Judging law reviews

There’s a great discussion going on over at the Empirical Legal Studies blog, where legal scholars are thinking about the merits, problems and functions of law reviews. This forum was prompted by research by Jason Nance and Dylan Steinberg, “The Law Review Article Selection Process: Results from a National Study.” Many of the points apply [...]

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Causes of wrongful convictions

If you have a subscription or google the title of the piece, you can read an interesting New York Times column about Brandon Garrett’s empirical analysis of 200 wrongful convictions.

Study of Wrongful Convictions Raises Questions Beyond DNA, by Adam Liptak

The study in question is called Judging Innocence, but we have to wait until January to [...]

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Between farm and plate, add a sticker

The Globe and Mail has a short item on the new logo for certified organic foods in Canada.

Here is part of the official statement from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, with emphasis added:
The Canada organic logo will be permitted for use only on those food products certified as meeting Canadian standards for organic production such [...]

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Does open access need patriotism?

[ed. note: this post has been changed after initial publication to prevent confusion]
Congratulations, America, your country is one presidential veto away from requiring open access to tax-funded research.
For further information:

Alliance for Taxpayer Access (press release)

I do wonder, though, if arguments framing this as a taxation issue are really what the open access movement needs. [...]

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Update: who needs a warrant when you have gut feelings?

In a timely news item, following on the heels of my earlier post on misplaced pride in gut feelings, we have the following:
A British Columbia Provincial Court judge ruled last week that Canadian border guards seeking to dismantle and search a vehicle need a warrant to do so. The judgement is already being appealed.
For comment, [...]

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