You may remember that in my July 9, 2011 post, I discussed the measures that the Law Library of Congress has taken in response to the birth of South Sudan. These included creating a Guide to the Laws of South Sudan page and getting our overseas offices to start collecting South Sudanese laws. On August …
On July 9, 2011, a new African nation was born; South Sudan declared its independence and became the 54th African nation and 193rd member of the United Nations. This came to be after the people of South Sudan overwhelmingly supported the secession (with about 99% of voters in favor) of South Sudan from Sudan in …
This post is part of our Global Legal Collection Highlights series in which we provide information on some of the foreign law materials available to researchers at the Library of Congress. March 21, 2015, marks the 25th anniversary of Namibia’s independence. Namibia, which gained its independence on March 21, 1990, is Africa’s third-youngest nation next …
This post was co-authored with Constance A. Johnson, a senior legal information analyst at the Law Library of Congress. Connie is chair of the Law Library’s planning committee for Human Rights Day and has previously blogged about Law Relating to Refugee Rights – Global Legal Collection Highlights, Law and Longitude, Water Rights at Star Island, and our Guide on Legal …
Kelly’s Inspiring Story of Nelson Mandela inspired a lot of views and was one of our top posts so far. If you haven’t read it yet, go ahead… I can wait. We also learned the answer to “What lets you search for laws passed by Congress?” when THOMAS was on Jeopardy. Our intern, Bacilio, was …
Today, Eritrea, Africa’s youngest nation (at least until next month, when South Sudan is expected to declare its formal independence), celebrates its 20th Independence Day. Eritrea, like all of its African brethren, is a colonial creation. Although Turkey, Egypt, and the local Ethiopian rulers controlled different parts of what later became Eritrea at different times, …
We recently published a report that surveys laws criminalizing blasphemy, defaming religion, harming religious feelings and other similar acts in seventy-seven jurisdictions around the world. The report includes a map showing the different regions of the world covered in the report. Reports such as this one, which survey a geographically, economically, and politically diverse group of countries, …
This blog post is part of our Frequently Asked Legal Questions series. Recently, three African countries initiated a process to withdraw from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (the Rome Statute). On October 18, Burundi’s president signed legislation to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (the ICC), the first country to do so. The following …
Last week, the Law Library of Congress added four newly-issued Eritrean codes to its collection: the Civil Code, Civil Procedure Code, Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code. We are grateful to the staff of the Library of Congress Field Office in Nairobi, Kenya, who made considerable efforts to acquire the material. The issuance of these …