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 …
This blog post is part of our Frequently Asked Legal Questions series. Background As more and more countries are heading toward cashless societies, I became painfully aware of the realities of a country without cash as I toured Sweden this past summer. Not only did some stores not accept cash, but travelling by bus also required either an app …
On the first weekend of February, in each year dating back to the 1600s, Sami traders gather at the Jokkmokk Market in Jokkmokk to trade their goods internationally. This year marked the 412th hosting of the annual market. Although I have yet to attend, its history fascinates me and I wanted to share it with you. Trade with …
December 2, 2016, marked the 250th anniversary of the first Swedish Freedom of the Press Act, which has been regarded as the world’s first statute related to freedom of the press. The Act abolished censorship and specifically provided a right for Swedish citizens to access government archives. It was therefore also the first act to establish …
Today is the National Day of Iceland, which celebrates the establishment of the Republic of Iceland upon Iceland declaring full independence from Denmark on June 17, 1944. This seemed like a good occasion to share some of the highlights of the Law Library of Congress collection of Icelandic materials with In Custodia Legis readers. Jónsbók …
Earlier this year the Law Library of Congress published a report on parliaments around the world. Kelly highlighted this report in a blog post that included some amazing pictures of parliamentary buildings. This inspired me to write about the oldest parliament in Northern Europe, which met at Thingvellir, Iceland. I was lucky enough to visit …
This week is Nobel Week, a week celebrating the awarding of Nobel Prizes in chemistry, medicine, physics, literature, and peace, as well as the affiliated Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize in Economics. Thursday (December 10) marks the commemoration of Alfred Nobel’s death …
February 6 is National Sami Day. The purpose of the day is to celebrate the Sami, the indigenous people of the northern parts of the Nordic countries–Norway, Sweden, and Finland–as well as the Kola Peninsula of Russia, which is an area known as Sápmi . It is estimated that the Sami have lived there for over 2,000 …
