LEGISLATION

In Custodia Legis: Law Librarians of Congress (Congress.Gov)

• Law Day 2018 Event: Separation of Powers April 20, 2018
  The Law Library of Congress and the American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress will co-sponsor the annual Law Day 2018 event on Tuesday, May 1 at 3:00 p.m. in Room LJ-119 of the Jefferson Building. Law Day, held annually on May 1, is a national day set aside to celebrate […]
  Donna Sokol
• Family Voting as a Solution to Low Fertility? Experiences from France and Germany April 19, 2018
  The following is a guest post by Johannes Jäger, a foreign law intern working in the Global Legal Research Directorate of the Law Library of Congress. I recently read an op-ed in the New York Times in which the author passionately advocated for the introduction of “Demeny voting” in the United States. The concept behind this term, named after the demographer […]
  Jenny Gesley
• FALQs: The Swedish Budget Process April 17, 2018
  Today’s guest post was authored by Elin Hofverberg, a foreign law research consultant covering Scandinavian jurisdictions at the Law Library of Congress. Elin is a frequent contributor to In Custodia Legis and has blogged on many topics, including on 60 Years of Lego Building Blocks and Danish Patent Law; Finland: 100 Years of Independence – Global Legal Collection Highlights, Alfred […]
  Ruth Levush
• Discover New Ways to Search Congress.gov April 11, 2018
  The following is a guest post by Tina Gheen, the project manager for Congress.gov in the Office of the Chief Information Officer of the Library of Congress. Tina was formerly an emerging technologies librarian with the Law Library of Congress. You may have noticed changes to the Congress.gov homepage in one of our recent updates. We streamlined the site […]
  Robert Brammer
• An Interview with Elizabeth Osborne, Legal Reference Librarian April 3, 2018
  Today’s interview is with Elizabeth Osborne who joined our army of legal reference librarians in March 2018. Enjoy! Describe your background. I am originally from central New Jersey and I have also lived in Washington D.C., London, New York, and most recently Virginia Beach. What is your academic/professional history? I double majored in Justice and […]
  Hanibal Goitom
• Congress.gov New, Tip, and Top for April 2018 April 2, 2018
  Today, we’re bringing you the latest Congress.gov updates just in time for the arrival of spring.  Last month, Andrew brought you the latest updates to saved search alert functionality.  For the April release, we have improved the sorting of search results, so that items in the current Congress now appear at the top when sorting by relevancy. Our work on committee […]
  Robert Brammer
• Silent Public Holidays in Germany March 30, 2018
  Today, March 30, 2018, is Good Friday, a day on which Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Good Friday is an official public holiday in Germany; however it is also one of the “silent public holidays.” Other days on which a silent public holiday is observed include All Saints’ Day, All Souls’ Day, and […]
  Jenny Gesley
• Law Library of Congress Report Examines Parliamentary Oversight in Eight Countries March 29, 2018
  A 2017 report by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Parliamentary Oversight: Parliament’s Power to Hold Government to Account, states that parliamentary oversight of governmental actions is one of the three core functions of a parliament, in addition to legislating (especially passage of the annual budget) and the representation of constituents. The report recognized that holding governments to […]
  Ruth Levush
• National Parks versus Monuments versus Preserves March 27, 2018
  Jennifer Gonzalez’s post on the centennial of the National Park Service made me want to travel more extensively to see what the U. S. National Park Service had to offer. So recently, friends and I took a vacation to Arizona (with forays into California and Nevada). Our itinerary included two national parks, seven national monuments, […]
  Betty Lupinacci
• Parliamentary Petitions Move Online in Australia and New Zealand March 20, 2018
  I recently saw a tweet from the Twitter account of the New Zealand Parliament regarding the launch of an electronic petitions system. I’m not sure if the Australian House of Representatives social media people also read that tweet, but the next day I saw its account had sent a tweet reminding people that a new e-petition platform had […]
  Kelly Buchanan