Georgetown University Law School Report on US State Laws Barring Private Paramilitary Groups

Georgetown University’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP) has produced a report outlining the constitutional and statutory provisions in each of the 50 American states relevant to paramilitary and private militia activity at political rallies.

Given the increased appearance of members of such armed extreme right movements on American streets to intimidate anti-racism protestors, and given the apparent encouragement of such groups by US President Trump in last night's presidential election debate when he called on the violent hate group Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by", remarks widely condemned as being supportive of the far right, the report is very valuable and disturbing:

"ICAP has categorized the relevant state laws into four groups: (1) constitutional provisions requiring the subordination of the military to civilian authorities; (2) statutes restricting unauthorized private militia activity; (3) anti-paramilitary-activity criminal laws; and (4) prohibitions on the false assumption of the uniform or duties of a peace officer or member of the military. The report describes these categories in more detail below and notes which states have statutes or constitutional provisions falling into each category. Following that summary is a chart listing each state’s relevant provisions, and finally each constitutional or statutory provision in full, organized by state. The chart also includes annotations of relevant case law."

"In gathering these laws in one place, ICAP hopes to bring to the attention of states and localities a fuller range of tools on which to draw in preparing for and responding to rallies and other public events that raise public safety concerns. This report does not purport to catalog the wide range of additional statutes that may limit, within constitutional bounds, the behavior of those who plan, attend, and protest at rallies and other public events. Nor does the report address statutes that restrict the possession of firearms or limit local regulation of firearms, which also may be relevant to such events. The report ICAP does not guarantee that the constitutional provisions and statutes included in this report exhaust the universe of state law applicable to paramilitary and private militia activity. To ensure accuracy, completeness, and the most up-to-date language, please consult official sources before relying on any of the statutes in this report."

ICAP has also produced fact sheets for all 50 states "explaining the laws barring unauthorized private militia groups and what to do if groups of armed individuals are near a polling place or voter registration drive."

Each fact sheet comes with a table or checklist on how US voters can recognize the presence of armed militias at voting stations. 

The fact that US citizens need to be educated about this is a truly scary situation:

ICAP put together the documentation with the pro bono assistance of law firms Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, Jones Day, and O’Melveny & Myers.

United States Supreme Court Candidate Amy Coney Barrett: Selected Primary Material

 This is a follow-up to the September 27, 2020 blog post entitled Law Library of Congress Bibliography on US Supreme Court Nominee Amy Coney Barrett.

The Congressional Research Service yesterday published Judge Amy Coney Barrett: Selected Primary Material:

"On September 26, 2020, President Donald J. Trump announced the nomination of Judge Amy V. Coney Barrett of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (“Seventh Circuit”) to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court caused by Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death on September 18, 2020."

"This Sidebar contains reference information about Judge Barrett, including a biography; a list of publications she authored or coauthored; legislative documentation related to her previous nominations; lists of her written opinions; a list of Supreme Court briefs to which she contributed; and additional resources."

New Partnership for Shared Book Collections

This is a follow-up to the September 16, 2020 post entitled Final Report on Creation of National Shared Print Network in Canada.

The most recent issue of the journal Journal of Library Administration includes an article on a new North American library partnership that aims to promote shared print monograph collections:

"The Partnership grew out of meetings to address the question of how to develop and sustain an infrastructure that would capitalize on opportunities for collaboration and cooperation across the growing number of shared print initiatives. With financial support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, in April of 2018 the Eastern Academic Scholars’ Trust (EAST) hosted a summit with representatives from over 25 shared print programs in North America as well as leaders in preservation and scholarly communications including OCLC and the Library of Congress. Over a two-day period, the group was invited to envision a robust future for shared print with a focus on scholarly monographs, to commit to join community-based action in support of preserving and protecting the print scholarly record, and ensuring its availability for students, scholars, and researchers."

"The summit resulted in identifying a set of key priorities for shared print’s future as well as the formation of a set of Working Groups to focus on these priorities. Among the priorities was the establishment of a formal enterprise focused on coordinating and directing the efforts of shared print. It was generally agreed that a federated organizational structure would work most effectively and that such an organization should focus on best practices and standards, identify research (particularly in the area of risk) needed for shared print, develop compelling narratives for the stakeholder audiences, and encourage the development of an open data infrastructure in support of shared print."

World Intellectual Property Organization Launches Free Database of IP Decisions from Around the World

 The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has launched  WIPO Lex-Judgments, a free database of leading decisions on intellectual property law from around the world.

As the official press release explained last week:

"WIPO-Lex Judgments contributes to a greater overall understanding of how courts are handling these issues, by making available judgments - selectively curated by the relevant authorities in participating member states - that establish precedent or offer a persuasive interpretation of IP law in their jurisdiction. At launch, WIPO Lex-Judgments contained over 400 documents from 10 countries (...)"

"By fostering accessibility of information on judicial decisions, WIPO Lex-Judgments will contribute to informing and strengthening courts’ analyses and reasoning, as well as to discerning both converging and contrasting national approaches to common IP questions."

"In addition, WIPO Lex-Judgments provides information on the judicial structures for IP disputes in participating member states. This allows users to appreciate the spectrum of structures that include generalist and specialist courts, as well as administrative entities that carry out quasi-judicial functions, and their diverse features that respond to the technical nature of IP disputes."

Law Library of Congress Bibliography on US Supreme Court Nominee Amy Coney Barrett

 The Law Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. has put together a bibliography on Amy Coney Barrett who was nominated to the Supreme Court of the United States on September 26 to take the place of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who died earlier this month of pancreatic cancer at the age of 87

There are sections on:

• articles/book by and about her
• congressional materials about her
• noteworthy recent opinions written by Judge Barrett 

Barrett is currently a judge on the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Supreme Court of Canada Calendar of October 2020 Hearings

The Supreme Court of Canada has published its calendar of upcoming appeals that will be heard in October.

To find out more about any particular case, click on the docket number in parentheses next to each case name to find docket information, case summaries as well as facta from the parties.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg - What Happens Now?

How will Ruth Bader Ginsburg's replacement on the United States Supreme Court be selected?

The Congressional Research Service in Washington, D.C. has published a few reports that explain how the process is supposed to unfold. The Service is an agency located within the Library of Congress that conducts independent expert-level research for congressional committees and Members of the American Congress.

• Supreme Court Appointment Process: President’s Selection of a Nominee (updated September 21, 2020): "Under the Constitution, Justices on the Supreme Court receive what can amount to lifetime appointments which, by constitutional design, helps ensure the Court’s independence from the President and Congress. The procedure for appointing a Justice is provided for by the Constitution in only a few words. The “Appointments Clause” (Article II, Section 2, clause 2) states that the President “shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint … Judges of the supreme Court.” The process of appointing Justices has undergone changes over two centuries, but its most basic feature—the sharing of power between the President and Senate—has remained unchanged: To receive appointment to the Court, a candidate must first be nominated by the President and then confirmed by the Senate. Political considerations typically play an important role in Supreme Court appointments. It is often assumed, for example, that Presidents will be inclined to select a nominee whose political or ideological views appear compatible with their own. The political nature of the appointment process becomes especially apparent when a President submits a nominee with controversial views, there are sharp partisan or ideological differences between the President and the Senate, or the outcome of important constitutional issues before the Court is seen to be at stake…"
• Supreme Court Appointment Process: Consideration by the Senate Judiciary Committee (updated September 22, 2020): "To receive appointment to the Court, a candidate must first be nominated by the President and then confirmed by the Senate. Although not mentioned in the Constitution, an important role is played midway in the process (after the President selects, but before the Senate considers) by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Specifically, the Judiciary Committee, rather than the Senate as a whole, assumes the principal responsibility for investigating the background and qualifications of each Supreme Court nominee, and typically the committee conducts a close, intensive investigation of each nominee. Since the late 1960s, the Judiciary Committee’s consideration of a Supreme Court nominee almost always has consisted of three distinct stages—(1) a pre-hearing investigative stage, followed by (2) public hearings, and concluding with (3) a committee decision on what recommendation to make to the full Senate…"
• Supreme Court Appointment Process: Senate Debate and Confirmation Vote (updated September 7, 2018): "For the President, the appointment of a Supreme Court Justice can be a notable measure by which history will judge his Presidency. For the Senate, a decision to confirm is a solemn matter as well, for it is the Senate alone, through its 'Advice and Consent' function, without any formal involvement of the House of Representatives, which acts as a safeguard on the President’s judgment. This report provides information and analysis related to the final stage of the confirmation process for a nomination to the Supreme Court—the consideration of the nomination by the full Senate, including floor debate and the vote on whether to approve the nomination. Traditionally, the Senate has tended to be less deferential to the President in his choice of Supreme Court Justices than in his appointment of persons to high executive branch positions. The more exacting standard usually applied to Supreme Court nominations reflects the special importance of the Court, coequal to and independent of the presidency and Congress. Senators are also mindful that Justices—unlike persons elected to legislative office or confirmed to executive branch positions—receive the opportunity to serve a lifetime appointment during good behavior. The appointment of a Supreme Court Justice might or might not proceed smoothly. From the appointment of the first Justices in 1789 through its consideration of nominee Neil Gorsuch in 2017, the Senate has confirmed 118 Supreme Court nominations out of 162 received. Of the 44 nominations that were not confirmed, 12 were rejected outright in roll-call votes by the Senate, while nearly all of the rest, in the face of substantial committee or Senate opposition to the nominee or the President, were withdrawn by the President, or were postponed, tabled, or never voted on by the Senate."

The Legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

 Melanie O’Brien, senior lecturer in international law at the University of Western Australia, wrote yesterday about the legacy of United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who passed way last week.

The article, The RBG Legacy: Equality and Inspiration, was published on the blog Opinio Juris:

It is impossible in a blog post to mention all of the cases RBG had an impact on; but there are myriad articles and books written about these. As a lawyer and a Supreme Court Justice, RBG specifically contributed to changing the law for the better. Her actions resulted in the reduction of discrimination on the basis of gender, and other grounds, throughout the United States. Her work affected every woman in the country, expanding their rights to education, to make claims against workplace pay discrimination, to access military benefits, and beyond. Every case that was about one person became so much more. RBG said that there would be enough women on the Supreme Court “when there are nine”, noting that nobody was ever shocked that for most of the Supreme Court’s existence, there have been nine male judges. Her engagement with and use of foreign and international law demonstrate an openness of legal perspective that benefited her work as a professor, lawyer and judge, and confirms that looking beyond one’s borders makes one a better jurist. People around the world admire RBG – themselves practicing this open perspective, to learn from her as a foreign, domestic judge – learning how to be a better professor, lawyer or judge.

Opinio Juris is associated with the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists (ICJ). The ICJ brings together senior judges, lawyers, and legal academics representing the world’s many legal systems to promote and protect the rule of law.

New Document on Competencies for Librarians in Canadian Research Libraries

 The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) has released the final version of Competencies for Librarians in Canadian Research Libraries which is intended "to assist with personal and organizational goal setting while providing a context for recruitment and professional development":

"The competencies may be applied in CARL libraries for strategic planning or restructuring purposes, or in the development of mission and vision statements. Schools of library and information studies may consult them for curriculum development purposes or to prepare graduates for job interviews. Employers may find them useful for recruitment of new librarians, in training and development, and to assist those transitioning into new roles within the research library."

"The Competencies represent a range of knowledge, skills (often cited in the document as 'Knowledge of...' or ‘Ability to…’), and mindsets (often cited in the document as ‘Understanding…’) for librarians in research environments. Librarians will learn and develop their own competencies over a period of time and not all competencies will necessarily apply to every position. Individual libraries may want to place more emphasis on select aspects only, depending on their unique environments, the nature of individual academic or research librarian positions in question, or as levels of specialization in the profession evolve. To build flexibility throughout, CARL has taken an aspirational approach in developing the Competencies document with firm grounding in the fundamental principles of the profession. The aim is to match a set of aspirational values to the knowledge, skills and mindsets that are required for success in academic librarianship in Canada."

Experiences of Discrimination During the COVID-19 Pandemic

 Statistics Canada recently published an article on Experiences of discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic:

"In recent months, the difficulties faced by several groups of Canadians based on their identity (e.g., race or skin colour, Indigenous identity, ethnicity or culture, age, gender, disability) has become an important topic of conversation. The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified pre-existing inequities in Canadian society and has highlighted the need for more granular data about the social impacts of COVID-19."

"In the past months, Statistics Canada has been responding to these needs by publishing disaggregated data and analyses about the issues faced by several groups of Canadians during the current pandemic."

"Most recently, Statistics Canada provided Canadians with an opportunity to share their experiences of discrimination via a new crowdsourcing initiative. Although the results cannot be generalized to the overall population, over one-quarter of participants reported experiencing discrimination or being treated unfairly over the course of the pandemic."

"Results also indicate that several groups of participants, including gender diverse participants, Chinese, Korean, Southeast Asian and Black participants, and Indigenous women were among those who were much more likely to report having experienced discrimination or been treated unfairly during the pandemic. Furthermore, the results suggest that there is a significant association between experiences of discrimination and other key social indicators, such as trust in institutions."

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 1933-2020 - A Selection of Video Interviews and Lectures

The website infoDOCKET has posted a selection of recorded interviews and lectures with Supreme Court of the United States Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who passed away last Friday.

May there be many more to follow in her footsteps.

Managing Interlibrary Loan Returns During COVID-19

 OCLC, an international library services cooperative, runs a number of blogs, one of them called Hanging Together.

Earlier this week, it published an article entitled Managing interlibrary loan returns and overdues during the pandemic: emerging consensus from the SHARES resource sharing consortium:

"After months of working at home, staff are now returning to their libraries, implementing safety protocols, ramping up services, and in some cases welcoming library users back into the building. Physical collections are back in play. One consequence of libraries closing suddenly and staying shut down for several months is that there is now quite a large backlog of interlibrary loan books that were caught in limbo when a state of emergency was declared back in March."

"There are many aspects of this challenge that deserve attention, and more than one way to go about solving the problem of getting tens of thousands of stranded books back to the lending libraries where they belong. SHARES members spent a recent town hall discussing the most constructive point of view to have about the return process in the time of COVID, as both a borrower and a lender, and were able to reach a consensus on the 'best' philosophy for managing overdue notices and recalls during a pandemic — at least the best philosophy for the SHARES consortium. (SHARES is a mix of small, medium and large academic libraries, special libraries focusing on law and art, and one major public library — about 100 libraries in all, at 70+ institutions, spread across 5 countries. What works best for your library or consortium may well differ from SHARES solutions, but we hope the questions we’re asking and approaches we’re taking will contribute to conversations happening across the global resource sharing system.)"

Library Community Submissions to 2021 Pre-Budget Consultations

The website Librarianship.ca has posted an article on Library Community Submissions to 2021 Pre-Budget Consultations.

The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) and the Canadian Urban Libraries Council (CULC) recently submitted their proposals to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance’s Pre-Budget Consultations for the year 2021.

CARL is focusing on closing the gap in broadband connectivity between groups and regions in the country, whereas CULC is putting emphasis on access to e-content for libraries, support for vulnerable populations, support for Canadian publishers and booksellers, as well as better broadband connectivity.

Final Report on Creation of National Shared Print Network in Canada.

A joint working group of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) and Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has released its final report with recommendations on the creation of a collective shared print program across Canadian libraries.

The Canadian Collective Print Strategy Working Group made up of representatives from key academic, public, and government libraries, and from regional consortia makes thirteen recommendations for the successful establishment of a national shared print network in Canada:

Those recommendations include: 

• The formation of a national shared print network that coordinates the activities of existing regional shared print initiatives and provides a path to participation for other interested libraries not yet in a shared print program.
• The network to be governed by a national steering committee with representatives from the regional academic library consortia, existing shared print projects, Library and Archives Canada (LAC), Canadian Urban Libraries Council (CULC), and others.
• The formation of an operations working group with representatives from participating libraries and shared print programs, who bring relevant frontline expertise on collection management, metadata, holdings disclosure, and access.
• The Council of Pacific and Prairie University Libraries (COPPUL) act as the administrative host for the national network.
• An initial three-year commitment in order to allow time to secure further funding through grants and partnerships, to make initial progress, and to review and solidify the network.
• A Year 1 budget of $115,000 with cumulative cost of living increases of 3% in Years 2 and 3.
• Adherence to the current industry best practices for recording and exposing shared print commitments in local library management systems. Recording shared print commitments in the OCLC Shared Print Registry and CRL’s PAPR registry, as appropriate.
• Developing a more complete set of standardized metadata elements for future phases of the national network’s program.

Law Library of Congress Report on Regulation of Wild Animal Wet Markets

 The Law Library of Congress has published a comparative law report on the Regulation of the Sale of Wild Animals and Their Meat in Markets:

This report, prepared by staff at the Law Library of Congress, examines the regulation of 'wet markets' at which wild animals, or the meat of such animals, can be purchased for human consumption. It covers 28 jurisdictions around the world, with a particular focus on sanitary requirements for such markets and the legality or otherwise of trading in wild animals or wild meat (also referred to as 'bushmeat'). The term 'wet market' can be taken to generally refer to 'a partially open commercial complex with vending stalls organized in rows; they often have slippery floors and narrow aisles along which independent vendors primarily sell wet items such as meat, poultry, seafood, vegetables, and fruits.' Such markets may or may not sell live animals and do not necessarily include wildlife or the meat or other products derived from wild animals.

Wet markets and other types of local or traditional food markets exist in countries around the world and are an important source of food as well as supporting the livelihoods of many people. However, they have also been identified as potential or likely sources of outbreaks of zoonoses (diseases or infections that are transmissible from animals to humans), including most recently in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. A recently published study on the effect of a wet market on COVID-19 transmission dynamics in China explained that

[e]vidence suggests that the novel coronavirus likely jumped from a primary reservoir (e.g. horseshoe bats) to an intermediary reservoir, possibly generating an outbreak among wild animals in at least one wet market in Wuhan, China (By Jon CohenJan, 2020, Li et al., 2020). The virus first infected multiple individuals working at, or visiting, the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market at an early stage, initiating multiple chains of transmission that ensured sustained transmission in the human population (Yang et al., 2020). While details of the origin of the outbreak remain uncertain, significant evidence strongly links the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan with the early spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) among humans (Li et al., 2020).

In April 2020, the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) stated in a media briefing on COVID-19 that the WHO is working with United Nations bodies to develop new guidance on the safe operation of wet markets. He stated that the 'WHO’s position is that when these markets are allowed to reopen it should only be on the condition that they conform to stringent food safety and hygiene standards.' The director general also emphasized that governments must 'vigorously enforce bans on the sale and trade of wildlife for food'."

The Law Library of Congress is the world’s largest law library, with a collection of over 2 and a half million volumes from all ages of history and virtually every jurisdiction in the world.

Over the years, it has published dozens of comparative law reports which are a treasure trove for legal research on a huge variety of issues.

How Three Toronto Law Firms Adapted to the COVID-19 Lockdown

 Precedent Magazine published an article last week on how three Toronto law firms quickly learned how to adapt to the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic:

"In the tech industry, the informal motto is 'move fast and break things.' In law, the equivalent axiom might as well be 'move slow and don’t touch anything.' The core tenets of our legal system are nearly 1,000 years old, and the norms and practices of the profession are similarly ancient. So what happens when an industry rooted in precedent — both legal and institutional — faces an unprecedented crisis?"

"We now have an answer to that question. In March, the COVID-19 pandemic turned the legal world upside down, shuttering offices, closing courthouses and making face-to-face client meetings impossible. What follows is the story of how three firms — an established personal-injury outfit, a brand-new workplace and alternative-dispute resolution practice, and one of the most storied litigation boutiques in the country — adapted to the biggest period of upheaval in a generation."

Canadian Association of Law Libraries - Reopening Guide

The  Canadian Association of Law Libraries has published a Law Library Reopening Guide which is intended to be "be a source of information to support decisions about how to safely provide services to law library clients."

It has sections on:

• Interactions with people
• Safe circulation and handling practices
• Adjustments to physical space

It also provides a template for developing a library return to work plan.

Statistics Canada Article on Experiences of Victimization of Sexual Minorities

 A new article in the Statistics Canada publication Juristat shows that gay, lesbian, bisexual and other sexual minority people in Canada were almost three times more likely than heterosexual Canadians to report that they had been physically or sexually assaulted in the previous 12 months in 2018 and more than twice as likely to report having been violently victimized since the age of 15. 

Sexual minority Canadians were also more than twice as likely as heterosexual Canadians to experience inappropriate sexual behaviours in public, online or at work in the previous 12 months.

The article is entitled Experiences of violent victimization and unwanted sexual behaviours among gay, lesbian, bisexual and other sexual minority people, and the transgender population, in Canada, 2018.

Among the highlights:

• According to the 2018 Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces (SSPPS), an estimated 1 million people in Canada are sexual minorities—that is, they reported their sexual orientation as gay, lesbian, bisexual or a sexual orientation that is not heterosexual—representing 4% of the population of Canada 15 years of age and older.
• In addition, approximately 75,000 people, or 0.24% of the population of Canada aged 15 and older indicated on the SSPPS that their assigned sex at birth was different from their current gender, or that they were neither male nor female—in other words, that they are transgender. Those whose assigned sex at birth aligns with their gender are cisgender.
• Excluding violence committed by an intimate partner, sexual minority Canadians were more likely to have experienced physical or sexual assault both since age 15 and in the past 12 months than heterosexual Canadians. Violence targeting sexual minority Canadians was also more likely to result in injuries than violence committed against heterosexual Canadians. In addition, sexual minority Canadians were less likely to report their physical assaults to the police.
• Sexual minority Canadians were also more likely than heterosexual Canadians to report experiencing inappropriate behaviours in public (57% versus 22%), online (37% versus 15%) and at work (44% versus 22%) in the 12 months preceding the survey.
• When it came to their experiences of inappropriate behaviours while online, sexual minority Canadians were more likely to report that they knew the person who had targeted them. They were also more likely than heterosexual Canadians to have taken measures to protect themselves from harassment online within the past 12 months (38% versus 23%).
• Transgender Canadians were more likely to have experienced violence since age 15, and also more likely to experience inappropriate behaviours in public, online and at work than cisgender Canadians.
• Sexual minority Canadians were more than twice as likely as heterosexual Canadians to have used drugs or alcohol to cope with emotional abuse or physical violence that they experienced since age 15 (24% versus 10%).
• In general, when compared with heterosexual Canadians, those who were a sexual minority were more likely to engage in binge drinking (53% versus 44%), non-medicinal cannabis use (37% versus 15%), and non-prescribed drug use (10% versus 3%) in the 12 months preceding the SSPPS.
• No statistically significant difference was observed between transgender and cisgender Canadians when it came to engaging in binge drinking and non-medicinal cannabis use in the past 12 months. However, transgender Canadians were more likely than cisgender Canadians to have used drugs or alcohol to cope with abuse or violence experienced in their lifetimes.
• Overall, sexual minority Canadians were more likely than heterosexual Canadians to report that they considered their mental health to be poor or fair (32% versus 11%). They were also more likely to have seriously contemplated suicide in their lifetimes (40% versus 15%), and to have been diagnosed with a mood or anxiety disorder (41% versus 16%).

September 2020 Issue of In Session - E-Newsletter of Canadian Association of Law Libraries

The September 2020 issue of In Session is available online.

It is the monthly e-newsletter of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) and contains news from CALL committees and special interest groups, member updates and events.

Updated GlobaLex Research Guide on United Nations Documents

GlobaLex, a very good electronic collection created by the Hauser Global Law School Program at the New York University School of Law, has updated its guide on Researching the United Nations Documents:

"United Nations documentation can feel overwhelming. Researching UN documents can feel even more overwhelming. Two of the most difficult aspects of researching UN bodies, their documentation, and related international topics is the vast amount of documentation the UN produces, and the variety of places researchers should consult to be as comprehensive as possible. The complex structure of the UN often complicates the research even further. This article aims to aid researchers in deciding where to begin researching the UN documents, and it describes the most common entry points."

The updated guide was written by Janet Kearney, Foreign & International Law Librarian at the Maloney Library, Fordham University School of Law and Lucie Olejnikova, Head of Foreign and International Law at the Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School.

The Governance and Recordkeeping Around the World newsletter, published by Library and Archives Canada (LAC), highlights issues pertaining to government and recordkeeping practices in the public and private sectors around the world.

The September 2020 issue has just been published.

It includes:

• news items from Canada and around the world
• announcements of upcoming Canadian and international events (meetings, conferences, seminars)
• project and product news in areas such as digitization, archives, open source, e-government, access to information etc.
• listings of papers and readings (white papers, presentations, reports)

posted by Michel-Adrien at 7:22 pm 0 comments

Recent Developments in Law Reform from Around the World

 I had not heard of the Singapore Academy of Law (SAL) but I recently discovered a publication of theirs on Recent Developments in Law Reform.

There is news about law reform work being done by the SAL in areas like the Impact of Robotics & AI on the Law as well as a number of articles about the work of law reform commissions from other countries on:

• defamation (England, Scotland, Ontario, Australia)
• corporate criminal responsability (Australia)
• leasehold property owenership (UK)
• the right of consumers placing online orders when the retailer goes bankrupt (UK)

Library Architects Aim for Virus-Responsive Design

 The journal American Libraries recently published an article on Virus-Responsive Design:

"Libraries have always been spaces for discovery. But in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, they have been tasked with transforming themselves into places that allow users to physically distance while being more digitally connected than ever. As some institutions emerge from months of shutdowns, design and architecture experts seek to meet current health and safety challenges as well as safeguard these community spaces against an uncertain future."

The article looks at safety enhancements, privacy, comfort, funding issues and technologies such as touchless lights, faucets, and doors as well as virus-killing UV lighting.

REALM Project Test 4 Results for COVID Virus Survival on Library Materials

Research conducted as part of the REopening Archives, Libraries, and Museums (REALM) Project has been testing how long the virus SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 remains detectable on various library surfaces and materials.

In a fourth series of tests, the Project looked at different book covers as well as DVD cases and polyethylene foam for shipping:

"In the most recent test, scientists tested four materials similar to those in the first test group—the cover of hardcover books (buckram cloth), the cover of softback books, a DVD case, and mylar protective book cover jackets—only this time, the materials were stacked to simulate common storage configurations in libraries and archives. While the virus was not detectable on the materials laid flat after three days in the first test, the virus was still detectable on similar materials after six days when the materials were stacked."

REALM is a collaboration between OCLC, an international library services cooperative, the US government agency Institute of Museum and Library Services, and Battelle, an R&D organization.