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Archive for December 2015 (17 posts)

Most Viewed Legal Research Reports in 2015

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With 2015 coming to end we are looking back at our accomplishments for the year. Recently, Donna wrote about the Top 15 Articles from the Enhanced GLM. Another online source that is useful for policy makers, legal researchers, and anyone interested in U.S., foreign, international, and comparative law is our collection of legal research reports.  These reports provide objective, nonpartisan information and analysis regarding a variety of issues and events, many of which are highly topical. We have published an increasing number of our reports in recent years.

Legal Reports

The top 15 most viewed reports in 2015 were:

  1. United States: Gun Ownership and the Supreme Court
  2. Restrictions on Genetically Modified Organisms: United States
  3. Firearms-Control Legislation and Policy: Australia
  4. War Powers
  5. Firearms-Control Legislation and Policy: Great Britain
  6. Firearms-Control Legislation and Policy: Switzerland
  7. Laws on Children Residing with Parents in Prison
  8. Sex Selection & Abortion: India
  9. Citizenship Based on Birth in Country
  10. Children’s Rights: Canada
  11. Children’s Rights: International Laws
  12. Children’s Rights: China
  13. Children’s Rights: United Kingdom (England and Wales)
  14. Firearms-Control Legislation and Policy: Canada
  15. Sentencing Guidelines: South Africa

Our legal research reports can be accessed by visiting the Law Library’s website, and you can receive notifications of newly published reports via email alerts or by subscribing to the RSS feed. In addition, you can get updates by following the Law Library’s Twitter account, @LawLibCongress.

We hope you find our reports interesting and informative. We wish you a happy New Year and look forward to publishing many more reports in 2016!

On the Shelf: Fire codes

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On December 30, 1903, a fire broke out in the Iroquois Theatre in Chicago, Illinois when a broken arc light ignited a muslin curtain. The theatre burned to the ground and over 600 theatre occupants, more than two-thirds women and children, died of asphyxiation, burns, or trampling. It remains one of the deadliest fires in […]

Hawaii Added to the Indigenous Law Portal

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The Library of Congress debuted the Indigenous Law Portal back in 2014, starting with coverage for tribes located within the continental United States. Since that time, the portal has expanded to include Alaska, Canada, and Mexico. Constructed upon the Library’s K Classification system, the Indigenous Law Portal features links to current legal materials from the […]

On This Day: Establishment of the “White Australia” Policy

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Over the last few years, the Law Library of Congress has published a number of reports related to the immigration and citizenship laws of various countries. For example, I’ve written reports about Australia’s points-based immigration system, guest worker programs, investor visas, and pathways to citizenship. However, these projects did not involve delving into the early […]

FALQs: Saudi Arabia Municipal Elections – Women Participate for the First Time

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The following is a guest post by George Sadek, a senior legal research analyst at the Law Library of Congress. George has contributed a number of posts to this blog, including posts on Egypt’s new antiterrorism law, the legal processes available to imprisoned journalists in Egypt, the trial of Seif al Islam al Gaddafi, and […]

Top 15 Articles from the Enhanced GLM

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The Global Legal Monitor (GLM), one of the Law Library of Congress’s premier online sources, published 473 articles in 2015 covering legal developments from around the world on a variety of issues, particularly parliamentary acts and court decisions. When writing for the Global Legal Monitor, we try to focus on issues that we believe will interest our readers.  One of the […]

13th Amendment – Pic of the Week

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On this day 150 years ago, December 18, 1865, then Secretary of State William H. Seward issued the following statement verifying the ratification of the 13th Amendment. These two digitized images come from A Century of Lawmaking.  The image below comes from the Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress and shows that the […]

On the Shelf: Congressional Hearings

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Surprise! Another baseball-related post from Betty. This one is not entirely my fault. A would-be anonymous colleague brought the pictured item to me, having received it from the general collection. Why would the general (non-law) collection have congressional hearings, you may ask? Well, up until the 1960s when the Class K schedule was completed, congressional […]

Locating a Congressional Committee Print: A Beginner’s Guide

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This post is coauthored by Barbara Bavis and Robert Brammer, senior legal reference specialists. We have received a number of questions about congressional committee prints in the context of compiling a federal legislative history.  First, it helps to understand what congressional committee prints are and how they can be helpful for legislative researchers.  Congressional committee […]

New End of Year Congress.gov Enhancements: Quick Search, Congressional Record Index, and More

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In our quest to retire THOMAS, we have made many enhancements to Congress.gov this year.  Our first big announcement was the addition of email alerts, which notify users of the status of legislation, new issues of the Congressional Record, and when Members of Congress sponsor and cosponsor legislation.  That development was soon followed by the addition of treaty documents and better […]