In the actual multilingual and multicultural environment there is a significant need, in the academic world, in the legal profession, in business settings as well as in the context of public administration services to citizens, of common understanding and exchange of legal concepts of the various legal systems. At the same time, there is a strong pressure for the preservation of their basic sense and value. Both requirements are quite difficult to meet, and they are complicated by the complexity of legal language and by the variety of modalities used to express law within the various legal systems. Unlike a number of technical and scientific disciplines where a fair correspondence exists between concepts across languages, serious difficulties arise in interpreting law across countries and languages. This is largely due to the system-bound nature of legal terminology. This paper focuses on cross-language retrieval systems’ ability to facilitate access to legal information across different languages and legal orders. As such, issues are addressed relating to linguistics and translation theory, comparative law, theory of law, as well as natural language processing techniques, while some recommendations are provided with the aim to contribute to cross-language retrieval of law.

Since 2000, the Overseas Young Chinese Forum (OYCF) has awarded fellowships to American scholars, professionals, and doctoral students to teach short courses (three to eight weeks) in various fields, including law, at mainland Chinese universities. The award amounts range from $2,000 to $2,250 each and are meant to help pay travel, housing, and food costs. Fourteen awards were announced in mid-September 2008 for the 2008–09 academic year. I was lucky enough to win one: specifically, an OYCF-Gregory C. and Paula K. Chow Fellowship. I was to teach a seven-week, one-credit, upper-level elective course I proposed at Touro in spring 2007 and taught there in spring 2008 and 2009. From mid-May to early June 2009 I would be teaching foreign and international legal research at Wuhan University (Wuda) in central China.

The recent transformation of legal information has led to more drastic consequences in law than in some other fields. As electronic resources become more prevalent and available, courts begin citing to them. The emerging digital-born information and the new network models of communication such as Law Blogs and Wikipedia have already acquired a certain status, being cited by court decisions. For example, the U.S. Supreme Court recently cited a videotape in its decision of Scott v. Harris (2007), saying “it speaks for itself,” and included it in the opinion as an attachment.

Unfortunately, like many other government entities, the courts have not taken precautions to make sure that the materials they cite remain stable and available to the public for long term access. This is so, even though “no one is supposed to ignore the law.” What happens when the materials one relies on disappear?

This paper examines the serious implications that could arise from this situation. It will also examine the challenges, new roles and possible course of action for law libraries and librarians in ensuring the availability of digital objects in the legal field far in the future.

Dutch law faculties usually change their curriculum due to pressure from external factors, such as inspection reports, accreditation procedures or educational innovations dictated by general university policy. Course subjects are changed each semester or academic year to bring them more into line with each other. Sometimes there are substantive reasons for change, such as the imposition of an international perspective. Courses are seldom altered in response to internal curricular pressure, as this leads to tension in personal relationships.

Among Asian Nations, India has become a major political, cultural and business hub. This situation has contributed to frequent interaction of foreign governments, foreign nationals and businesspersons with India and Indians. In order to make them aware of the Indian Legal System and Literatures - so that they act within scope of the system – I present here a brief article giving an introduction to Indian legal literature and legal sources.

Two earlier resources for Indian legal materials include:

1. A Bibliography of Indian Law, edited by Charles Henry Alexandrowicz, (Oxford University Press, 1958), and

2. Indian Legal Materials: A Bibliographic Guide, by H.C. Jain, (N.M. Tripathi, Bombay, 1970).

The internet has emerged as a reservoir of information and has pushed the world to evolve into a global village. Increased communication across political, social and economic barriers has created a virtual society of its own. This networked society poses considerable challenges for Internet Governance. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the institution responsible for the internet management. ICANN has been at the center of the debates over global governance of the internet. Key concerns raised in these debates involve the legitimacy of institutions as well as the participation of developed and developing nations in Internet governance.

The general frameworks within which human rights are protected in Nigeria are enshrined in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Chapter IV contains an elaborate Bill of Rights. The right guaranteed include: the rights to life, the rights to personal liberty, the rights to fair hearing and the right to freedom of movement among others. Section 42 prohibits unjustifiable discrimination on basis of “ethnic group, place of origin, sex, religion or political opinion.” As for penal infractions, Nigeria has two separate codes, one applying to Southern Nigeria (Criminal Code) and one applicable to Northern Nigeria (Penal Code). These provide for offences against persons, including homicides, assaults and different kinds of sexual and gender specific violations such as rape.