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Archive: 2015 (228 Posts)

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New End of Year Congress.gov Enhancements: Quick Search, Congressional Record Index, and More

Posted by: Andrew Weber

In our quest to retire THOMAS, we have made many enhancements to Congress.gov this year.  Our first big announcement was the addition of email alerts, which notify users of the status of legislation, new issues of the Congressional Record, and when Members of Congress sponsor and cosponsor legislation.  That development was soon followed by the addition of treaty documents and better …

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Nobel Week Highlighted by In Custodia Legis – Pic of the Week

Posted by: Ruth Levush

This week our In Custodia Legis team celebrated Nobel Week with the Swedes and millions of others around the globe. The ten individual 2015 Nobel Laureates were honored in the Nobel Prize Award ceremony yesterday in Stockholm, Sweden, with the Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded in Oslo, Norway on Saturday, December 12. If you are enthusiastic about awards …

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Nobel Prize-Winning Lawyers: Part Two

Posted by: Jennifer González

Yesterday I highlighted 14 Nobel Peace Prize winners who were leaders of their country before, during, or after they won the prize. Today, I will highlight 19 more winners with legal backgrounds. Many of these laureates were leaders in international law, disarmament policies, or helped to broker peace in time of conflict. Elihu Root was …

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Nobel Prize-Winning Lawyers: Part One

Posted by: Jennifer González

As Elin mentioned yesterday, the Nobel Peace Prize will be given out on Thursday in Oslo, Norway.  I was interested in the recipients this year, the National Dialogue Quartet, and while researching I found that one quarter of this organization was the Tunisian Order of Lawyers. That piqued my interest as to how many other …

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Alfred Nobel’s Will: A Legal Document that Might Have Changed the World and a Man’s Legacy

Posted by: Elin Hofverberg

This week is Nobel Week, a week celebrating the awarding of Nobel Prizes in chemistry, medicine, physics, literature, and peace, as well as the affiliated Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize in Economics. Thursday (December 10) marks the commemoration of Alfred Nobel’s death …

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On This Day: An Independent Van Diemen’s Land

Posted by: Kelly Buchanan

The history of the British penal colonies in Australia is fascinating, and something that I have become increasingly interested in while researching my own family history.  As a New Zealander, I have long been aware that many Australians are now quite proud of having convict ancestry.  There are a number of resources available online and …

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On the Shelf: Caribbean Collection Items

Posted by: Jennifer Davis

The Caribbean is a term for the area that comprises nearly twenty-five sovereign territories, overseas departments, and dependencies in the Caribbean Sea basin. The U.N. Statistical Division and the CIA World Factbook recognize the Caribbean as a distinct geographical subregion for statistical and economic purposes. Historically, the Caribbean has not generated much legal material compared …

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Our National Bird – Pic of the Week

Posted by: Margaret Wood

Like millions of Americans, I spent yesterday baking and eating all sorts of food which is traditional to Thanksgiving.  I have always loved the cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes, I enjoy the pumpkin pie with lots of whipped cream, but for me the pièce de résistance is the turkey.  However, if Congress had heeded Benjamin …