Target Audience: Law librarians in all settings looking for EU research guidance.
Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will identify the current law-related functions and documentation of the institutions and organizations of the European Union.
2. Participants will identify and execute the best strategies for researching legal issues involving the European Union.
The European Union, established in 1951, has expanded its scope and responsibilities greatly over the years. The policies, laws and actions of the EU affect not just its 27 member countries, but due to its economic power, the entire globe. Following the passage of the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009, the EU's powers and competencies will expand even further in the coming years. To provide law librarians the necessary information and tools to keep up with these changes, this workshop will offer a brief overview of the legal history of the European Union and show the research tools that are provided by the EU, namely EurLex, the online law portal of the EU, N-lex and other tools for locating the national law of Member States, and PreLex, for tracking legislative proposals. Further presentation will give an overview on trade relations/corporate law, religious freedom and energy and environment in the European Union. Engaging speakers will enable law librarians to approach EU research tasks systematically and successfully.
Separate registration fees
AALL Members: $90.00
Nonmembers: $135.00
Attendance is limited for all workshops - be sure to register well in advance of the June 17 deadline!
Roy Sturgeon will discuss at the Asian Law Interest Group meeting his almost-completed article on historical free-speech episodes from China’s long and rich history. Additionally, he will discuss contemporary free-speech developments, including writer Liu Xiaobo’s 2010 Nobel peace prize and the April 2011 “disappearance” of artist Ai Weiwei.
Mnemonics, techniques to improve the memory, have been a subject of continuing fascination, especially just before exams. The Romans systematized the memory technique of storing places in one's mind and then associating striking images with those places. We will explore techniques, especially visual, meant to help one learn and remember the rules of Roman law. Jolande Goldberg, 2011 Distinguished Lectureship Award Winner, will join us in this discussion of visual presentations of the law.
Target Audience: Academic law librarians and law firm librarians who support international commercial arbitration practice groups
Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will identify the characteristics of international commercial arbitration that create challenges to effective research and advocacy, and will master strategies and identify resources necessary to overcome these challenges.
2. Participants will learn how to effectively demonstrate the essential print and multimedia resources necessary for international commercial arbitration research and advocacy.
In the past, most international commercial arbitrators and practitioners came from a few international law firms. With the explosion of international commerce, international commercial arbitration (ICA) has become much more prevalent, and more generalists have become involved. In a field that is qualitatively different than other areas of law, more research and practice instruction is necessary. Law librarians have unique qualifications to assist in this instruction. The program will explore the reasons favoring and disfavoring ICA as a dispute resolution tool. The program will also discuss how the characteristics of ICA create challenges to effective research and advocacy. The program will discuss eight sources of law in international commercial arbitration, how to locate these sources, and the use of these sources in ICA advocacy.
Jolande Goldberg, of the Library of Congress, Policy & Standards Division, Acquisitions & Bibliographic Access Directorate, will introduce the latest Law Classification schedule, KIA-KIK, covering indigenous peoples of the western hemisphere. Dr. Goldberg will also present the new LOC portal, which is a remarkable development, both technically and in its ability to make indigenous peoples visible within the law classification. Additionally, the LOC portal can provide easier, direct access to the documents of indigenous peoples’ history and current conditions.
During Argentina’s “Dirty War” (1976-1983), the military attempted to destroy all documents and physical evidence that thousands of people were arrested, tortured, murdered, and disappeared or forced into exile. Ms. Gloria Orrego Hoyos, the recipient of the 2011 FCIL Schaffer Grant for Foreign Law Librarians, will discuss the contribution of librarians and archivists as sources of law and information, and as protectors of evidence in the construction of a new democratic society and the restoration of rights, justice, heritage, memory, and identity.
Target Audience: Librarians who support students, faculty, and attorneys working in the areas of international law or humanitarian law specifically
Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will list the key features of the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect.
2. Participants will create a research plan in International Humanitarian Law.
The purpose of the Responsibility to Protect doctrine is to prevent mass atrocities by placing a duty upon state actors to protect their citizens. When individual states fail in this duty, it is the collective responsibility of the international community to respond. This response may include, in an exceptional case, military intervention. Gareth Evans, a former Foreign Minister of Australia, and the former President of the International Crisis Group, has promoted this development in International Humanitarian Law. The Responsibility to Protect is an emerging norm with an uncertain future. Its status has been a subject of debate in the United Nations General Assembly. This program will discuss its development, its application or misapplication, and its future as a mechanism to prevent mass atrocities. The program will also provide a strategy for researching a cutting-edge topic in International Humanitarian Law.
Target Audience: FCIL, academic, and socially responsible law librarians interested in libraries as cultural institutions that must be rebuilt after man-made catastrophes
Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will be able to explain U.S. accession to the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and the work of UNESCO as "lead agency for the protection of the world's documentary heritage in libraries and archives."
2. Participants will be able to participate in the rebuilding of national libraries and archives destroyed in the Balkan, Iraqi, and Afghan conflicts.
"Libricide" is a recently coined term for the destruction of a culture's memory by obliterating its historical documentary record. Beginning with the Lieber Code in the U.S. Civil War, libraries were recognized as institutions to be safeguarded during wartime; the hanging of Hitler's chief plunderer in the Nuremberg trials was crucial recognition of destruction of cultural property as a potential war crime. The 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its two additions completed the process and led to its inclusion in the Serbian war crimes trials. Destruction of the Iraqi national archives, the ongoing plunder of archeological sites and academic libraries, and sales of Sumerian tablets and other pre-Islamic cuneiforms make this a topic of current and urgent interest to librarians and legal researchers. This program will examine 20th century instances of state-sponsored libricide, the development of the Hague Convention with an assessment of its use to date, and the efforts of the international library community to rebuild destroyed libraries and archives.
Target Audience: Law librarians who support faculty, students, and government and private attorneys who work with civil law jurisdictions and U.S. litigation involving the doctrine of forum non conveniens
Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will be able to describe the essential principles of the civil law tradition necessary to understand the impact of U.S. transnational litigation in Latin America.
2. Participants will be able to explain forum shopping and the repercussions of the U.S. doctrine of forum non conveniens.
Globalization has brought different legal systems closer together. Legal practitioners, government lawyers, and judges increasingly need to deal with cases that require research and understanding of a foreign legal system or specific aspects of comparative law. People doing business in civil law countries need to understand the fundamentals of civil code-based jurisdictions. This presentation will introduce the main elements that distinguish common law and civil law traditions, especially with respect to Latin American jurisdictions. Additionally, the U.S. bar has been very active on issues of forum shopping involving civil law jurisdictions. For example, there are cases involving U.S. multinational corporations litigating in Latin American and U.S. courts for damages arising from activities related to petroleum exploration and banana plantations, or based on U.S.-manufactured defective products. The presentation will also discuss various responses (judicial decisions and legislation) from Latin American civil law countries to the U.S. forum non conveniens doctrine, and provide participants with a research guide for exploring these issues further.
