While the United States does not publish an official gazette, most countries of the world do. These primary law sources are invaluable for foreign legal research. While no two countries’ gazettes are identical, most contain legislation, orders, regulations, statutory instruments, and international agreements. Some even include decisions of courts and administrative agencies. The currency of …
We all know that there are a huge number of “days” (or weeks, or months, or sometimes the whole year!) for remembering and celebrating significant events or highlighting different issues. There are the serious ones, like Earth Day, World AIDS Day, and Law Day. And then there are some that are a bit less serious, …
The following is a post by Nicole Atwill, Foreign Law Specialist for France and other French-speaking jurisdictions and one of our new guest bloggers. As Kelly noted in a previous post, we Foreign Law Specialists keep up to date with legal news and events in the jurisdictions that we cover. Browsing through several French newspapers …
Our funny and brilliant blogger of British origin, Clare, is taking a wee break at the moment – we’ve excused her from blogging duties while she looks after a very new addition to her family – congratulations, Clare!. Therefore, in the interests of maintaining a good coverage of foreign law and a broad international perspective, …
The following is a guest post by Taru Spiegel, Reference Specialist in the European Division. A lawyer I know who does legal drafting says that there is no need to use archaic terms such as “aforethought,” “forthwith,” “wherefore,” or “to wit.” Legal language should be clear, concise, and unambiguous. Everybody should be able to understand …
I have decided to take advantage of the blog to draw a little attention to some of the legal research aids for my primary jurisdiction, the United Kingdom, that we have available online through the Law Library of Congress website. There are a mixture of resources available from this site on the U.K., from research guides …
A young American woman dies while scuba diving on her honeymoon in Australia in 2003. After lengthy police investigations, an inquest in 2008 finds that it is likely that her husband (an experienced diver) killed her by holding her under the water. The husband voluntarily returns from the U.S. to face murder charges in Australia. …
The following is a guest post by Hanibal Goitom, Foreign Law Specialist at the Law Library of Congress. This is his second guest post – the first discussed cases and legislation relating to women’s rights in Africa. Here at the Law Library of Congress we have a great tradition called the “Power Lunch” – a …
You might have seen some articles in U.S. newspapers last week about the filming of the two Hobbit films in New Zealand. Director Peter Jackson always intended to make The Lord of the Rings prequels there, but some recent activities of an actors union appeared to have thrown this into doubt and led to a …