Germany, because of its history, has a rather diverse system of law libraries. There are important law collections not only in law libraries but also in general libraries. All our significant libraries are financed from public funds.

In the aftermath of the Second World War, Western Europe moved to create an organization that would unite the countries of Europe. One of the Council of Europe's (COE) principal goals was to establish and safeguard the fundamental human and political rights of its peoples. Following in the spirit of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the members drafted the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, better known as the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

As the United States and Mexico begin to pursue seriously the development of a Free Trade Agreement to open the international doors of opportunity to each other, a legal framework must be developed to support the international economic infrastructure necessary to develop free trade in the most efficient, and equitable manner. Whether the Free Trade Agreement becomes a reality beyond the present maquiladora program depends on several legal questions. These legal questions are discussed in this paper.

Peter I. Hajnal, the Government Publications Specialist at the University of Toronto and the author of many reference books and articles relating to the publications of international organizations, has compiled a list of 110 publications he believes to be currently the best, and most useful sources of information produced by international organizations in general and the United Nations and its specialized agencies in particular, as well as books written about such organizations and their publications.

This list was originally prepared for the Conference on the United Nations: Law and Legal Research sponsored by and conducted at the Institute for Comparative and International Legal Research, Center for International Legal Studies, St. Mary's University School of Law, San Antonio, Texas. At this important conference, which took place on February 20–22, 1991, a number of specialists discussed different aspects of the United Nations and described the publications, as well as other information activities, of the United Nations and its specialized agencies. Mr. Peter I. Hajnal spoke about United Nations publications. In conjunction with his lecture he distributed to the participants of the conference the excellent list reproduced below. The list is published with the kind permission of its author and Professor Robert L. Summers, Jr., the Director of Training at the Institute for Comparative and International Legal Research, St. Mary's University School of Law.

The 11th IALL Course on International Law Librarianship, titled “Legal Information Sources and Changing Times in Europe,” will be held in Max-Planck-Haus, Heidelberg, Germany, September 8–11, 1991.

The IALL Course will deal with problems that law librarians face today rising from recent political and legal changes in Europe. Topics to be discussed will include: “Law Data Banks Today and Tomorrow,” “The Challenges for Law Librarians in Germany,” as well as “Legal Changes and Their Sources in East and Central Europe.”

Legal publishing has for the most part remained immune to the phenomenon of what could be called title proliferation—the continual appearance (often followed quickly by their disappearance) of new journals, sometimes of dubious quality, in specialized fields for which there may not be a demand, or even a likely niche. This is not to imply that new law journals are not being published. On the contrary, there is at least anecdotal evidence for the view that new law journals are being published at a faster rate now than a decade, or five years ago. Fortunately, it can be said that those of international and comparative interest are of high quality and deal with emerging fields of law that fully deserve to have new entrants. This column is intended to bring journals of this kind to the attention of our readers. Mention of a journal here should not be taken as an unqualified recommendation for acquisition. Given the number of factors that go into the acquisition decision, it must remain for each person or law library to weigh them.