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

European Documentation Centres (EDCs)

Today I learnt how to find my nearest European Documentation Centre 

European Documentation Centres (EDCs) are centres in the European Union member states where individuals can go to consult official EU publications and documents. As well as providing access to the collections, they also provide help with finding resources and provide training on EU-related research.

There’s a Europe-wide interactive map on the Europa website to help you find your nearest centre. So if you’ve exhausted your institution’s resources, this would be a good next step. 

http://europa.eu/europedirect/meet_us/index_en.htm#documentation_centres 

Oxford Reports on International Law

Today I learnt about the Oxford Reports on International Law, also known as ORIL. It is an Oxford University Press subscription database, which “brings together decisions on public international law from international law courts, domestic courts and ad-hoc tribunals”. New cases are added daily, and it claims to be the most up-to-date source of international case law available.

As well as providing the full-text decisions, each case report also includes expert analysis and a summary of the key facts. English translations of the key passages of non-English decisions are also provided.

ORIL consists of five modules:

• International Courts of General Jurisdiction
• International Criminal Law
• International Human Rights Law
• International Investment Claims
• International Law in Domestic Courts

You can browse or run a simple or advanced search. Subject headings and keywords are provided in the thesaurus. Entries are also linked directly to the Oxford Law Citator, allowing researchers to find other relevant cases and primary materials.

http://www.oxfordlawreports.com/ 

Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law

Today I learnt about the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law. There's a definite foreign and international law slant to my posts since I started work at IALS Global Law Library...

Edited by Rüdiger Wolfrum, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, the encyclopaedia is an extremely comprehensive, peer-reviewed online encyclopaedia. You can browse by title, subject or author or run a search across the content.

 http://www.mpepil.com/home

Guide to foreign and international legal citation

Today I learnt about the Guide to Foreign and International Legal Citation.

It's produced by the good people at NYU. Not only does it cover legal citations in various jurisdictions worldwide, it also includes citation guides for international organisations, tribunals, treaties and law.

The first edition (2006) is available online to download at: 

www.law.nyu.edu/ecm_dlv1/groups/public/@nyu_law_website__library/documents/documents/ecm_dlv_006388.pdf

The second edition (2009) is published by Aspen Publishers.

InforM25’s Union List of Serials

Today I learnt that there is an easy way to check journals holdings from the University of London, Imperial College London and the University of Westminster, namely InforM25’s Union List of Serials.

You can search by title, keyword, ISSN, etc., across the entire union list or select from the list of individual institutions. The following libraries participate:

• Birkbeck, Univ. of London
• Courtauld Institute of Art
• Goldsmith's Coll., Univ. of London
• Heythrop Coll., Univ. of London
• Imperial College
• Institute Cancer Research
• Institute of Education
• King's College London
• London Business School
• London School Economics
• Lon. Sch. Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
• Queen Mary, Univ. of London
• Royal Holloway, Univ. of London
• Royal Veterinary College
• School of Advanced Study
• School of Oriental & African Studies
• School of Pharmacy
• St. George's Hospital Medical Sch.
• Univ. College London
• Univ. London Library
• Univ. Westminster

It’s obviously useful for students and researchers based in London who don’t want to travel very far to access a journal.

http://www.inform25.ac.uk/ULS/

Wex: the online legal dictionary and encyclopaedia

Today I learnt about Wex, a freely available online legal dictionary and encyclopaedia, written by legal experts. It’s hosted by the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School. 

It’s aimed at “law novices” but can be handy for those researchers who want to do a quick web search rather than refer to the tried and trusted hardcopy dictionaries and encyclopaedias we librarians tend to prefer. 

To ensure quality of entries, contributors are currently limited to those in the “selective author pool”. There is no hard and fast rule about who may contribute, but preference is given to legal academics and distinguished practitioners, and those with legal qualifications.

The entries are quite comprehensive and sometimes links are provided to the relevant entry in Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary, which can be useful for non/new-lawyers. You can search and browse, as you’d expect.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/