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Posted by: Clare Feikert-Ahalt
Cynthia informed us about International Plan Language Day and the global movement to improve the use of plain language in government and legal writing. Kelly continued the trend and wrote about New Zealand’s approach to using plain English in the country’s laws. I thought I would continue the series. Despite the last, rather confusing weird …
Posted in: Global Law, Law Library
Posted by: Clare Feikert-Ahalt
The English are, generally speaking, a fairly genteel group of people. Hunting in England is now relatively uncommon, with fox hunting (very controversially) legislated against in 2007. Even owning a gun is rather unusual and involves a long and highly regulated process. I definitely noticed a huge contrast when I first moved here – during hunting season deer …
Posted in: In the News, Law Library
Posted by: Andrew Weber
This week’s interview is with Pam Russell, Legislative Counsel in our Congressional Relations Office. I’ve enjoyed working with Pam on a number of occasions. She often accompanies the THOMAS team when we brief House and Senate staffers on updates to THOMAS. Pam is another example of an attorney in the Library of Congress that works outside the Law …
Posted in: Interview
Posted by: Nathan Dorn
We are in the midst of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. Often known as “the Festival of Lights” in reference to the basic feature of its observance – the lighting of the eight-branched candelabra – Hanukkah commemorates the events surrounding the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem after a period of political oppression and forced …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Christine Sellers
The following is a guest post by Francisco Macías, Senior Legal Information Analyst. Fillet of a fenny snake, In the caldron boil and bake; Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting, Lizard’s leg, and owlet’s wing,— from William Shakespeare’s Macbeth If you’ve read …
Posted in: Education, In the News, Law Library
Posted by: Clare Feikert-Ahalt
As mentioned in my previous post, during my day-to-day work at my cool job, I never know what I’m going to stumble upon. It so happened that, as I was gathering information for my post on sumptuary laws, I came across a page of ‘legal curiosities’ compiled by the UK’s Law Commission and published by …
Posted in: Collections, Education, Global Law, In the News
Posted by: Clare Feikert-Ahalt
When doing my cool job, I never know what will cross my path. Recently, I happened to discover some items covering early sumptuary laws in England. These laws were prohibitions against what the Monarch at the time considered to be “extravagance,” typically in the form of food or clothing. They were reportedly aimed to preserve the class system …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Christine Sellers
The following is a guest post by Margaret Wood, Legal Reference Specialist in our Public Services Division. She acknowledges there is much more to Eliot’s Felix Holt than is covered below. Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice is one of the famous works in the literary canon that deals with the question of entail. The …
Posted in: Guest Post, Law Library
Posted by: Kelly Buchanan
The 2011 Rugby World Cup kicked off in New Zealand on September 9th with a glittering opening ceremony followed by the first match between New Zealand and Tonga. (Note that the New Zealand national rugby team is commonly called the “All Blacks.”) I’ve had a couple of very busy weekends watching a number of the …
Posted in: Global Law, In the News