Looking Back - From a Field to the Bill of Rights

It all began in a field. It seems strange to say that modern democracy was born in a simple meadow somewhere between Windsor and Staines. Back on June 15, 1215, in a meadow at Runnymeade, King John of England and a group of rebellious barons that had been threatening civil war signed a peace treaty. Little did they know at the time the lasting effect that this treaty, known later as the Great Charter or Magna Carta, would have not only at the time but hundreds of years later across a wide span of ocean in a land just finding its way. The Magna Carta, with its espousal of principles of liberty, inspired America’s Founding Fathers to include those rights in the United States Constitution and specifically the Bill of Rights. One of the central tenets of the Magna Carta, the protection from loss of life, liberty, or property without due process of law , provided the central theme for the declaration of individual rights set out in the Bill Rights. Other important rights and liberties stemming from this historic document are the right to trial by jury, the right to a speedy trial, freedom from cruel and unusual punishment, freedom from excessive fines or bail, and freedom from compulsory self-incrimination. The foundation for the notion of habeas corpus can also be found in the Magna Carta.

To learn more about Magna Carta and to see copies of one of the most important legal documents in history, check out these digital exhibits and resources:

Harris County Law Library’s Magna Carta: A Digital Exhibit

Library of Congress’s Magna Carta: Muse and Mentor

National Archives: Magna Carta

British Library: Magna Carta

June is Constitutional Law Resource Month

The Harris County Law Library is highlighting Constitutional Law Resources during the month of June. Currently on view in the Law Library lobby are three exhibits:

• Brown at 65: Explore the history of this important U.S. Supreme Court case which was decided 65 years ago on May 17, 1954.

• LGBT Legal Resources: Learn about significant federal legislation and landmark Supreme Court cases that have shaped the legal landscape for LGBT Americans in recent years.

• Magna Carta: View the Law Library’s 1763 copy of Magna Carta, the foundational document on which the United States Constitution is based.

Brown at 65

On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered its unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), in which the Court declared the doctrine of “separate, but equal” to be “inherently unequal” when applied to public schools. In honor of the 65th anniversary of the landmark case, the Law Library has created an exhibit that brings the precedent front and center for all to experience through an immersive presentation.

Walking through informative markers placed at the relevant reporters provides visitors with a vivid, undeniable sense of the pace at which school desegregation cases wended their way through the courts. For example, while many people know Brown began in Kansas in 1951 (the first opinion can be found at 98 F.Supp. 797 (Kan. 1951)), fewer realize the final opinion wasn’t penned until 1999 (the final opinion can be found at 56 F.Supp.2d 1212 (Kan. 1999)).

Visit the law library today to explore this special exhibit in person!

LGBT Legal Resources

Learn more about the following civil rights achievements for LGBT Americans:

• Lawrence v. Texas; 539 U.S. 558 (2003);123 S. Ct. 2472; 156 L. Ed. 2d508; 71 U.S.L.W. 4574

• Obergefell v. Hodges; 576 U.S. ___  (2015); 135 S. Ct. 2584; 192 L. Ed. 2d 609; 83 U.S.L.W. 4592

• Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010; Pub. L. 111–321, Dec. 22, 2010, 124 Stat. 3515

View selected resources from the Law Library's print collection including:

• Transgender Persons and the Law 

• Sexual Orientation and the Law

• Estate Planning for Same-Sex Couples

• The Impact of Marriage equality on Texas Law (State Bar of Texas CLE)

Additional LGBT legal resources are available via our electronic databases. In particular, the HeinOnline Law Journal Library contains a number of scholarly legal publications, including the Dukeminier Awards Journal, which recognizes the best sexual orientation and gender Identity law review articles of each year, dating back to 2001. A full archive of back issues is available on HeinOnline and on the journal's website at the University of California Los Angeles Law School.

Magna Carta

This month, we are also highlighting the history of Magna Carta. To commemorate the historic agreement made June 15, 1215, and memorialized by the iconic document, the Law Library has placed on display its 1763 copy of Magna Carta alongside American and Texas legal materials that show the connection between The Great Charter and the constitutional freedoms we enjoy today. Visit our downtown Houston location to view the colonial-era manuscript through the month of June and visit our digital exhibit for even more about Magna Carta.

Renewed On-Demand Learning Opportunities from the Legal Tech Institute

The Legal Tech Institute at Harris County Law Library is happy to announce that one of the most popular programs in our LTI Lecture Series is once again available on the LTI On-demand Learning page. The Robot Lawyer: Artificial Intelligence in the Practice of Law can be viewed on our YouTube channel, accessible via our Legal Tech Institute web pages. Licensed Texas attorneys can earn 1.0 hour of CLE credit from now until September 30, 2019. Guest speaker, Saskia Mehlhorn, Director of Knowledge Management & Library Services for Norton Rose Fulbright US, provides a basic overview of AI in the legal profession, gives specific examples of tools that incorporate AI technology, and discusses opportunities for lawyers and other legal professionals to benefit from the power of AI technology.

While visiting our On-demand Learning page, be sure to check out our other recorded CLE programs, which carry a total of 3.0 hours of CLE credit and .75 hours of ethics credit. Included in the series are the following:

Finding & Formatting Legal Forms (1.0 hour CLE)

Legal Practice Technology (1.0 hour CLE)

The Ethics of Cloud Computing (1.0 hoiur CLE, .75 hour ethics)

The Robot Lawyer (1.0 hour CLE)

Don’t forget that we also offer a Hands-on Legal Tech Training session every Thursday at 2:00 pm in the Law Library’s Legal Tech Lab. Join us!

On this Day: Magna Carta and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

On June 15, 1215, the Magna Carta was signed at Runnymede meadow in Surrey, England. View our digital exhibit to learn more about this historic document and its role in shaping our democracy.

Many of the fundamental values we cherish, including liberty, equality, and freedom from tyranny, are direct descendants of the rights established by the Magna Carta more than 800 years ago. These ideals are embodied in our nation's founding documents and embraced by people around the world, even in countries whose governments deny any such protections to their citizens.  

Following World War II and the atrocities it spawned, an effort unfolded in the United Nations to codify the inalienable rights of people everywhere. The Human Rights Commission was established in 1946 as a standing body of the UN to draft the defining document. Two years later, on December 10, 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted. Nearly every country in the world accepted the 30 articles that comprise the UDHR and integrated them into their bodies of law. The UDHR, which some have described as the Magna Carta of the modern age, remains a powerful instrument today, and its impact continues to be felt all over the world. 

MONTHLY FEATURES: MAGNA CARTA & CONSTITUTIONAL LAW RESOURCES

During the month of June, the Harris County Law Library is commemorating Magna Carta. Don’t miss our digital exhibit and the exhibit currently on display in the Law Library's lobby, where you can explore the origins of this historically significant document and its impact on both the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as well as its influence on the rule of law in Texas.

To complement our Magna Carta exhibits, the Law Library has adopted a theme, Constitutional Law Resource Month, which will feature items from our collection, including treatises, reference works, CLE course materials, form books, and other practitioner tools that may be useful in conducting constitutional law research.

The Law Library will also feature a small display of commentaries and related examples of case law that demonstrate the connections between Magna Carta and American law. All of these resources and exhibits will be featured until the end of June. Don’t miss your chance to see them, and please feel free to ask the Law Library staff any questions about the materials you discover.