1 In a statement replete with implications for librarianship, the United States Department of Commerce has recently called for increased participation “in the international effort to develop a mutually agreeable ‘code of behavior’ for multinational corporations“ and for the development of international product standards. U. S. Department of Commerce, U. S. Technology Policy, Draft Study, 42 Federal Register 18121, at 18124 (April 5, 1977).Google Scholar

2 In this regard, I would direct your attention to the exceptional quarterly publication of the World Peace through Law Center, Law and Computer Technology. Not merely does this periodical deal with legal ramifications of computerization (e. g., Auburn, Computer Privacy – A Commonwealth Precedent, 9 L. & Computer Technology 30 [1976]), it discusses utilization of computers by lawyers and law libraries (e. g., Botelho, An Application of Computer to Legal Information Retrieval in Brazil, 9 L. & Computer Technology 68 [1976]). Most significant to our purposes, it is truly multinational in scope. Of the articles in the last two issues, coverage was given to Brazil, the Commonwealth Nations, and the United States.Google Scholar

3 For a comprehensive delineation of the problems of bibliographic control on an international level, see the excellent, recent issue of Library Trends entitled Trends in Bibliographic Control: International Issues edited by Mary Ellen Soper and Benjamin F. Page (25/3 Library Trends [1977]).Google Scholar

4 I. J. Wigmore, Panorama of the World's Legal Systems, xi, (St. Paul, Minn.: West, 1928).Google Scholar

5 A. Blaustein and G. Flanz, eds., Constitutions of the Countries of the World. (Dobbs Ferry, N. Y.: Oceana, 1971). An alternative model suggested to me by Igor Kavass of the Vanderbilt University Law Library, is the as yet incomplete International Encyclopaedia of Comparative Law; Tübingen, Mohr and New York, Oceana (date varies).Google Scholar

6 E. Farnsworth, An Introduction to the Legal System of the United States. Corrected First Edition (Dobbs Ferry, N. Y.: Oceana, 1975).Google Scholar

7 Another model for such a series could be the guides to the law and legal literature of foreign countries published by the United States Library of Congress beginning in 1912. For the history of this series, see Valderrama, D., Law and Legal Literature of Peru: A Revised Guide (Washington: Library of Congress, 1976), iii–vi.Google Scholar

8 E. Moys, ed., Manual of Law Librarianship: The Use and Organization of Legal Literature (London: Andre Deutsch, Ltd. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1976).Google Scholar

9 Jacobstein, J. and Mersky, R., Fundamentals of Legal Research (Mineola, N. Y.: Foundation Press, 1977).Google Scholar

10 Snyder, Guide to Israel Legal Bibliography: Primary Sources, 70 Law Library Journal 14 (1977).Google Scholar

11 Some standardizations of subject headings would be desirable but the difficulty of translating legal concepts would be just one of many problems to solve in such an undertaking.Google Scholar

12 See p. 147, infra.Google Scholar

13 Chloros, A., ed., A Bibliographical Guide to the Law of the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man (Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London, 1973).Google Scholar

14 R. Lansky, Handbook of Bibliographies on the Laws of Developing Countries (1977).Google Scholar

15 J. Andrews and others. The Law in the United States of America: A Selective Bibliographical Guide (New York University Press, 1965).Google Scholar

16 Livneh, E., Israel Legal Bibliography in European Languages (“Academon”, The Hebrew University Students Press: Jerusalem, 1965). See also Wegner, J., A Bibliography of Israel Law in English and other European Languages (Hebrew University of Jerusalem Faculty of Law, Institute for Legislative Research and Comparative Law: Jerusalem, 1972).Google Scholar

17 A. Blaustein and others, A Bibliography on the Common Law in French (Dobbs Ferry, N. Y.: Oceana, 1974).Google Scholar

18 P. Eder, Law Books in Spanish Translation (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1966).Google Scholar

19 Bibliography of Translations of Codes and other Laws of Private Law (published for the Council of Europe by Morgan-Grampian Ltd., 1975).Google Scholar

20 European Law Libraries Guide prepared by the International Association of Law Libraries under the auspices of the Council of Europe (Morgan-Grampian, 1971). Other models include B. Mangles, ed., Directory of Law Libraries in the British Isles (British and Irish Association of Law Librarians, 1976) and Directory of Special Collections and Resources in Law School Libraries of the Southwest (Talon, 1976). Only directories which give information about the subject matter of the collection, photocopying charges, etc., will be valuable and helpful to law librarians.Google Scholar

21 Correspondence with Marianne Scott, February 10, 1977.Google Scholar

22 Correspondence with E. J. Glasson, Law Librarian, International Association of Law Libraries, April 22, 1977.Google Scholar

23 Correspondence with Simone-Marie Kleckner, Legal Librarian, Dag Hammerskjold Library, February 2, 1977.Google Scholar

24 Correspondence with Earl C. Borgeson, Associate Librarian, Los Angeles County Law Library, January 19, 1977.Google Scholar

25 Evaluation criteria should be given careful consideration. If the book is an in-depth study of one narrow area of law it may be of use to a large research library, but not to a library with only the minimal number of foreign volumes.Google Scholar

26 Network – International Communications in Library Automation, published quarterly by the Library and Information Science Division of the World Information Systems Exchange (WISE).Google Scholar

27 Along the same lines, a column in an international journal on unusual information sources for international law questions might be of value. I am thinking of the regular feature in RQ, an American Library Association publication, entitled “The Exchange” in which information on reference problems is exchanged.Google Scholar

28 That national efforts can have positive international effects is exemplified by an item that appeared in Canadian Association of Law Libraries, Newsletter/Bulletin, v. 2, no. 2, July-October 1976/77. The Table of Progress of Bills in Alberta, which was very useful for reference purposes but whose publication had been terminated by the government, was reinstated because of an active letter writing campaign. Such action was not only a help to Canadian law librarians but to all foreign law librarians who maintain a Canadian law collection.Google Scholar

29 See, e. g., E. Titus, ed., Union List of Serials in Libraries of the United States and Canada (New York: Wilson, 1965). Such a publication, designed for law libraries and covering legal periodicals, would greatly facilitate interlibrary loan on a national and international level.Google Scholar

30 An example and possible prototype is Checklists of Basic American Legal Publications ed. by Meira G. Pimsleur (South Hackensack, N. Y.: Published for AALL by Rothman, 1962, with supplements).Google Scholar

31 A good example is the proposed American Association of Law Libraries’ Institute on Civil Law for Common Law Trained Librarians, June 22–24, 1977, directed by Lance Dickson, Louisiana State University, and Guy Tanguay, L'Université de Sherbrooke.Google Scholar

32 See note 24 Supra.Google Scholar

33 Correspondence with F. W. Torrington, January 17, 1977; Correspondence with Esther Mann Snyder, Law Librarian, Bar-Ilan University, Israel, February 6, 1977.Google Scholar

34 Correspondence with F. W. Torrington, January 17, 1977.Google Scholar

35 Esther Mann Snyder indicated to me in a recent letter that because of budget cuts in her library, the purchase of annual pocket parts and other supplements to some American legal publications has been discontinued. But if an American law library is willing to supply the year old pocket part or supplement, American law collections in foreign countries will be only one year out of date. This could be part of the solution to the universal problem of budget cuts.Google Scholar

36 For an interesting expansion on this idea of national bibliographic centers, see Anderson, The Role of the National Bibliographic Centre, 25/3 Library Trends 645 (1977).Google Scholar

37 A good example of the problems one faces is the following: United States law librarians often buy the Dalloz legal encyclopedias whereas French law librarians know to buy Juris-Classeur publications.Google Scholar

38 A uniform rating system should be developed for dealers and would be applied by the contact people in each country who would contribute to such a list.Google Scholar

39 The American Society for Information Science has reflected its concern with international cooperation by sponsoring conferences (e. g., The Second U.S.A.-Japan Computer Conference held in Tokyo in August, 1975) and by the publishing of relevant articles (see, e. g., Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science, v. 2, no. 4, (November 1975) which includes seven articles on various aspects of international networks). Likewise the Committee on Cataloging of the International Federation of Library Associations has promoted cooperation through its meetings and publications. The World Information System Exchange has been active in the development of data bases and in the exchange of information and technology expertise on a transnational basis. The point is that many models exist for methods of international cooperation which could be adapted by law librarians.Google Scholar

Our internal efforts at cooperation in the United States have been meeting with marked success. As an example, consider the recent Library Networks Revisited – A Symposium, 70 Law Library Journal 54 (1977). What might be needed at some time in the future is networking on an international scope. This is not at all visionary, for the basic machinery exists today in the work of WISE. (See note 26, supra.)Google Scholar