Abolishing ancient laws in England is often no easy task. A significant degree of research is involved before these laws are amended or abolished. The research has to be particularly thorough to avoid one of the oldest – that of unintended consequences. The issue of thoroughly researching laws was demonstrated several years ago when the government was …
The following is a guest post by Tariq Ahmad, a Legal Analyst in the Global Legal Research Center of the Law Library of Congress. British colonial era laws continue to have relevancy in the legal systems of India and Pakistan. Ironically, a sedition law used by the British colonial government to suppress nationalist dissent in the …
The following is a guest post by Laney Zhang, foreign law specialist at the Law Library of Congress. Laney has previously written guest posts for In Custodia Legis on Trains and Corruption in China and on pictures of China’s Supreme Court as it was in 1913. We have also published a picture of a map …
The following is a guest post by Laney Zhang, our specialist on Chinese law at the Law Library of Congress. Enjoy! While looking through the Law Library of Congress’s collection of a set of valuable Chinese judicial gazettes from the Minguo (or Republican) Period (1912-1949), I came across a picture of the Supreme Court (da …
Our top most viewed Global Legal Monitor articles in August covered seven different legal areas: Communications and Electronic Information; Constitutional Law; Criminal Law and Procedure; Foreign Investment; Immigration; Labor; and Nationality and Citizenship. Here is a list of these articles in the order of their popularity: Japan: Stricter Sentences for Sex Offenders South Korea: Permanent …
This has been a busy week for the Law Library of Congress. We have unveiled Congress.gov (our new legislative website), celebrated Constitution Day, and to round the week out, we are preparing for the National Book Festival. This will be the Law Library’s second year at the National Book Festival. Our staff will be manning …
Over the past two years – it was the two year birthday of In Custodia Legis on August 2 – I have written a number of blog posts on matters relating to the laws of different countries of the Pacific region. I try to select topics that are interesting and a bit different, and also …
This week’s interview is with Kirsty McClay, who got what can either be considered one of the most coveted or one of the most dreaded intern spots in the whole Law Library – she got to work with me. Describe your background. I’m originally from Antrim; a small town in Northern Ireland, where I grew …
Last week, as I scanned news items from across the Pacific, a particular story caught my eye. A sunken pirate ship laden with treasure. Massacre of the crew by island warriors. A British boy that lived to tell the tale of his adventures in the islands. It sounded like something Robert Louis Stevenson or Daniel …
The following is a guest post by Peter Roudik, Director of Legal Research at the Law Library of Congress. In addition to his administrative duties, Peter provides jurisdictional coverage for Russia and other former Soviet republics and explains legal developments in these countries to the Law Library’s patrons. Russia is currently the subject of discussion …