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Archive: December 2013 (17 Posts)

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New Year’s Greetings from the Law Librarian of Congress

Posted by: Donna Sokol

This is a guest post by the Law Librarian of Congress, David Mao, who has previously written about state government contracts, Justifying Speed, and Food for Thought, among other topics. The New Year’s Greeting for 2013 is available for download in PDF format: 2013_new_years_letter.   FORWARD PROGRESS The Law Library of Congress Made Great Strides in Reaching Its Strategic Goals for …

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Congress – The Second Session

Posted by: Margaret Wood

We have written a number of posts about Lame Duck congresses and what happens at the beginning of a new Congress, but we thought this year we would take a moment to talk about what happens during the second session of a Congress. Before the ratification of the Twentieth Amendment in 1933, Congress began on …

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Small Claims Court: A Beginner’s Guide

Posted by: Robert Brammer

This post was co-authored by Barbara Bavis and Robert Brammer, Legal Reference Specialists. At sometime you may find yourself in a dispute that does not seem worth pursuing because the amount in controversy is small. After all, you do not want to spend five thousand dollars on an attorney for a claim that, assuming you are …

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Capitol Christmas Tree – Pic of the Week

Posted by: Kelly Buchanan

One evening this week I paid a visit to the Capitol Christmas Tree, which is situated on the West Front lawn of the U.S. Capitol.  This year the tree traveled all the way from the Newport Ranger District of the Colville National Forest in northeast Washington state, arriving at the Capitol in late November.  It …

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First Legislative Data Challenge Winner Announced

Posted by: Tina Gheen

Today we have the great pleasure of announcing Jim Mangiafico as the winner of our first legislative data challenge, Markup of US Legislation in Akoma Ntoso and the $5,000 prize. The challenge, which was open from July 16 to October 31, invited participants to create XML versions of US bill text using the Akoma Ntoso standard. We …

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In Custodia Legis Posts: 2013 Roundup

Posted by: Hanibal Goitom

As I said in my post last week on the foreign and comparative law reports we published in 2013, December is a good time to look back and evaluate the year.  This has been a busy year for the In Custodia Legis blog team.  So far in 2013, we have published 233 posts and May …

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Christmas Movies and the Law

Posted by: Margaret Wood

James (Jim) Martin, Andrew Weber and I were talking about Christmas movies several weeks ago.  Jim describes himself as a cynic, who “developed a taste for what I call ‘alternative Christmas,’ films such as The Lion in Winter and Desk Set.”  Jim defines alternative Christmas films as “films that take place during the holiday period, but …

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Napoleon Bonaparte and Mining Rights in France

Posted by: Hanibal Goitom

The following is the first guest post written by Nicolas Boring, Foreign Law Specialist for France and French-speaking countries in the Law Library’s Global Legal Research Center.  Nicolas joined the Law Library family in September 2013.  For more on Nicolas, you can read his recent In Custodia Legis interview.  A couple of weeks ago, I …