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Legal professions

Law books

How a century-old rule is keeping the American legal profession from innovating like its foreign colleagues

Technology

If you want to get legal advice in Canada, you can swing by Wal-Mart. And in the UK, legal advice is handed out in grocery stores. But a rule implemented more than 100 years ago in the US keeps legal advice largely out of reach for most Americans and keeps innovations from changing the stodgy legal field.

Experts look for clues to increasing number of law enforcement fatalities

Global Politics

China issues new regulation requiring lawyers to swear allegiance to Communist Party

New foreclosure mess: Faulty documents

Business, Economics and Jobs

Court Vacancies Force Judges From Retirement

Conflict & Justice

California Lawyers Want Recycled Briefs

Steve talks with Debra Ream of the Sierra Club Legal Defense Club about a move to require attorneys in California to file their court papers on recycled paper, and to print some of their briefs on both sides of the page. The state’s legal profession currently uses about 100,000 tons of paper a year.

EPA Ombudsman

Living on Earth political observer Mark Hertsgaard talks with host Steve Curwood about EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman’s decision to move the office of the agency’s ombudsman, and how this has led to charges of conflict of interest for her.

The World

US courts losing global influence

Global Politics

American courts have long been held up as a guide for other judicial systems around the world. But as The World’s Laura Lynch reports, that influence seems to be on the decline.

The World

Zimbabwe crackdown on opposition continues

Zimbabwe’s top opposition figure is detained by police, and a Beatrice Mutetwa, leading Zimbabwean human rights lawyer tells anchor Lisa Mullins that scores of ordinary citizens are being arrested and beaten every day, as part of a government crackdown.