Volunteer for the FCIL-SIS! Complete the FCIL-SIS Volunteer Survey by June 1, 2023

With the 2023-2024 association year upon us, the FCIL-SIS is seeking volunteers to serve as both leaders and members of several of our committees! Information regarding our committees and their charges is available on the FCIL-SIS Committees & Groups page.  Please consider dedicating your time and talents to the SIS! We ask that members complete our brief volunteer survey by June 1, 2023: https://forms.gle/r7i9bQfNgnfYvuxU8.

Image by Kristin Baldeschwiler from Pixabay

As a reminder, our Interest Groups do not maintain formal membership lists, and members interested in an IG’s programs and initiatives can at any time join that IG’s distribution list via the AALL “My Communities” platform.  Links to our IG community pages are provided below:

• African Law Interest Group   
• Asian Law Interest Group
• Customary and Religious Law Interest Group  
• Electronic Research Interest Group
• European Law Interest Group
• Foreign Law Selectors Interest Group
• Indigenous Peoples Law Interest Group
• Latin American Law Interest Group
• Roman Law IG
• Teaching Foreign & International Legal Research Interest Group

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Appointments Committee Co-Chairs (meredith.a.capps@vanderbilt.edu) or David Isom (david.isom@georgetown.edu)!

You’re Invited to Join the FCIL-SIS Publicity Committee!

The FCIL-SIS Publicity Committee invites you to join us for our meeting in Austin this weekend!  We will meet during the FCIL-SIS Standing Committees Joint Meeting on Sunday, July 16, at 6:15pm–6:45pm in Hilton Room 402.

We’d love to hear your ideas for blog posts, social media, conference publicity, and anything else you have to offer!  If you’re interested in blogging or in working on one or more of our other publicity initiatives, come by and find out more!

We’ll see you there!

FCIL-SIS Related Programming in Chicago, 2016

SATURDAY July 16, 2016

9:30 AM – 5:00 PM

Two Sides to the United Nations: Working with Public and Private International Law at the U.N. (IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law)

Coordinated by Thomas Mills, et al. and co-sponsored by the International Legal Research Interest Group (ILRIG) of ASIL and the FCIL-SIS. Two specialists, Susan Goard of the UN and Vikki Rogers, Director of the Institute for Int’l Commercial Law at Pace, will engage the audience in an intense full day workshop addressing the major functions of the UN, documentation of the main bodies and specialized agencies, the CISG and its application in international trade, and available UN related research platforms.

SUNDAY July 17, 2016

12:30 PM – 2:00 PM

FCIL-SIS Jurisdictions IG Joint Meeting (Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, Indigenous Peoples, Customary & Religious Law, Roman Law) (Hyatt-Water Tower)

Meeting Topics:

• Welcome and Intro (Susan Gualtier, Louisiana State University School of Law Library) – 5 minutes
• European Law: Recent Developments in German Law Related to Asylum and Refugees: A Brief Overview for Law Librarians (Jennifer Alison, Harvard Law School Library) – 20 minutes
• Latin America: Cuban Legal Research Guide (Julienne Grant, Loyola University Chicago Law Library, et al.) – 10 minutes
• Africa: Updates of the Digitization Case Law Project from South Western Nigeria (Yemisi Dina, Osgood Hall Law School Library) – 20 minutes
• Indigenous Peoples: Indigenous Peoples and DNA Testing: Friend or Foe? (Steven Perkins, Greenberg Traurig, LLP) – 20 minutes
• Individual Interest Groups business meetings – 15 minutes

4:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Asian Legal Information in English: Availability, Accessibility, and Quality Control (Hyatt-Columbus EF)

Coordinated by Alex Zhang, participants will learn about resources, tools, and tips for finding existing official ENG translations of primary legal materials in major Asian jurisdictions, the speakers will address the pros and cons of ENG translations and how to discern when ENG translation is not readily available.

5:15 PM – 6:00 PM

FCIL-SIS Foreign Law Selectors IG (Hyatt-Comiskey)

Coordinated by Marci Hoffman.

6:00 PM – 6:45 PM

FCIL-SIS Standing Committees Joint Meeting (Publicity Committee, Internships & Exchanges Committee, and Electronic Research IG) (Hyatt-Field)

Meeting Topics:

• Welcome and Introduction (Loren Turner) – 5 minutes
• ERIG: ICRC Customary International Humanitarian Law Database (CIHL database) (Mr. Ismael Raboud, ICRC) – 15 minutes
• ERIG: LOC Indigenous Law Portal (Steve Perkins, Library of Congress) – 15 minutes
• Individual Standing Committees business meetings – 10 minutes

7:00 PM – who knows?

AALL Annual Meeting FCIL-SIS Reading Group (place TBD – stay in touch with Dan Wade at Daniel.wade@yale.edu)

Coordinated and lead by Dan Wade, the group will discuss East West Street: On the Origin of Genocide and “Crimes Against Humanity”

MONDAY July 18, 2016

7:30 AM – 8:30 AM

FCIL-SIS Business Meeting and Breakfast (Sponsored by Bloomberg Law, LexisNexis, Thomson Reuters, and Wolters Kluwer) (Hyatt Wrigley)

3:30 PM – 4:15 PM

FCIL-SIS Teaching Foreign & International Legal Research IG (Hyatt-Michigan B)

Coordinated by Catherine Deane, this meeting will present three substantive presentations:

• Marilyn Raisch (Georgetown University Law Center) will share her experience creating short videos to search databases using Jing
• Alexis Fetzer (Richmond School of Law) will share her experience as a “non”-FCIL librarian proposing an FCIL research course
• Nina E. Scholtz (Cornell Law School) will share her thoughts on teaching an experiential research course for international LLM students.

4:30 PM – 5:30 PM

FCIL-SIS Schaffer Grant for Foreign Law Librarian Recipient’s Presentation – Rhenny Pulungan of Indonesia, currently at U. of Melbourne’s Law School Library will deliver a talk entitled The Legal Research Landscape in Indonesia: Limitations and Possibilities (Hyatt-Columbus GH)

5:45 PM – 6:45 PM

International Attendees Joint Reception (AALL/FCIL/IALL) (Hyatt-Crystal Ballroom C)

TUESDAY July 19, 2016

7:30 AM – 8:15 AM

FCIL-SIS Education Committee and 2017 Summit Task Force Joint Meeting (Hyatt-Skyway 265)

8:30 AM – 9:30 AM

Roman Law, Roman Order, and Restatements (Hyatt-Columbus EF)

Coordinated by Marylin J. Raisch, participants will learn about digitization of historical documentation, assess the role of Roman Law and codification’s impact on American legal taxonomies, explore the influence of Roman Law on Restatements.

9:45 AM – 10:45 AM

Poster #24: Are Self-Paced Pre-Recorded Modules Better than Live Instruction for Teaching Basic Legal research Concepts? (Exhibit Hall)

Created by Lucie Olejnikova and Jane Bahnson, this poster session will be on display starting Sunday, July 17, 2016 through Tuesday, July 19, 2016. During the scheduled TUE session, presenters will be available to answer questions. This poster features a study carried out in Duke’s LLM Legal Research and Writing Course intended to measure students’ information retention when subject material was delivered in traditional live in-class lecture as compared to when the same material is delivered via self-paced pre-recorded online module.

11:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Vanishing Online? Legal and Policy Implications for Libraries of the EU’s “Right to be Forgotten” (Hyatt-Columbus KL)

Coordinated by Michael G. Bernier, the attendees will be brought up to date on the status of data protection laws and their allocation outside the EU, understand the obligations under the “right to be forgotten” principle for libraries making personal info public, and consider the line between protection personal privacy against the public’s right to access data.

Nominations Sought for FCIL-SIS Vice Chair/Chair Elect

Have big ideas for the future of the FCIL-SIS? Want to see that vision realized?

The FCIL-SIS is seeking nominations for a Vice-Chair/Chair Elect. Nominations of yourself or a similarly visionary colleague (with the consent of the nominated) will be happily received by Dan Donahue, Gabriela Femenia, and George Tsiakos through Monday, December 15, 2015.

For complete details, please see the call for nominees.

 

AALL 2015 Recap: FCIL-SIS Publicity Committee Meeting

By: Loren Turner

The FCIL-SIS Publicity Committee meeting occurred at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, July 19, 2015, at the AALL Annual Conference in Philadelphia, PA.  The co-Chairs of the Committee, Susan Gualtier and Loren Turner, were joined by Anne Burnett, Daniel Donahue, Mark Engsberg, Anne Mostad-Jensen, and Megan O’Brien.

The meeting focused on the Committee’s current initiative, the FCIL-SIS blog, DipLawMatic Dialogues. The group discussed the effect of recent blog posts.  The Committee was pleased that (1) Alison Shea’s recent post on EU citation had gone viral; (2) the blog had been receiving a lot of interest in and contributions from new/generalist law librarians (not just those with FCIL titles), particularly related to the book review column; and (3) many FCIL-SIS members commented on their enjoyment of the member profiles column, which introduces (or reacquaints) FCIL-SIS members to each other.

Turning to future initiatives, the Committee discussed ways to increase blog content and impact.  Among the suggestions: amplify conference coverage – especially recaps of programs occurring at international conferences that many FCIL-SIS members cannot attend; highlight particular collections (print or digital) of individual libraries to promote those collections and to provide FCIL-SIS members with a contact at those libraries; and recruit technical services staff trained in FCIL work (cataloging, acquisitions, etc.) to contribute blog posts.  Additionally, the Committee agreed to work towards developing style guidelines to provide interested bloggers with a preferred structure for blog posts.

The Committee also discussed ways to market the FCIL-SIS to all AALL members, particularly when designing program topics for annual conferences. The FCIL-SIS must show the Annual Conference Program Committee that there is a wide interest in FCIL librarianship – whether or not one is designated an “FCIL” librarian.  The Committee brainstormed possible slogans to project inclusiveness, such as “FCIL Librarianship is Reference Librarianship.”  The Committee agreed to work on publicizing the blog and the FCIL-SIS in general AALL materials (e.g., AALL Newsletter, AALL discussion boards, etc.) in order to make the FCIL-SIS less intimidating/more accessible to those without an already-developed expertise (while still maintaining its value amongst those who are specialized in FCIL work).

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 7:00 pm.

AALL 2015 Recap: Reynolds & Flores Publication Award Winners

By: Teresa Miguel-Stearns

The Thomas H. Reynolds and Arturo A. Flores FCIL-SIS Publications Award is named after the indomitable authors of the Foreign Law Guide: Current Sources of Codes and Basic Legislation in Jurisdictions of the World, better known as “Reynolds & Flores” to the many grateful FCIL Librarians who habitually use the Foreign Law Guide. The Award is given to FCIL-SIS members who have greatly contributed to the professional development of their AALL colleagues during any given year.  The winning publications may be print, digital, or electronic initiatives.

This year, three colleagues have been awarded the Reynolds and Flores Publication Award for two bodies of work.

Mirela Roznovschi – Mirela recently retired from New York University Law Library where she was the Reference Librarian for International and Foreign law since 1996. She is both the brains and the brawn behind GlobaLex, celebrating 10 years in 2015.  GlobaLex is an electronic legal publication dedicated to international and foreign law research. Published by the Hauser Global Law School Program at NYU School of Law, GlobaLex is committed to the dissemination of high-level international, foreign, and comparative law research tools in order to accommodate the needs of an increasingly global educational and practicing legal world. The guides and articles published are written by scholars well known in their respective fields and are recommended as a legal resource by universities, library schools, and legal training courses. Many congratulations to Mirela on both the 10^th Anniversary of GlobaLex as well as her well-deserved retirement.

 Alison Shea and Ralph Gaebler –  Alison is a Reference Librarian, Foreign and International Specialist, and Adjunct Associate Professor of Law at Fordham University School of Law Library. Ralph is an Associate Librarian and Lecturer in Law at Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law Library.  Together, Alison and Ralph are co-editors of the second edition of Sources of State Practice in International Law. This volume is a dense descriptive bibliography of both electronic and printed sources of information containing the text of treaties and the record of diplomatic activity of important jurisdictions around the world. It includes an up-to-date description of national treaty portals and other valuable Internet-based sources. At the same time, it also includes descriptions of printed sources providing access to treaties and official diplomatic documentation difficult to locate in standard compilations. In addition, this work includes a narrative section for each jurisdiction summarizing issues related to treaty succession and treaty implementation in municipal law.

Schedule of FCIL Events in Philadelphia

Hello FCIL-SIS!  Are you ready for Philly?  We at the publicity committee certainly are!  We have swag for the exhibit hall ready to go, and we’re looking forward to seeing all of our SIS friends again next week!

As we approach the 2015 AALL Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, we encourage you to keep an eye on the blog and to follow us on Twitter for coverage of FCIL-SIS programming both during and after the conference.  If you are interested in covering any of the events listed below, please contact blog administrators Susan Gualtier (susan.gualtier@law.lsu.edu) or Loren Turner (lturner@law.ufl.edu).  Finally, remember to send us your original photos from the Philadelphia conference so that we can share them with our readers who were unable to attend!

FCIL-SIS EVENTS

2015 AALL ANNUAL MEETING, PHILADELPHIA

Saturday, July 18

9:30am – 4:45 pm

Researching the European Union (University of Pennsylvania Law School)

5:00 pm – 6:30 pm

Exhibit Hall Ribbon-Cutting/Opening Reception. Stop by the FCIL-SIS table!

Sunday, July 19

11:30 am – 12:45 pm

AALL/LexisNexis Call for Papers: Researching International Agreements other than Article II

Treaties (PCC-Room 104A)

FCIL-SIS Jurisdictions Interest Groups Joint Meeting (Marriott-Grand Ballroom Salon C)

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Cross-Border Disputes: Dissecting the International Investment Arbitration (PCC-Room

201BC)

4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Designers’ Workshop: Subject Guides that Create the Effect You Want (PCC-Room 103BC)

5:15 pm – 6:00 pm

FCIL-SIS Foreign Selectors Interest Group (Marriott-Room 306)

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

FCIL-SIS Internships and International Exchanges Committee (Marriott-Room 310)

FCIL-SIS Publicity Committee (Marriott-Room 308)

Monday, July 20

7:15 am – 8:30 am

FCIL-SIS Business Meeting and Breakfast (PCC-Room 110AB)

3:15 pm – 4:25 pm

FCIL-SIS Teaching Foreign and International Legal Research Interest Group (PCC-Room

112A)

4:00 pm – 4:30 pm

FCIL-SIS Schaffer Grant for Foreign Law Librarians Fundraising Committee (Marriott-

Conference Suite 2)

4:30 pm – 5:30 pm

FCIL-SIS Schaffer Grant for Foreign Law Librarians Recipient Presentation (Marriott-Grand

Ballroom Salon D)

5:45 pm – 6:45 pm

International Attendees Joint Reception (AALL/FCIL/IALL) (Marriott-Grand Ballroom Salon

IJ)

Tuesday, July 21

8:30 am – 9:30 am

Mighty MT: Enhancing the Value of Machine Translation Tools for FCIL Reference and

Collection Services (PCC-Room 103BC)

12:30 pm – 2:00 pm

LHRB/FCIL-SIS Roman Law Interest Group: Researching the Corpus Juris Civilis (PCC-Room

105A)

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

FCIL-SIS Education Committee (Marriott-Grand Ballroom Salon B)

FCIL-SIS Electronic Research Interest Group (PCC-Room 104B)

FCIL-SIS Needs Officers

For anyone interested in serving as an officer in the Foreign, Comparative & International Law Special Interest Section, two positions will be open for elections this spring:

• Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect
• Secretary/Treasurer

If you would like to serve in either of these positions, or if you know a great law librarian you would like to nominate (with their consent), please contact James Hart, Michele Hou, or Daniel Donahue by Monday, December 15, 2014. Voting on the nominees will take place in February.

See the official call for nominations here.

FCIL Internships and International Exchanges Committee Report

By David McFadden

The FCIL Internships and International Exchanges Committee met on 14 July in San Antonio.  David McFadden (Chair), Jim Hart, Jootaek Lee, Andrew “Tig” Wartluft, and Hunter Whaley attended.

There were no known requests or known use of committee services.  There was a question as to whether the committee could get a report of traffic and activity on its website.  The survey and committee handout were distributed by Sally Holterhoff at IFLA in August 2013, and at the ASIL meeting in Spring 2014 by Marty Witt.  Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me a Match: The Internships & Exchanges Committee, an article by James W. Hart and David McFadden highlighting the committee’s work, appeared in the October 2013 issue of the FCIL Newsletter.  Peter Roudik and Marty Witt worked on a program proposal for San Antonio entitled Between School and Employment: Best Practices in Accommodating and Managing Interns and Conducting Internships for Law Librarians.  Unfortunately, the program was not accepted.  Marty Witt worked on updating the survey instrument and results report.

There was a discussion about updating the FCIL Internship and International Exchanges website.  It was reported that Marty Witt is finishing up work on the survey instrument and results report.  There was a suggestion to use a LibGuides format for the results.  More reports of visits and exchanges will be solicited in the coming year.  Also, the resources page will be restored to the website.

Those present at the meeting agreed to assignments for updating the current survey results and soliciting new participants.  Those assigned in earlier years will be contacted to see about their progress and continued interest in helping the committee.

Different ways of publicizing and promoting the committee’s work were discussed.  Attendees of the upcoming IFLA meeting will be contacted again this year.

Marty Witt agreed to take over as chair for the 2014-2015 term.

Schedule of FCIL Events in San Antonio

by Daniel Wade

FCIL-SIS EVENTS

2014 AALL ANNUAL MEETING, SAN ANTONIO

Sunday, July 13^th

7:00 a.m. Subject Groups—Mariott Rivercenter-Salon C

1. Customary and Religious Law Interest Group (CARLIG)
2. European Law Interest Group
3. Indigenous Law Interest Group
4. Latin American Law Interest Group
5. Strategic Planning Committee

7:15 a.m. African and Asian Law Interest Groups—Mariott Rivercenter-Conference 13

7:30 a.m. Translation Tools for the Law Librarian (Electronic Research Interest Group)—HBGCC-Room 206A

11:45 a.m. Global Law Resources Fair (Teaching FCIL Research Interest Group)—Mariott Riverwalk-Alamo Ballroom Salon D

5:30 p.m. Foreign Law Selectors Interest Group—HBGCC-Room 207A

Monday, July 14^th

7:00 a.m. FCIL-SIS Outreach Groups—HBGCC-Room 207A:

1. Internships and International Exchanges Committee
2. Nominations Committee
3. Newsletter Committee
4. Publicity/Membership Committee
5. Website Committee

7:45 a.m. FCIL-SIS Business Meeting—HBGCC-Room 207A

11:45 a.m. Executive Committee Presents: Envisioning the World’s International Criminal Law Library at the International Criminal Court—Mariott Riverwalk-Alamo-Ballroom Salon E

2:30 p. m. Hot Topic: Land Grabbing: Accessing Information to Protect Property Rights of Indigenous People—HBGCC Room 217D

5:30 p.m. International Attendees Joint Reception (AALL/FCIL/IALL) (sponsored by Bloomberg BNA, LexisNexis, Thomson Reuters & Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)—Mariott Rivercenter-Salon K

Tuesday, July 15^th

7:15 a.m. FCIL-SIS Education Committee Meeting—HBGCC-Room 213B

7:15 a.m. FCIL-SIS Schaffer Grant for Foreign Law Librarians Fundraising and Selection Committee Meeting—HBGCC-213A

7:30 a.m. Coffee Talk “Beyond Your Boundaries: What Ancient Legal Systems Can Tell Us About Working Globally” (Roman Law Interest Group)—HBGCC-Parkview Concourse Level

8:30 a.m. Program E6: Mexican Law and Legal Research: Overcoming the Challenges—HBGCC-006AB

10:00 a.m. Social Event; discussion of The Crisis in Ukraine—meet in HBGCC-006AB