Demystifying the language of the courtroom

The January 22nd episode of Radio 4 programme Word of Mouth focused on the language of the courtroom and ways of demystifying family justice. Lucy Reed, who chairs The Transparency Project was the main contributor. Worth a listen if you have half an hour to spare.

Legislation relating to Brexit on Westlaw

There is no escaping Brexit, even within Westlaw! There is now a section of draft statutory instruments (SIs) that relate to the leaving of the EU. This can be found under the Browse section of the legislation content screen:

There are quite a lot of them:

There is also a section headed 'Retained EU Legislation' which has selected EU documents appearing in a new format, and aims to preserve a snapshot of current EU legislation. Documents display as currently in force, with amendments pending (the exclamation mark).

Equality & Human Rights Commission Research Database

The following information came through to me, and I thought that it was worth sharing for those of you with an interest in the work of the EHRC.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) maintains a research database. Four times a year, in March, June, September and December, newsletters are emailed to database members. These provide information about our most recent research and inquiry reports across the protected characteristics and human rights. Our most recent newsletter, for example, included descriptions of new research reports on the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), measuring ethnicity and disability pay gaps and access to justice. It also included information about new EHRC corporate documents and guidance and policy briefings. Each newsletter lists our ongoing research projects and provides details of all our research publications since the establishment of the EHRC in 2007. It also includes a new or revised reading list (or occasionally more than one reading list) on a particular issue or protected characteristic; recent topics have included equal pay and pay gaps, flexible working, housing, the PSED, sex discrimination, sexual orientation and welfare reform.

 

If you would like to be added to the research database to receive the newsletters, please contact David Sparrow, the EHRC’s Librarian, at library@equalityhumanrights.com.

Lex Chat - podcast from Lexis

Launched in August 2018, the Lex Chat podcast seeks to look at topics that affect legal professionals and their clients. It's also worth a listen if you're studying law. 
Episodes vary in length from 15 to 40 minutes. So far topics covered include:

• The Gender Pay Gap
• Fake News
• Smart Contracts and Block Chain
• The Gig Economy
• Autonomous Vehicles and the Law

Lex Chat is available via Spotify, Google Play, iTunes and Lexis' Future of Law blog.

Institute of Advanced Legal Studies PhD training

The training days below may be of interest if you're a PhD student within the Law Department. Student cost is £75 per day.

The How to Get a PhD in Law training days are back for 2018/19 with three days now available to book. MPhil and PhD students in law registered at universities across the UK are invited to attend.

Day One: The PhD in Law and Research Methods Saturday 24th November 2018 Book: http://ials.sas.ac.uk/events/event/16866

Day Two: The PhD journey: Supervision, research ethics and preparing yourself for upgrade and vivas Thursday 28th February 2019 Book: https://ials.sas.ac.uk/events/event/16868

Day Three: Researching, disseminating and publishing in the digital world Friday 10th May 2019 Book: https://ials.sas.ac.uk/events/event/16869

Institute of Advanced Legal Studies library - temporary closure and information about new library cards

The latest news bulletin from the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies includes the following information:

Library closure for annual stock moving and refurbishment

The Library will close to readers at 5:00pm on Friday 14th September 2018 for essential annual stock moving and refurbishment work and will re-open at 9:00am on Monday 1st October 2018.

Readers will still be able to access online resources, including thousands of e-books, using the Library Catalogue and the Electronic Law Library.

Apply for a new library card

As of next term there will be new library cards for students and academic members of IALS Library. If your status as a student or academic has not changed then you can reapply for a new card, either in person or electronically, from 1st October. University of London academic staff will be sent their new card automatically. To find out more about access see http://ials.sas.ac.uk/library/joining-library/access-academic-users. If in doubt, please email our admissions team who will be happy to advise you: ials.libadmin@sas.ac.uk.

Two new ejournal subscriptions

The Law School has recently subscribed to two new ejournals, Critical Policy Studies and Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies.

Critical Policy Studies: 

"brings contemporary theoretical and methodological discussions, both normative and empirical, to bear on the understanding and analysis of public policy, at local, national and global levels."

Safundi: 

is a peer-reviewed quarterly academic journal that publishes analyses of the United States and South Africa from a transnational and/or comparative perspective, seeking to understand each country in relation to the other.  

Both can be accessed in the usual way, via the ejournals and ebook search on the front page of the library website.