New Reports on Foreign Parliaments Added

Early last year I wrote about the publication of a collection of Law Library of Congress reports that delve into the workings of national parliaments in twelve countries around the world. We’ve recently added four more countries to the collection, so there is now coverage of specific parliaments in South Asia and Africa, in addition to those in a selection of countries in Europe, North America, East Asia, and Australasia.

The four new country reports are on the parliaments of Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, and India. These detailed reports provide information about the history of each parliament’s formation and their evolution as the countries moved from colonial rule to independence under new constitutions. They also outline the current constitutional role of the parliaments, explain their structure and composition, set out the different election systems and recent results, and discuss the processes involved in the passage of legislation.

Through these reports you can gain knowledge about terms and processes that you might come across in researching the laws of the different countries. You can also compare and contrast the roles, structures, and systems that have been put in place, and even come to understand some of the reasons for and influences on these aspects. Furthermore, the new reports cover countries whose elections and politics come up in international news from time to time, so you can impress your friends with your knowledge of, for example, the fact that 86% of registered voters voted in the 2013 general elections in Kenya; Pakistan has 60 seats in its parliament that are reserved for women; there are 29 state legislatures in India, and the last elections for the national parliament were held over 35 days in 2014; and Nigeria changed from the parliamentary system of its former colonizer, the United Kingdom, to a presidential system nearly 20 after independence.

All of the reports in this collection provide a wealth of information and resources for researchers. As always, if you need help researching the laws and legal systems of any country in the world, you can contact us using the Ask a Librarian form on the Law Library’s website.