In this article, Julie Jones looks at the past, present, and possible future of information organisation, and considers how legal research might be conducted in years to come as the internet and computer science advance. Information classification systems have historically had finite life spans and there is no reason to believe that the current crop is any different. With increasingly more information being born digital, new ways of thinking about organisation and searching methodologies are developing to handle the deluge.

By the Spring of this year, if all goes to plan, there will be changes to our current laws on copyright. EC Directive 2001/29/EC on the Harmonisation of Certain Aspects of Copyright and Related Rights in the Information Society is soon to be implemented into legislation in all Member States. This article describes the reasons behind the changes, what the changes are and how they affect the library and information sector.

Joseph Donnelly's article describes the Judges' Library and its role, and some of the issues relating to the library's users, collection, staff activities and use of print and digital material.

In this article Kate Faulkner describes her experience of creating an index for 36 volumes of committee minutes for the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, and explains the processes involved. She explores the unique issues associated with the indexing of minutes and relates some of the aspects of human interest found within the material and discusses the role of the indexer.

The Human Rights Act 1998 (the Act) incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention) into English domestic law for the first time since the Convention was signed in 1951. It does this by imposing a duty on public authorities to act in a manner which is consistent with Convention rights, unless legislation prohibits them for doing so.

John Eaton from the University of Manitoba at Winnipeg, describes an important Canadian knowledge initiative within the academic library community relating to acquisition of digital resources.

In the 1970s London law firms realised just how useful law librarians could be and there was a huge growth in their number during the 1980s. The first co-operative venture began in the mid-70s when we produced a Union List of Holdings and from that grew the City Law Librarians Group. By 1986 there were at least 60 firms in London employing over 150 professional law librarians. Provincial law firms were generally smaller but by the same date firms in Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester, Norwich and Bristol were employing law librarians.

The Holy Grail for most biographical researchers is a large hoard of unpublished personal papers such as letters or diaries. In reality that quest will usually be in vain. Research must instead focus on institutional sources. Because of their long history and pervasive role in the English legal profession, the Inns of Court and their records are likely to be the starting point for many legal biographical research projects. They also very usefully illustrate what the biographical researcher is likely to gain (and unlikely to gain) from using institutional archives in general. This article, written by Guy Holborn, describes the main classes of records held in the Inns' archives and what they can yield.

In this article David Gee, the Librarian at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS), describes the recent two year ‘IALS Transformation Project’ that Charles Clore House at 17 Russell Square has undergone and the benefits for the Institute and its library that have resulted from the refurbishment work that has been carried out. He looks at the aims of the project, explains how a continuity of services and activities during the works has been assured and how the transformation of the building meets the needs of the postgraduate law students and legal researchers of today.

At Allen & Overy what our customers want is the answer. They want an answer which is timely, accurate and authoritative. I could amplify this bald statement by saying that sometimes the customer wants to know what the question will be. Not long ago a partner said to me that what he really wanted was that I should be able to tell him what the questions would be that the client would ask him at a reception that evening. Perhaps another way of putting it is to say that he wanted the knowledge he did not have at that moment.

Most of these sites contain very good sets of links, both to other Government sites and to other sources of legal information. It is by no means comprehensive, as a comprehensive list would require far more space than is available here, and would also become outdated far more quickly than this selective list. The important thing to remember is that the information is, usually, out there somewhere.

The Scotland Act 1998 which established the Scottish Parliament confers on that Parliament the power to make laws which are known as Acts of the Scottish Parliament. However, the legislative competence of the Parliament is restricted. The main restriction relates to reserved matters, that is those matters which the UK Parliament has not devolved to the Scottish Parliament. These are listed in sch 5 to the Act and cover such matters as defence, taxation, social security and macro-economics. Other significant restrictions on the Parliament's legislative competence are that an Act of the Scottish Parliament cannot make any provision which is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) or with European Community law, nor can an Act of the Scottish Parliament modify certain “protected enactments” - including most provisions of the Scotland Act 1998 itself and the Human Rights Act I 998. Finally, an Act of the Scottish Parliament cannot have effect outside Scotland, nor can it remove the Lord Advocate from his position as head of the systems of criminal prosecutions and investigation of deaths in Scotland. An Act of the Scottish Parliament is not law so far as any provision of it is outside the Parliament's legislative competence

This is a revised version of a paper given by John Sibbald at Glasgow University Library on 19 august 2002 at the inaugural meeting of the International Federation of Library Associations' (IFLA) Law Libraries Discussion Group held in conjuction with the 68th IFLA General Conference 18–24 August. The Paper argues the case for Scotland, as a distinct jurisdiction within the UK, having its own seperate, identifiable, and official gateway to legal information.

The Principles of Legal Research (PLR) website of the University of Ottawa's Brian Dickson Law Library is a bilingual (English and French) online learning tool for all first year students in both Common Law and Civil Law.1 Law librarians use this e-learning website to facilitate teaching components such as student assignments and assessments. This user experience study aims to investigate law students’ real experience with the system. Their feedback will be used for future development planning as well as analysing user behaviour trends. The authors investigate the following aspects: accuracy of information, interface design, navigation system, Web 2.0, social media, and smartphone version.

‘You'll be bored’ they told me, when I left my post in a busy law firm library and took up the role of Information Manager at the Bristol Law Society, surrounded by leather-bound books and cherry-wood shelves. I think it was a problem of perception: what would I do with my time without having partners demanding their research by yesterday, if not sooner? Would people really want me to provide very old cases all day long? Just what exactly was the local law society library for?

In this combined article, five authors provide a brief summary of the activities of the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL) and the developments in law librarianship over the past 50 years, each writing about a different decade. Barbara Tearle (writing about the 1970s), Christine Miskin (the 1980s), Michael Maher (1990s), Fiona Fogden (2000s) and Narinder Toor (2010s) each bring their own experiences and memories to their writing and complete a half century of reflections to coincide with BIALL's 50th anniversary in 2019.

I came to Thailand 18 months ago. An amazing opportunity had arisen to work in Bangkok and as my ‘other half’ was also being transferred, off we set. The contract was to work in our Bangkok office for 2/3 years in a regional role supplying commercial information and research to the five Asian offices and, of course, experience the life of another country.

The South African law library holds a similar function to that of its English counterpart. It provides a primary source to describe the law and how it has changed and grown over time. South African attorneys fulfil a similar role to solicitors and South African advocates can be equated with barristers. While attorneys have recently gained rights of audience in the High Court, most attorneys continue to brief advocates in complex matters due to their specialised knowledge and skills.

This article by Paulette Storey describes the sources of information produced by the central Information Department of Citizens Advice. They are available to advisers, many of them volunteers, working in the various local bureaux across the country and dealing face-to-face and on the phone, with a huge variety of enquiries. Paulette explains how the databases are structured, their content and how the information within them is written and obtained.