For the past couple of years, Professor Tom Metzloff at Duke Law School
has directed a project to develop educational videos relating to
important Supreme Court cases called Distinctive Aspects of American
Law. The information below describes the project and the videos in more
depth. I believe they are very well done and bring these Supreme Court
cases to life. I am pleased to pass along this information to the list
for those that may be interested in purchasing them for your library
collections. Feel free to pass this information along to any of your
faculty or attorneys that might be interested as well.
They have completed the first eight documentaries and expect to have an
additional four cases completed sometime during the Fall 2006 semester.
Additional information on each case (court records, trial transcripts,
etc.) as well as photos for use in Powerpoint presentations, etc. is
available on the Distinctive Aspects website: www.distinctiveaspects.org
There is also a trailer for each of the cases currently available. You
can log into the site with username "distinctive" and password
"aspects."
The promotional brochure and order form are attached.
Here is Professor Metzloff's description:
The documentaries are designed for use in law school and college
constitutional law or civil liberties courses. Each documentary is about
20 minutes in length and consists of interviews with the actual parties
and their lawyers. For example, in Virginia v. Black, we interviewed
Barry Black, head of the Ku Klux Klan, who was arrested in Carroll
County, Virginia for burning a cross during a Klan meeting. We also
interviewed the arresting Sheriff and Deputy Sheriff who described what
happened that night; Black's attorneys, including both David Baugh, the
African-American lawyer who represented at trial, and Dean Rod Smolla,
who handled the appeal; the local prosecutor Greg Goad; and William
Hurd, Virginia's Solicitor General who argued the case on appeal and
before the Supreme Court. The case includes actual footage from Klan
rallies led by Black, including a similar cross-burning ceremony.
Our goal has been to create a teaching tool that develops fully the
factual and legal context of these seminal cases. They are not passive
learning tools; the documentaries stop with the Supreme Court granting
certiorari (or sometimes at the close of oral argument). The goal is to
prepare students to engage in discussion of the competing interests that
inform the Court's decision-making.
In addition to the 20-minute "case video" documenting the full legal
background of the case, each of our DVDs also includes a shorter
"personal narrative" that is an extended interview with the primary
protagonist in the case -- such as Barry Black -- that provides a
different way to focus on the case.
We believe that we have priced the DVDs at a reasonably low price. At
$35 per DVD, this is about 1/3 what a professional education company
would charge to market this series. We hope very much to use "word of
mouth" advertising such as electronic listserves to spread the word.
What we've found so far is that some faculty are simply purchasing the
videos that they use in their classes. Others are having their college
library acquire the entire set as a standing order, so that they will
also receive future cases automatically.
Melanie J. Dunshee
Deputy Director
Duke University School of Law Library
voice: (919) 613-7119
fax: (919) 613-7237
e-mail: dunshee@law.duke.edu
>>>>
Either Professor Metzloff or I would be happy to answer any questions
about this project.
Professor Thomas B. Metzloff
Duke University School of Law
919-613-7055
metzloff@law.duke.edu
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