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Archive: 2014 (29 Posts)

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Murder, Movies and the Law

Posted by: Margaret Wood

We are at it again – working on one of our posts about movies and the law.  This time we are looking at movies which depict murder trials.  Although posts about movies and the law might seem somewhat lighthearted, movies are a powerful cultural force which often reflect society’s attitudes and understanding of various ideas. To …

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Shakespeare and King John

Posted by: Margaret Wood

April 2014 marks the 450th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s birth.  As a way of combining a salute to Shakespeare and continuing our fascination with all things Magna Carta, I thought I would take a look at Shakespeare’s play, “King John.”  The play is believed to have been written in the 1590s, but it was not …

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National Poetry Month and Bad King John

Posted by: Margaret Wood

The following post is cross posted on the From the Catbird Seat: Poetry & Literature blog. Magna Carta is coming to the Library of Congress in November 2014!  This document is regarded as being one of the foundations of representative government and at the same time marked a defeat of the king by his barons.  But long before 1215, …

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An Introduction to Water Law

Posted by: Margaret Wood

Although I grew up in an arid western state, my first real awareness of the complicated rules governing water usage came when I saw the movie The Milagro Beanfield War in 1988.  The action in the movie centers around the accidental and illegal diversion of water by Joe Mondragon, which brings down the wrath of the state government …

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Snow, the Law Library of Congress and Congressional Coverage

Posted by: Margaret Wood

As Andrew mentioned in his 2010 post, Our Hours Thanks to 2 U.S.C. 138, because of this law, if Congress is in session during a blizzard someone must come in to provide coverage in the Law Library Reading Room.  Since I have been one of the staff members who helps provide coverage during bad weather over …

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Love and the Law

Posted by: Margaret Wood

Since our post on Christmas Movies and the Law was so successful, we decided to try our hand at a post about movies, love, and the law in celebration of Valentine’s Day.  As with our Christmas post, we found some of our colleagues were cynics, but although they may have a jaundiced eye regarding love they …