On May 1, 1915, the RMS Lusitania set sail from New York City to Liverpool, England, carrying 1,959 passengers. On May 7, 1915, the ship was sailing off the Irish coast when a German U-Boat, U-20, fired a torpedo that sank the Lusitania within twenty minutes, killing 1,198 passengers, including 128 Americans. The sinking of …
April 25, 2015, marks 100 years since the first landing of Australian and New Zealand troops (known as the ANZACs, for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) at the Gallipoli peninsula (Gelibolu in Turkish) in Turkey during World War I. A few years ago I wrote about the significance of April 25th, ANZAC Day, which …
Since it is April, and today is Shakespeare’s birthday, it is time for our annual post on this great playwright. Last year, in honor of our upcoming Magna Carta exhibit, I blogged about the play King John. This year, in honor of Wolf Hall, I thought it would be fun to read and write about …
The Law Library recently welcomed Magna Carta expert Nicholas Vincent for its final program in the Magna Carta Lecture Series. Vincent, professor of medieval history at the University of East Anglia, gave a lively and visual presentation titled “Magna Carta: From Runnymede to Washington: Old Laws, New Discoveries.” In his lecture, Vincent illustrated Magna Carta’s …
(The phrase “it’s just not cricket” is used to say that “something is unfair or dishonest”; “not done.” Perhaps it could have been exclaimed by some of the parties involved in the cases below?) The baseball season starts next week, but in other parts of the world the focus over the last six weeks has …
Looking for a good legal dictionary? Well the Law Library has over 4200 of them, covering countries and languages from Chinese to Estonian to Cameroon. Many of these titles contain more than one language. So you could even draft your motion, translate it to French, and then from French to Portuguese, if you were so …
The Library’s final program of the Magna Carta Lecture series will feature noted Magna Carta scholar Nicholas Vincent on Monday, April 6, 2015. Professor Vincent will present his lecture: “Magna Carta from Runnymede to Washington: Old Laws, New Discoveries” at 1:00 p.m. in the Montpelier Room, located on the sixth floor of the James Madison …
Who were the first women to become lawyers and judges around the world? Find out in the final of a three-post series by the Law Library of Congress in celebration of Women's History Month.
For ten weeks, the Library of Congress hosted a whirlwind of events and activities that surrounded the exhibition, Magna Carta: Muse and Mentor. Activities began the day before the exhibition opened when the Law Library of Congress hosted the Chief Justice of the United States, John G. Roberts, Jr., and the former chief justice of …