Union List of Official Gazettes in Europe

Today I learnt that the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies hosts a union list of Official Gazettes from European jurisdictions on its website as part of the FLARE project.

According to the website, the list “brings together the holdings of national official gazettes of the British Library and the Library of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London. It is hoped that the holdings of other UK institutions will be added in future with a view to providing a comprehensive union listing of these hard-to-find materials.”

Although is somewhat limited in terms of contributing libraries, I can definitely see how it could be useful for foreign law researchers.

http://ials.sas.ac.uk/flare/flare_fog_unionlist_europe.htm

IALS Library's Institutional Subscription Rates

Today I learnt that the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies Library welcomes access to practising lawyers and barristers if their organisation is an institutional library member.

Subscription rates are on a sliding scale according to location and number of lawyers:
http://ials.sas.ac.uk/library/iservice/isrates.htm

The subscription allows any member of the subscribing organisation to visit the library in person to make use of the extensive collection and also to request photocopies and scans via the Document Supply service.

Further information is available on the IALS website:
http://ials.sas.ac.uk/library/iservice/iservice.htm

Sorry if this sounds like an advert for the service; that's because I work at IALS Library! Until very recently I worked at a commercial firm in London which was an institutional subscriber and made frequent use of the document supply service. It's really interesting now to see how the service works from the inside.

caLIM - Current Awareness for Legal Information Managers Database

Today I learnt about caLIM (Current Awareness for Legal Information Managers Database).

caLIM, a database maintained by the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies Library, is based on the current awareness column in BIALL's Legal Information Management. Here's what it contains [this description is lifted directly from the database]:

The database contains bibliographic records for articles and books relevant to legal information professionals. December 1994 onwards.

You can search by author, title, free-text, category (subject index terms) and date.

caLIM on the IALS website:

http://193.62.18.232/dbtw-wpd/textbase/cadquery.htm

IALS Global Law Library homepage:

http://ials.sas.ac.uk/library/library.asp

FLAG: Foreign LAw Guide

Today I learnt that FLAG stands for Foreign LAw Guide.

According to the website FLAG is "a collaborative Internet gateway to the holdings of foreign, international and comparative law in UK universities and national libraries" and acts as "a gateway to foreign, international and comparative law collections held within UK university and national libraries".

You can search by country, international organisation, free text, type of legal literature, or location of contributing library. Your search results provide a description of the holdings, details of where it is held, and a link to the catalogue of library with the holdings.

FLAG won the Wallace Breem Memorial Award in 2002.

http://ials.sas.ac.uk/library/flag/flag.htm

FLARE Index to Treaties Extended

Today I learnt that the FLARE Index to Treaties has been extended.

The FLARE index to treaties has been extended to cover a third more treaties and conventions than it did at its launch in March 2009.

The database now contains “2,000 of the most significant multilateral treaties concluded from 1353 onwards and a number of significant bilateral treaties signed between 1353 and 1815”.* It is fully searchable and indexed.

Access FLARE on the IALS website:

http://ials.sas.ac.uk/treatyindex.htm 

Read more about the extension project on LLRX.com:

*http://www.llrx.com/features/flareindexextended.htm

Authoritative Legal Dictionaries for English Law

Today I learnt which are the most authoritative legal dictionaries for English law. I was asked whether Black's Law Dictionary was the best resource for English law, so I got it off the shelf to take a look. A quick flick established that it was published in the US, but it wasn't clear whether it covered US law, English law or both. I could see no explanation of which jurisdictions were covered in the book itself or on the publisher's website. Needing to confirm coverage from a reputable source, I once again turned to IALS' online Research Guides (by jurisdiction) which told me that Black's is indeed American, so should be used with caution. So for English law I think I'll stick to Stroud's, Jowett's and Words and Phrases Legally Defined:

http://ials.sas.ac.uk/library/guides/research/res_uk.htm#dictionaries

http://www.blackslawdictionary.com/

IALS Legal Rearch Guides by Jurisdiction

What did I learn today?

The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies provides legal research guides on its website that suggest which resources should be used when researching foreign jurisdictions. They cover hardcopy and electronic resources available in IALS library but can also be used as a general reference tool. I found them very helpful for some research I was doing this afternoon. Thank you IALS!

http://ials.sas.ac.uk/library/guides/research_guides.htm