Sunday, July 16, 9:15 a.m.
Kathie Price, coordinator
New York University Law Library
Building the global electronic law library will require massive resources and cooperation to digitize current collections. Speakers in this program--Win Shin Chiang (Research Libraries Group), Nick Finke (University of Cincinnati Law Library), and Marybeth Peters (Register of Copyrights, Library of Congress)--will discuss the creation of inter-institutional collection development and sharing partnerships, technological requirements, and intellectual property mechanisms required to encourage collection sharing. They will also evaluate the potential of government, NGOs, and individual institutions to coordinate these efforts and survey current projects in the non-commercial sector.
Sunday, July 16, 2:45 p.m.
Marci Hoffman, coordinator
University of Minnesota Law Library
Electronic technologies are being utilized by courts worldwide to increase the availability of legal information. This trend is evident in the way national and supranational courts are disseminating, using, and accessing information through the Internet, electronic bulletin boards, databases, CD-ROMs, and other methods. "International Justice: How Courts Worldwide Disseminate Information," sponsored by the FCIL SIS, will explore the ways in which courts are making information available to the legal community and to the public in Germany, the European Union, and the United States. The speakers are Renate Weidinger from the University of Konstanz in Germany (well-known to those of you on INT-LAW and EURO-LEX) and Michael Greenwood from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. The speakers will address 1) the kinds of information delivered (opinions and decisions, filing information, court rules, etc.); 2) the ways in which information is disseminated, accessed, and used; 3) the innovative approaches being implemented by each court; 4) the reasons for selecting these approaches; and 5) the problems encountered, such as linguistic and technological constraints. Mr. Greenwood will discuss how these issues are confronted and handled in U.S. federal courts. Ms. Weidinger will address these issues as they relate to what is going on in German and European Union courts. Time will be allotted for questions. Please plan on attending this program and supporting the SIS and our guest speakers.
Monday, July 17, 8:30 a.m.
Claire Germain, coordinator
Cornell Law Library
How the global world economy is changing the legal profession, both abroad and in the United States, and the role librarians should play in the development of a worldwide legal profession are topics to be discussed by John Berger of Kluwer Law International, Raul Valdes-Fauli, lawyer and mayor of Coral Gables, Florida, and Renate Weidinger, law librarian at the University of Konstanz, Germany. Guiding principles will be set out, as well as current efforts, successes, and projects to provide access to worldwide legal information sources in print and electronic formats, to provide the needed foreign and international research skills to librarians, and to educate and prepare law students, lawyers, judges, and other legal researchers for a global law practice.
Monday, July 17, 1:45-3:15 p.m.
Lyonette Louis-Jacques, coordinator
University of Chicago Law Library
Information policies and practices in the United States and abroad can have a direct impact on the American legal researcher. This program will examine electronic "information superhighway" proposals in the U.S., the European Union, Canada, Japan, etc., and discuss the ways in which these proposals and established infrastructures might facilitate or hinder access to legal information in electronic format. Obstacles to achieving universal connectivity, impediments to accessing needed information, and issues of censorship, privacy, security, and copyright will be discussed.
What are governments worldwide doing to get everyone connected to the nets? What obstacles exist to achieving universal connectivity--costs, language differences, lack of equipment? And once you're on the road, what are some possible obstacles or impediments to getting to the information resource you want-- inability to send or read non-ASCII texts easily (for example, texts in foreign languages); inability to decode encoded messages or to understand systems or libraries you come across because of lack of uniform interfaces, awkward interfaces, or language limitations; limits in times of operation and number of users; charges for accessing the information; legal restrictions such as encryption and publication bans that might curtail or chill cross-border communications and exchange of legal information via the Internet; fears of breaches of privacy, security, and copyright; or criminal abuses?
In sum, the program will describe what kinds of access to the Internet and other electronic networks people worldwide have (which countries are represented on the nets, which aren't, why they aren't, and what initiatives exist to get them on), how access abroad compares to that in the U.S. in terms of costs and the types of information available, and some factors to consider in making sure that the highway to sources of legal information on the nets is clear of speed bumps, traffic jams, and dangerous curves.
The speakers, Bruce McConnell from the U.S. government and Chris Mellor from Commerce Clearing House, will cover government and industry viewpoints on the issues. How local laws, conditions, standards, language skills, etc., can have an impact on ease of access to legal information in electronic format will be covered, followed by questions and comments from the audience.
Tuesday, July 18, 10:15 a.m.
Dan Wade, coordinator
Yale Law School Library
Mon Yin Lung, coordinator
University of Kansas Law Library
Intended as a sequel to the 1994 program in Japanese legal history, this program was originally conceived as a way for Bob Berring to share his course in Chinese law at Berkeley with law librarians, and his presentation with its focus on Chinese legal history will be the main stage. In addition, Paul Fu, Supreme Court of Ohio Law Library, will discuss the current Chinese legal system, basing his remarks on discussions with Chinese Ministry of Justice officials, judges, lawyers, and law professors, some of whom he met personally in 1987 as a member of the U.S. People to People Law Librarians delegation to China. Dorothy Li, John Marshall Law School, will end the program with a brief discussion of her bibliography of written and electronic sources, emphasizing China's trade laws. Mon Yin Lung, who will moderate the meeting, will also provide a list of internet sites for Chinese law.
This program should be appreciated by all those who enjoy Bob Berring and/or have an interest in China. We hope that many of those who attend the program will be able to join us for a gourmet Chinese dinner in the evening.
Wednesday, July 18, 8:30 and 10:15 a.m.
Mark Bernstein, coordinator
Duke Law School Library
Jay Shuman, coordinator
New York University Law Library
The first session of this program on Jewish and Islamic law will provide a survey of comparative law, including a summary of religious legal systems. Experts on Talmudic and Islamic law will provide overviews of these systems. The second session will feature a dialog between specialists in Islamic and Talmudic law. Hypotheticals focusing on specific areas of law will be used to compare and contrast the two legal systems. The program will conclude with a presentation on resources available in Talmudic and Islamic law. Bibliographies will be available for those attending the program.
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