In this article Philip Chung, Andrew Mowbray, and Graham Greenleaf, the Co-Directors of the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII), explain the need for an open source search engine which can search simultaneously over legal materials in European languages and also in Asian languages, particularly those that require a ‘double byte’ representation, and the difficulties this task presents. A solution is proposed; the ‘u16a’ modifications to AustLII's open source search engine (Sino) which is used by many legal information institutes. Two implementations of the Sino u16A approach, on the Hong Kong Legal Information Institute (HKLII), for English and Chinese, and on the Asian Legal Information Institute (AsianLII), for multiple Asian languages, are described. The implementations have been successful, though many challenges (discussed briefly) remain before this approach will provide a full multi-lingual search facility.

If Scotland votes ‘Yes’ to the question ‘Should Scotland be an independent country?’ how will its relationship change with the remainder of the UK? A ‘yes’ vote will have huge financial, political and legal implications. This article, written by Candace Guite, considers the current role of the UK Supreme Court in Scotland, the recent conflict (to which the title alludes) and it reflects on Scotland's potential international status. The UK Government has argued that it would be regarded as the continuator state and an independent Scotland would be a successor state, and so, in the event of a ‘yes’ vote Scotland would have to re-apply for entry to the European Union and the United Nations. However, there are arguments to support the alternative option, that Scotland could be regarded as a co-equal successor state with England, and thus would retain EU and UN membership.

In this tenth anniversary year since freedom of information came into force north and south of the border, the authors, Calum Liddle and David McMenemy, undertake an in-depth comparative evaluation of the parallel cost exemptions found in the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. Does Scottish FOI indeed afford a more generous disclosure entitlement? And are applicants, in turn, employing comparatively weaker rights when requesting information from analogous English and Welsh authorities? A statutory analysis of the home nation provisions is complemented by case law and a nod to contemporaneous events.

The following article, written by Amanda Saville, is a summary of the author's experiences as the client for three major new library buildings. It attempts to provide some advice and help for others contemplating a new library or significant refurbishment project by taking readers through the various stages of a development project. It assumes that the reader has no prior experience of managing building projects and offers some practical suggestions for a library client to consider. The projects on which the author was involved are listed at the end of the article and readers who would like to learn more are encouraged to go to the websites of the three institutions as all of them include detailed information and many images of the buildings.

This article by Joe Kennedy of Baker & McKenzie. Wong & Leow in Singapore outlines the legal system in Singapore; explains the legislative process; discusses case reporting and gives guidance on how to find legal materials in both hard copy and online sources and both free and for fee.

Distance learning at the graduate law level offers exciting opportunities for non-traditional students to learn not only substantive law but also new skills. One of these skills should be information research. In this paper, which was presented at a Parallel Session at the 38th Annual BIALL Study Conference in Sheffield in June 2007, Edward T. Hart looks back on his experience as a distance learner at Northumbria University, observes what worked and did not work and offers suggestions for law faculty and librarians to consider. The final section is a brief description of the current status of distance learning in American legal education.

This article, written by Ivo Vogel and Elisabeth Schrecklinger, deals with the efforts of German libraries to digitise historical legal sources and make them publicly available. Although the main focus is on two selected libraries, a general overview is included. Commercial products are not considered since their contents are likely to become increasingly less relevant due to German law libraries' own initiatives. More attention is paid to problems that have been identified during the implementation of digitisation projects such as the recording of full texts is highlighted. The retrieval of digitised legal materials and, eventually, the digitisation of historical legal gazettes or parliamentary literature is also discussed. This contribution focuses exclusively on the retrospective digitisation of historical legal materials.

In the article Rosemary Auchmuty discusses the nature of, and the approach to, her research into the life of Gwyneth Bebb who in 1913 challenged the Law Society over their refusal to admit women to the solicitors' profession.

This article comes from Sue Woodman, the outgoing Chair of ALLA and brings us up to date with developments down under

Professor Tony Smith was born in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1947. He completed his LLB and LLM at Canterbury University, interspersed with a short-lived sortie into legal work with the Treasury. It was during these formative years that he acquired the deep interest in criminal law and its social and constitutional ramifications that has underpinned his whole career, and which gained him numerous academic advances, culminating in his chair of Criminal and Public Law at Cambridge University in 1996. He is currently Professor of Law at Victoria University, Wellington. This article is written by Lesley Dingle and is based on her interviews with Professor Smith which have been incorporated into the Eminent Scholars Archive at Cambridge.

Amanda McKenzie from Olswangs presented a paper at the BIALL Annual Conference 2010 on the potential impact of the reforms contained in the Legal Services Act 2007.

David Wills describes his experiences at the AALL summit with particular emphasis on the sessions on legal education, digital ephemera preservation, disaster planning and the rights of indigenous people.

The article below, which is written by Gloria Orrego Hoyos, presents an overview of the Inter-American Human Rights System, its main instruments, its organs for the protection and promotion of human rights in the Americas and the available tools for the academic research and the activism in the vindication for human rights in the region. This information is presented from the contextualization of the system within a history of violation of human rights in the region, and the role of both the Inter-American Convention and the Inter-American Court in the transformation of the social, political and institutional realities of the people of the continent.

This article and the previous one published in this issue of LIM are derived from a joint talk given at the BIALL Annual Conference 2017, which was held in Manchester. The title of the conference was ‘Together or apart? Effective ways of working’ and this talk described the collaboration between Shell's Legal Librarian, Hilary Smith, and Miriam Davies, Head of Library & Information at Norton Rose Fulbright, to provide an enquiry service to Shell's legal community. The service subsequently developed to include other law firms on Shell's legal panel. Topics covered include understanding the information needs of in-house lawyers, types of queries received, why involve law firms in providing such a service, the concept of added value and its importance in the client-law firm relationship, the setting up of the service, how it works in practice, how it is being used and key take away messages. In this article Miriam Davies takes a view from the law firm perspective.

This paper by Ruth Frendo, which is based on her presentation given at the training day on ‘Socio-Legal Sources and Methods in International Law’ which was held at IALS on 25 November 2016, provides an overview of the history and development of the International Law Association and gives an account of the archives of the organisation that are held at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in London.

“If the Information Society is to be both open and universal it should develop along the principles embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They are, among others, the right to freedom of expression, free access to information, the right to education and the right to participate in cultural life.’ (UNESCO 2000)

If you are involved in handling information, computerised or not, which refers to identifiable living individuals, the Act probably applies to YOU.

The following is a summary (in handy menu form, and with no literary pretensions whatsoever) of the principles of the Act.The standard encyclopaedia on the subject runs to three volumes: a short article can only give an overview, and must not be taken as definitive. If you think the Act may apply, take specialist advice!

The Eversheds Communities project's aim is to put together an integrated online mix of Eversheds’ internal commentary and know-how, combin-ed with leading external commercial information content, and to make this combined service available to the firm's clients for an agreed fee.