By Marcelo Rodríguez

This monthly series aims to provide a summary on a particular event or situation developing in a foreign country or multiple countries as well as providing relevant and authoritative secondary sources to begin your research with. FCIL librarians are often tasked with providing sources, doing research or helping make sense of an important situation happening in a jurisdiction relatively unknown to a US audience. If you’re in that complicated scenario, please feel free to reach out to an FCIL librarian who can help you from this list put together by the AALL FCIL-SIS group. However, even for the experts among us, understanding the main players, implications and trends for a fast developing and constantly changing complex situation in a foreign country is incredibly difficult to do, to say the least. Therefore, I’ve created this series to help both the FCIL and non-FCIL librarians to be able to have a snapshot on a current event in a foreign country and important secondary sources, which they can expand from, if needed. As usual, I welcome everyone to add more sources in the comments. 

In this post, I will briefly highlight and provide a few sources for situations currently taking the following countries: Ecuador, UK/Rwanda, Iraq, Israel and North Korea.

• Indigenous Peoples-Led Protests Halt Ecuador

• United Kingdom Begins Deportations to Rwanda

• Sadrist Movement Withdraws en Masse from Iraqi Parliament

• Israel Heads to its Fifth Election in Three Years

• Belligerent North Korea “Passes” its First COVID Wave

By Marci Hoffman, Associate Director, Berkeley Law Library and General Editor of IFLP

IFLP is a critical research tool that allows you to provide your researchers with articles covering a broad range of international, national, and comparative law topics. Over the past few years, we have been working on several projects to improve the Index. I am happy to report on the following:

• IFLP Alerts: curate your own customized email of new articles added to the Index and receive the alert monthly in your email. Your students, faculty, lawyers, and staff are all welcome to create their own customized alerts. See this quick video – How to Set Up IFLP Alerts.
• Monthly updates to the database. In the old days, we updated the content quarterly.  We now update the database monthly, so you have access to new journal literature in a timelier manner. 
• More subject headings. Yes, we still use them and now we use more of them. This will provide researchers will better access to relevant articles when searching the database by subject or keyword.
• Direct links to more full text articles (more than 85,000 links, in fact).
• ISSN and OpenURL linking makes accessing articles quicker and easier.

In July, some of our FCIL colleagues will begin their work as members of this year’s advisory board: Aamir Abdullah, Melissa Abernathy, Jennifer Allison, Charles Bjork, and Mariana Newman. I look forward to working with these folks, our international team of indexers, Berkeley Law staff, and HeinOnline to continue to improve this important research tool. 

Going to the AALL annual meeting? Drop by the Hein booth for information on IFLP Alerts and pick up a useful give-away (it won’t take up any luggage space but is useful for your travels). Don’t forget that subscribing to IFLP also supports AALL!

By Meredith Capps

With a new association year upon us, the FCIL-SIS is seeking volunteers to serve as both leaders and members of several of our committees!  Notably, the SIS is pleased to announce the establishment of a new committee:  the standing committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.  Information regarding our committees and their charges is available on the FCIL-SIS Committees & Groups page.  We hope that you’ll consider dedicating your time and talents to the SIS, and ask that members complete our brief volunteer survey by COB on June 30, 2022: forms.gle/ywVd7kMnvcdJgvFJ9. 

As a reminder, our Interest Groups do not maintain formal membership lists, and members interested in an IG’s programs and initiatives can at any time join that IG’s distribution list via the AALL “My Communities” platform.  Links to our IG’s community pages are provided below:

• African Law Interest Group   
• Asian Law Interest Group
• Continuing Education Committee
• Customary and Religious Law Interest Group  
• Electronic Research Interest Group
• European Law Interest Group
• Foreign Law Selectors Interest Group
• Indigenous Peoples Law Interest Group
• Latin American Law Interest Group
• Roman Law IG
• Teaching Foreign & International Legal Research Interest Group

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me (meredith.a.capps@vanderbilt.edu) or my appointments co-chair, David Isom (disom@sandiego.edu)!

By Jonathan Pratter

International arbitration is not a unitary subject. There are three distinct varieties. There is arbitration between states under public international law; there is international commercial arbitration between private parties; and there is “mixed” arbitration between a state and a private party, which today often resolves into international investment arbitration. This post will cover researching international arbitration between states under public international law. An earlier post dealt with free resources for researching international investment arbitration. A future post will cover international commercial arbitration.

What are the contemporary sources for the text of international arbitral awards? The source that is entirely devoted to publishing awards in international arbitrations between states is Reports of International Arbitral Awards (R.I.A.A.). R.I.A.A. has been published since 1948 and today publication is handled by the Codification Division of the Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations. All volumes of R.I.A.A. are available freely online in pdf from the UN Office of Legal Affairs. R.I.A.A. is also on HeinOnline. The most recent volume of R.I.A.A. is volume XXXIII, published in 2020. It contains the two awards (one on jurisdiction and admissibility from 2015 and one on the merits from 2016) in the South China Sea Arbitration between the Republic of the Philippines and the People’s Republic of China. R.I.A.A. is the source of other significant awards. For example, the award in the Trail Smelter Case, a foundational decision in international environmental law, is in volume III (1949). International arbitral awards also are published in the series International Law Reports (I.L.R.). For example, volume 191 (2021) of I.L.R. publishes the award on preliminary objections of February 2020 in the case of the Dispute Concerning Coastal State Rights in the Black Sea, Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait (Ukraine v. Russian Federation). International Legal Materials (I.L.M.) occasionally publishes international arbitral awards.

A fourth source is online. This is the website of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (P.C.A.). Despite its name, the P.C.A. is not a court. It is an institution for the administration of arbitrations, including the naming of arbitrators and acting as the registry for arbitrations. Today, the P.C.A. administers both inter-state arbitrations and mixed arbitrations, including investment arbitrations. Under Cases, the researcher will find links to all the arbitrations the P.C.A. has administered.

Historical arbitrations are published in such collections as History and Digest of the International Arbitrations to Which the United States Has Been a Party (1898) and in two French publications, Pasicrisie Internationale: Histoire Documentaire des Arbitrages Internationaux (1902, reprinted 1997) and Recueil des Arbitrages Internationaux (1905-1954).

Is it possible to research international arbitrations by subject? The answer is yes, within limits. There are two hardcopy sources that the researcher can refer to. One is Survey of International Arbitrations, 1794-1989 (3^rd ed. 1990). This is a chronological compilation of references to international arbitrations. However, there is an analytical index. The defect of this index is that it mixes personal names with subject terms. It would have been better to have separate personal name indexes and subject indexes. The other hardcopy source is Repertory of International Arbitral Jurisprudence (1989). This is a three-volume compilation of extracts from arbitrations organized according to a detailed classified table of contents. There is also a detailed analytical index. The Repertory is bilingual, French and English.

Article 38(1) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice refers to “judicial decisions” as a subsidiary means for the determination of rules of international law. But this is too narrow since the phrase “judicial decisions” may not encompass arbitration. Yet, arbitration under public international law predates judicial settlement of international disputes by more than a century. International arbitration is clearly an essential component of the landscape of sources of international law.

By Marcelo Rodríguez

In this special post of my Through the FCIL Lens series, I’d like to focus on elections, particularly presidential and federal elections which took place during this past month of May 2022. Regardless of their levels of democracy, participation and representation or lack thereof, most jurisdictions in the world conduct electoral processes at various levels: presidential, legislative, parliamentary, municipal, regional, local, etc. When you’re researching a region, country or territory you’re not familiar with, elections can be insightful and revelatory events with salient information which can help you in your research and with any content you might be interested in. 

In the usual format in this series, I will mention a few previous events from various parts of the world, in this case, presidential elections which took place this past month of May 2022. Additionally I will also enumerate at least three secondary sources or authoritative articles from where you kickstart your research.

• First Round of Presidential Elections in Colombia

• Somalia’s Long Overdue Presidential Election Amidst Multiple Crises

• New Faces and Surprising Results in the Lebanese Parliamentary Elections

• Marcos/Duterte: A Continuation of the Past in the Philippines

• Australia’s 180 Turn After its Federal Elections

After a hiatus of 3 years, the Chinese and American Forum on Legal Information and Law Libraries (CAFLL) is back in full force! The CAFLL 2022 Conference will be held online through a series of webinars from September 6 to 23, 2022.

Founded in 2010, CAFLL has been active in its mission of encouraging, developing, and facilitating exchanges between Chinese and American law libraries and librarians for more than one decade. Through conferences, visits, lectures, training and other channels, libraries and librarians from both sides have formed a strong bond and long-lasting friendship.

The CAFLL 2022 Conference will center on Core Values & Evolving Roles of Legal Information and Information Professionals. We are opening a call for presentations that are creative, interactive, and engaging.  We’re searching for dynamic presenters who can lead Chinese and American legal information professionals through discussions focusing on the following two themes:

• Evolving Roles of Legal Information Professionals: Stories from American and Chinese Law Libraries
  • Managing electronic resources (licensing, acquisition, access, usage, evaluation, etc.)
  • Teaching legal research courses
  • Defining the core competency expected of the future generation of law librarians

• Core Values of Legal Information: Privacy, Technology & the Impacts of a Pandemic
  • Technology and privacy in the U.S. and China
  • Rule of law
  • Smart court

Presentations can be from 20 to 30 minutes in length. A live facilitated discussion will follow each webinar.

Submit Your Proposal: Please email your proposal of three to five hundred words to fjone@illinois.edu or sherry.xin.chen@bc.edu before June 15, 2022. Accepted proposals will be notified by the end of June. Presenters may have the opportunity to publish their presentation-related work. Manuscripts received before September 1, 2022 will be given priority consideration for publication in Legal Reference Services Quarterly.

CAFLL 2022 Conference Website: https://cafllnet.org/2022-cafll-conference

Photos of Past CAFLL Conferences:

Please join the FCIL-SIS Latin American Interest Group on Friday, May 20, 2022, at 12:00 – 1:00 PM EST webinar, in which the panelists will illustrate, through practical examples, how international law applies domestically in Argentina, Chile, and Colombia. They will share the similarities and differences of national implementation processes, how to research international agreements, and discuss the available resolutions of legal disputes arising out of the conflicts between international and domestic law.

The panel will present 

• Javiera Núñez, a lawyer from Pontifical University Catholic of Chile who holds Masters of Laws in International Law from University College London, brings more than 15 years of experience, and currently serves as the Deputy Head of the Multilateral Public International Law Department from the Legal Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile; 
• Maria Fernanda Penagos, a lawyer from Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá, Colombia, with more than 10 years of experience as a legal advisor on issues related to the insurance and transport law, who holds a Masters of Laws in International Law from Universidad Complutense de Madrid and is the adjunct professor at Universidad Ean in Colombia; and 
• Marcos Nelio-Mollar, a lawyer from Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) who is the adjunct professor of international public law at UBA and Pontificia Universidad Catolica Argentina (UCA), Professor at the Master Program in International Relations and postgraduate courses at Austral University and UCA, and a Supervisor of the International Affairs Coordination Department at the National Social Security Administration (ANSES) of Argentina.
• Juan-Andrés Fuentes, the Librarian for Foreign, Comparative, and International Law at Harvard Law School Library will moderate the event.

Recording and slides will be sent to all registrants. Please contact FCIL-SIS Continuing Education Chair and the coordinator of this event, Caitlin Hunter, with any questions.

1. Where did you grow up?

I grew up in a small town in northern New Jersey, but then moved and attended high school in Ventura County, California.

2. Why did you select law librarianship as a career?

I loved the law and learning new things and getting to help others but didn’t love the daily practice of law. I enrolled for my MLIS degree originally thinking I’d pivot out of law, but then I learned about my school’s (University of Arizona) Law Library Fellowship program. The fact that I could pivot into a career focused on the parts of law I loved – researching new thoughts and ideas, writing, and helping others, meant I was instantly hooked and wanted in!

3. When did you develop an interest in foreign, comparative, and international law?

My interest in FCIL started when I interned at Universal Pictures in their licensing and marketing department. There I was working with international licensees and in-house counsel to draft and negotiate contracts and communicating with global manufacturing partners. I found all the conversations and work fascinating. That exposure began a love of international legal issues, which then led me to teaching during my fellowship international LLM and AJD/SJD introductory legal research and writing. I love working with international students and hearing their new perspectives and approaches to the law because of their varied professional backgrounds, and I knew that when I graduated and set out on a career path I wanted to continue working with international students, and add international legal research also. 

4. Who is your current employer? How long have you worked there?

I work at the Wolf Law Library at William & Mary! I just started in August 2021.

5. Do you speak any foreign languages?

A little bit of Spanish, and even less Italian.

6. What is your most significant professional achievement?

Last summer, I helped create curriculum for undergraduate students regarding basic legal principles. My colleagues and I put together four modules explaining the basics of IP and business law, and getting the opportunity learn about instructional design, accessibility, and assessment all while distilling complex legal principles into understandable and compact learning units was so rewarding.

7. What is your biggest food weakness?

Oh man, there are so many… probably popcorn? I love popcorn, I think it’s the perfect snack. That or a really great everything bagel with plain cream cheese.

8. What song makes you want to get up and sing/dance?

Shut Up and Dance by Walk the Moon immediately came to mind but really probably almost any 2000s/2010s pop with an upbeat tempo will probably do it. 

9. What ability or skill do you most wish you had (that you don’t have already)?

I really wish I could speak Mandarin. Many of the students I work with are from China, and it would be incredible to work with them in multiple languages.

10. Aside from the basic necessities, what is one thing you can’t go a day without?

I’ll echo many colleagues previously featured in the spotlight and say coffee. It’s the ultimate comfort drink and pick-me-up.

11. Anything else you would like to share with us?

Everyone in FCIL, and law librarianship in general, is so nice! If you’re in law and considering a shift in focus, come check out the work we do – there is always something new to learn, and many people willing to help and collaborate.

By Marcelo Rodríguez

Over the past month or so, I have found myself in a situation where most of the international sources that I follow are heavily focused on one conflict. Without a doubt, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a major geopolitical crisis that has and will continue to have major ripple effects throughout the world. However, if you are a researcher interested in other more local events or conflicts, it might be difficult to find analysis and sources, particularly in English, in traditional media sources, social media and even academic secondary sources providing authoritative information. The ongoing war conflict in Ukraine and a convulsive series of local events could provide a recipe for other major conflicts to erupt in different parts of the world. As a foreign and international law librarian as well as researcher, I believe it’s my job to keep abreast of these flashpoints and trends in order to provide trustworthy and insightful sources. 

The five situations that I mention below are the ones I have been following most closely during this past month of April. I invite readers to provide more sources in the comments section. You can read my previous posts here.

• Stumped Pakistan After a Week of Major Political Drama

• Political and Economic Meltdown in Sri Lanka

• Who Assassinated Burkina Faso’s Thomas Sankara?

• Extradition of Honduras’ Former President to the United States

• Elections in Europe: France, Hungary, Slovenia and Serbia

Previous posts:

March 2022

February 2022

January 2022

December 2021

By Jonathan Pratter

The question in the title is not new. It is almost as old as comparative law itself. The answer to it matters to FCIL librarians. It has an effect on the general approach to FCIL research and it influences the way we teach FCIL research. Comparative law favors convergence in many contexts. Zweigert and Kötz, two leading scholars of comparative law, speak of a “praesumtio similitudinis”, a presumption of similarity in practical results, that operates as a default working approach in comparative law. Pierre Legrand, another leading European comparatist, disagrees completely. In his article, European Legal Systems Are Not Converging, 45 Int’l & Compar. L. Q. 52 (1996), he attacks comparatists who focus on rules, concepts and institutions, while neglecting deeper phenomena of culture and mentalités. Both poles are subject to criticism. Zweigert and Kötz, themselves, in their book Introduction to Comparative Law (3d ed. 1998) speak of the differing styles of legal systems, and use this criterion to group them. Legrand’s distinction suffers from circularity. Rules, concepts and institutions are the expressions of legal culture that make legal systems work. It would be foolish to treat them as superficial aspects of a deeper phenomenon.

In favor of convergence I point to two aspects of public law. The first is the basic fact of constitutionalism. Rare is the country that does not have a codified constitution, that is, a written constitution in one document. Next, an analogous development is the global spread of the institution of judicial review for constitutionality. (For added detail, see this paper.)

A difficult issue in the comparison of the common law with the civil law is the place of judicial decisions as a source of law. It is frequent to read that in the common law case law is a source of binding law, while in the civil law it is not. But this distinction based on whether case law qualifies as a formal source of law disguises the reality. France, for example, has the concepts of the arrêt de principe and of jurisprudence constante, both of which indicate precedents that are tantamount to binding. And Germany has the concepts of Richterrecht and ständige Rechtsprechung, which perform the same function in German law. It is an observed fact in France and Germany, as well as in other civil-law countries, that the decisions of the appellate courts are followed by lower courts. Judicial decisions in civil-law countries are studied with the same care as they are in common-law countries.

In spite of convergence in many fields of law, Pierre Legrand is right about the irreducible differences among legal systems. National law and national culture are bound up with each other. National law is as distinctive as national cuisine. A big differentiator is language. In my FCIL research class, I talk about the obstacles to research in foreign law raised by language differences, and about the challenges of translation. A national legal system is the distinctive product of language, history and culture. Being at home in a foreign legal system requires the same kind of familiarity as living in a foreign country. The functional approach to comparative law, which focuses on results achieved on issues common to various legal systems, can limit the effect of inherent difference, but never eliminate it. I tell my students that the right way to do FCIL research is to be a cosmopolitan person, but not a rootless cosmopolitan. On the contrary, a true cosmopolitan is a person who can put down roots in more than one country, preferably in several.

By: FCIL Schaffer Grant Fundraising Committee Q&A with Rheny Pulungan

After a two-year pause, the FCIL Schaffer Grant for Foreign Law Librarians is planned to resume for the 2022 AALL Annual Meeting & Conference. The FCIL Schaffer Grant for Foreign Law Librarians Fundraising Committee* reached out to Dr. Rheny Pulungan, the 2016 recipient of the FCIL Schaffer Grant for Foreign Law Librarians, to learn what’s new with our friend and colleague.

What developments have occurred on your presentation topic since you spoke to AALL in 2016?

When I was presenting at the 2016 AALL I was working as a liaison support librarian at Melbourne Law School Library. Since then, I changed jobs three times! From the Indonesian Studies Subject Librarian, a law learning skills adviser, and now I am a Liaison Librarian at Monash Law Library. In my current role, I deliver embedded legal research skills programs to develop and improve law students’ skills and attributes.

There have been some important changes in terms of legal research landscape in Indonesia. It is easier now to find English translations on various Indonesian laws online. Some government websites and databases offer authorised translations, but some other websites only offer unauthorised versions, which can still be useful for initial research and understanding.

As Indonesia is a civil law country, cases are not considered to be a source of law. Cases have no precedential value, so courts are not bound by decisions of other courts at the same level or higher. Therefore, there is little need for law reporting in Indonesia. However, there have been some improvements in finding Indonesian case law online. Decisions from the Constitutional Court are available in English through its website. The Supreme Court’s decisions can also be found online through a database, however only in Indonesian. Full judgments from district and high courts are also available through the Supreme Court database.

What projects are you currently working on?

I am now involved in modifying some of the law library research skill programs. Due to the pandemic which led to the reduced number of staff, we need to redesign some of our library classes to ensure that we can keep embedding our library classes, especially for first-year law units but in a more sustainable way by combining face-to-face delivery with online resources.  

One of the successful projects I led during my role as the Indonesian Studies Subject Librarian was the digitisation project of Indonesian historical newspapers, Sin Po and Star Weekly. I initiated the project and liaised with a number of different teams, including the digitisation team and the library copyright officer, with input from researchers and academics. I was instrumental in providing guidance on the significance of both newspapers and why the digitation of the collection was critical. The newspapers’ issues from 1923-1961 are now available as open access and have been used by researchers within and outside Australia.

If you could address AALL members again today, what would you discuss?

The pandemic has changed the way libraries around the world deliver their services. I think it is very important for us as librarians to adapt to this new way of delivering our services. Online access to research and teaching materials is very critical and libraries have put a lot of effort to ensure access to online material is seamless. However, not all law textbooks are available online, or when they are available, they don’t offer institutional access making it very unaffordable for students. This brings me to the next important issue which is about open access. In Australia, there has been a great push for open access, and I think the Library can play an important advocacy role in promoting open access to academic research, such as those initiated by the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) and the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA)

In what ways did the information about U.S. law library programs that you obtained as a recipient of the Schaffer Grant for Foreign Law Librarians influence how you work now?

The Schaffer Grant enabled me to attend my first ever international law library conference! I remember feeling so overwhelmed by the size of the conference and by all the great presenters! Attending the AALL Conference and meeting with librarians from different universities in the United States has enabled me to broaden my perspective about the library profession. I was relatively new back then and the Schaffer grant really helped me in identifying what skills I needed to advance my career as a law librarian.

I also learned a lot about the U.S, foreign, and international law legal research from some sessions at the AALL conference. As part of my current role, I regularly get asked by law students and academics how to find U.S and international law sources. I am so thankful for those sessions I attended. On a few occasions when I did not know the answers to those questions, I reached out to the U.S. colleagues whom I met at the AALL Conference and they were always happy to help.

Are there any topics that you think are ripe for discussion by future recipients of the Schaffer Grant for Foreign Law Librarians?

Learning about foreign law research from various jurisdictions is always important and fun! But I think it’s also beneficial to hear more about the changing landscape of law libraries/libraries and the emerging trends across the globe! I already mentioned open access but there are other things too such as artificial intelligence in legal research, research impact, flipped learning, virtual reality, and the list goes on! 

*Jennifer Allison, Sherry Leysen, Kerry Lohmeier, and Evelyn Ma, with assistance from Charlotte Daugherty. The Fundraising Committee wishes to thank Dr. Pulungan for sharing this update.

Have you, or an FCIL-SIS member you know, made a significant contribution to our profession this year? If so, please let us know! The Executive Committee needs your help identifying the folks who deserve these prestigious FCIL-SIS Awards:

The Daniel L. Wade FCIL-SIS Outstanding Service Award: honors a FCIL-SIS member who has made an outstanding contribution to our SIS in the areas of section activity and professional service.

The Thomas H. Reynolds & Arturo A. Flores FCIL-SIS Publications Award: honors a FCIL-SIS member who has greatly contributed to the professional development of their AALL colleagues during any given year. The winning “publications” may be print, digital, or electronic initiatives.

The Spirit of the FCIL-SIS Award: honors a FCIL-SIS member whose work furthers our mission, serves the entire FCIL-SIS, and inspires others to act.

The Blog Post of the Year Award: honors an AALL member who contributes an outstanding blog post for the FCIL-SIS blog, DipLawMatic Dialogues, during the previous year.

The Newsletter Article of the Year Award: honors an FCIL-SIS member who contributes an outstanding article for the FCIL-SIS Newsletter during the previous year.

The Interest Group/Committee Project of the Year Award honors the FCIL-SIS Interest Group and/or Committee that produces an outstanding project for the benefit of FCIL-SIS and/or AALL members during the previous year.

Nominations for all awards are due by May 15, 2022, to any member of the Executive Committee: Marcelo Rodriguez (marcelorod@email.arizona.edu), Caitlin Hunter (hunter@law.ucla.edu) or Susan Gualtier (sgua@law.upenn.edu). We look forward to hearing from you!

By Lucie Olejnikova

GlobaLex March/April 2022 issue is live featuring eight updates: Angola, Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, Vietnam, International Arbitration Between Foreign Investors and Host States, Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and Transnational and Comparative Family Law. Webmasters and content managers, please update your pages. We thank all our wonderful authors, new and established, for their excellent contributions and commitment to open access authorship!

UPDATE: Republic of Angola – Legal System and Research by Dunia P. Zongwe and Nélia Daniel Dias at https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Angola1.html.

Dunia P. Zongwe is an author, an academic and a consultant. He writes and specializes in the areas of international finance, the economics of law, contracts, natural resources, and human rights, focusing on Africa. Mr. Zongwe studied at the University of Namibia, Université de Montréal, and Cornell University, where he earned both his master’s and doctoral degrees in law. He currently works in South Africa at Walter Sisulu University where he serves in the law department as Associate Professor.

Nélia Daniel Dias is a law lecturer in Angola and a licensed lawyer in both Angola and Portugal. Ms. Nelia also worked for Chevron in Luanda as a senior counsel in oil and gas. She currently works for Baker Hughes as Geomarket Legal Counsel with responsibilities in several countries, including Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and South Africa. She teaches at the Angola Catholic University. Previously, she taught at the Lusíada de Angola University for several years since 2007. She earned her law degree in civil law from the Lusíada University of Lisbon in 1995. She also holds a master’s degree in civil law (contracts) dated 2000. She has a Master Diploma in Global Business at Oxford University. Since 1995, Ms. Daniel Dias has given lectures and acted as a facilitator in Angola, Portugal, and Brazil. She was a trainer at the Portuguese Bar Association (2005-2006) and Angola Bar Association (2007-2015). She is the daughter of Nuno Xavier Daniel Dias, President of the first National Assembly of São Tomé e Príncipe that signed the independence act on 12 July 1975. Recognized in December 2021 as one of the 100 outstanding female executives in the Oil and Gas industry in Africa.

UPDATE: Researching the Argentine Legal System by Gloria Orrego Hoyos at https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Argentina1.html.

Gloria Orrego Hoyos is currently working at the Secretariat Training and Jurisprudence of the Public Defender’s Office in Argentina and as Professor of Law and Legal Research (since 2008) at the Universidad de San Andrés and at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (since 2016) in Buenos Aires. She is a published author on human rights issues (gender and reproductive rights) and has been a guest lecturer in the subject in several countries. Additionally, she has been a consultant for NGOs and commercial databases regarding Latin American law in human and women’s rights. Gloria Orrego Hoyos is a native of Colombia, where she obtained her law degree from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana College of Law in Bogotá, Colombia, and is now living and working in Argentina where she obtained a Master in Constitutional Law and Human Rights from the Universidad de Palermo in Buenos Aires. She also has a librarianship degree from the Universidad de Ciencias Empresariales y Sociales in Buenos Aires.

UPDATE: The Bolivian Legal System by Mauricio Ipiña Nagel at https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Bolivia1.html.

Mauricio Ipiña Nagel is the founding partner of Ipiña Nagel Abogados in La Paz, Bolivia. He specializes in Commercial Arbitration and Corporate Law. He received his JD from Universidad Católica Boliviana (1999). He holds a General LL.M. at Tulane University School of Law (2001); there he was admitted to the Editorial Board of “The Journal of American Arbitration.” One year later, Mr. Ipiña became a regular student at the LL.M. in Dispute Resolution at University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law (2002). Mauricio also holds a JSM degree from Stanford Law School, where he focused his research on corporate dispute resolution. In 2002 he was accepted as intern at the International Chamber of Commerce Court of Arbitration in Paris, France.

UPDATE: An Introduction to Venezuelan Governmental Institutions and Primary Legal Sources by Luis Bergolla at https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Venezuela1.html.

Luis Bergolla is currently a J.S.D. candidate Stanford Law School and Visiting Scholar at the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for Procedural Law. He holds a first degree in law from the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (Venezuela), an LL.M. degree from the University of Georgia, a J.D. degree from the University of Arizona College of Law, and a J.S.M. degree from Stanford Law School. Luis Bergolla is an international arbitrator, an expert on Venezuela law, and a lawyer admitted to the bar in New York, the District of Columbia, Arizona, Spain, and Venezuela.

UPDATE: Vietnam Legal Research by Le Thi Hanh at https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Vietnam1.html.

Le Thi Hanh is the Director of the Library and Information Centre, Hanoi Law University, Vietnam. She has a Master of Library and Information Science and a Bachelor of Law. She has been a member of the Vietnamese Library Association since 2006. Le Thi Hanh was awarded the IALL Professional Development Bursary of the International Association of Law Libraries in 2011 to their Annual Course held in Malaysia. She contributed to the “IALL International Handbook of Legal Information Management” published in 2011. She also was the author of the paper “Open access to official and authenticated legal information in Vietnam” that was presented at the 79th IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Singapore 2013.

UPDATE: International Arbitration Between Foreign Investors and Host States (Investor-State Arbitration) by Hernando Otero at https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/International_Arbitration_Foreign_Investors_Host_States1.html.

Hernando Otero is an international investment, arbitration and mediation attorney with experience as counsel of record and as arbitrator in international arbitrations between foreign investors and host States under the ICSID Convention, ICSID Additional Facility and the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules.

UPDATE: Researching the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) by Lara Eid Jreissati at https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Special_Tribunal_Lebanon1.html.

Lara Eid Jreissati is an international lawyer specializing in International Criminal Law, Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law. She holds a master’s degree in Euro-Mediterranean cultures and policies from Italy’s International Telematics University. She consulted with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) in The Hague. She is an active member of the STL Follow-up Commission work at the Beirut Bar Association. She consults with NGOs on asylum, refugee, and disadvantaged migrant’s matters. She is an active member of the Beirut Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute. She has also lectured and published on international criminal law and human rights.

UPDATE: Transnational and Comparative Family Law: Harmonization and Implementation by Marylin Johnson Raisch at https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Transnational_Comparative_Family_Law1.html.

Marylin Johnson Raisch served as the Associate Director for Research and Collection Development at the Georgetown Law Center until her 2021 retirement, and previously as the head of the library’s international law department. She received her J.D. from Tulane University School of Law. She holds degrees in English literature from Smith College and St. Hugh’s College, Oxford. She received her M.L.S. degree from Columbia University School of Library Service. Marylin is the author, co-author, and editor of several articles, reviews, and web guides on international and foreign legal research. Such include the current ASIL European Union Research Guide; the annual book and web surveys for the Journal of International Economic Law; Code and Hypertext: The Intertextuality of International and Comparative Law, 35 Syracuse J. Int’l L. & Com. 309 (2008); and chapters on UK Legal Research and UK implementation of EU law (in Legal Research Handbook [D.T. MacEllven], Neil A. Campbell and John N. Davis, eds., 6th ed., LexisNexis Canada, 2013). Marylin has served as moderator or panelist in several continuing education programs at the annual meetings of the American Association of Law Libraries, is a past Chair of its Foreign, International, and Comparative Law Special Interest Section, and is a co-chair of the International Legal Research Interest Group of the American Society of International Law

For more articles, visit https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/index.html.

By Marcelo Rodríguez

This is now my fourth installment of “Through the FCIL Lens”. This series aims to provide summaries on rapidly evolving situations in a foreign jurisdiction or internationally as well as few secondary sources to kickstart your research. Since last month’s Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it has become painfully clear to everyone in the world how interconnected and dependent we are on events happening far away from some of us. And yet, despite our shrinking global village, not all crises and events are treated equally or capture people’s attention. Therefore my series seeks to provide some initial information helping you understand the importance of a currently developing foreign event and with a significant potential to impact other events either regionally or internationally. I’m purposely leaving the war in Ukraine out of this post. I’m sharing more on Ukraine in my latest slaw column, Accessing, Documenting and Preserving Information on Ukraine.

For this March 2022 post, I will provide some introductory information as well as a few secondary sources regarding the events mentioned below.

• Peru’s Constitutional Court OKs Pardon for Former President Fujimori

• Samia Suluhu Hassan’s One Year Anniversary as President of Tanzania

• Taliban Keeps High Schools Shut for Girls in Afghanistan

• South Korea’s New President: Yoon Suk-yeol

• China’s Reach into the Solomon Islands

Previous posts:

February 2022

January 2022

December 2021

Image by kalhh from Pixabay 

The February 2022 edition of the FCIL Newsletter is out now.  Inside the newsletter, you’ll find:

• FCIL-SIS Elections
• Work-in-Progress: A Research Framework for FCIL-SIS Teaching?
• FCIL-SIS Award Nominations
• Spotlight on the Dean Rusk International Law Center @ UGA Law
• Recent Member Publications

Check it out here!

Past editions are also available on the FCIL-SIS site.

This is the second in a series of posts introducing readers to various organizations, conferences, and/or listservs, relevant to the FCIL-SIS Interest Groups. The series seeks to increase awareness of avenues to learn about and connect with others interested in similar FCIL topics.

By Julienne E. Grant, Joan Policastri, & Sue Silverman 

The FCIL-SIS’s Indigenous Peoples Law Interest Group is thriving. However, for those interested in other organizations and resources that focus on indigenous rights, see the following lists, organized by scope—international, United States, and individual U.S. tribes.

International

For additional information on indigenous rights in the international context, see Christopher C. Dykes, “UPDATE: Researching Indigenous Peoples International Law,” GlobaLex (June 2019), https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Researching_Indigenous_Peoples_International_Law1.html.

International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), https://www.iwgia.org/en/. Based in Copenhagen, this NGO focuses on four areas in the indigenous context: climate change; land defense and defenders; territorial governance; and global governance.

United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/unpfii-sessions-2.html. The UNPFII serves as an advisory body to the UN Economic and Social Council. The Forum was established on July 28, 2000, with a mandate to address indigenous issues related to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health, and human rights.

Survival International, https://www.survivalinternational.org/. This NGO works “to amplify the tribal voice,” and its activities include lobbying for and protecting tribal land rights. The organization’s offices are in Berlin, London, Madrid, Milan, Paris, and San Francisco.

Cultural Survival, https://www.culturalsurvival.org/.  According to its website, “Our work on the front lines of advocacy with international Indigenous communities is predicated on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and our programming works to inform Indigenous people of their rights, issues and threats affecting their communities.” Cultural Survival is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Indigenous Peoples Rights International, https://iprights.org/index. Headquartered in Beguio City in the Philippines, this NGO “works to protect Indigenous People’s rights and unite and amplify the call for justice to victims of criminalization and impunity.”

Center for World Indigenous Studies (CWIS), https://www.cwis.org/. The Center, which is based in Olympia, Washington, is a global community of “activist scholars” advancing indigenous peoples’ rights through the dissemination of traditional knowledge.

International Indian Treaty Council (IITC), https://www.iitc.org/. IITC is an organization of indigenous peoples from North, Central, and South America, the Caribbean, and the Pacific “working for the sovereignty and self-determination of indigenous peoples and the protection of indigenous rights, treaties, traditional cultures, and sacred lands.” IITC has offices in Tucson, San Francisco, and Guatemala.

United States

Turtle Talk, https://turtletalk.blog/. If you have the time and bandwidth for only one blog, make it Turtle Talk. Subscribing to it will keep you current on American Indian law issues (with links to primary materials) and on forthcoming conferences and webinars across the United States. Other types of current awareness posts include job opportunities and new scholarship. Frequent contributors include Matthew Fletcher (Michigan State University and Chief Justice of the Pokagon band of Potawatomi Indians Court of Appeals) and Kate Fort (Michigan State University).

Association on American Indian Affairs (AAIA), https://www.indian-affairs.org/. According to its website, “The Association has advocated for the protection and repatriation of cultural items and sacred lands for almost 100 years, including the development of the National Museum of the American Indian Act, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and the Safeguarding Tribal Objects of Patrimony Act and other new legislation that will support the return and protection of [American Indian] Cultural Heritage “ Information on the protection of  Sacred Sites can be found here too, including on these ongoing struggles: DAPL (South Dakota), Oak Flat (Arizona), and Bears Ears (Utah). Information concerning the rights of nature, religious freedom, cultural expression, and languages is also available. AAIA sponsors an important annual conference on repatriation: https://www.indian-affairs.org/repatriation_conference.html.

National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), https://ncai.org/. According to its website, “The National Congress of American Indians, founded in 1944, is the oldest, largest and most representative American Indian and Alaska Native organization serving the broad interests of tribal governments and communities.”

National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA),  https://www.nicwa.org/.  According to its website, “NICWA works to eliminate child abuse and neglect by strengthening families, tribes, and the laws that protect them.” NICWA holds the “Annual Protecting Our Children Conference,” as well as workshops and trainings throughout the year.

United States Indigenous Data Sovereignty Network (USIDSN), https://usindigenousdata.org/. USIDSN’s “primary function is to provide research information and policy advocacy to safeguard the rights and promote the interests of Indigenous nations and peoples in relation to data.” Important work concerning indigenous knowledge is also being conducted at the World Intellectual Property Organization.

American Society of International Law (ASIL) Interest Group on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, https://www.asil.org/community/rights-indigenous-peoples.  If you are an ASIL member, joining an interest group has no additional cost, and the Indigenous Peoples interest group is very active, providing webinars and an excellent newsletter covering indigenous issues around the world, including the United States.

Indigenous Environmental Network, https://www.ienearth.org/. IEN’s activities include “building the capacity of Indigenous communities and tribal governments to develop mechanisms to protect … sacred sites, land, water, air, natural resources, [the] health of both [Indigenous] people and all living things, and to build economically sustainable communities.”

Other useful organizations include:

National Museum of the American Indian, https://americanindian.si.edu/.

National Indian Law Library, https://narf.org/nill/.

Native American Rights Fund, https://www.narf.org/.

Native American Law Students Association (NALSA), https://www.nationalnalsa.org/.

National Native American Bar Association, https://www.nativeamericanbar.org.

American Indian Library Association (AILA), https://ailanet.org/.

Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women USA (MMIW), https://mmiwusa.org/.

U.S. Tribes

The National Congress of American Indians has a directory of tribes (with contact information) on its website. The National Conference of State Legislatures includes a page listing federal- and U.S. state-recognized tribes. LLMC’s Indigenous Law Portal (U.S.) provides a wealth of information, including tribal websites and other legal information, such as tribal constitutions, laws, cases, and treaties for each of the fifty States. On individual tribe websites (accessible through the Portal), you can sign up for newsletters, find more information about culture, history, and art, and learn about upcoming educational events and conferences. The National Indian Law Library (mentioned above) has a Tribal Law Gateway with links to tribal law materials listed alphabetically by tribe. For access to tribal courts’ websites, see the list posted on the Tribal Court Clearinghouse website.

Please register in advance to join the FCIL-SIS Continuing Education Committee for the webinar Legal Data and Information in Practice: How Data and the Law Interact on March 22, 2022, 1 pm-1:45 pm US Central time.

It is becoming imperative that organizations facilitate the acquisition, management, and use of legal data. In this webinar, CanLII president Sarah Sutherland will explain why data use matters in the legal space and describe the issues that affect legal data and organizations in particular. She will provide an international perspective on the issues affecting access to legal data and clearly describe methods of obtaining and evaluating it, pulling insights from her recent book, Legal Data and Information in Practice: How Data and the Law Interact.

Sarah Sutherland is president and CEO at the CanLII (Canadian Legal Information Institute). She is interested in developing a community vision on how to use legal information and technological solutions in ways that leverage emerging opportunities to build useful tools and improve the ways people work. Her book Legal Data and Information in Practice: How Data and the Law Interact was published in 2022.

All registrants will receive a recording of the webinar. This webinar is sponsored by the FCIL-SIS Continuing Education Committee. Please contact FCIL-SIS Continuing Education Chair Caitlin Hunter, hunter@law.ucla.edu, with any questions.

Do you have a go to website for international law research? Maybe something that works well but isn’t as recognized as it could be?

The American Society of International Law (ASIL) recognizes one such website each year through the Jus Gentium Award. We are looking for non-commercial online databases, data sets, and resources covering international law that are accessible to academics, practitioners, as well as the public at large. These tools that enhance scholarship and open access to legal information are what we need. Prior award winners of the past three years can be found here: https://www.asil.org/community/interest-groups. If you know of such a site or have any favorites that could potentially fit the description above, please send them to us by March 15^th. All we need is the URL to the site and maybe a few comments on why you find it helpful. No formal statement is required. Send your ideas to Jessica Pierucci (jpierucci@law.uci.edu) and help us highlight those sites that assist our work.

Have you, or an FCIL-SIS member you know, made a significant contribution to our profession this year? If so, please let us know! The Executive Committee needs your help identifying the folks who deserve these prestigious FCIL-SIS Awards:

The Daniel L. Wade FCIL-SIS Outstanding Service Award: honors a FCIL-SIS member who has made an outstanding contribution to our SIS in the areas of section activity and professional service.

The Thomas H. Reynolds & Arturo A. Flores FCIL-SIS Publications Award: honors a FCIL-SIS member who has greatly contributed to the professional development of their AALL colleagues during any given year. The winning “publications” may be print, digital, or electronic initiatives.

The Spirit of the FCIL-SIS Award: honors a FCIL-SIS member whose work furthers our mission, serves the entire FCIL-SIS, and inspires others to act.

The Blog Post of the Year Award: honors an AALL member who contributes an outstanding blog post for the FCIL-SIS blog, DipLawMatic Dialogues, during the previous year.

The Newsletter Article of the Year Award: honors an FCIL-SIS member who contributes an outstanding article for the FCIL-SIS Newsletter during the previous year.

The Interest Group/Committee Project of the Year Award honors the FCIL-SIS Interest Group and/or Committee that produces an outstanding project for the benefit of FCIL-SIS and/or AALL members during the previous year.

Nominations for all awards are due by May 15, 2022, to any member of the Executive Committee: Hunter D Whaley (hwhaley@law.columbia.edu), Marcelo Rodriguez (marcelorod@email.arizona.edu), Caitlin Hunter (hunter@law.ucla.edu) or Susan Gualtier (sgua@law.upenn.edu). We look forward to hearing from you!

This is the first in a series of posts introducing readers to various organizations, conferences, and/or listservs, relevant to the FCIL-SIS Interest Groups. The series seeks to increase awareness of avenues to learn about and connect with others interested in similar FCIL topics This post was solicited by Yemisi Dina, African Law Interest Group Chair, to provide an update on AfLLIP following up on developments since the organization’s first meeting in July 2020.

By Oludayo John Bamgbose

In line with its core mandate of being the authoritative voice and capacity developing platform for law librarians in Africa, the Association of African Law Library and Information Professionals (AfLLIP) on the 29^th of October, 2021 commenced its series of webinars. Intended to serve as a platform that will enhance professionalism and key competencies among African Law Librarians and other Information Professionals in the delivery of their professional services across the continent in Africa, the maiden edition with the topic ‘African Legal Resources’ was hosted by Dr. Christopher M. Owusu-Ansah and delivered by Mariya Badeva-Bright.

The second edition of the webinar with the theme ‘Developing Legal Research Guides in the Pandemic’ is scheduled to hold in March, 2022 with details to be announced shortly.

Equally, efforts are in top gear towards AfLLIP’s first ever onsite conference and the first ‘Legal Information Management Proficiency Course’ scheduled to hold later in 2022.

Meanwhile, since its inauguration in 2020, AfLLIP continues to grow its membership strength across the francophone and anglophone parts of Africa with targets on the following categories of the membership:

Individuals

• Professionals and paraprofessionals working in the law libraries.
• Students studying law or law librarianship.
• Retired or unemployed legal information professionals
• Other information professionals who have interest in legal information and legal research.

Institutional membership

• Law libraries of academic institutions (Universities, Law Schools etc.)
• Academic libraries
• Parliament libraries
• Court libraries
• Libraries of law firms
• Libraries of NGOs and other organizations with interest in promoting access to legal information.