Law Music Video - Remain Silent

This week's installment in the "Law Music Videos" series is Remain Silent by Keb Mo.  The pictures in the video are beautiful, but don't have anything to do with the song.  However, this is the best audio version of the song available.  Law music videos played before your class starts will positively contribute to learning.

Guest Blogger: Donna Steslow - Causation Explained by a Rube Goldberg Music Video

Donna Steslow at Kutztown University submitted the following:

I am always trying to explain the concept of a Rube Goldberg type machine when discussing the Palsgraf case and proximate cause, but students have no idea what that is. I think this music video is great; it could illustrate the difference between causation in fact, proximate cause and foreseeability. Is the last step (getting doused with paint) foreseeable?

Van Morrison Completes His Contractual Obligation

I don't know how much of this story is legend but clearly the core of it is verifiable. In late 1967, singer/songwriter Van Morrison was interested in leaving Bang Records, the label to which he was contractually obligated, in favor of Warner Brothers records.  However, Morrison still owed Bang thirty-one solo recordings to meet his contractual obligation. So, Morrison went into the studio with his guitar and in a single session pumped out 31 solo recordings, consisting of Morrison strumming various riffs on his guitar and singing or speaking whatever was on his mind. Titles of the songs (below), which were never released by Bang, are revealing.  Bang expected some bang for their buck. Instead, they got . . . "Ringworm?"

 

Eyewitness Testimony Examined

This term, the US Supreme Court will be re-examining the rules regarding the admission of eyewitness testimony. Scientific studies have increasingly called the inherent reliability of eyewitnesses into question.  The NJ Courts have already taken action in this regard.

Here are links to some prior posts that also address this issue.  Eyewitness Reliability #1.  Eyewitness Reliability #2.

Click on the image below to see a scene from My Cousin Vinny where Atty. Vincent LaGuardia Gambino exposes the mistaken recollections of an eyewitness.

An Astute Jury

A story about an observant jury:

Guest Blogger: Henry Lowenstein - Gibbons v Ogden: Steamships, Slaves and Supremacy

Henry Lowenstein from Coastal Carolina University shares the following:

Every term I assign 4 cases for my Legal Environment of Business class for students to read the majority opinion and write a 2 page mini-brief summary.  The first one is usually a Commerce Clause case since we start the course on foundations of the law.   This year I decided to use the old war horse, Gibbons v. Ogden.

In perusing the internet I found this wonderful YouTube video which is a 35 minute dramatization of the case done by the Judicial Conference of the United States in 1977.  (The late actor E.G. Marshall introduces it).  It can be a little dry at times but I sent it to my students.

The students who took the time to watch it say they were fascinated, particularly my African-American students who had no idea of the critical linkage between the Marshall Court making this decision and the post hysteria and unconstitutional law enactments here in South Carolina following the Denmark Vesey Slave Conspiracy at that time.  Below is what I sent my students:

Dear Students:

I have heard from some of you working your way through the Supreme Court decision in the case of Gibbons v. Ogden, your first case assignment coming up shortly.

For those of you interested I draw your attention to an outstanding 35 minutes dramatization of this case on YouTube at the following site:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGTkRP4v8tM

This program, commissioned by the Judicial Conference of the United States in 1977, covers the issues and deliberations Chief Justice John Marshall and the then 7 member justices faced and how they ultimately crafted the unanimous decision you are reading.   Note as you watch it, the similarity between the issues and concerns then with what you hear in today's public debate on the role of the Federal government and its regulation of commerce.

What you may find more fascinating, is that the Court took this case as a legal linkage in dealing with events of the time happening in Charleston, South Carolina; the Denmark Vesey Slave Revolt Conspiracy of 1822 and its aftermath. That event led to a cruel and inflexible state law governing seamen passed by South Carolina which many felt impeded commerce.  One of the Justices, sitting as presiding Federal Judge over the region declared the South Carolina law unconstitutional. This helped push Chief Justice Marshall and the full Supreme Court to strongly affirm Federal supremacy over interstate commerce in Gibbons v. Ogden to deal with both situations.

I hope you will find this helpful, interesting and the acting superb.

Henry Lowenstein, PhD
Professor of Management and Law 

Law Music Video - Call The Police

This week's installment in the "Law Music Videos" series is Call The Police by Nat King Cole.  This is a Classic! Law music videos played before your class starts will positively contribute to learning.