GAO Report - U.N. corruption

April 2006 GAO report United Nations: Lessons Learned from Oil For Food Program Indicate the Need to Strengthen UN Internal Controls and Oversight Activities . 75 pages.

NGO-Monitor - human rights report

Comparative Analysis of the U.S. Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for the Years 2004 and 2005 . HTML format.

Amnesty International-death penalty report

Death Sentences and Executions in 2005 . HTML format.

Human Rights Watch - death penalty report

So Long as They Die: Lethal Injections in the United States . 69 pages.

Al-Arian plea agreement documents

On October 15, 2005, NESL blogged the denouement of the terrorism trial of former University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian, which resulted in Not Guilty or No Verdict on all the charges.

UPDATE:

Al-Arian pled guilty to one count of the indictment, e.g., "conspiracy to make or receive contributions of funds, goods or services to or for the benefit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad" and agreed to stipulate to deportation. Judge James S. Moody, Jr.'s April 17, 2006 Acceptance of Plea and Adjudication of Guilt is here .

Law school accreditation standards: update

On February 18, 2006, we blogged about the ABA's proposed, and controversional, new affirmative action accreditation requirements, e.g., Standard 211: Equal Opportunity and Diversity.

UPDATE:

March 7, 2006: The Center for Equal Opportunity's letter to the Department of Education requesting sanctions against the ABA if it enacts the proposed new standard.

March 28, 2006: The Civil Rights Coalition for the 21st Century's letter to the Department of Education asserting that ABA standards "supersede state laws and constitutions".

Professor David Bernstein of George Mason University School of Law comments here .

News sources: Google

Google News, unlike the web-crawling Google search engine in general, makes editorial selection of sources it considers credible purveyors of news. Though the United States Tresury Department on March 23, 2006 listed the television station Al-Manar as a Specially Designated Terrorist Entity , and the State Department has had Al-Manar on its terrorist exclusion list since December 17, 2004, Google has yet to remove Al-Manar from Google News. Which goes to show that we computer-immersed information gatherers have a tremendous challenge constantly on our hands to stay alert to the truly important indicia of reliability of information we see on our screen, and not to be lulled into complacency by the familiar format, interface, or platform upon which we may receive it.

Exam writing resources

NESL library has a number of exam writing resources, such as "Taking Law School Exams", KF283.T35 2001 [video], "Wentworth Miller's legal essay exam writing system" [audio], KF303.L44 2000, "A practical guide to writing law school essay exams", KF283.D47 2001 [print format]. Ohers may be found via an advanced boolean (keyword) search in Portia under "exam writing" or subject searching "law examinations". Some of the materials geared toward bar examination essays may have useful information for law school examinations in general (keyword search bar examination and essay).

In addition, collections of resource links or individual articles are available at:

Mortiz Legal Information Blog ,
California Law Student Journal ,
Law School Academic Support Blog ,
Whittier Law School's Academic Success Program


Don't forget our own NESL student resources page with its collection of course outlines and exams, NESL's Exams Online, and keep an eye out for any skill workshops that may be offered by NESL's Academic Support Program and /or Charles Hamilton Houston Enrichment Program .


Best of luck to everyone!