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Global Legal Monitor: 2014 Year in Review

Posted by: Hanibal Goitom

The Global Legal Monitor (GLM) had a great 2014.  One of the Law Library of Congress premier online sources, the GLM published 431 articles in 2014 covering legal developments around the world, particularly parliamentary acts and court decisions on a variety of issues. When writing for the Global Legal Monitor, we try to focus on issues that we believe will interest …

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Fire at Parliament! Library Saved!

Posted by: Kelly Buchanan

When you visit the Library of Congress you are likely to hear or read about the loss of collections to fires, first in 1814 during the War of 1812 and then later, on Christmas Eve 1851.  Unfortunately, a number of other countries have also suffered losses of parliamentary or national library buildings and important materials …

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Feudalism, Magna Carta and King John – Pic of the Week

Posted by: Margaret Wood

On Wednesday, I gave a gallery talk for the Magna Carta: Muse and Mentor Exhibition.  I focused the talk around King John and his rapacious habits as a ruler: demanding extraordinary fees from his feudal vassals, seizing hostages, and losing battles.  I also included some information on the Constitutions of Clarendon (more on that in …

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Sentencing of Parents who Kill Children in Japan

Posted by: Ruth Levush

The following is a guest post by Sayuri Umeda, a senior foreign law specialist at the Law Library of Congress.  Sayuri has previously written blog posts on “Cambodian Law – Global Legal Collection Highlights“; “English Translations of Post-Second World War South Korean Laws“; “Laws and Regulations Passed in the Aftermath of the Great East Japan …

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Ukraine: Two Understandings of Lustration

Posted by: Kelly Buchanan

The following is a guest post by Peter Roudik, director of legal research at the Law Library of Congress.  He has written a number of posts for In Custodia Legis, including on “Crimean History, Status, and Referendum,” “Regulating the Winter Olympics in Russia,” “Soviet Law and the Assassination of JFK,” and the “Treaty on the …

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Killing Kangaroos

Posted by: Kelly Buchanan

Did you know that there are over 60 different species of kangaroo and their close relatives? How many kangaroos do you think live in Australia in total? 10,000? 1 million? 10 million? In fact, the population size of just the four most abundant kangaroo species has fluctuated between 15 million and 50 million over the …

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Recent Law Library of Congress Report on National Funding of Road Infrastructure

Posted by: Ruth Levush

According to a June 2014 report by the United States Congressional Budget Office (CBO), most of the annual spending by the federal government on surface transportation programs is in the form of grants to state and local governments. These grants are primarily financed through the federal Highway Trust Fund (HTF). After decades of stable balances to …