Today’s interview is with Felicia Stephan, a foreign law intern working with Jenny Gesley on research related to the laws of Germany and other German-speaking jurisdictions at the Global Legal Research Directorate, Law Library of Congress. Describe your background. I am originally from Tübingen, a small town in the south of Germany, where I grew up with …
Fifty years ago, on January 31, 1968, Nauru became an independent nation. It is the smallest island republic in the world with a land area of just 8.1 square miles (“about 0.1 times the size of Washington, DC“) and a population of around 10,000 people. Prior to independence, from 1947 onward, the island was subject to a …
While a foreign concept here in the United States, a requirement that anyone who owns a television (or even just a radio) pay a “license fee” to help fund public broadcasting exists in a number of countries around the world. Such fees can be controversial and a number of countries have repealed them over the past few decades, …
Part of our routine at the start of every year is to highlight items that the Law Library of Congress published during the previous year, as well as older publications that were popular with our readers. Kelly recently blogged about the most viewed In Custodia Legis posts for 2017, Andrew gave us Congress.gov top 17 in 2017, and I …
Just over 100 years ago, on December 6, 1917, Finland officially declared independence from Russia. The Declaration of Independence had been signed on December 4 by the Senate (then Finland’s highest governing body) and was adopted by the Finnish Parliament two days later. Work towards independence had commenced in March 1917 following the abdication of the Russian tsar. In …
At the end of October 2017, I had the pleasure of participating in the annual meeting of the American Society of Comparative Law (ASCL) both as a panelist as well as an attendee. Rebecca French, a professor at SUNY, Buffalo School of Law and panelist in one of the three plenary panel discussions, described the meeting as “amazing”- I agree with …
At the beginning of every year, many of us take a moment or two to assess the previous year and make resolutions for the next one. Here at the Law Library of Congress, we are no different; we review our products and make plans to improve them. This includes the Global Legal Monitor (GLM), an …