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Posted by: Margaret Wood
The following is a guest post by Clare Feikert-Ahalt, a foreign law specialist at the Law Library of Congress covering the United Kingdom and several other jurisdictions. Other recent posts by Clare include Regulating the Rag and Bone Man and Jediism in Not a Recognized Religion in England and Wales. It is the holiday season once more, when …
Posted in: Global Law
Posted by: Margaret Wood
This is another one of those “Today in History” posts! On July 18, 1536, the English Parliament passed the law titled “An Act Extinguishing the authority of the bishop of Rome” (28 Hen. 8 c.10). This was in fact one of a series of laws which had been passed during the previous four years, severing …
Posted in: Education
Posted by: Margaret Wood
European history is full of rulers whose names have included nicknames that designate some outstanding characteristic. For example, Richard I of England was known as Lionheart for his bravery in battle. Then there is Joan, Queen of Castile, also known as Joanna the Mad. She acquired this nickname after the death of her husband Philip …
Posted in: Global Law
Posted by: Margaret Wood
On July 24, 1567, an imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots was forced to sign the instrument of her own abdication, thereby handing over the throne of Scotland to her 13-month-old son, James, and his regents. She was only 24 years old and had been queen of Scotland since the first week of her life. She was forced …
Posted in: Law Library
Posted by: Margaret Wood
Once again we have updated this guide as of today, May 8, 2020. These updates include new presidential actions and a link from the IRS for additional information on the stimulus checks. We have added links to information under the State Government section as well highlighted some of the recent CRS reports and new blog …
Posted in: Congress, Global Law, In the News
Posted by: Margaret Wood
Information about Erskine May, the text governing UK parliamentary procedure
Posted in: Law Library, Pic of the Week
Posted by: Margaret Wood
Both of my parents were prodigious readers. My father, the physicist, read histories, biographies, dictionaries, and the occasional mystery. My mother read “literature.” I remember Henry James and Jane Austen as two of her favorite authors, with W. Somerset Maugham as light relief. I have inherited their passion for reading and last summer indulged my …
Posted in: Law Library
Posted by: Margaret Wood
We have written several “today in history posts” recently and this is another. Today, December 29, is the 847th anniversary of the murder of Thomas Becket in his cathedral in Canterbury, England. This date is also his feast day in the Roman Catholic calendar of saints. I previously wrote about Thomas Becket and the origins …
Posted in: Global Law
Posted by: Margaret Wood
I spent my summer vacation at Dickens Universe on the University of California Santa Cruz campus. In anticipation of the bicentenary of George Eliot’s birth, this year’s book was Middlemarch, rather than the usual novel by Dickens. I had promised the blog team that I would write a post on Middlemarch after attending this literary fest. …
Posted in: Global Law