UHLC Nota Bene

Did you happen to catch “Thrive: Interconnectivity of Mind & Body Well-Being”? If not, allow me to summarize just a few of the many relevant takeaways offered by Justine Karanof of Faranof Law during her recent talk on how to manage stress and maintain your mental health amid today’s multitude of stressors. First, Justine reminds us that, as with meditation, we don’t need to entertain a certain, strict posture with the law. She suggests we seek to find what works for us and encourages us to think about alternative ways to balance work and self-care. Working on a project outside or taking a walk during a Zoom meeting, she explains, are solutions that can easily be incorporated into the workday.  To think more critically about self-care, Justine encourages us to consider what each of rest, nourishment, movement, connectedness, and meaning look like in our personal and professional lives. Naturally, she notes that today’s normal will look different from that of your pre-COVID normal.

“Man’s inhumanity to man is not only perpetrated by the vitriolic actions of those who are bad. It is also perpetrated by the vitiating inaction of those who are good.” –Martin Luther King Jr.   Last week, I had the pleasure of attending  Professor Zachary D. Kaufman ’s presentation on  Lessons for Today from the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda  hosted by the  Johannesburg Holocaust & Geno cide Ce ntre . Among the many takeaways highlighted by Professor Kaufman and drawn from  Lessons from Rwanda: Post-Genocide Law and Policy   were ten simple yet profound lessons:   Lesson #1: Hate speech is dangerous.   To illustrate the role that hate speech played in the Rwandan genocide, Professor Kaufman discussed multiple forms of  propaganda , such as Kangura, Radio Rwanda, and RTLM “hate radio.”   He concludes that we must have limits, including with respect to social media, and further asserts that social media must do a better job of combatting hate speech and disinformation.   Less

Sarah Song knows a thing or two about immigration. Born in South Korea, she immigrated to the United States with her parents when she was six years old. After having to repeat the first grade because she didn’t speak English, she went on to earn an M.Phil in politics from Oxford and a Ph.D in political science from Yale. She is now a professor of law and political science at the University of California, Berkeley, where her work centers on issues of immigration, citizenship, and multiculturalism. Song’s second book, Immigration and Democracy , is the product of years of careful thinking about immigration and its role in democratic societies. The arguments presented here are grounded in a deep understanding of political theory, providing a necessary corrective to the crude sloganeering that too often shapes our public discourse on immigration policy. As Song states in her preface, she has written the book in the hope “that we can move beyond an ‘us versus them’ mentality and engage

Sitting for the bar exam this week? Tired of reviewing doctrine, but still looking for something to get you in the right head space before the big days? Check out our new title, Bar Exam Success: A Comprehensive Guide by Sara J. Berman. Bar Exam Success has lots to offer! It will teach you how to develop a plan for success, find and use quality expert help, maximize your schedule for productivity, prepare with practice tests, eliminate distractions and embrace success, and more. No time for all of that reading? Check out the “handy tips for bar days” at the end of Chapter 9. There, you’ll find ten quick test-taking tips specific to each of essays, MBEs, and MPTs. Whether you need some last minute tips before this week’s exam or are looking to get a head start on July’s, Bar Exam Success is an excellent resource now available on the new books shelf. To those sitting for the bar this week, BEST OF LUCK from all of us at the O’Quinn Law Library!

The ABA's State and Local Government Law Section has recently published the fourth edition of America Votes!: Challenges to Modern  Election Law and Voting Rights , which is now in the library's collection on the new title's shelf ( KF4886.A86 ). The twenty-one chapter book is edited by Benjamin E. Griffith and John Hardin Young , and is separated into five parts. Each chapter is authored by attorneys or legal scholars who are experts in the field. The first part, "Voter Qualification and Participation," begins with a discussion of immigration, citizenship, and the 2020 census, the connection between Florida felon re-enfranchisement law and poverty, strict construction of voter registration laws (Georgia's 2018 election experience), Native American voting rights, millennials and electoral access in 2018-2020, and a holistic approach to assisting minority language voters. The second part covers the voting process and explores topics such as voter ID laws,

Curious about how Louisiana law differs from the law in Texas (and the other 48 states)? The O’Quinn Law Library has a new book that helps to explain some of the peculiarities associated with the only civil law jurisdiction in the U.S. The Legal System of Louisiana is part of the Legal Systems Series, which seeks to outline and explain various legal systems throughout the world. Specifically, The Legal System of Louisiana details the main features of the history of Louisiana's legal system, its sources of law, its constitutional framework, its legal actors, its criminal law, its law of persons, family law, property law, law of contract, law on delictual liability, quasi-contracts, business entities, and labor-employment law. At only 106 pages, it’s a quick read that will familiarize you with the foundations and fundamental features of Louisiana’s unique legal system. Interested in researching Louisiana law, too? You can also check out Louisiana Legal Research . Want more on