This article, by Mercedes Robba and Mariana Lavalle, deals with the civil right to reproduction and procreative liberty aroused by the Argentinian legislation and Court's decisions, in the light of the new concept of family in the country. This contribution focuses exclusively on the barriers to equal access to reproductive health in Argentina, taking into account infertility, infecundity and childlessness, according to the right to raise a family in conditions of equality and freedom.

Rich personal and institutional archives, antiquarian manuscript collections and published resources make the British Library an obvious choice for biographical research. While these collections include material relating to high ranking legal officials, legislators, renowned legal scholars and their correspondents the article moves beyond this view of legal biographical source materials. Examples of resources from across the Library's diverse collections are presented through a particular perspective on information needs and sources in broadly socio-legal research. In contribution to the theme of methods in legal biographical research this framework is offered, together with signposts to discovery aids as a way of conceptualising the Library's resource. In doing so, various notions of the nature of legal biographical research, its subjects and its source information are considered in this article by Jonathan Sims.

Greg Rose outlines the main publishers of construction contracts used under English law. He then looks at sources for obtaining the contracts, both hard copy and electronic versions, and advises us on how to keep them up-to-date.

Despite a lack of a national legislation that mandates open government information in the People's Republic of China, each major government branch has taken proactive efforts to make primary legal information issued within their power available to the public. A close examination of Chinese official legal information portals on the national level reveal issues such as a lack of uniformity and a lack of access to authenticated primary legal information. This article, by Xiaomeng Zhang1, proposes a solution that would not only offer more consistent guidelines for the government but would empower the public to assert their right to primary legal information more powerfully and effectively.

This paper was presented by Penny Bailey at the 38th BIALL Annual Study Conference held in Sheffield in June 2007 and covers the challenges involved in introducing a knowledge management strategy to a law firm. It suggests methods to be adopted in trying to implement such a service including identification with the firm's business objectives; persuasive communication; identification of the benefits accruing and strategies for collecting knowledge.

Middle Temple Library has recently significantly enriched its portfolio of electronic resources. This situation was caused not only by the Covid-19 crisis, which certainly accelerated its efforts in this field, but also by the changing demands and habits of the Inn's members. The library specialises in arbitration and competition law, so a decision was taken to try two new digital platforms and, as Lenka Geidt writes, to share their experiences in the course of this article.

In this article Sarah Glassmeyer and Pete Smith address, and focus on, ‘open law’ and the technical issues that can enable access to primary law, and the secondary materials associated with it.

The European Conversion for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) is an international treaty of the Council of Europe. It was adopted in 1950, ratified by the UK in 1951 and entered into force in 1953. The unsual feature of the Convention, as an international human rights instrument, is that it provides a mechanism for individuals to enforce their Convention rights against state parties.

In this article Jackie Fishleigh takes a look at the art of negotiation as a skill when trying to reach a fair deal. She draws on her experience in the information and library business whereby she has dealt with publishers and suppliers and, at the end of her article, she provides her own checklist of ten top tips on negotiation.

This paper formed the basis of a seminar given by John Furlong and Susan Doe at the Canadian Association of Law Libraries Annual Conference in St Johns, Newfoundland in May 2005.

The chairman of the European Information Association examines some of the more useful sources of regular information for those seeking to keep up to date on the European Union, its institutions and legislative process. Having reviewed the key official sources, such as the Rapid database and the press site of the European Commission's Representation in London, he explains the importance of the free services available from the various commercial producers of EU information.

The internet and the World Wide Web (www) has allowed the free flow of information across countries. Peter Martin and Tom Bruce from Cornell Law School pioneered the development of the ‘Free Access to Law Movement’ around the world. The Australian Legal Information Institute and various other Legal Information Institutes (LIIs) were established by adopting the Montreal Declaration at the Law via Internet Conference held in 2002. As a member of the United Nations, India adopted the UNESCO policy guidelines for the development and promotion of governmental public domain information. In India, the National Informatics Centre has played a leading role in supporting the maintenance and dissemination of Indian government public information that is useful for legal education, research and practice. This paper by Priya Rai, and Akash, gives a brief informative overview of the ‘free access to law movement’ resources pertaining to India. These resources have been categorised for easier understanding: parliamentary resources, legislative resources, case laws, law reform reports, international treaties and legal scholarship and journals. The article also provides an overview of the Legal Information Institute of India extending its contribution to disseminating Indian legal information.

This article by Dr Anthony Smith describes how the British Records Association can help legal information professionals and the legal profession generally to conserve old legal records of both law firms themselves and of their clients. He also describes the activities and publications of the Association.

Sweet & Maxwell's acquisition of Lawtel has certainly caused librarians some concerns. The legal sector has rarely seen so many mergers and takeovers, having reached almost the point of a true anti-trust duopoly operating. Concerns have been expressed about the concentration of market power between Sweet & Maxwell and Butterworths. This article examines some of the competition law issues which arise.

The first issue of the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers came out at the end of 1995, and sprang out of the work I was doing on my Web site (http://www.venables.co.uk) as well as my work as an IT consultant for lawyers. Although the Web site is free to the user, I did hope that some money could be made from the Newsletter! Initially, the Newsletter went to just a few tens of clients and subscribers but I am glad to say that it has grown steadily since then and now has around 1,000 paid subscribers.

This article by John Furlong is an updated and revised version of an article originally authored by John Furlong and Susan Doe and published in Legal Information Management 2006, 6(2) Summer 2006 and covers in some detail the basic sources for researching European Union law. It also gives some background on the growth of the European Union and its law making.

This article by Gareth Ryan, Law and Official Publications Librarian, describes the history of the library, outlines the courses offered by the law school and details the collections and services offered by the law library.

Roddy Waldhelm, Head of the Solicitor's Legal Information Centre, describes the work of Government lawyers in Scotland and how their information needs are met by his team, which provides a dedicated in-house legal library and research service.

Louise Adamson, a Professional Support Lawyer in the Employment Team at Maclay Murray & Spens LLP, explores new regulations which tackle discrimination on the grounds of age, highlighting the main provisions and potential legal challenges to the regulations themselves.

Paper presented by Gerry Power at the 37th BIALL Annual Study Conference in Brighton, June 2006, outlining the importance of lifelong learning; discussing the work of some prominent writers and suggesting how to surmount barriers to learning.