The question, whether and to what extent the citation of laws, Rechtsprechung and legal doctrine should be internationally standardized, cannot be answered for all branches of law without making certain distinctions. International contracts or codifications with multinational validity (for example, the law of the European Union) have other criteria to fulfill with regard to their function and coordination as does, for instance, the law of criminal procedure of a Swiss canton. The Rechtsprechung of a national supreme court has, as a result of the possibilities of international reception within the scope of comparative law, a different meaning from that of lower authorities. A scholarly paper with an international or comparative law perspective is not oriented toward the same target group nor with the same pretenses as a more practice oriented essay about procedural niceties of a specific national law. Moreover, it appears to me, the “whether” and “how” of an international standardization of the legal citation passes over the true problem. A formal standardization of the legal citation is not the important issue; rather, it is an increase in the mutual understandability of legal materials. Legal citations should be able to be understood as precisely and quickly as possible.

“Blanket amnesties” have generally been declared to be incompatible with international law due to the fact that they shield perpetrators of serious crimes from accountability as well as conflict with established principles regarding the applicability of statutory limitations to certain criminal offenses. The repeal of the Full Stop and Due Obedience laws in Argentina set a crucial precedent in the process toward the abrogation of legislation leading to impunity for those responsible for grave violations of jus cogens. Additionally, permitting the prosecutions of Nazi officers Klaus Barbie and Erich Priebke in Europe confirmed the customary principle of the non-applicability of statutory limitations to crimes against humanity. However, for nearly 40 years, Spain's amnesty legislation continues to preclude any investigation or prosecution of the crimes committed during the civil war (1936–1939) and the Francoist regime (1939–1975). Spain's 1977 Amnesty Act has been widely characterized as a blanket amnesty and remains in force today despite allegations of noncompliance with international law and numerous requests from United Nations bodies to repeal it. This article explores the history of Spain's 1977 Amnesty Act, compares and contrasts it with other nations with similar amnesties, and makes the case that a successful transition from an authoritarian regime to a peaceful democracy is feasible without the use of overly broad “blanket” amnesties.

Catalogues are the essential element of every library. The following description of the main features of the documentation system maintained by the Library of the German Bundestag and of the most important principles of its catalogues will, more than anything else, show that they differ considerably from the forms of library documentation generally known in Germany. Though it would be particularly interesting to do so here, limitations of space unfortunately prevent a theoretical discussion of cataloguing principles in any detail. However, at this point it is important to stress that in view of the manifold requirements to be met by a modern library documentation and information system, the catalogues and documentation system of the Bundestag Library have proved themselves quite valuable.

Data protection and information privacy are essential parts of lex informatica. The purpose of legal rules is to sustain a modern development and adjustment of the fundamental right to privacy, taking the realities of the information society into consideration. The aim is to protect the individual against misuse of personal information that may violate the private sphere and simultaneously to protect against surveillance with the purpose of governing behavior. Privacy protection is furthermore important, since personal information, which always has had economic value to a much larger degree, has become a commodity today. There are many reasons sustaining data protection, and legal regulation is very broad covering all parts of society. Merely a fragment of this issue is being considered in the following.

This paper provides an overview of the Catalan law at the European context. How the Catalan institutions can tackle on the Spanish Government policies and decisions in front of the European Union. And how the European Union Law and policies are implemented in a decentralized country such Spain where Autonomous Communities have their own Governments and Parliaments. There will also be examined how this Spanish territorial decentralized structure affect the implementation of such EU norms and its control. Finally, there will be exposed how Catalan institutions manage to participate in front of the European Union institutions. Which are the instruments that can guarantee this participation and which are the EU responses to them.

South Africa is widely admired for its peaceful transition from a period of discrimination and oppression to a legitimate functioning democracy in which human rights are recognized and protected by the Constitution and the courts. Nevertheless, it is still a country traumatized by its recent past. There is a great need for building and strengthening processes of development, reparation, reconciliation and the healing of painful memories. The country has just celebrated National Heritage Day, and these memorial occasions are important in reminding us all of how far we have come, and the people and events which brought us to this point.

The first model is described as the practicing legal profession's House of Intellect. It provides, like a medical school attached to a teaching hospital, not only “basic education and training, but also specialist training, continuing education, basic and applied research and high level consultancy and information services.” Twining comments with an understatement: “In no modern Western country has this model been realised in law.”

Academic legal literature in the USA is punctuated at regular intervals by discussions of the quality of legal research and writing tuition in the law schools. None of these discussions makes question of the place of such courses within the curriculum. The debate centers upon what should be taught, when, and by whom, and how effective such teaching may be. My first contact with such courses came during a period of work in the USA and when, on my return to the UK, I was required to set up a course in legal information studies, I turned to the UK literature for material on teaching legal research. The result of my search was a complete blank. Indeed, it is difficult to find discussion of any kind on such topics as curriculum planning and the interrelation of legal subjects in teaching programs. The structure of legal education in the UK has been the subject of government reports, but in the main these deal with mechanical and financial aspects—what the apprentice lawyer should learn—and how his professional ability may be enhanced by his education is barely touched upon. There is certainly nothing in the UK literature since the turn of the century on the methods of teaching legal research, nor any debate upon the desirability of teaching such a subject. Basic textbooks on legal bibliography exist, most of which offer guidance, at various levels of sophistication, as to how the novice may handle the literature of law, but it is apparent on examination that none of these are teaching texts, evolved and tested during the repetition of a course of instruction, as are many US texts. We possess nothing in print that might be compared with Price and Bitner's Effective Legal Research (to name just one such book), with its guidance on search strategies and evaluation of sources and facts. I decided to do some basic research and ask all the UK institutions teaching law courses leading to eventual professional qualification what, if anything, they offered by way of instruction in legal research techniques.

The presentation delivered in Oxford during IALL's 35th Annual Course on Law and Legal Information offered my perspective on Open Access to legal information within the context of Access to Justice in Canada. Please find below an overview of my presentation.

My purpose is to provide a survey indicating some of the differences within the common law between one country and another. I must immediately make clear that there is at least one person, perhaps several, in this room (including the other speakers) who know very much more about any one of the topics I shall consider than I claim to do. I hope that they will excuse me for any inaccuracies or lapses of understanding in their own areas: my only purpose is to make general observations on the diversities between common law countries as I see them.

I am now going to transfer you rapidly from the global information service to a locally targeted and focused legal information service designed to meet the particular needs of a small jurisdiction like Northern Ireland.

SLS Legal Publications was established in 1980 as a unique and profoundly innovative experiment in Northern Ireland (N.I.). Its continued existence 20 years later is testament to the fact that it has not only become a success story but is now an integral part of the legal system in Northern Ireland. SLS Legal Publications is a legal publishing and training company based within the Queen's University of Belfast (QUB) and sponsored by the NICS, the Law Society of N.I. and the Bar Council of N.I. QUB's sponsorship takes the form of the provision of accommodation and accounting services. The purpose of SLS is to provide a legal information service in various ways to the Northern Ireland legal profession and the wider community and I will expand on those various ways later in this talk.