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The Electoral College – What Is It and How Does It Function?

Posted by: Margaret Wood

The following is a guest post by Barbara Bavis and Robert Brammer, both legal reference librarians in the Public Services Division of the Law Library of Congress. The 2012 Presidential election is projected to be close, and attention has turned to whether the Electoral College may diverge from the popular vote in shaping the outcome …

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Israel’s Upcoming National Elections: Background Information

Posted by: Ruth Levush

Israel is facing national elections shortly after the U.S. elections. Interestingly, Israel was mentioned more than 30 times  in the October 22, 2012 U.S. presidential debate . There is no doubt that the results of either election will have serious ramifications on both countries’ policies in the Middle East. On Oct. 16, 2012, the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) passed the Law for the dissolution …

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National American Indian Heritage Month

Posted by: Margaret Wood

We often blog about various commemorative events, and I wanted to draw attention to November as National American Indian Heritage Month.  This began as a commemorative week in 1986 when Congress passed Pub.L. 99-471 designating November 23-30 as American Indian Week.  As directed by Congress in this law, President Reagan issued Presidential Proclamation 5577 in which …

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Revealing the Presence of Ghosts

Posted by: Clare Feikert-Ahalt

I could not pass up this Halloween time without touching upon at least one spooky subject and how the law relates to it.  In the past Francisco has covered unusual laws pertaining to Halloween, David has posted about  punishing rebellious children and witches, Kelly has taken us on a journey through time and told us …

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Global Legal Monitor: September Highlights

Posted by: Hanibal Goitom

The Global Legal Monitor (GLM) is a Law Library of Congress publication providing summaries on new legal developments around the world.  It is updated frequently and can be searched by author, topic and jurisdiction. Here is a list of the top ten most viewed GLM articles in September, including ones published about two years ago that remain popular …

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Sedition in England: The Abolition of a Law From a Bygone Era

Posted by: Clare Feikert-Ahalt

Abolishing ancient laws in England is often no easy task.  A significant degree of research is involved before these laws are amended or abolished.  The research has to be particularly thorough to avoid one of the oldest – that of unintended consequences. The issue of thoroughly researching laws was demonstrated several years ago when the government was …

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The Law Library of Congress at the National Book Festival

Posted by: Margaret Wood

As we did with AALL, we decided to collect feedback from Law Library staff about their participation in this year’s National Book Festival (NBF).  As I noted in last week’s post, this is the Law Library’s second year for participating in the National Book Festival and here is what some of the Law Library participants had to …

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Global Legal Monitor: August Highlights

Posted by: Hanibal Goitom

Our top most viewed Global Legal Monitor articles in August covered seven different legal areas: Communications and Electronic Information; Constitutional Law; Criminal Law and Procedure; Foreign Investment; Immigration; Labor; and Nationality and Citizenship.  Here is a list of these articles in the order of their popularity: Japan: Stricter Sentences for Sex Offenders   South Korea: Permanent …