December 2, 2016, marked the 250th anniversary of the first Swedish Freedom of the Press Act, which has been regarded as the world’s first statute related to freedom of the press. The Act abolished censorship and specifically provided a right for Swedish citizens to access government archives. It was therefore also the first act to establish …
The following is a guest post by Elin Hofverberg. Elin is a foreign law research consultant who covers Scandinavian countries at the Law Library of Congress. Elin has previously written for In Custodia Legis on diverse topics including Iceland – Global Legal Collection Highlights, Alfred Nobel’s Will: A Legal Document that Might Have Changed the World …
Today is the National Day of Iceland, which celebrates the establishment of the Republic of Iceland upon Iceland declaring full independence from Denmark on June 17, 1944. This seemed like a good occasion to share some of the highlights of the Law Library of Congress collection of Icelandic materials with In Custodia Legis readers. Jónsbók …
Earlier this year the Law Library of Congress published a report on parliaments around the world. Kelly highlighted this report in a blog post that included some amazing pictures of parliamentary buildings. This inspired me to write about the oldest parliament in Northern Europe, which met at Thingvellir, Iceland. I was lucky enough to visit …
It’s almost time for the National Book Festival (#NatBookFest)! I have looked through the line-up, which you can browse by author or schedule, and am excited to try to see the authors of “Rosie Revere, Engineer,” “The Princess in Black,” and “I am Blop!” while there. (Can you guess the ages of the people I will …
Previously on this blog we have published articles related to developments in the refugee laws of particular countries in response to the current refugee crisis. For example, Elin wrote two posts on the refugee laws of Denmark and Sweden, and Theresa wrote a post on the European Union’s approach to the crisis. There are also …