Season's greetings one and all! In honor of the holiday spirit that captures hearts and minds this time of year, the Harris County Law Library has assembled its very first #BookmasTree. Granted, ours took less time and effort than the magnificent tree on display at the San Diego Law Library, but it's still a sight to behold. From the twinkling Texas lone star at the top to the glimmer of gold print on the evergreen spines of Am. Jur. 2d, the tree presents a festive background for a holiday selfie. Stop by the Harris County Law Library throughout the last month of 2017 to snap your #shelfie (note: that's the same as a selfie, but in front of a library shelf ;). If your #shelfie turns out well, tweet it to us @HCLawLibrary. Happy holidays!
Free Legal Assistance via the Houston Bar Association LegalLine
On the first and third Wednesdays of every month, the Houston Bar Association provides an invaluable community service -- free legal assistance for residents of Harris County via the HBA LegalLine. Most callers ask questions about family law matters, such as divorce, child custody, child support, and adoption, but other legal topics -- consumer law, neighborhood disputes, immigration, and legal issues arising from special events like Hurricane Harvey -- are addressed as well.
Volunteer attorneys licensed in the state of Texas will answer your legal questions from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm tonight, December 6, and again on December 20. Spanish speakers can call from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm on the first Thursday of every month, including this Thursday, December 7, to ask questions in Spanish.
Volunteer attorneys will offer legal information and assistance and, depending on the situation, they may refer callers to additional resources in the community, including legal aid organizations, helpful websites, or lawyer referral services. The volunteers will not represent the callers in any way, and, to protect confidentiality, all callers remain anonymous.
If you or someone you know is struggling with a legal issue or just needs some helpful legal infomration about a pending case or what to expect at an upcoming court date, the Houston Bar Association LegaLine is here to help!
MyHein, A Personal Research Tool for HeinOnline
HeinOnline is one of several legal research databases available at the Harris County Law Library. Its digitized collection of law journals is the very best source for comprehensive, up-to-date, full-text legal scholarship. It's an excellent resource for a number of other publications as well, including United States Congressional documents, federal legislative histories, state session laws, legal classics, treaties and agreements, restatements, and so much more. If you haven't used HeinOnline, we'll be happy to help you navigate the available content and to take advantage of all the database's best features, including a relatively new tool called MyHein.
MyHein is a personal research tool that allows you to bookmark articles, save search queries, and set up eTOC alerts. The MyHein User Guide is a four-page document that details (1) how to set up your MyHein account and (2) start using it to create personal libraries of saved content for later access and retrieval. Content includes any of the articles, documents, books, reports, or journals available in HeinOnline. That means the entire database is yours to bookmark, track, and save. Additionally, MyHein is portable, meaning that you can log on to your personal account at any subscribing institution and still have access to your bookmarked items and saved search queries wherever you are. If you've dowloaded the HeinOnline app for your iPhone or Android device, you can even access the database -- and your MyHein account -- remotely.
To gain remote access to HeinOnline via the HeinOnline app, first download the program to your device. Click here for Android or here for the iPhone. Then, visit the Harris County Law Library to authenticate your device through our HeinOnline subscription. Once IP authenticated, your device will be able to access the database from any location for 30 days. At the end of that period, visit us again to re-authenticate and never be without access to MyHein and HeinOnline!
December is Small Business Resource Month
Today is the first day of Small Business Resource Month at the Harris County Law Library. Throughout December, we will highlight resources, tailored for solo and small firm attorneys, who own, operate, manage, or advise small businesses. The following are just a few of the featured resources available in our collection:
- Small Business Toolkit from the Texas Young Lawyers Association
- Advising Small Business / Steven C. Alberty, West, 2014 (Call No. KF1659 .A94)
- How to Manage Your Law Office / Mary Ann Altman & Robert I. Weil, Matthew Bender, 2014 (KF 318 .A758)
Additional resources for small businesses can be found online at the links below.
Pinning the Jail (Time) on the Donkey
Eight donkeys in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh recently made world news. They were arrested and detained for four full days after getting caught munching on exotic plants outside of the town jail. Local authorities, who had previously told the donkeys' owner to keep the animals confined, were dog-tired from issuing so many repeated warnings. Costly damage to the town's expensive greenery was reason enough to take swift action, not against the negligent owner, but against the equine perpetrators of the crime. The donkeys were rounded up and jailed until a local political leader helped secure their release. Upon leaving the jail, the donkeys looked penitent and contrite, except for one who delighted in regaining his freedom with a bit of celebratory prancing.
These donkeys never had to defend their actions in a court of law, nor were they called upon to right their wrongs. Granting them their freedom is an entirely rational end to this story, but assigning animals agency and holding them accountable for their actions was once considered completely appropriate. In Europe, throughout the Middle Ages, putting animals on trial was commonplace, although some dispute just how common it was. Regardless, animal trials did take place and punishment for the accused was often severe. Pigs, who frequently killed or maimed children, received the harshest sentences -- mutilation and execution – while animals who fell victim to bestiality were commonly pardoned for committing criminal acts against their will. Insects, rodents, and other pets were also brought to justice for destroying crops or gardens, but the punishment they received was typically limited to condemnation by the church.
Bringing animals to justice through formal court proceedings is bizarre to us in the twenty-first century, but, at a time when people lived closely among animals, keeping them as livestock and beasts of burden, it made more sense to treat them as free agents, entitled to access the justice system on an equal footing with their human caretakers and counterparts.
To learn more about animals on trial, please visit the links below.
- Animals on Trial: Formal Legal Proceedings, Criminal Acts, and Torts of Animals, In Custodia Legis, Law Library of Congress, February 9, 2016,
- The Truth and Myth Behind Animal Trials in the Middle Ages, Atlas Obscura, August 10, 2015
- Fantastically Wrong: Europe’s Insane History of Putting Animals on Trial and Executing Them, Wired, September 2, 2014
- Beastly Justice, Slate, February 21, 2013
For additional resources in the Harris County Law Library’s digital collection, please look for the following titles in our HeinOnline database (or at the links below).
- The Historical and Contemporary Prosecution and Punishment of Animals by Jen Girgen, 2003
- Prosecution and Punishment of Animals and Lifeless Things in the Middle Ages and Modern Times
- The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals (Legal Classics Library) by Edward Payson Evans, 1906