The internet has emerged as a reservoir of information and has pushed the world to evolve into a global village. Increased communication across political, social and economic barriers has created a virtual society of its own. This networked society poses considerable challenges for Internet Governance. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the institution responsible for the internet management. ICANN has been at the center of the debates over global governance of the internet. Key concerns raised in these debates involve the legitimacy of institutions as well as the participation of developed and developing nations in Internet governance.

This annotated pathfinder is designed to serve as a guide for those who wish to learn about the legal and social situation of Muslim women in the region of the Middle East, but who do not have a great amount of advanced knowledge concerning the topic. It is meant to serve as an organized starting point from which to begin further research, and to provide a context for the current status of Muslim women's rights in the Middle East. A wide variety of types of materials are included, from books to reports to treaties.

In this world of misinformation and predatory ideologies, a basic economic connection may be the difference between the success and failure of American foreign policy in the Middle East. In times of conflict, establishing the commonality of shared financial values can be the best way to build trust. It is remarkable then that the world's largest and most advanced economy has failed to develop the simple financial mechanisms—using Islamic finance and Sharī'ah boards—to connect with Muslims across the globe. Even if the United States’ central focus remains combating terrorism, it is clear that the more financial information the United States can gather, the better equipped it will be to fight the war on terror. Along with the enhanced information capital made possible through Islamic finance and Sharī'ah boards are significant reputational advantages that the United States would not otherwise have. For instance, an Islamic-American humanitarian institution could be certified by multiple clerics in Iraq, thus offering new momentum to the organization's humanitarian mission by preventing numerous belligerent attacks that terrorists might subject upon a purely American institution that lacks the legitimacy conferred through such Islamic ties.

Currently, The United States' continuing domestic failure to develop a compatible framework for Islamic finance verges on negligence. This failure is strongly contrary to broader American commercial interests. Consider that economists estimate the outflow of Sharī'ah capital from Gulf countries to be approximately $1 trillion, growing at 20% per annum. Additionally, Gulf countries are currently set to spend upwards of $10 trillion on new infrastructure over the next decade using Sharī'ah compliant financing vehicles. The world currently has roughly two billion Muslims, many of which will one day demand, or at least prefer, Sharī'ah compliant financial products. If the United States does not develop the administrative and legal framework to serve this market, other foreign financial institutions surely will. In fact, economists currently value the Islamic finance industry in the United Kingdom at $12 billion. In stark contrast, in the United States this same market comprises a mere $150 million in assets. This article will examine the necessary mechanics of establishing an Islamic-American corporation in Delaware for the purposes of conducting transactions with the Middle East, and analyze in detail the essential Islamic financial governance structure-the Shari'ah board.

Law does not have its intended effect if people do not know the law. Law should be known by the people who derive rights and obligations from it. Chaotic law, though known by the people, does not have its intended effect either. To be respected, law should at least be logical and consistent, and not prompt chicaneries. Law is what courts say the law is. Courts have to decide case by case. Their judgments express what the law is in the case submitted. The people involved and other interested people will know what the court has decided.

Albert Einstein, in an Address in Chicago observed: [t]he existence and validity of human rights are not written in the stars. The ideals concerning the conduct of men towards each other and the desirable structure of the community have been conceived and taught by enlightened individuals in the course of history. Those ideals and convictions which resulted from historical experience, from the craving for beauty and harmony, have been readily accepted in theory by man – and at all times, have been trampled upon by the same people under the pressure of their animal instincts. A large part of history is therefore replete with the struggle for those human rights, an eternal struggle in which a final victory can never be won. But to tire in that struggle would mean the ruin of society.

Catalogues are the essential element of every library. The following description of the main features of the documentation system maintained by the Library of the German Bundestag and of the most important principles of its catalogues will, more than anything else, show that they differ considerably from the forms of library documentation generally known in Germany. Though it would be particularly interesting to do so here, limitations of space unfortunately prevent a theoretical discussion of cataloguing principles in any detail. However, at this point it is important to stress that in view of the manifold requirements to be met by a modern library documentation and information system, the catalogues and documentation system of the Bundestag Library have proved themselves quite valuable.

Academic legal literature in the USA is punctuated at regular intervals by discussions of the quality of legal research and writing tuition in the law schools. None of these discussions makes question of the place of such courses within the curriculum. The debate centers upon what should be taught, when, and by whom, and how effective such teaching may be. My first contact with such courses came during a period of work in the USA and when, on my return to the UK, I was required to set up a course in legal information studies, I turned to the UK literature for material on teaching legal research. The result of my search was a complete blank. Indeed, it is difficult to find discussion of any kind on such topics as curriculum planning and the interrelation of legal subjects in teaching programs. The structure of legal education in the UK has been the subject of government reports, but in the main these deal with mechanical and financial aspects—what the apprentice lawyer should learn—and how his professional ability may be enhanced by his education is barely touched upon. There is certainly nothing in the UK literature since the turn of the century on the methods of teaching legal research, nor any debate upon the desirability of teaching such a subject. Basic textbooks on legal bibliography exist, most of which offer guidance, at various levels of sophistication, as to how the novice may handle the literature of law, but it is apparent on examination that none of these are teaching texts, evolved and tested during the repetition of a course of instruction, as are many US texts. We possess nothing in print that might be compared with Price and Bitner's Effective Legal Research (to name just one such book), with its guidance on search strategies and evaluation of sources and facts. I decided to do some basic research and ask all the UK institutions teaching law courses leading to eventual professional qualification what, if anything, they offered by way of instruction in legal research techniques.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Legislative competence for the UK resides in the Westminster Parliament, but there are three legal systems (England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland) with separate courts and legal professions. These legal systems have a unified final court of appeal in the House of Lords. The Isle of Man, and the two Channel Islands (Guernsey and Jersey) are not part of the UK, but possessions of the crown. Although their citizens are subject to the British Nationality Act 1981, the islands have their own legal systems. They are represented by the UK government for the purposes of international relations, but are not formal members of the European Union.

The presentation delivered in Oxford during IALL's 35th Annual Course on Law and Legal Information offered my perspective on Open Access to legal information within the context of Access to Justice in Canada. Please find below an overview of my presentation.

In this presentation I shall be making reference particularly to the islands of the Eastern Caribbean, which are the jurisdictions I visit on a regular basis. I shall exclude Belize, which in the bookselling world we consider to be the province of Central American dealers, and also Guyana, for which no-one, I am afraid, seems to want to take responsibility. It's a difficult place to reach, and there's little to buy when you finally get there.

This paper provides an overview of the Catalan law at the European context. How the Catalan institutions can tackle on the Spanish Government policies and decisions in front of the European Union. And how the European Union Law and policies are implemented in a decentralized country such Spain where Autonomous Communities have their own Governments and Parliaments. There will also be examined how this Spanish territorial decentralized structure affect the implementation of such EU norms and its control. Finally, there will be exposed how Catalan institutions manage to participate in front of the European Union institutions. Which are the instruments that can guarantee this participation and which are the EU responses to them.

Data protection and information privacy are essential parts of lex informatica. The purpose of legal rules is to sustain a modern development and adjustment of the fundamental right to privacy, taking the realities of the information society into consideration. The aim is to protect the individual against misuse of personal information that may violate the private sphere and simultaneously to protect against surveillance with the purpose of governing behavior. Privacy protection is furthermore important, since personal information, which always has had economic value to a much larger degree, has become a commodity today. There are many reasons sustaining data protection, and legal regulation is very broad covering all parts of society. Merely a fragment of this issue is being considered in the following.

An organization needs to consider a number of preservation issues when building a special collection. The level of control one can exert over these issues will vary, but they can have a direct impact on the integrity of special collection materials. This presentation will briefly deal with concerns related to the types of materials being collected; room and location considerations; environmental conditions; and pest and mold issues. Many of these are interrelated, so this is not a truly systematic process. Rather, one will probably find it necessary to go back and forth among these topics.

“Blanket amnesties” have generally been declared to be incompatible with international law due to the fact that they shield perpetrators of serious crimes from accountability as well as conflict with established principles regarding the applicability of statutory limitations to certain criminal offenses. The repeal of the Full Stop and Due Obedience laws in Argentina set a crucial precedent in the process toward the abrogation of legislation leading to impunity for those responsible for grave violations of jus cogens. Additionally, permitting the prosecutions of Nazi officers Klaus Barbie and Erich Priebke in Europe confirmed the customary principle of the non-applicability of statutory limitations to crimes against humanity. However, for nearly 40 years, Spain's amnesty legislation continues to preclude any investigation or prosecution of the crimes committed during the civil war (1936–1939) and the Francoist regime (1939–1975). Spain's 1977 Amnesty Act has been widely characterized as a blanket amnesty and remains in force today despite allegations of noncompliance with international law and numerous requests from United Nations bodies to repeal it. This article explores the history of Spain's 1977 Amnesty Act, compares and contrasts it with other nations with similar amnesties, and makes the case that a successful transition from an authoritarian regime to a peaceful democracy is feasible without the use of overly broad “blanket” amnesties.