In recent years, the legal informatics area has slowly begun to develop as artificial intelligence and its related techniques and technologies expand their reach in the field of law. The legal, computational and data science communities are collaborating to build computational and data-driven innovative legal models to improve and advance all aspects of the existing legal system with the effective use of modern computer technologies such as machine learning, deep learning and natural language processing. In this research paper, the authors - Sugam Sharma, Samia Gamoura, Deva Prasad and Arti Aneja - explore these important factors with the potential to transform the existing approach to jurisprudence into a smart and intelligent legal system utilising automation. Such a justice system could be envisioned, in the near future which would be faster, fairer and economically more feasible, even for the highly marginalized, underprivileged and poor societies in the world.

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.

Historically, civil justice has been conceived as a concentration of non–criminal matters, including several heterogeneous procedures, and that is the main reason why it has been subject of study in several countries in Latin America where procedure reforms are being designed, implemented or evaluated. Santiago Pereira Campos examines justice systems in Latin America in collaboration with Alejandra Pírez Ledesma who worked with him on this article.

It has been more than a decade since China began her experiment of “One Country, Two Systems” in Hong Kong (HK). It is now generally assumed that the relationship between the legal systems of these two jurisdictions is monistic. Analysing post-Handover constitutional case law in HK, including a recent landmark decision on sovereign immunity, FG Hemisphere Associates LLC v. Democratic Republic of Congo, this article challenges this assumption and argues that the relationship between the two legal systems is best conceptualized as a form of legal pluralism found in the European Union.

This paper focuses on the practice of making reference to foreign law in legal adjudication. On the one hand, this practice has received overwhelming attention from legal scholars in the last two decades under the headings of “judicial dialogue”, “judicial cross-fertilization” or “constitutional conversation”; on the other hand, a systematic, theoretical picture of this practice is still lacking. The paper aims to bridge this gap by elucidating the structure of legal comparison in judicial decision-making from the point of view of argumentation theory. To this end, the paper examines the various forms of comparative reasoning, identifies the set of their implicit premises and shows under what conditions referring to foreign law in legal adjudication is justified on its own grounds. This analysis will lead us to discuss the thesis according to which comparative reasoning by courts is changing the nature of law and the structure of contemporary legal systems.

The purpose of this article, written by John Furlong, is to provide a comparative overview of the Irish legal system with that of the jurisdictions of the United Kingdom and will cover the range of free-to-use resources that are available in respect of Irish case law, legislation and commentaries. The content is aimed at librarians and legal information professionals who are required from time to time, to understand and source Irish law. The article is based on a paper presented at BIALL's 45th Annual Conference, which was held in Harrogate in 2014.

This paper, by Hector MacQueen, assesses the current state of Scots law and the Scottish legal system, arguing that as a small legal system which cannot be self-contained it is inevitably in a state of crisis, from which, however, it will not be rescued by Scotland becoming independent.* Whatever happens after the referendum concerning Scottish Independence on 18 September 2014, the law is in need of active legislative reform, possibly codification, while the courts must become more positive in the attraction of business rather than, as it sometimes seems, seeking to push it away. Mere defence of the status quo will end in disablement and defeat.

In this, the third of a trilogy of articles for LIM written by Raj Kumar Bhardwaj, the author addresses the move from print to digital legal information within the Indian judicial system. He describes briefly the historical development of the legal system and the enormous backlog of cases that are pending throughout the court structure, before turning attention to the role of ICT in the legal system and the moves under way to create a more efficient electronic administration for the judiciary in India.

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.

Alison Lorrimer, who works at the Departmental Solicitor's Office Library in Belfast, reflects on how the sources of legal information have been affected by the changing political landscape in Northern Ireland.

After more than 60 years of development, the People's Republic of China has established the world's largest size of legal education, with 624 law schools and 450,000 thousands of undergraduate students currently enrolled. As Wenhua Shan explains, whilst the quality of education has also been improved, it generally falls short of meeting the domestic and international challenges that China is facing in legal education and practice. The most important measure recently adopted by the Chinese Government to enhance the quality of legal education, the “Outstanding Legal Personnel Education Scheme”, is poised to bring significant changes to the structure, contents and methods of Chinese legal education; and it will boost deeper cooperation between law schools and the practice sectors. Further measures are nevertheless required to achieve the desired results of the scheme and to place Chinese legal education in an internationally competitive position.

Legal information management is crucial for Chinese Lawyers who practice law in non-litigation and litigation legal areas. Li Zheng, Attorney at Law from PRC, provides a brief overview of the legal procedure, at a practical level, from the point of view of a Chinese lawyer.