Welcome (back)

A warm welcome to new students studying here at Birkbeck, and a welcome back to returning students.

For new students we're offering introductory tours of the library until Saturday 21st October. These will run at 5.30pm from Monday - Friday, and at 1.15pm on Saturdays. There's no need to book, just come along to the date and time that suits you. Tours will last 20 minutes, giving you time to make it to lectures by 6pm.

We've been busy over the summer, and the 4th floor of the library now provides an additional 60 seats for those seeking a silent study environment (see below). 

For those of you who prefer to work in groups, or with some background noise, our popular group study room remains available on the 1st floor of the library. 

We look forward to answering any library-related questions you may have, and can be contacted via phone, online form, and Chat - as well as face-to-face. We're now staffed throughout our term time opening hours. 

Employment Tribunal decisions now available online

Earlier this year, Employment Tribunal decisions were put online for the first time. Before this, to read a judgment you had to apply in writing to the Tribunals Service in Bury St Edmunds and enclose £10 to cover costs!

Selected decisions from before 2017 are available, though it's not clear if and when more decisions will be added retrospectively. Although ET decisions are not binding on subsequent cases they give an interesting insight into how tribunals deal with legal issues and often provide a detailed account of the facts of the case. 

Interesting both for those studying employment law, and for employees/employers everywhere!

The EU (Withdrawal) Bill - what it says and the issues it raises

I've previously posted about Mark Elliott's Public Law for Everyone blog and having just read his 1000 words entry on the EU (Withdrawal) Bill thought that it was worth linking through to this particular post. As a non-lawyer I found it easy to understand. The author has also put together a more in-depth analysis of the Bill which is also written in an accessible way (but required me to concentrate a bit more!). Highly recommended for anyone who wants to find out more about exactly what is going on. 

Celebrating the Centenary of Women Lawyers - an exhibition at Lincoln's Inn

This exhibition is hosted by Lincoln's Inn in partnership with First 100 Years and is running because 2019 will mark 100 years since the passing of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act which removed any legal barrier to women working as lawyers on the grounds of their sex. 
To mark the exhibition's launch on Wednesday 19th July there will be a drinks reception at Lincoln's Inn. Tickets are free, but registration is required.

Woman's Hour series on women's lives after leaving prison

Recently Woman's Hour broadcast a series in which Milly Chowles interviewed women at different stages of their lives after leaving prison.

The interviews are each around 10 minutes long and give an interesting insight into the challenges of life after release.

14th June: Sarah 
16th June: Pat 
20th June: Yvonne  
21st June: Roberta 

Also of interest:
19th June: Jenny Earle from the Prison Reform Trust talking about the increase in the number of women in prison. 
23rd June: Rhona Hotchkiss, Governor of HMP Cornton Vale 

Birkbeck staff and students can access the content via Box of Broadcasts National

Once logged in, search for the public playlist Leaving Prison:

The relevant Woman's Hour episodes are listed, with the starting point of each interview highlighted in the playlist description:

Regulatory & Guidance materials on Westlaw UK

Accessible via the Legislation or Current Awareness tabs, Regulatory and Guidance materials on Westlaw UK provide additional information on how the law is implemented or interpreted in practice. 
The materials include Practice Directions, Guidance Notes (from 1995), Command Papers and Consultation Papers. 
It's possible to browse by document type or source, or to search on a particular subject. Try it out next time you're in Westlaw. 

LawPORT: open-access training resources from IALS Library

Launched today, LawPORT (Law Postgraduate Online Research Training) is a collection of free-to-use online training resources designed to improve the information literacy skills of law PhD students. The tutorials have been created by the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies Library to support researchers across the UK with public international law research and the use of OSCOLA.

Although targeted at PhD students, these online tutorials are likely to be useful to students studying at all levels - particularly the one on OSCOLA.

The three training resources are:

•   Citing references using OSCOLA

•   Researching customary international law

•   Treaties and international conventions