In 1995 the Constitutional Assembly Database Project (the Project) began to publish the proceedings of South Africa's Constitutional Assembly on the Internet. The Project finished this work, the first of its kind anywhere in the world, in 1996, but the Database has not been available since a computer crash in 2000. This paper is the first account of the history of the Project. The paper argues that it is important to restore access to the Database, but in a way that will not repeat the mistakes made when setting up the database.

The Argentine Constitution was adopted in 1853 after years of domestic turmoil which ended with the defeat of Juan Manuel de Rosas, an authoritarian caudillo from the Province of Buenos Aires, by Justo José de Urquiza y García. This Constitution, with the amendments that will be explained below, still remains in force.

This project seeks to develop ways of holding governments accountable for their failure to satisfy the requirements of conflict management, political stability, economic growth, and social welfare. Since offending governments tend to resist external sources of protection and assistance for an oppressed population by pleading national sovereignty, and major international actors are less likely to act unless driven by strategic or ideological reasons, the project aims at “expounding on the normative principles of responsible sovereignty, international mechanisms and strategies for their enforcement, and empirical evidence about the performance of governments as measured by the stipulates of sovereignty.” Asserting “human dignity as an overarching goal to which all peoples and societies aspire and are committed, whatever the variations of their cultural perspectives on the institutional details of the concept” the project perceives this concept as “operationally or functionally translated into a quest for recognition and respect for human beings, both as individuals and as members of identifiable groups. Human dignity demands, in the minimum, equal treatment with full rights and duties of citizenship.”

This article focuses on the trends of law journals published by law schools in India. The article comprises a short overview of the free access to law movement around the world, and it is an attempt to showcase the growing open access to law movement in India. The article visualizes results of the responses received over the publications of legal scholarship in journals by 23 Indian law schools. The article appends recommendations for greater visibility of AW journals published by law schools in India.

This paper aims to present the historical development of academic libraries and librarianship in Turkey. It takes its starting point from the first years of the Republic and follows the reforms, improvements and setbacks in this field.

Law publishing — that is, the reproduction and dissemination of statutes, judicial decisions, commentaries, legal forms and texts — is as old as writing and can be found in all literate societies. In the ancient world, written law was essential to political and social relations. That can be seen from the importance given to law codes in the Semitic, Greek and Roman societies. Over the centuries and in every medium from stone and clay, papyrus and parchment, to paper and the electronic media of our day — law has been a major component of literature. The very fact of publication is an essential requirement for the enactment and efficacy of laws in many societies. Publication of law was widespread before the invention of printing and was achieved by reproducing important texts in multiple manuscript copies which could then be disseminated to libraries, officials and others who needed them and could afford them. The printing of law depended not only on the invention of the press itself, but also on the acceptance of what more accessible law might mean to society. In England, for example this was a matter of considerable controversy for over a hundred years.

Among Asian Nations, India has become a major political, cultural and business hub. This situation has contributed to frequent interaction of foreign governments, foreign nationals and businesspersons with India and Indians. In order to make them aware of the Indian Legal System and Literatures - so that they act within scope of the system – I present here a brief article giving an introduction to Indian legal literature and legal sources.

Two earlier resources for Indian legal materials include:

1. A Bibliography of Indian Law, edited by Charles Henry Alexandrowicz, (Oxford University Press, 1958), and

2. Indian Legal Materials: A Bibliographic Guide, by H.C. Jain, (N.M. Tripathi, Bombay, 1970).

This is an interdisciplinary article focusing on the interplay between information and communication technology (ICT) and international law (IL). Its purpose is to open a dialogue between ICT and IL practitioners that focuses on the ways in which ICT can enhance equitable participation in international legal structures, particularly through capturing the possibilities associated with big data. This depends on the ability of individuals to access big data, for it to be structured in a manner that makes it accessible and for the individual to be able to take action based on it.

This article will introduce an approach to teaching legal research called Expansive Legal Research. The Expansive Legal Research perspective is based upon dissertation research on legal information behavior at a law school legal aid clinic. This approach is inspired by an educational perspective called Expansive Learning, which in turn has roots in the psychological theory called Activity Theory. The Expansive Legal Research perspective includes elements inspired by Expansive Learning and Activity Theory such as a focus on an activity-centered context of both the individual and social aspects of human behavior; the design-oriented nature of human problem-solving; the role of tacit knowledge and unwritten rules in daily activity and practice; and a cultural historical approach to learning and development, where both the user and their tools are undergoing a constant process of growth and change and transformation. An Expansive Legal Research approach, and the theory it is based upon, may provide new insights into legal research instruction, and may be a useful tool for legal research instructors.

One of the spectacular and liberating features of the Internet in general and the United Nations web site in particular is that if a treaty you are researching was drafted in connection with a conference relating to human rights, the environment, development, or a major topic in criminal or commercial law, entire web pages based on the treaty and its history are now in place. The process of drafting and finalizing the texts of major conventions and treaties sponsored by bodies within the United Nations system is unusually well-documented. The conference process and other drafting procedures have always made researching UN treaties rather more systematic than is the case with many inter-governmental organizations.

Discussing the European Union (EU) is an excellent way of dealing with the question of the translation of legal texts. Why is this the case? The European Union, with approximately 370 million inhabitants, is unique among the world's international organizations. It is unique because it uses all the official languages of its Member States in its official publications.

Thank you, Terry [Harry S. Martin III] for this kind introduction. I'm glad to be here to meet you all. I'm very fond of law librarians, perhaps because of Terry, who has given us such unstinting support for a program and for a body of literature that might otherwise be considered exotic or unnecessary. I don't think we've ever asked for anything from this Library that it has not tried its very best to give us. In our program we are aware that probably the most essential thing we can do—building for the long-term—is to strengthen the Library in our field. I have to admit, in my modest moments, that people most often come here to study with us, to join our program, not for us, but for the Library. Occasionally people let it slip.

This article examines the potential effects of the developing user-centered, networked information environment on scholarly communication in law. By “user-centered, networked information environment,” I mean the emerging environment for legal research and scholarship, in which most seekers and users of legal information will have ready desktop access to a networked computer and to applications that will allow them to communicate with colleagues around the world and enable them to retrieve increasing amounts of the information they need to be productive directly via the Internet, without needing to rely on locally held print sources.