性案例2: 吴梅诉四川省眉山西城纸业有限公司买卖合同纠纷案

PAN Yumei and CHEN Ning, A Bribe-Accepting Case | 指导性案例3: 潘玉梅、陈宁受贿案

WANG Zhicai, An Intentional Homicide Case | 指导性案例4: 王志才故意杀人案

Legal experts from around the world are invited to submit commentaries discussing the legal and other implications of these cases. Commentaries are posted in Chinese and in English, and are available in translation. Readers of the website may post their thoughts about the cases and commentaries in Chinese and English. “Question and Answer” sessions on the site permit readers and commentators to have more in-depth dialogues, again in Chinese and English. The website also includes a search function enabling practitioners and researchers to look for specific “guiding cases.”

For those interested in an overview on the Chinese Legal System take a look at the free offering on Law Info China.

Risen from the dead

One of the less known but nevertheless important bills has passed the Texas Legislature on the last day of the special session. House Bill 79, which seeks comprehensive judicial reforms, is based on the findings of the State Bar Court Administration Task Force and stresses a more simplistic, flexible and productive court system.

The history of this bill is quite interesting. Having made its (unsuccessful) debut in 2007 and then again in 2009 as Senate Bills, the bill was once again introduced in 2011 as Senate Bill 1717. It failed on the last day of the regular legislative session but lawmakers were able to convince Governor Rick Perry to put the bill on the agenda for the special session. This time it went through and was sent to the Governor for final approval.

Link of the Month: Homeland Security Digital Library (HSDL)

It's not often that one has to research homeland security issues, but if that is the case, the homeland security digital library is the place to go. Having just recently opened to the public, it contains the nation’s premier collection of documents related to homeland security policy, strategy, and organizational management collected from a wide variety of sources. The library is divided into eight key sections, ranging from national strategy documents to theses and research reports from the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security, including an exhaustive collection of executive orders and key legislation.
Open access to over 47,000 documents is available for anyone interested and access to more than twice the amount of information will be made available upon request and approval.

Link of the Month: National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

Established by Congress in 1935 as an independent federal agency, the NLRB's primary function is to administer the National Labor Relations Act, the primary law that governs relations between unions, employees and employers in the private sector.
This website offers a wide variety of rules and regulations, guides, and manuals in English as well as in Spanish. In addition its research section allows access to legal-related documents, specifically NLRB Board decisions and memos, the weekly summary of NLRB cases, and Appellate Court briefs and motions filed by the NLRB General Counsel.