The recent transformation of legal information has led to more drastic consequences in law than in some other fields. As electronic resources become more prevalent and available, courts begin citing to them. The emerging digital-born information and the new network models of communication such as Law Blogs and Wikipedia have already acquired a certain status, being cited by court decisions. For example, the U.S. Supreme Court recently cited a videotape in its decision of Scott v. Harris (2007), saying “it speaks for itself,” and included it in the opinion as an attachment.

Unfortunately, like many other government entities, the courts have not taken precautions to make sure that the materials they cite remain stable and available to the public for long term access. This is so, even though “no one is supposed to ignore the law.” What happens when the materials one relies on disappear?

This paper examines the serious implications that could arise from this situation. It will also examine the challenges, new roles and possible course of action for law libraries and librarians in ensuring the availability of digital objects in the legal field far in the future.

During its 2012 session the Florida Legislature amended the text of the Florida Statutes which lists exemptions from the requirements of obtaining a Florida drivers’ license. Removed from the text of Florida Statute 322.04 was the line concerning nonresidents, both fellow Americans and international visitors, “who has in his or her immediate possession a valid noncommercial driver's license issued to the nonresident in his or her home state or country [emphasis added].” Inserted was a new line, “An International Driving Permit issued in his or her name in his or her country of residence and a valid license issued in that country.” International visitors were required to have in their possession not only a valid drivers’ license, but also an International Driving Permit (IDP) that translated into English the personal identification information of the driver. The change took effect January 1, 2013, but even before that date, Florida faced allegations that it was violating international law with this new requirement.

Currently, in the field of law as well as in other fields, societal developments, global interaction, and the increasing importance of technology in acquiring information resources have led to a rapid growth in the number of information sources. Furthermore, this growth has resulted in greater access to various sources. The great majority of the users of law-related information are legal academicians, law students, practicing lawyers, judges, and law consultants.

This article identifies and provides a brief description of Malaysian electronic legal information and resources. It guides non-legal and legal information-seekers to find useful legal information and resources on the web. A brief description of the Malaysian legal system and its history is also highlighted to give an understanding of the context of the development of the country's legal system and its resources.

Since 2000, the Overseas Young Chinese Forum (OYCF) has awarded fellowships to American scholars, professionals, and doctoral students to teach short courses (three to eight weeks) in various fields, including law, at mainland Chinese universities. The award amounts range from $2,000 to $2,250 each and are meant to help pay travel, housing, and food costs. Fourteen awards were announced in mid-September 2008 for the 2008–09 academic year. I was lucky enough to win one: specifically, an OYCF-Gregory C. and Paula K. Chow Fellowship. I was to teach a seven-week, one-credit, upper-level elective course I proposed at Touro in spring 2007 and taught there in spring 2008 and 2009. From mid-May to early June 2009 I would be teaching foreign and international legal research at Wuhan University (Wuda) in central China.

Thank you for the opportunity to address the very timely topic of international human rights law from the Canadian perspective. As my title suggests, my analysis of this topic sits at the intersection of law and politics, as so much of international law necessarily does. I will proceed in three parts. First, I will provide a sketch of the political context, drawing from recent events and trends, to describe a conflicted official government approach to international human rights. Next, I will examine the formal legal status of international human rights law in Canada, drawing selectively from key Supreme Court of Canada decisions. This will be far from a comprehensive account. Finally, I will discuss the recent adoption of the newest international human rights treaty, the disability convention, and discuss calls to promote access to justice at the international level for breaches of Convention norms domestically. Notwithstanding important efforts to advance the status of international human rights law in Canada, my overall observation is that, in both law and politics, the Canadian approach to international human rights is predominantly inward looking.

Information skills training offers opportunities for gradually embedding changes in legal education programs and to bring about the integration of legal knowledge, skills and experience. If shared goals are formulated in a spirit of close collaboration, curricular changes and revisions will potentially have a greater effect and be more likely to enhance long-term programs. The university library can serve as an ideal base for the use of information technology such as web portals and content integrated search engines, which in turn will help refocus attention on the use of library facilities. The harmonization and maintenance of this apparatus, however, requires both a new form of cooperation and a re-interpretation of the legal education curriculum. This article compares several library developments which could prove important for legal education from a Dutch perspective, and also examines library education in the law schools of the United States of America.

On the eve of independence from European colonialism, Egypt, like most other developing countries, undertook the project of de-linking itself from colonial economy through initiating domestic industrialization. The economic project known as Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI) was designed to liberate Egypt from raw commodity production, agricultural and mineral, servicing its previous colonial master Great Britain. The engine of development would be an expanding public sector with nationalization and socialism as leitmotif. In re-orienting the economy towards industrial production, it was hoped that the terms of trade with the international economy for Egypt would significantly improve, leading thereby to an improvement in the living standards of its population.

International administrative tribunals have gained in popularity during the past several years. These tribunals have been established as the need arose to adjudicate disputes between international organizations and their staff members. Since the disputes are internal in nature, the tribunals filled the lacunae between local or national jurisdiction on the one hand, and a global international forum on the other.

Good afternoon. I would like to thank the International Association of Law Libraries, the organizing committee and especially Gloria Orrego Hoyos for the invitation. It is a real pleasure and honor for me to be here.

Today I will talk about the influence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the rulings of Argentina's Supreme Court. I will focus particularly on the importance that the Argentinian Supreme Court gave to the Inter-American Court in the most significant decisions during the process of reopening cases of crimes against humanity.

In September 2008, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced the United States’ intention to join Singapore, New Zealand, Brunei, and Chile in what was then called the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement, a preferential trade agreement. Since then, the agreement has grown in scope and ambition. The negotiations to create what is now known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) have expanded to include seven other nations. The USTR wants the TPP to be “an ambitious, next-generation, Asia-Pacific trade agreement that reflects U.S. economic priorities and values.” According to the USTR's webpage dedicated to the agreement, the administration is “working in close partnership with Congress and with a wide range of stakeholders, in seeking to conclude a strong agreement that addresses the issues that U.S. businesses and workers are facing in the 21st century.”

I propose to present a bird's eye view of the eventful life led by the famous Dutch jurist and statesman, Hugo Grotius. This I will do by discussing five of his portraits. These portraits have been made in five subsequent phases of his career. As a scholar who enjoyed a reputation that steadily expanded and that soon transcended the boundaries of the Dutch Republic, he went to the trouble of ordering famous artists, some of which were his friends, to immortalize him in copper or paint.

The effects of international law on the domestic legal order of the various countries of the world are manifold and so are the issues covered in this bibliography. In some countries, some international treaties or treaty provisions can be invoked before and applied by national judges. These are the so-called self-executing treaties or treaty provisions. Whether treaties are self-executing is a domestic legal question for national judges to decide on an ad hoc basis. In other countries, no treaty can be applied by a national judge unless it has been transformed into national legislation by an act of the national legislature. The concept of self-executing treaties has much less significance in these countries. This difference relates to two theories of international law known as monism and dualism. Under these theories, the international and domestic legal order are considered as one indivisible hierarchy or as two separate hierarchies respectively.

Problems of copyright infringement involved in the extensive and largely uncontrolled use of coin operated photocopying machines in libraries, particularly University libraries, have become the most acute in Australian copyright law at the present time. These problems are not of course unique to Australia, but the recent decision of the High Court in University of New South Wales v Moorhouse and Angus & Robertson (Publishers) Pty Ltd has created a serious and difficult situation for libraries for which a workable solution has not yet been found. In 1974 the Australian government appointed a Committee, known as the Franki Committee, to examine the question of the reprographic reproduction of copyright works in Australia and to recommend any alterations to the copyright law and any other measures considered necessary to effect a proper balance of interest between owners and users of copyright materials in respect of reprographic reproduction. The Committee has not yet made its report and it is not known whether any recommendations will be made which will assist libraries in arriving at a solution to the legal problems now facing them where selfservice coin operated photocopying machines are made available for use by readers.

Dr. Dahlmanns' invitation to Australian Law Librarians to tell the world about their activities in this issue of the International Journal of Law Libraries has been welcomed by the eight librarians to whom it was sent. Three of them, at least, have been happy to let me speak for them. The history of the Australian Law Librarians' Group is almost inextricably wound up with my personal history as a law librarian. While I apologise for being autobiographical this course of action is unavoidable if the true history of the A.L.L.G. is to be written.