Maternity leave

If you're a Birkbeck student, then this is a quick post to let you know that today is my last day at work before heading off on maternity leave. My maternity cover, Bob Burns will start in post on Tuesday 6th March and his contact details will be added to the 'Contact Us' page of the library web site shortly. 

If you have any law related enquiries in the next few weeks, then please contact the Library Help Desk in the first instance (library-help@bbk.ac.uk / 020 7631 6063). 

Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations - improved and updated

The Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations is always my first port of call if I come across an unfamiliar abbreviation and need to know what it stands for.
Today sees a few changes to the Index. The interface has been updated, and in my opinion improved. The site also now works well with mobile devices, so you can find out crucial source information wherever you are.

Society for Computers and Law web site

Staff and students at UK academic institutions now have access to all content on the Society for Computers and Law web site. As well as containing a large archive of articles relating to IT law, two or three articles are added to the site every week. Recent articles have included those focussing on The Police and Criminal Justice Data Protection Directive and whether the Digital Economy Act 2010 has a future.
The site also contains an informative news section and topical blog posts.

To gain access to all site content, you need click on the 'Not logged on - click here to log on' link on the left hand side of the site's home page. You then need to select the 'UK academic user' link and follow the on screen instructions.
Please note that you will need to have set the Institutional Athens Cookie on your computer to take advantage of this.

Latest additions to Oxford Scholarship Online

A number of ebooks have been added to Oxford Scholarship Online. All titles can be found via the library catalogue, or you can go directly to OSO. There are now nearly 500 law titles available through this provider, so it is worth searching by keyword within the Oxford web site, especially if you are studying Constitutional Law, Human Rights, Legal Philosophy or Public International Law.

Recently added titles are as follows: 

* God and moral law: on the theistic explanation of morality / Mark C. Murphy.
*The access of individuals to international justice / Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade.
*The foundations of European Union competition law: the objective and principles of Article 102 / by Renato Nazzini.
* Administrative law and policy of the European Union / Herwig C.H. Hofmann, Gerard C. Rowe, Alexander H. Türk.
* The legal construction of personal work relations / Mark Freedland and Nicola Kountouris.
* Lords of the land: indigenous property rights and the jurisprudence of empire / Mark Hickford.
* The ends of harm: the moral foundations of criminal law / Victor Tadros. 
* World trade law after neoliberalism: re-imagining the global economic order / Andrew Lang. 
* The right to health in international law / John Tobin. 
* International harmonization of economic regulation  / Junji Nakagawa ; translated by Jonathan Bloch and Tara Cannon.
* The emergence of EU contract law : exploring Europeanization / by Lucinda Miller.
* International law and domestic legal systems: incorporation, transformation and persuasion / edited by Dinah Shelton.
* Reflections on The concept of law / A.W. Brian Simpson.
* Testamentary formalities  / edited by Kenneth G.C. Reid, Marius J. de Waal and Reinhard Zimmermann.
* Aboriginal title: the modern jurisprudence of tribal land rights / by P.G. McHugh.
* EU foreign investment law / Angelos Dimopoulos.
* Sovereignty's promise: the state as fiduciary / Evan Fox-Decent.
* The ethics of capital punishment: a philosophical investigation of evil and its consequences / Matthew H. Kramer.
* The ethics of plea bargaining / by Richard L. Lippke.
* Formalism and the sources of international law: a theory of the ascertainment of legal rules / Jean d'Aspremont.
* Securing human rights?: achievements and challenges of the UN Security Council / [edited by] Bardo Fassbender.
* The structures of criminal law / [edited by] R.A. Duff ... [et al.].
* Law's relations: a relational theory of self, autonomy, and law / Jennifer Nedelsky.
* Sovereign equality and moral disagreement: premises of a pluralist international legal order / Brad R. Roth.
* Humanity's law / Ruti Teitel.
* Well-being and fair distribution: beyond cost-benefit analysis / Matthew D. Adler.
* On the frontlines: gender, war, and the post-conflict process / Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, Dina Francesca Haynes, Naomi Cahn.
* Federalism and the tug of war within / Erin Ryan.
* A doubtful and perilous experiment: advisory opinions, state constitutions, and judicial supremacy / Mel A. Topf.
* Comparative law as transnational law: a decade of the German law journal / [edited by] Russell A. Miller, Peer C. Zumbansen.
* The responsibility to protect: the promise of stopping mass atrocities in our time / edited by Jared Genser    
* Retributivism has a past: has it a future? / edited by Michael Tonry.
* The end of negotiable instruments: bringing payments systems law out of the past / James Steven Rogers.
* Native claims: indigenous law against empire, 1500-1920 / edited by Saliha Belmessous.

Changes within the library building

A rather mundane topic - and definitely not 'Strictly Legal'. However, for those of you fed up with having to leave the library to answer the call of nature, you'll be pleased to learn that there are now toilets accessible from within the library. 

These are on the first floor, and are located through the door opposite the library seminar room / next to the photocopiers.

Lecture at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies - Tuesday 17th February

I've just received notification of the following - given the timing many of you will be unable to attend, but I thought that it was worth flagging up.

Free Access to Legal Information: Roles in the expansion of liberty, the rule of law and democracy
PROFESSOR GRAHAM GREENLEAF AM, Professor of Law & Information Systems, University of New South Wales (UNSW); Co-Director, Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII); Founding Director, Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre, UNSW (2000-10); Asia-Pacific Editor, Privacy Laws & Business International Report (PLBIR).

Chair: Jules Winterton, Associate Director and Librarian, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.

Tuesday  17 January 2012, 6pm - 7pm
Venue: Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, 17 Russell Square, London WC1B 5DR
Website:  www.sas.ac.uk/events/view/10933 
If you wish to attend, please reply to: IALS.Events@sas.ac.uk 
ADMISSION FREE - ALL WELCOME

Synopsis:
After nearly twenty years of development, free online access to legal information is approaching maturity in some parts of the world, but is in its infancy in others. We can answer some practical questions: 'what is the geographical scope of its advance?'; 'what types of institutions have been the main contributors to its provision?'; and perhaps even 'what are the main conditions for its success and sustainability?' But deeper questions need answers too. What should 'free access' mean in relation to legal information in order to be fully effective?: free as in beer, or free as in speech?  Perhaps we must first work out what is the significance of free access to legal information to values such as liberty, the rule of law, and democracy. But are the answers to these questions everywhere the same? This paper will start at the shallow end of the pool and progress to the deep.

My Westlaw guide

Following on from my post of 29th November about the introduction of the My Westlaw feature on Westlaw UK, I've produced a brief guide on how to set up your personal account and add content to folders / set up email alerts.

A link to the guide can be found at the bottom of the Westlaw UK database page on the library web site.