This article by David Gee gives an overview of the current copyright regime in this country, from the perspective of both rights-owners and librarians. It considers the issues raised by the digital copyright regime and the latest official developments in this area.

Mark Scott and Nigel Smith provide the background to the development of Sweet & Maxwell's Legal Taxonomy before outlining its structure and explaining how it is used by Sweet & Maxwell and other Thomson Reuters companies.

In this article Sophie Thompson describes what design thinking is and gives practical exercises to see how design thinking can be used to give a fresh perspective on delivering knowledge services. The article is based on a parallel session delivered as a workshop at the BIALL Annual Conference 2019.

I was appointed as a dedicated subject librarian for Law at Manchester Metropolitan University in November 1996. The University Library manages the post while the Law Department finances it, making it unique within the current staffing structure. The University supports the full range of academic and practitioner law courses over a variety of attendance modes. This accounts for a FTE of 1037 students.

This is the latest report analysing the results of the Society of Legal Scholars and BIALL Survey. It has been written by David Gee, Deputy Librarian at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London.

This article written by Jasmin Hollingum was adapted from her coursework that she submitted as part of an MSc in Library and Information Studies. It posits that whilst collection development policies (CDPs) are in widespread use in academic institutions, they are currently under-used in law firms. It considers what benefits a written CDP could deliver to a law firm library and identifies the problems that firm librarians face when developing such policies. Finally it seeks to establish ways in which they might be overcome.

Edward Gill discusses the concept and issues surrounding knowledge process outsourcing and provides an insight into the business model of, and services offered by, the company, Evalueserve.

This article, written by Teresa M. Miguel-Stearns, explores the vast differences in judicial authority not only between the common law and civil law traditions, but also among various countries steeped in the civil law tradition in Latin America. Judicial review, certiorari, precedent, and other functions and characteristics of the judiciaries of five distinctly different countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico) are compared and contrasted with each other and with the common law tradition. This evaluation demonstrates that despite their, arguably, similar distant histories and legal foundations, each country has evolved into a unique legal system with significant differences in the treatment of the judiciary and its jurisprudence.

Universities enter into contracts with publishers or providers of aggregated resources on behalf of university libraries to provide staff and students with access to material in electronic format for educational and research purposes. Following a brief review of twelve database provider contracts, our research demonstrates that Australian academics are potentially breaching the contractual terms and conditions of electronic resources when accessing, downloading and printing articles and other materials. They are covered for research purposes, but not for educational purposes.

This article by Mara Malagodi investigates the legacy of British constitutionalist Sir Ivor Jennings (1903–1965) in South Asia. In 1941, when Jennings moved to Sri Lanka, a new phase of prolific writing on the laws of the British Empire and Commonwealth began for him, together with a practical engagement with constitution-making experiences in decolonising nations across Asia and Africa. The archival material relating to Jennings' work on postcolonial constitutional issues forms part of the collection of Jennings' Private Papers held at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies in London. This article seeks to explain why this material has until now remained so under-researched.

The Bar Vocational Course, which all potential barristers must complete, emphasises the importance of legal research skills. Mark Haines from BPP College outlines its current structure and heralds the arrival of the new Bar Professional Training Course

In his first of two articles, Daniel Bates explains the process for creating high quality audio and video recordings to capture knowledge or experience in your organisation, either for internal or external consumption. The article arises from a paper delivered at the 2015 BIALL Conference. The second article will consider the online platforms which are available to host and promote such content.

The pressure on the criminal justice system in England and Wales is mounting. Recent figures reveal that despite a rise in recorded crime, the number of defendants in court proceedings has been the lowest in 50 years. This indicates a crisis of access to criminal justice. Predictive policing and risk assessment programmes based on algorithmic decision making (ADM) offer a prospect of increasing efficiency of law enforcement, eliminating delays and cutting the costs. These technologies are already used in the UK for crime-mapping and facilitating decisions regarding prosecution of arrested individuals. In the US their deployment is much wider, covering also sentencing and parole applications.

This article by Charlotte Pache sets out the background of, and framework for, the legal system in Hong Kong. It outlines the structure of the courts and the legal profession, and details the practice for obtaining transcripts and judgments. It also provides a survey of law reporting and online resources for further information on case law and statute.

In this article, which is a summary of his presentation at the 38th BIALL Annual Study Conference held in Sheffield in June 2007, James Mullan provides an account of how the Content Team at CMS Cameron McKenna implemented LawPort and the issues they faced from the initial pilot to completion of the project.

Margaret Watson (Bodleian Law Library) and Maria Bell (British Library of Political and Economic Science, LSE) write about their role in providing EU information for academic research and examine the issues that exist in this specialist area.

This article by Andrea Longson, the Senior Librarian, outlines the history of both the Advocates Library and the Faculty of Advocates. It describes the collections and services offered by the library.

John Furlong reviews the law firm sector in Ireland as it weathers the storms of recession and the winds of change. The article provides details on the size and scale of the sector as well as statistical information on solicitors and law firms.

Elizabeth Dawson's article outlines archival sources for legal biography held at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, focussing on primary sources of information on individuals, including the Law Society and Bar Examination results. It also summarises additional sources which provide biographical information on legal practitioners and scholars eg. the archives of The Society of Legal Scholars and the Council of Legal Education, IALS institutional archives, The Bar Council, The International Law Association and academic membership associations. The article also provides guidance to researchers on using the IALS Archive, and advice on using related external archival sources.

In this article Peter Kargbo describes the impact of the first national lockdown, due to Covid-19, on students using the Hartley Library at the University of Southampton. He describes some of the ways that library services responded and looks at some aspects concerning collection development. He begins his article by taking a brief look at life in the library for students prior to the arrival of the pandemic before describing the period that followed up to the end of the academic year in summer 2020.