This presentation draws on my doctoral research, which was conducted on traditional cultural expressions in international law. This subject still fills me with passion even after having spent many years studying it. To sum up my Ph.D. thesis in a sentence, I studied how international law embraces traditional dances, songs, handicrafts, designs, and rituals. Very diverse fields of laws were relevant for this research, but in the framework of this presentation, the focus was kept on intellectual property. The goal of this presentation was to provide answers to two essential questions. The first question relates to the definition of traditional cultural expressions (I), the second one concerned the reasons underpinning the introduction of this concept in international law (II).

The primary duty of library and information professionals is to render information services to their patrons. Although the information provided often shapes public opinion and could help in making informed decisions, librarians and other information professionals often steer clear of politics and the processes that lead to emergence of leaders, even though their activities could be greatly affected by the nature of those who emerge as political leaders. It is against this background that this research sought to take a look at the issue of political restructuring, which has been a burning issue within the Nigerian political space, and what roles Nigerian librarians could play in the realization of the demands of restructuring in Nigeria. This article is of the view that besides being perceived as relevant in the scheme of things in Nigeria, librarians’ engagement could further positively impact on the condition of service of librarians and their public perception.

Early last summer, I received a phone call from a law student in the litigation department of a large firm. He was working with a team on a case involving Czech law and, as part of a due diligence review, he was seeking an English translation of a piece of Czech legislation before the firm outsourced the bulk of the foreign legal research to Czech attorney-experts. Although it was easy to find the Czech legislation in Czech from a Czech government website, we could not find an English translation – official or otherwise – from any of our free or subscription-based databases. In the end, we relied on the flawed magic of Google Chrome's translate feature to “translate” the Czech legislation from the Czech government website into English. Despite my protestations and disclaimers, the student was thrilled with our results and insisted he had satisfied his due diligence duties. I hung up the phone and thought to myself: certainly, other American litigants have taken cases involving Czech law. What happens to the foreign law and legal analysis they obtain from their Czech attorney-experts? Assuming they submit some of it to our U.S. courts in the course of litigation, why can't we easily retrieve it?