During a recent vacation in Scotland I took several treks along the Royal Mile in Edinburgh’s Old Town. On one such walk, in the darkness of the late afternoon, I snapped a picture of Advocate’s Close and the plaque that provides brief information about it. All along the Royal Mile there are narrow alleyways called “closes,” …
The following is a guest post by George Sadek, a senior legal research analyst at the Law Library of Congress. George has contributed a number of posts to this blog, including posts on Egypt’s new antiterrorism law, the legal processes available to imprisoned journalists in Egypt, the trial of Seif al Islam al Gaddafi, constitutional …
The following is a guest post by Peter Roudik, director of legal research at the Law Library of Congress. Peter has written a number of posts related to Russia and the former Soviet Union, including posts on the Soviet investigation of Nazi war crimes, lustration in Ukraine, Crimean history and the 2014 referendum, regulating the …
The first multinational report to be published on the Law Library’s website in 2016 allows us to consider some fundamental questions underlying the practice of comparative law: who makes the laws, and how are the laws made? The report covers eleven jurisdictions with different legal and constitutional traditions and systems of government. We have the …
During a vacation in New Zealand in September, I was able to visit a new exhibition at Te Papa (New Zealand’s national museum) called Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War. The exhibition, which opened in April, provides insight into this particular aspect of World War I by telling the stories of eight New Zealanders involved …
This blog post is part of our Frequently Asked Legal Questions series. In late April 2015, Indonesia executed two Australian citizens, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who had been convicted of drug trafficking offenses in 2006. The two men were part of the “Bali Nine” syndicate that had attempted to smuggle 18 pounds (more than 8 kilograms) …
April 25, 2015, marks 100 years since the first landing of Australian and New Zealand troops (known as the ANZACs, for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) at the Gallipoli peninsula (Gelibolu in Turkish) in Turkey during World War I. A few years ago I wrote about the significance of April 25th, ANZAC Day, which …
Who were the first women to become lawyers and judges around the world? Find out in the final of a three-post series by the Law Library of Congress in celebration of Women's History Month.
Who were the first women to be elected to parliaments around the world? Find out in the second of three posts by the Law Library of Congress in celebration of Women's History Month.