Law X.0

Blogger Seeks to Retain Anonymity to Avoid Defamation Suit

Details on Law Librarian Blog. [JH]

Blogs and Legal Scholarship

From UCLA law prof, blogger and wine expert, Stephen Bainbridge, we have the following quote on blogs and legal scholarship:

Associate Professor, Department of Law, Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College, City University of New York. The author is particularly indebted to the weblogs (usually called “blogs,” sometimes, “blawgs”) of Professor D. Gordon Smith (www.theconglomerate.org – Smith now shares his blog with others, but his comments on the business judgment rule discussed here was made when he was blogging alone at www.venturpreneur.com) and Professor Stephen Bainbridge (www.professorbainbridge.com). Their lively, but always scholarly, exchange on the issue of good faith gave rise to many of the ideas in this article. These and other blogs by legal scholars are among the best examples of innovative uses of the internet in what appears to be the dawning of a new era in legal “publishing.” The importance (and credibility) of law blogs was confirmed when the Supreme Court of the United States cited its first blog in January, 2005. See United States v. Booker, 125 S. Ct. 738, 775 n.4 (2005). This article will make citations to law blogs as with any other legal source. The reader will be left to his own devices to determine the value as authority of such sources.

Source: David Rosenberg, Galactic Stupidity and the Business Judgment Rule.

Hat tip to Ian Best. [JH]

Blog Entries as Evidence in Murder Investigation

Bryan Grove, 17, has been charged with first-degree murder for his girlfriend's mother, Linda Damn, death. The girlfriend, Tess Damn, 15, has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder and with evidence tampering. How were they caught? Time is reporting that Tess and Bryan apparently documented their feelings about Linda Damn in their MySpace.com blogs in the weeks before the murder and during the 25 days in which Linda Damm's body remained undiscovered. Read more about it in Murder, They Blogged. [JH]

Wikipedia Credibility and the Courts

Check out Mark Giangrande's post, Wikipedia Credibility and the Courts, on Tech Law Prof Blog. He reports that 45 federal courts have cited the Wikipedia, most as a passing reference to a factual point, rather than as a final authority.  28 state courts have also cited the web site. [JH]