Has Canada Become The New Constitutional Law Superpower?

A New York Times article entitled ‘We the People’ Loses Appeal With People Around the World outlines the diminishing international infuence of the United States Constitution.

The article in yesterday's edition points to an article in the New York University Law Review that shows that the U.S. Constitution is no longer seen as a model for constitutional drafters elsewhere, as once was the case.

Who has become more influential as a source of inspiration? According to former Israeli Supreme Court president Aharon Barak, cited by the New York Times, Canada:

" 'Canadian law,' he wrote, 'serves as a source of inspiration for many countries around the world.' The new study [in the New York University Law Review] also suggests that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, adopted in 1982, may now be more influential than its American counterpart. "

UK Supreme Court on Twitter

The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, that country's highest court, has begun tweeting. It will tweet about judgments and other selected news.

It inaugurated its Twitter account by providing live coverage of the swearing-in of a new justice.

Tweeting has been allowed from its courtrooms since February 2011. The Court itself now joins the Twitterati.

Background:

• Supreme Court to tweet proceedings (The Telegraph)
• Britain’s Highest Court to take up posting realtime news on its latest judgments on Twitter (Washington Post)
• Assange fate could be revealed on Twitter (Sydney Morning Herald)
• UK Supreme Court to take up tweeting (CBS)

Seeking Nominations for the 2012 Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing

Nominations are open for the 2012 Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing.

Every year, the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) honours a publisher (whether for-profit or not-for profit, corporate or non-corporate) that has demonstrated excellence by publishing a work, series or e-product that makes a significant contribution to legal research and scholarship.

Nominations should address the following criteria:

• excellence and innovation
• quality of editing, including features which enhance useability (table of contents, indices, searchability)
• significant contribution to a body of legal literature
• fills a gap in the literature
  

The deadline for nominations is March 23, 2012. The award will be presented to the recipient at a reception during the 2012 CALL Annual Meeting in Toronto in May.

CanLII Strategic Priorities 2012-2014

CanLII, the Canadian Legal Information Institute, has published a document on its strategic priorities for 2012-2014.

CanLII, whose funding comes from members of Canada’s provincial and territorial law societies, makes Canadian jurisprudence and statutes available for free via the Internet.

Its strategic priorities are:

1. Secure permanent role as foremost source of free law in Canada
2. Continually enrich content to meet needs of public and professional users
3. Deliver easy to use professional grade tools and a compelling site experience
4. Continuously promote and defend free access to law

Among future plans, CanLII mentions:

"When it comes to accessing content on or through the CanLII site, CanLII will strive to expand its users’ access to high value legal materials. This may involve incorporating secondary sources into CanLII, but it could also occur through facilitating searches of materials hosted elsewhere as CanLII’s interests go beyond growing its own site and extend to pursuing partnerships that advance the goals of other leading legal information providers. Potential partners include not-for-proft as well as for-proft institutions with an interest in expanding the free availability of their legal materials."

"CanLII will also seek out opportunities to improve understanding. For example, working with educational and other organizations, CanLII will explore opportunities to develop specialized services such as topic compilations and open access casebooks, and other professional user-generated content."

Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

The list of new library titles added to the Supreme Court of Canada collection for the period of January 16-31, 2012 is now available on the Court website.

The web page explains: "The Supreme Court of Canada Library does not lend materials from this list, which is provided for information only."

But, once the material goes into the general collection, after about a month, the works do become available for inter-library loan to authorized libraries.

It is possible to subscribe via e-mail to receive the list.

Canadian Association of Law Libraries 2012 Conference Details Now Available

Information about the 2012 conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries is now online.

The conference takes place in Toronto from May 6 to May 9, 2012 at the the historic Fairmont Royal York.

The website includes details about the conference program, travel, accommodation, and social events.

European Court of Human Rights 2011 Annual Report

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) based in Strasbourg has released its annual report for 2011. There are also some interesting statistical tables that come with the document.

Among the highlights:

• In 2011, more than a third of the judgments delivered by the Court concerned four of the Council of Europe’s forty-seven member States: Turkey (174), Russia (133), Ukraine (105) and Greece (73). In 2011, the Court delivered 1,157 judgments
  
• Since the reform of the Convention system on 1 November 1998, there has been a considerable increase in the Court’s caseload. Barely ten years after the reform, the Court delivered its 10,000th judgment. Its output is such that more than 91% of the Court’s judgments since its creation in 1959 have been delivered between 1998 and 2011
• More than a third of the judgments in which the Court found a violation included a violation of Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights, whether on account of the fairness or the length of the proceedings. 15% of violations found by the Court concern Article 3 (Prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment). Lastly, more than 23% of violations found by the Court concern the right to life or the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment (Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention)

The ECHR hears complaints from individuals living in any of the member states of the Council of Europe about violations of the European Convention of Human Rights. The Council of Europe is one of the continent's oldest political organizations, founded in 1949. It has 47 member countries.