A colleague recently drew my attention to the proposition that “in the United States, the specter of class-action lawsuits imposes a higher level of precaution on the part of drug makers.” This statement was made in a newspaper article that discussed the scandal that erupted in France in connection with the prescription drug Mediator, which was …
This week’s pics are brought to you all the way from New Zealand! I recently returned from a trip there to visit family over the holiday period. While in Wellington, I stopped in to see friends and former colleagues at the Beehive (executive wing of the parliamentary complex) and Parliament House, and also took a …
Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to attend Summer School LEX 2011. As background, [t]he school aims at providing knowledge of the most significant ICT standards emerging for legislation, judiciary, parliamentary and administrative documents. The course provides understanding of their impact in the different phases of the legislative and administrative process, awareness of the tools based …
The Kenyan Law Reports (KLR), a free Kenyan Law database, was just announced winner of the International Association of Law Libraries (IALL) 2011 Website Award Competition. With this award, Kenyan Law Reports joins the ranks of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law websites that claimed …
This week’s interview is with LeeAnne Rupple, Special Assistant to the Law Librarian. Enjoy! Describe your background. I was born in South Carolina to a family of die-hard, born and bred, Texans! I spent the bulk of my adolescent years in St. Louis, Missouri; however, my dad’s job required us to move frequently, so I …
The following is a guest post by Nicole Atwill, Senior Foreign Law Specialist in the Global Legal Research Center. I recently watched Dominique Strauss Kahn’s return to France on the French news as I vacationed there. There was nonstop live television coverage during the day. Many commentators pointed out that although Dominique Strauss Kahn (“DSK”) …
When doing my cool job, I never know what will cross my path. Recently, I happened to discover some items covering early sumptuary laws in England. These laws were prohibitions against what the Monarch at the time considered to be “extravagance,” typically in the form of food or clothing. They were reportedly aimed to preserve the class system …
This week’s interview is with Dr. Mary-Jane Deeb, Chief of the African and Middle Eastern Division at the Library of Congress. Describe your background My background is a bit complicated: my mother was Slovenian and my father was a Levantine from Egypt. I grew up in Alexandria, Egypt, spoke French at home, and went to …
The 2011 Rugby World Cup kicked off in New Zealand on September 9th with a glittering opening ceremony followed by the first match between New Zealand and Tonga. (Note that the New Zealand national rugby team is commonly called the “All Blacks.”) I’ve had a couple of very busy weekends watching a number of the …
