"Criminal harassment, which includes 'stalking,' is a crime. While many crimes are defined by conduct that results in a very clear physical outcome (for example, murder), the offence of criminal harassment prohibits deliberate conduct that is psychologically harmful to others. Criminal harassment often consists of repeated conduct that is carried out over a period of time and that causes its targets to reasonably fear for their safety but does not necessarily result in physical injury. It may be a precursor to subsequent violent and/or lethal acts."

"The purpose of this handbook is to provide police and Crown prosecutors with guidelines for the investigation and prosecution of criminal harassment cases and to promote an integrated criminal justice response to stalking. It is intended to be a starting point for police and Crowns. Police and Crowns are encouraged to adapt these guidelines to reflect the particular needs and circumstances of each jurisdiction and each case."

"The Handbook was developed by a working group of federal/provincial/territorial criminal justice officials in consultation with criminal justice professionals. It was first published in 1999 and updated in 2004. The development of these guidelines was prompted by the findings and recommendations of the 1996 Department of Justice Canada review of the criminal harassment provisions in the Criminal Code. The updates have been published in response to positive feedback regarding the usefulness of the Handbook and requests for more current information."

The Weekly Checklist includes a listing of titles made available by the Parliament of Canada, federal departments, and Statistics Canada for distribution to a network of Depository Libraries in Canada and abroad.

Welcome to sixth issue of the Victims of Crime Research Digest which is being released during the eighth annual National Victims of Crime Awareness Week (NVCAW) (April 21-27, 2013). The theme of the 2013 NVCAW is 'We All Have a Role.' This theme recognizes that criminal justice professionals and volunteers play a crucial role in reaching out to victims, that all levels of government play a role in reaching out to victims, and that all Canadians can play a role in reaching out to victims through their support and understanding.

The articles in this issue all touch on the many different services that are available, or are being developed, to assist victims of crime in this country. In the first article, Susan McDonald examines how research is supporting the development of children’s advocacy centres across the country. Melissa Northcott, in the second article, summarizes three studies with survivors of sexual violence that included men in two provinces, women in three provinces, and men and women in the Northwest Territories. The survivors spoke about their experiences with the criminal justice system. In the third article, Katie Scrim and Clarinda Spijkerman employ GIS software to map services for victims in the Northwest Territories with incidents of police-reported violent crime in 2010/11. In the fourth article, Lisa Ha describes the results from a study of the nature of elder abuse cases handled by the Ottawa Police Service. And finally, Marie Manikis describes the enforceability regimes of victims’ rights at the US federal level and in England and Wales.

The Weekly Checklist includes a listing of titles made available by the Parliament of Canada, federal departments, and Statistics Canada to the Depository Services Program for distribution to a network of Depository Libraries in Canada and abroad.

The Monday session entitled “Please Don't Make Me Think: User Testing a Faceted Search Engine” was about how the Centre d’accès à l’information juridique (CAIJ), Quebec’s Courthouse Library Network, conducts user testing sessions to validate the ergonomic and design aspects of many of its tools, including its new faceted search engine JuriBistro UNIK.

I served as a guinea pig at the session. I volunteered to go up on stage and “test” a music store website. I was told to try to order the latest Céline Dion CD for a Mother’s Day gift and failed miserably. The presenter then explained that she had deliberately chosen a badly designed website. My embarrassment (I was in front of a full room pretending to be interested in Céline Dion) served as a perfect introduction to the importance of usability testing.

During user tests relating to JuriBistro UNIIK, CAIJ made some very surprising discoveries about how people think about their searching, what they see and do not see on your site, and how they (mis)interpret symbols or language that appear perfectly clear to project members.

Lo and behold, they discovered that lawyers – their users – like to READ text and do not see or even understand many of the pretty and cute pictograms designers provided as shortcuts to very important features such as the fulltext of cases. So they replaced icons with text like “Texte intégral – Jurisprudence” and all the guinea pigs (sorry, I mean test lawyers) were happy.

Other features that test subjects overlooked or failed to see or understand included such things as sort options, the concept of "keywords in context", links to help and search tips and the icon for further filtering of results which people thought looked like a martini glass (it was the Excel spreadsheet symbol for filter). Most of these items were replaced with text links.

The speakers, CAIJ’s Monique Stam and Anastasia Simitsis, User Experience Director with W.illi.am Digital Intelligence, used the Céline Dion example to emphasize a point.

User focus groups and surveys are insufficient to test (re)design ideas. Watching what potential users actually do when replicating real-life scenarios (e.g. trying to buy a CD for your mom) is required. The experience of listening to test participants think out loud as they try (and very frequently fail) to do stuff on the test site for your product or Intranet or online service is usually an eye opener (or a kick in the head) for project team members, designers and IT people.

They explained some of the possible flavours and techniques of usability testing, but they all offer similar benefits:

• identifying and fixing problems and ambiguous features early (“why does CAIJ have a martini glass on its results page?”)
• validating assumptions
• solving opinion battles among team members (web designer: "I think the filter pictogram should go here"; project manager: "No, I am sure the users will be more at ease if the filter is over there"; your boss: "I say the filter belongs next to the results"; of course, the test users are all going: "What's with the CAIJ and all their little martini glasses on my results page?")
• establishing a baseline to measure improvements
• reducing risk and reducing costs (it is way cheaper to fix problems at the earlier stages of (re)design than after launch).

Another Monday session on "Technology Project Management: Complexities and Challenges” offered three perspectives on how to manage large projects, and in particular the stakeholder expectations that are involved.

Julie Allard from the Quebec public corporation SOQUIJ shared her experiences with the design of the new product that will replace its AZIMUT Juris.doc legal information search tool in the fall of 2013. The project is highly complex, has incredibly short deadlines, involves a multidisciplinary team and clients are demanding. [SOQUIJ held a breakfast demo of its new search product on Tuesday morning. The coming changes can be easily summarized: extreme simplification of the interface. You search and find and manipulate results on just 2 screens. Everything happens on the first search screen and then on one single results screen. Full stop. Quite impressive.]

Getting the preliminary project planning right is key. This involves consulting customers and deciding what is and what is definitely NOT part of the project to maintain focus and avoid mission or project creep, probably the kiss of death of many projects. How many times does this simple truth get overlooked? Figure out what is NOT supposed to be part of the game plan and you will be happier.

Among the successful strategies Allard mentioned for not losing control:

• chunking the project into shorter cycles with precise interim deliverables to ensure the project team achieves small but constant victories along the way
• managing change requests – analyzing and documenting what their consequences would be and why they can be or cannot be implemented
• user testing, and quality assurance/control during the entire process to make sure any changes are in line with the needs expressed by customers (testing and quality assurance are too often overlooked until the very end)
• tracking problems and anomalies as well as tracking measures taken to address them

Managing stakeholders and their expectations requires a lot more thought than we often assume. In the case of SOQUIJ, they came up with a series of clear roles: a dedicated project manager, a project sponsor, a person to act as the representative of the customers, the project team, testers, etc. All clearly delineated roles.

Frédérique Tessier, project coordinator at Éducaloi, an award-winning website for public legal education, took the audience through the recent redesign of the site which included the complete reorganization of its content as well as migration to a new open source platform. The organization asked an outside firm to evaluate a list of prospective agencies who could manage the project in cooperation with Éducaloi members and external contributors (lawyer-writers). One was eventually chosen to lead the project.

Finding content seemed to be one problem with the old site. 10 users were recruited for a card sorting exercise to categorize the site’s hundreds of articles into a clearer classification scheme based on 10 broad topics (e.g. family), then broken down into nodes (“divorce”) and then into narrower areas (“child support”). On the page of any given article on the new site, there are links to other material within the same node and topic as well as in related nodes under different topics.

The final presenter at that session was François Montreuil, director of IT at Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ). He focussed on streamlining stakeholder management during major technology projects.

BAnQ used to run projects with a 15-19 member project management committee to represent each sector of the institution, plus legal and the government. Meetings were long, unwieldy and many people were only there to defend their idea or turf. A new executive committee was created with 7 people that meets before the larger committee. It invites stakeholders to address it according to need and expertise and they are asked to leave after they have made their presentation. Actual projects are run by project teams with specific mandates and deadlines.

All three sessions presenters agreed there is no perfect structure for handling major technological projects. Whatever the structure adopted, clear communications with users and clear documentation and reporting are key elements.

The bulletin covers the impact of new social media such as Twitter and Facebook on court proceedings, the ethical implications of judges and court staff using new media, and court policy issues relating to these technologies. Most of the stories are about the United States.

In this issue:

• Oregon juror jailed for texting during trial
• AOCs [administrative offices of the courts] and high courts using social media: an update
• Courts on Yelp
• Michigan launches latest video in Court Stories series

The bulletin is published by the Virginia-based National Center for State Courts and the Conference of Court Public Information Officers. There is occasionally material about non-US matters.

The Canadian Centre for Court Technology last year published a very useful compilation of existing court policies on the issue from across Canada.

From the presentation:

The 13th annual architecture series features two new buildings and four remodels/renovations from two public law libraries, one law firm, and three academic libraries. Both new buildings aim to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certifications. In Baltimore, the library transitioned from occupying two floors to being spread over six, and in Denver, the new library bridges print and electronic.

In Seattle, the law firm library shrank and kept satellite libraries because users wanted them. In San Diego, the library staff imagined a future law library where both Aristotle and Lady Gaga could enjoy reading.

In Kansas City, students can now easily enter the library from the law school classrooms, while in Boise the library expresses the vision of its founder and the community.

(…) when will we begin an organized, comprehensive preservation/digitization project for our historical law collections? Preservation must procede hand-in-hand with digital access. The Internet Archive and Hathi Trust (for monographs), and JSTOR and Ontario’s Scholars Portal (for journals – unfortunately not open-access) are a start, but we need something for Law. The recently-announced LIPA (Legal Information Preservation Alliance)-NELLCO (New England Law Library Consortium) PalmPrint collaborative initiative is a giant step in this direction and a great model for Canada. In addition to the obvious benefits for our libraries, both in law firms and law schools, nothing could contribute more directly and immediately to access to legal information and access to justice generally than a freely-accessible, web-based collection of pre-1990 Canadian legal materials, both primary and secondary.

Recent trends have only increased the level of concern about the preservation and archiving of both older, historical documents and current publications.

Annette L. Demers, President-Elect of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries, wrote last week to the Canadian government outlining her fears that federal budget cuts could affect long-term access to Canadian legal information:

Publications currently slated for migration to electronic-only formats include the Debates of the House of Commons and the Debates of the Senate, the Journals of the House of Commons and the Journals of the Senate, bills, Committee Reports and other Parliamentary publications. So far, the Gazette, the Statutes of Canada, the Supreme Court Reports, the Federal Court Reports and the Treaty Series will continue to be disseminated in print. Although the DSP [Depository Services Program of Public Works and Government Services Canada] will continue to disseminate information through publications.gc.ca, there is no evidence that the government has a long-term strategy for archiving legislative information.

The 2013 budget now promises more of the same, by promising that 'the Government will take steps to modernize the production and distribution of government publications by shifting to electronic publishing and making print publications the exception. The President of the Treasury Board will develop and implement new procedures that will require all publications to be available electronically and will allow printing only under specific circumstances,' and fails to provide any hard web-archiving strategy. The Treasury Board's current web archiving strategy absolutely is not designed to provide Canadian Citizens with perpetual historical access to essential government documents (…)

(…) the government’s responsibility to provide access to the law and to legislative information should be considered constitutionally protected as a necessary precondition to fundamental justice. Legislative information is the spring from which all rights flow in our democracy.

If implemented without a comprehensive, properly resourced, long-term strategy to preserve legislative information, these budget cuts and policy directions will have an irreversible effect on our democracy for years to come.

There seem to be many very promising and exciting initiatives undertaken in and outside of government that deal with bits and pieces of the overall puzzle, for example see the Slaw.ca post on Full Collection of Digitized Federal Hansards by 2015? But a full comprehensive national strategy that covers the full breadth of materials of interest has yet to emerge.

The past few weeks have a very busy time for law reform commissions. A sampling of reports:

• New Zealand Law Commission Report on Regulation of the Media: the review was prompted by concern about the disparities in the legal and ethical standards that apply to news as a result of the emergence of new web-based publishers and the convergence of mainstream print and broadcast media online
• Law Reform Commission of Saskatchewan Consultation Paper on Foreclosures: "Foreclosure involves lengthy legal proceedings taken in the Court of Queen’s Bench and is governed by several statutes, including the LCAA. As the Court of Queen’s Bench for Saskatchewan noted recently, 'The Land Contracts (Actions) Act is consumer protection legislation intended to provide mortgagors with a degree of protection by requiring mortgagees to first seek leave of the court before they are permitted to commence foreclosure proceedings.' The LCAA is 70 year old legislation, having been enacted in 1943. This consultation paper considers the steps required by the LCAA for residential mortgages and whether they are still necessary or desirable." The paper reviews the mortgage remedies available in other Canadian common law provinces; reviews the recommendations respecting mortgage remedies made by other Canadian law reform agencies; presents the need for reform of the Act; and offers possible approaches to reform the Act.
• Law Commission of England and Wales Consultation Paper on Conservation Covenants: "A conservation covenant is a voluntary agreement between a landowner and responsible body (charity, public body or local/central Government) to do or not do something on their land for a conservation purpose. This might be, for example, an agreement to maintain a woodland and allow public access to it, or to refrain from using certain pesticides on native vegetation. These agreements are long lasting and continue after the landowner has parted with the land, ensuring that its conservation value is protected for the public benefit. Conservation covenants are used in many other jurisdictions, but do not exist in the law of England and Wales (…)" The paper looks at the legal situation in a number of jurisdictions, including Scotland, Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
• Law Commission of Ontario Final Report on Vulnerable Workers and Precarious Work: "In Ontario today there are fewer full-time, well-paid jobs with good benefits and more precarious jobs with lower wages, poor job security, few benefits and little control over working conditions. Workers doing this kind of work are 'vulnerable' because of the job insecurity and other conditions. Women, racialized persons, immigrants, temporary migrant workers, persons with disabilities, youth, Aboriginal persons and non-status workers are more likely than others to hold precarious jobs (…) The Law Commission of Ontario (LCO)’s Report on Vulnerable Workers and Precarious Work makes 47 recommendations for changes to laws, policies and programs relating to employment protections, health and safety and training and education." [from the summary]
• New Zealand Law Commission Report on Review of the Evidence Act 2006: "We have tried to describe how the law has got to its present state so that there is in existence one document setting out clearly the evolution, interpretation, and operational readiness of the law of evidence. In taking that course we hope that the report will thereby not only fulfil its task of reporting to the Minister, but be useful to the profession, the judiciary, and policy-makers for future reference as well. As to the content of the review, we are gratified that there is widespread acceptance that the original evidence project was a thoroughly important and worthwhile initiative in New Zealand law. It has overwhelmingly met the objectives of its proposers and the needs of users. The Evidence Act is the first port of call in the practice of evidence law in New Zealand."
• Law Commission of England and Wales Analysis of Responses on Consultation on Unfitness to Plead: "We published our consultation paper on 27 October 2010, which contained our provisional proposals for comprehensive reform of the law on unfitness to plead in England and Wales. We received over 50 responses and we have published our analysis of those responses. We are now preparing our final recommendations for reform in light of the responses. The project draws on relevant empirical evidence and comparative jurisdictions in an attempt to identify better and more up-to-date legal tests and rules for determining fitness to plead and the subsequent procedure for the examination of the facts. Other important questions to be answered include: How do special measures relate to the test of unfitness? Should the procedure in the magistrates’ courts mirror that in the Crown Court? What should the process for dealing with a defendant be when he or she has been found unfit to plead? At a hearing to deal with a defendant found unfit, what issues can be raised by the defendant? In particular, can the 'defences' of accident, mistake and self-defence be raised? We anticipate that our next publication on this project will be a report towards the end of 2014."

There is always a chance that a law commission has looked at a legal issue you may be working on. Slaw.ca collaborator Ted Tjaden has a section on how to find law reform commission reports on his legal research writing website.

Reading some of the articles got me feeling a little bit paranoid:

The internet has a long memory. But what if the pictures, data and personal information that it can pull up about you appear unfair, one-sided or just plain wrong? More and more people are claiming they have a "right to be forgotten" and are even trying to delete themselves from the web. The issue appears poised to generate legal, technological and moral wranglings for years to come

Among the articles in the series are:

• How easy is it to delete yourself from the web – your experiences : "There are many reasons you may want to try and delete yourself from the web from fake social media accounts and compromising photographs to long outgrown views. Guardian readers share their experiences of attempts to delete an unwanted online presence."
• Right to erasure protects people's freedom to forget the past, says expert: "He describes himself as the 'midwife' of the idea of the right to be forgotten. And for Viktor Mayer-Schönberger , it's not just about the legal, moral and technical arguments – but about what it is to be human."
• How to delete your digital life: "Wiping away your digital life means getting rid of the traces you've left – the mistakes you made, the embarrassing photos, the unwise comments, the flawed social media profiles where you've left too much visible. But how easy is that? The following steps provide a start to reducing your digital footprint and taking back control of your online life."
• Do below-the-line commenters have the right to remove their own comments?: "A politician makes a joke which she later regrets. A footballer says something on the pitch which he quickly realises was unfortunate. A person leaves a comment beneath an article which he then wishes he hadn't made. All can now be found reported online accurately. All of these people have all expressed an opinion they later regret. Which of them have the legal right to have their words deleted upon request?"

Currently, pre-1900 debates are available in digital format on the Canadiana.org subscription website. Senate debates from 1996 onwards and House of Commons debates from 1994 onwards are available online on the parliamentary website.

LOP has teamed up with Canadiana.org in a five-year collaborative effort to create a free-of-charge portal that will offer searchable access to federal Hansards going back to the years of Confederation.

According to the schedule presented at the NCALL meeting:

• 2013 will see the release on the new free portal of all pre-1900 Hansards already available via the subscription product known as Early Canadiana Online, as well as the loading of Hansards from 1988 to the mid-1990s
• in the 2013-14 fiscal year, Hansards from 1940 to 1987 will be processed and loaded
• in the 2014-15 fiscal year, Hansards from 1900 to 1939 will be processed and loaded
• in Years 4 and 5 of the project, there will be ongoing maintenance and enhancements as dollars permit

The material will be organized by parliamentary session and PDF pages will be at the level of individual sitting days.

The total budget for the 5-year digitization effort is around $325,000.

Things will never be perfect of course. With older items, there may be problems with the quality of the print originals used for digital scanning. And while the topical Indexes for each of the older parliamentary sessions will be searchable, there won't be links from any particular index item to the corresponding Hansard page(s).

Organized by the Canadian Bar Association, the Awards recognize "outstanding journalism that fosters public awareness and understanding of any aspect of the Canadian justice system and the roles played by institutions and participants in the legal system".

There are awards for French or English stories in two categories: print and broadcast media.

The judges evaluate submissions based on "accuracy, originality, effectiveness in explaining issues to the public, informational value, and insight".

The rules state (among other things):

• Any article published in Canada in print or posted on a Canadian-based website, or report/program broadcast in Canada, about the Canadian legal system between May 16, 2012 and April 30, 2013. If an article or posting or report/program is published or broadcast more than once, it is the original date that will determine its eligibility.
• A series of articles/programs/postings will be considered as one entry.
• A series of articles or stories/reports/postings prepared by a group and presented together will be considered as one entry. A maximum of three stories/reports/postings may be submitted as a single entry.
• The majority of the articles or stories/reports/postings must have been published during the eligibility period

The first Justicia Awards were handed out in 2000. The website has a complete list of winners from previous years. From the list, it looks like the CBC and Radio-Canada blow away the competition (11 awards in all).

As well, the report, entitled Spirit Matters: Aboriginal People and the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, shows that aboriginal inmates are sentenced to longer terms, spend more time in segregation and maximum security and are less likely to be granted parole.

Among the highlights of the report:

• since 2005-06, there has been a 43% increase in the Aboriginal inmate population
• 23% of the federal incarcerated population is Aboriginal (they are 4% of the overall population)
• one in three federally sentenced women offenders are Aboriginal
• highest concentration in the Prairie Region
• recent growth in correctional populations is primarily attributable to rising number of Aboriginal admissions and readmissions

The report examined the implementation of Sections 81 and 84 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (CCRA). It tried to do so in the context of Supreme Court of Canada judgments in R. v. Gladue, [1999] 1 S.C.R. 688 that instructed judges to pay particular attention to the unique circumstances of Aboriginal people and their social histories when determining a suitable sentence for Aboriginal offenders.

Section 81 of the Act allows for agreements to transfer care and custody of an Aboriginal offender who would otherwise be held in a federal penitentiary to an Aboriginal community facility.

Section 84 provides for Aboriginal communities to be involved in the release of an Aboriginal offender returning to their community.

In relation to s. 81, the report found:

• only four Section 81 agreements have been concluded with Aboriginal communities since 1992
• there are only 68 Section 81 bed spaces across Canada (capacity for just 2% of some 3,500 Aboriginal inmates)
• no Section 81 agreements have been signed in BC, ON, Atlantic or in the North
• no new Section 81 facility has been added since 2001, despite a 40% increase in Aboriginal incarceration
• three of four Section 81 facilities are on reserve land, yet most Aboriginal offenders are released to an urban setting

In relation to s. 84, the major shortcomings underlined by the report were:

• under-utilized in federal corrections (of some 19,000 federal correctional services employees, just 12 Aboriginal Community Development Officers)
• overly complex and bureaucratic exercises
• not well understood within or outside the federal correctional service

The report came up with a number of recommendations to help correctional services address factors that would help mitigate the chronic over-representation of Aboriginal people in federal penitentiaries. Among those recommendations are:

• creating the position of Deputy Commissioner for Aboriginal Corrections to coordinate programs
• developing a long-term strategy for additional Section 81 agreements and significantly increasing the number of bed spaces in areas where the need exists
• in all these agreements, correctional services should enter into Memoranda of Understanding with the appropriate agency or First Nation leadership to ensure that the leadership and Elders are involved as equal partners
• expanding staff training curricula to include in-depth training about Aboriginal people, history, culture and spirituality for all staff, including training in the application of Gladue principles to correctional decision-making
• partnering with Aboriginal organizations to develop protocols for Section 84 releases into their respective communities

The Correctional Investigator acts as an ombudsman for federal offenders, investigating and solving individual offender complaints.

The conference brings together people from the Legal Information Institutes (LIIs) from different countries and continents that together form the Free Access to Law Movement.

The conference "tracks" will be:

• E-Learning: distance, blended, open, mobile, gaming, MOOCing and more?
• Online legal information – starting from scratch
• Legal knowledge in the age of the semantic web
• Communicating our work: journals, blogs and other ways of publishing about open access
• Privacy v open government in legal publishing
• Emerging patterns of information access and usage
• Technological development and free access to law

The goal of the LIIs is to maximize free access to public legal information such as legislation and case law from as many countries and international institutions as possible. CanLII, the Canadian Legal Information Institute, is a prominent member of the movement.

It is written by by Dante Figueroa, Senior Legal Information Analyst at the Law Library of Congress:

Since the last papal resignation was nearly 600 years ago, this month’s announcement took the world by surprise and resulted in many questions. I will address several of the most important juridical questions arising from Pope Benedict’s resignation, for which there are responses in current Canon law, as well as other questions for which there are no canonical rules or precedents.

Some of those questions are:

• To whom does the Pontiff present his resignation?
• What title will the outgoing Pontiff have?
• What role will former Pope Benedict have in the government of the Holy See?
• Who administers the Holy See in the interregnum (between the Papal resignation and the assumption of the new Supreme Pontiff)?
• What administrative acts may be carried out during the Sede Vacante [vacancy], and who may order or supervise them?

The next post by Figueroa will explain the canonical rules governing the election of the future Pope.

One of the subsets is the Law Network, which already has more than 100,000 articles from 170 institutions. The institutions all seem to be U.S. universities.

It is possible to sign up for free to follow all new legal scholarship, content in a specific practice area, from a specific institution or author.

This appears to be an interesting complement to the Social Science Research Network (SSRN). The SSRN Abstract Database has abstracts on over 466,400 scholarly working papers and forthcoming papers and an Electronic Paper Collection currently containing over 378,900 downloadable full text documents in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. One of the SSRN subdivisions is the Legal Scholarship Network (which does have Canadian content).

To find out more about any particular case
, the Court's website has a section that allows users to find docket information, case summaries as well as factums from the parties. All you need to do is click on a case name.

It is also possible to follow any hearing live via webcast. Webcasts are then archived on the Court's website.

It provides access to over 340,000 electronic provincial, territorial and federal government publications and legislative materials dating back in some cases to the mid-1990s.

Users can search by keyword, title, author, and then link to the electronic copies of the materials hosted by the collecting library. Results can be cross‐jurisdictional or limited by jurisdiction or date.

APLIC provides a table describing the types of material as well as the coverage period for each jurisdiction.

According to a press release published by the Court:

"Video of the five-minute summary given by the lead Justice in each appeal as they deliver their judgment will now be posted on the popular video-sharing website YouTube shortly after delivery in court. The move follows the success of the Court’s live web streaming of proceedings provided in partnership with Sky News (…)"

"The Justices’ summaries aim to explain briefly the background to the appeal in hand, the decision the court has reached, and the reasons for that decision. They will now be available online for law students, professionals and anyone interested in the outcome of an appeal to watch at their convenience."

More from the British press:

• The supreme court's YouTube channel is a welcome step for open justice (The Guardian, January 21, 2013)
• Video footage from the UK's most powerful court to be posted on YouTube shortly after rulings (Daily Mail, January 21, 2013)
• YouTube Channel for Court Judgments (Daily Express, January 21, 2013)
• Thumbs up if you like it: court rulings go on YouTube (The Times, January 21, 2013)

The discussion covered the wide range of rules and practices in Canada, the different considerations surrounding the use of social media by reporters, court personnel, lawyers and jurors, as well as the CCCT's Draft National Guidelines Regarding the Use of Electronic Communication Devices in Court Proceedings (Twitter, blogging etc.).

As one can see in the CCCT's very useful compilation of existing court policies on the issue from across the country, rules are truly all over the map.

South the of the border, there is a bulletin called Connected that covers the impact of new social media such as Twitter and Facebook on court proceedings, the ethical implications of judges and court staff using new media, and court policy issues relating to these technologies.

It is published by the Virginia-based National Center for State Courts and the Conference of Court Public Information Officers.

Most of the stories are about the United States, but there is occasionally material about non-US matters.

For each case listed, there is a summary of the issues involved.

And if you go to the scheduled hearings page and click on the name of any of the cases, you will be able to find the factums filed by the parties.

It honours a publisher (whether for-profit or not-for profit, corporate or non-corporate) that has demonstrated excellence by publishing a work, series, website or e-product that makes a significant contribution to legal research and scholarship.

Members as well as non-members of CALL can make nominations. Criteria are explained on the Award website (see link in first sentence).

The deadline for sending in nominations is February 15, 2013.

Members of the Award Selection Committee are:

• Justice Eric (Rick) Libman, Ontario Court of Justice
• John Davis, Professor Emeritus, Osgoode Hall Law School
• Michael Decore, Manager of Information Resources and Access, Alberta Law Libraries,
• George Tsiakos, Instructional Librarian, University of British Columbia Law Library, Vancouver

The Committee is chaired by CALL Past President, Rosalie Fox, who runs the library and information management branch at the Supreme Court of Canada.

The award honours Hugh Lawford (1933-2009), Professor of Law at Queens’ University and the founder of Quicklaw.

The award will be presented to the recipient at a reception during the 2013 CALL Annual Meeting in Montreal.

You can find information about past award winners and the nomination process on the CALL website.

The following top ten list caught my attention today. I saw it on a feed of stories sent out by Amnesty International.

The London-based Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB) has published its Top 10 List of Business and Human Rights Issues for 2013:

"Just 18 months after the adoption of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, significant progress has been made in integrating human rights concerns into a range of important initiatives by governments, businesses and other actors around the world."

"The success of the first annual UN Forum on Business and Human Rights highlighted the growing momentum of the business and human rights movement globally. But ongoing protection gaps remain to be addressed and recent reminders of wide scale abuses of fundamental worker rights point to challenges for 2013 and beyond."

"These developments, and the results of a public consultation process, provide the frame for today's release by IHRB of our 4th annual list of Business and Human Rights issues to mark International Human Rights Day."

The issues are:

• Embedding respect for human rights across all business relationships
• Expanding action to combat forced labour and human trafficking
• Tackling challenges of dual-use internet-based technologies that may undermine privacy rights and freedom of expression
• Advancing uptake of the UN Guiding Principles in key enabling sectors including finance, ICT and infrastructure
• Leveraging government as an economic actor through public procurement policies that ensure respect for human rights
• Renewing efforts to protect lives in the work-place
• Mitigating the ‘resource curse’ by preventing negative human rights impacts of oil and gas exploration
• Linking respect for human rights to calls for greater transparency in lobbying by businesses
• Ensuring responsible investment in conflict-affected and 'high risk' areas
• Addressing the impacts of land and water grabs linked to transport, fishing, security, mineral extraction and other sectors

Professor John Ruggie of Harvard University is the chair of IHRB's International Advisory Board. He served as the UN Special Representative for Business and Human Rights from 2005 to 2011. During his mandate, he drafted the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights mentioned above.

BAILII stands for the British and Irish Legal Information Institute, which makes English jurisprudence and statutes available for free via the Internet. It is the equivalent of CanLII.

Entitled No judgment, no justice, the lecture focused on the importance of clearly written judgments and their wide dissemination:

1. Access to Judgments carries with it access to law and access to justice, for lawyers, judges, academics and litigants, and all others interested in or concerned with any aspect of the law. BAILII, which also gives access to statutes, provides a unique and constitutionally vital service for UK citizens and others, which as the number of self-represented litigants, as litigants-in-person are now known, inevitably increases, will become even more important.
2. Judgments are the means through which the judges address the litigants and the public at large, and explain their reasons for reaching their conclusions. Judges are required to exercise judgement - and it is clear that without such judgement we would not have a justice system worthy of the name – and they give their individual judgement expression through their Judgments. Without judgement there would be no justice. And without Judgments there would be no justice, because decisions without reasons are certainly not justice: indeed, they are scarcely decisions at all. It is therefore an absolute necessity that Judgments are readily accessible. Such accessibility is part and parcel of what it means for us to ensure that justice is seen to be done, to borrow from Lord Hewart CJ's famous phrase.
3. With that in mind, I want to focus on the importance of two fundamental requirements of any justice system worthy of the name, and the role they play in securing effective access to justice. Those requirements are (i) judges giving publicly available, reasoned Judgments and (ii) the reliable dissemination and reporting of Judgments. I propose to start by looking at the importance of Judgments themselves, after which I will discuss the nature and importance of disseminating and reporting.

This past month, 3 law commission reports from England and New Zealand caught my attention for how they incorporated a comparative law approach:

• The Law Commission of New Zealand released an Issues Paper on the use of financial penalties by enforcement agencies to punish corporations and individuals for breaches of the law. The document briefly examines the situation in a number of other jurisdictions, including Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and Germany.
• The same commission also released an Issues Paper on Joint and Several Liability. The Law Commission had previously reviewed this area of law in the 1990s. The current paper summarizes the previous reports, as well as comparing the New Zealand approach to that in Australia, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
• The English Law Commission has launched a consultation on the balance between the right to publish and the right of a defendant to a fair trial. It looks at contempt by publication, contempt committed by jurors and contempt committed through new social media. The Commission has provided quite a number of consultation documents, including one on contempt of court in other jurisdictions including Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Ireland.

What is this legislative creature?

The Library of Parliament recently published a paper entitled Omnibus Bills: Frequently Asked Questions that tries to get to the bottom of the issue:

Omnibus bills have been used for decades by governments of various political stripes as a vehicle to propose certain kinds of legislation to Parliament. While their use is well entrenched in Canadian parliamentary practice, it is nonetheless often seen as an exception to the usual legislative process. Whenever omnibus bills are introduced, similar questions arise about their nature, admissibility, appropriateness, and other matters. Yet few, if any, studies have attempted to answer those recurring questions.

The purpose of this paper is to provide answers to some of the most frequently raised questions about omnibus bills.

The paper:

• defines what is an omnibus bill
• examines its historical origins
• asks whether it is procedurally admissible
• provides a few examples of "famous" omnibus bills
• goes over the arguments pro and con their use

Earlier posts by Slawyers on the question of omnibus bills include:

• The Unreasonable and Transgressive Nature of Omnibus Bills (Michael Posluns, June 24, 2011)
• Omni Odds and Omni Ends (Mark Lewis, June 15, 2012)

"The study proposes new tools to address abusive, inappropriate, disproportionate and wasteful litigation conduct. It also identifies a number of steps – many novel – to improve access to the Federal Courts, particularly by self-represented parties. "

"The study is the product of a comprehensive policy review of the practices and procedures of the Federal Courts. A national subcommittee chaired by Justice David Stratas and comprised of thirteen judges, prothonotaries, lawyers and court personnel conducted the policy review. " (…)

"Overall, the subcommittee found that, by and large, the practices and procedures of the Federal Courts work well. However, it urged that certain reforms be made to meet contemporary needs and circumstances."

"Under the proposals, the vast majority of litigants – those who conduct their cases reasonably – will see little change. But those few who engage in abusive, inappropriate and disproportionate litigation conduct may find themselves on the receiving end of stiff new measures. The study decries the costs they impose on other litigants and the Federal Courts system. "

"Noting the rising tide of litigation conducted by self-represented parties, the study urges a top-to-bottom examination of the rules to make them more understandable and accessible and offers tangible ideas for the aggressive use of web technologies to make self-help by lay-litigants a reality. It also recommends judicial education on the creative but acceptable ways in which the rules can be used to further access to justice."

The full text of the report is available on the website of the Courts Administration Service.

More background:

• Federal Courts Rules Global Review (Simon Chester, Slaw.ca, October 18, 2011)
• Federal Courts eyeing plain-language Internet help for self-represented litigants (Ottawa Citizen, November 12, 2012)
• Federal judges take steps to curb nuisance lawsuits (Globe and Mail, November 14, 2012)

Every week, 2 teams of university debaters face off on a controversial public topic. Members of the public get to vote online to determine which team wins. All shows are archived on the Droit de Cité website.

The show started in the second half of October and will last 31 weeks.

Topics so far have included:

• Should Quebec set up its own firearms registry?
• Should the City of Montreal install residential water meters?
• Should Quebec political parties get all of their financing from the government?

This week's topic is government subsidies to private schools.

The Quebec Bar Association has shown itself to be quite ambitious and innovative in recent years when it comes to public legal education initiatives . The Barreau is already the co-producer of the television series Le Droit de savoir ("The Right to Know") on the Canal savoir channel in Quebec. The series is currently in its 3rd season.

The Centre brings together justice system partners such as the Canadian Judicial Council, the Canadian Bar Association and the Federal, Provincial and Territorial Deputy Ministers of Justice to look at how technology can improve the efficiency amd effectiveness of the court system in Canada.

At the meeting, the CCCT released Draft National Guidelines Regarding the Use of Electronic Communication Devices in Court Proceedings (Twitter, blogging etc.)

It also published a very useful compilation of existing court policies on the issue from across the country.

South the of the border, there is a bulletin called Connected that covers the impact of new social media such as Twitter and Facebook on court proceedings, the ethical implications of judges and court staff using new media, and court policy issues relating to these technologies.

It is published by the Virginia-based National Center for State Courts and the Conference of Court Public Information Officers.

Most of the stories are about the United States, but there is occasionally material about non-US matters.

Earlier this month, the Library published Bioethics Legislation in Selected Countries:

"This report examines the field of bioethics from an international and regional legal perspective. It focuses on major international law documents such as the United Nations Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights and UNESCO declarations on human cloning and the human genome. Coverage of regional legal instruments includes the Council of Europe Convention on HumanRights and Biomedicine (the Oviedo Convention) and its Protocols on cloning, transplantation, and research with human beings. Work on surrogacy issues by the Hague Conference on Private International Law is also discussed, as are some African regional legal instruments on biosafety."

The individual countries covered are the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, China, Israel, India, Kenya, New Zealand, Brazil and Russia.

Earlier comparative law reports from the Law Library of Congress include:

• Campaign Finance
• Children's Rights
• Constitutional Provisions on Women's Equality
• Education of Non-Native Language Speaking Children
• Foreign Aid Regulation
• Habeas Corpus Rights
• Online Privacy Law
• Repatriation of Historic Human Remains (return of indigenous remains and cultural items)
• Sex Selection & Abortion

In her introduction, Kate Hagan, Executive Director of AALL, writes:

This joint white paper acknowledges the strategic alliance that has developed between the law librarian and technologist in driving efficient and effective legal information management. The library is no longer a place; instead, it has been transformed, using technology to deliver legal information from anywhere (…)

Learn more about how technology is being used to deliver customized access points to information, embed information professionals within practice groups and deliver innovation in law schools.

From the table of contents:

• Embedded Librarianship: The Library As a Service, Not a Space
• SharePoint: A Librarian's Most Versatile Tool
• Driving Resource Usage Through SharePoint Customization
• Knowledge Management: A Strategic Role Change for Legal Information Professionals
• ITIL Concepts To Improve Library and Research Services
• Never Standing Still: True Stories of the Changing Role of Law Librarians
• Pave the Way to Success with iPad Apps
• The Challenges of E-Books in Law Firm Libraries
• Tech Innovation in the Academy
• Sell a Solution to Their Problems: Training Today's Lawyers

The conference brings together people from the Legal Information Institutes (LIIs) from different countries and continents that together form the Free Access to Law Movement.

Many of the presentations are already online.

Three Australian scholars who took part in the conference, Andrew Mowbray, Philip Chung, and Graham Greenleaf, published an interesting overview of the Free Access to Law concept. Their paper, The Meaning of 'Free Access to Legal Information': A Twenty Year Evolution, is available on the website of the Social Science Research Network:

"The paper first reviews previous implied and explicit attempts to answers this question, identifying six principal attempts: (i) the example set by the LII (Cornell) and LexuM in the early 90s; (ii) AustLII’s 1995 formulation of the obligations of official publishers; (iii) the 2002 Declaration on Free Access to Law; (iv) the ‘Guiding Principles’ for States formulated by a 2008 expert meeting convened by the Hague Conference on Private International Law; (v) the ‘Law.Gov principles’ developed by Public Resources.org in 2010; and (vi) the draft Uniform Electronic Legal Materials Act recommended in 2011 by the US National Conference of Commissioners of Uniform State Laws."

"Analysis of these six formulations shows that, over the last twenty years, a substantial amount of international consensus has developed on what ‘free access to legal information’ now means. Up to 30 separate principles can be identified. Most are found in more that one statement of principles, and many are now relatively common in the practices of both States and providers of free access to legal information (both government and NGO providers). Many concern measure to avoid the development of monopolies in the publication of the core legal documents of a jurisdiction. Which principles are essential to the meaning of ‘free access to legal information’, and which are only desirable, is usually clear."

"Two complementary meanings of ‘free access to legal information’ emerge from this analysis. The first states the obligations of the State in relation to ensuring free access to legal information – but not necessarily providing it. The key elements concern the right of republication. The second meaning states the conditions under which an organisation can correctly be said to be a provider of free access to legal information. We argue that a better definition is needed than the ‘consensus’ suggests, and suggest one which is based on avoiding conflicts with maximising the quality and quantity of free access."

"One use of such a set of principles is to help evaluate the extent to which any particular jurisdiction has implemented free access to legal information. A brief example is given of Australia, a county with a generally good record but some deficiencies."

"Finally the paper considers what steps should be taken to most effectively realise a reformulated concept of ‘free access to legal information’, by civil society (including legal information institutes), by States at the national level, and at the international level."

2012 marks the 20th Anniversary of the Legal Information Institute at Cornell, the first of the LIIs. It is also the 10th Anniversary of the Declaration on Free Access to Law.

The goal of the LIIs is to maximize free access to public legal information such as legislation and case law from as many countries and international institutions as possible.

CanLII, the Canadian Legal Information Institute, is a prominent member of the movement.

They occasionally have guest bloggers and this month's guest will be a real treat for history buffs, archive geeks, hard core freedom of information fans and investigative reporter types: Malcolm Byrne from the National Security Archive, a non-governmental organization based at George Washington University that specializes in declassified documents.

His first post is about the Archive's work on the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis:

For anyone who loves anniversaries, this month is a biggie. Fifty years ago the world survived one of the seminal events of the nuclear age — the Cuban missile crisis. I mention it because almost from the very start, the National Security Archive’s been an active promoter of studying the crisis (we’ll have a series of postings of the latest findings on our site in the coming weeks), and it makes for a good case study of what our organization’s mission is and how we go about our work (…)

The Cuban missile crisis project in many ways became a model for our other historical documentation projects at the National Security Archive, including studies of U.S. policy toward the Vietnam War, the Soviet Union and the superpower rivalry, a series of crises in Eastern Europe during the Cold War, and more. Most of the basic stories of these projects are available on our site and, as mentioned, the underlying documentation we and our partners and colleagues around the world have collected is also available here in Washington, D.C.

The National Security Archive was founded in 1985 by journalists and scholars and it combines the activities of an investigative journalism centre, a research institute on international affairs, and a library with a massive collection of declassified U.S. documents.

It has launched access to information lawsuits against the U.S. government, many of which have been successful, forcing the declassification of documents such as the Kennedy-Khrushchev letters during the Cuban Missile Crisis, previously censored photographs of flag-draped coffins of U.S. casualties from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan being unloaded at night at airforce bases, and documents that led to the conviction of a ranking military officer on human rights abuse charges in Guatemala.

Staff members and fellows have written over 60 books, many of which have won prizes including the Pulitzer Prize and the U.S. National Book Award.

Its website hosts more than one million pages of previously censored or secret government documents and constitutes one of the largest and most complete online archives of contemporary history.

It is based at George Washington University's Gelman Library. It receives no funding from government sources.

Earlier this week, In Custodia Legis, the blog of the Law Library of Congress, ran an interview with Meg Peters, an Information Architect in its Office of Strategic Initiatives. She is part of the team that designed the new site.

Since October 2010, In Custodia Legis has been running an interview series featuring members of the library staff. There are over 80 interviews in the series so far. The Law Library of Congress is the world’s largest law library, with a collection of over 2.65 million volumes spanning the ages and covering virtually every jurisdiction in the world.

Many of the employees who have been interviewed have fascinating jobs and fascinating stories to tell. For example, one staffer explained a few weeks ago:

(…) Many people think of libraries as dry, uninteresting and on the sidelines of modern life. Perhaps I can use two facts to demonstrate one point: libraries today still provide a vital public service, and that is especially true of the Law Library. Only a few years ago the Law Library played a key role in assisting the Afghan government. The Taliban had destroyed all copies of Afghan official documents, leaving the Karzai government with very little documentation on which to base their legal system. The Law Library had a considerable collection of pre-Taliban legal documents and was thus in a position to help the Karzai government restore its basic legal documents and subsequent precedents developed under the pre-Taliban legal system.

The Law Library also played a similar supporting role in the 1990s. Probably not many people know that Dr. Oleg G. Rumiantsev, who is sometimes referred to as the Russian James Madison [author of the US Bill of Rights and one of the 'Fathers' of the US Constitution], used the Law Library’s collection in drafting the new Russian constitution. Dr. Rumiantsev, who was then in the United States, was a frequent visitor to the Law Library and he drew extensively on its legal collection, particularly focusing on examples of constitutions that contained the checks and balances typical in western constitutions.

The third season of the television series "Le Droit de Savoir" (The right to know) began on Quebec cable TV on September 18th on the Canal savoir channel (with repeats on the Télé-Québec public educational network in the summer of 2013).

The French-language series is a co-production of the Quebec Bar Association. Lawyers already write the deals for TV and film projects. So, why not just jump into producing the material itself?

Episodes in the coming season will feature reports on topics such as aboriginal law, maritime law, the court martial process, sniffer dogs and the work of border service personnel.

Episode 1 of Season 3, which aired this Tuesday, can now be viewed on the show's website. It deals with driving under the influence, the BAPE (provincial environmental hearings commission), and the role of the Québec ombudsman. It also features a profile of Me Pierre Beauchamp, who is a lawyer and a professional airline pilot.

Full episodes from seasons 1 and 2 are archived on the website.

The reports are:

• Report of the Court Processes Simplification Working Group that identifies initiatives that reduce delays, minimize costs and have the potential to improve access to court services.
• Report of the Access to Legal Services Working Group Report that presents recommendations that address the need to create increased flexibility in the way that legal services are provided.

The National Action Committee is a broad-based committee established by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada Beverley McLachlin. It is chaired by Supreme Court of Canada Justice Thomas Cromwell. Members of the committee include the Canadian Bar Association, Justice Canada, and the Canadian Judicial Council. It works to identify ways to reduce barriers to access to the civil justice system.

"In his report, A Criminal Justice System for the 21st Century, Geoffrey Cowper, QC, chair of the Justice Reform Initiative, offers recommendations to government and the judiciary on ways to achieve overall timeliness, improve court and judicial administration and improve the experiences of victims and the community."

"Included in the review and also released today is a report from the Legal Services Society examining legal aid funding and a review of B.C.'s charge assessment process submitted by Gary McCuaig, QC."

The government commissioned the review earlier this year in response to frustration within the legal system because of lengthy delays.

Media reaction:

• Court report: 'Culture of delay' blamed for slow wheels of justice in B.C. (Vancouver Province)
• Criminal legal system in B.C. needs major overhaul: Cowper report (Vancouver Sun)
• B.C. courts need 'better and faster' system (CBC News)
• Sweeping report calls for B.C. justice system overhaul (Globe and Mail)
• Council would be responsible for managing criminal justice system (Times Colonist)

And August 2012 has been a very busy month for law reform commissions, with many of them bringing out publications on a range of topics. Here are a few examples:

• English Law Commission Consultation on Scandalising the Court (part of a larger project on contempt of court)
• English Law Commission Consultation Paper on Wildlife Law
• Law Commission of Ontario Interim Report on Vulnerable Workers
• New Zealand Law Commission Ministerial Briefing on Harmful Digital Communications (Cyber-Bullying)
• Tasmania Law Reform Institute Paper on Protecting Anonymity of Sexual Crime Victims
• Tasmania Law Reform Institute Proposes Banning Non-Therapeutic Male Circumcision

There is always a chance that a commission has looked at a legal issue you may be working on. Slaw.ca collaborator Ted Tjaden has a section on how to find law reform commission reports on his legal research writing website.

It would be a strange experience for most, but Charbonneau found a calling right away.

"I had the feeling that what was I doing there as a librarian was important," he said in The Current's [a CBC radio show] documentary "Shelf Life," adding, "I don't how many inmates have told me that they have never read a book before they were incarcerated. They had no idea about books and literature and now they're hooked."

 "As I discovered a new world in prison they discovered a new world in the library through literature and reading and that made me feel part of something useful."

This reminds me of a text I helped co-write in 2010 on Best practices for demonstrating the value of your library services . It was for the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL).

My co-author and I had asked CALL members to contribute any methods they had developed to prove the value of their library. Prison libraries are truly unique, I realized, when one CALL member who works in a Canadian jail sent in the following testimonial:

It has been noted on a number of occasions, when prison riots occur, that the library and the school are left alone and not trashed. I believe that this shows that these entities are seen as highly valuable resources even by a rampaging clientele.

How's that for proving your clients love ya?

The Association has identified four issues.

For each one, the website describes the current situation, outlines the Association's position, suggests questions for debate, and (when available) summarizes the proposals of the 5 main parties (Parti libéral du Québec, Parti québécois, Québec solidaire, Option nationale, and Coalition Avenir Québec).

The issues are:

• underinvestment in the justice system
• changes to the tax system to increase accessibility
• justice in the Northern half of the province
• convening a summit on justice in 2013

The bulletin covers news about the impact of new social media such as Twitter and Facebook on court proceedings, the ethical implications of judges and court staff using new media, and court policy issues relating to these technologies.

It is published by the Virginia-based National Center for State Courts and the Conference of Court Public Information Officers.

Most of the stories are about the United States, but there is occasionally material about non-US matters. One of this month's items is about a mistrial declared in a New Brunswick murder case because of a juror's Facebook activities (a story mentioned last week on Slaw by David Canton).

A recent article explaining the project, Digitising and searching Australasian colonial legal history, has been published on the Social Science Research Network:

"The paper explains the construction, content and features of the first version of the Library, which as of July 2012 contains 12 databases including one case law database from each of the seven colonies (including New Zealand), some of which are ‘recovered’ cases from newspaper reports, the complete annual legislation to 1900 from three of the colonies, plus legal scholarship concerning the colonial era. These databases provide over 20,000 documents so far, and the Victorian Government Gazette 1851-1900 another 200,000. The Library also includes the LawCite citator, which allows the subsequent citation history of any colonial case to be tracked, including if cited by courts outside Australasia."

"The medium term aim of this part of the ARC project (which extends to 1950 in its full scope) is to include all legislation, reported cases, and cases which can be ‘recovered’, from the inception of each colony to 1900. Scholarship (old and new) and key source materials are also being added, as budgets permit. We hope that the Library will be a leader in the creation of legal history resources from the colonial era."

Here in Canada, the Early Canadian Online collection (by subscription) has been doing a good job of making available digitized materials from Canada's pre-Confederation past and from the first decades of the post-1867 period. Its offerings include a large selection of Early Official Publications, a category covering government acts, bills, committee reports, court rules, debates, journals, ordinances, a selection of official publications from France and Great Britain, sessional papers, regulations, royal commission reports, and treaties.

It is the world’s largest law library, with a collection spanning many centuries as well as all jurisdictions of the planet.

And a glance at its website home page will give you some idea of the breadth of electronic material it makes available: international legal news, foreign legal materials, guides, databases and Congressional materials.

Happy Birthday!

I am sure many of you are thinking: 100m sprint, marathon, water polo, rhythmic gymnastics, pentathlon maybe.

Is it just me? I hear Olympics, and my mind starts imagining protests over athletes being excluded, the odd bribe here and there, a little bit of trade-mark infringement, a few doping scandals, maybe demonstrators being kettled and baton charged, which all leads to: lawsuits!

There are lots of resources out there to understand the legal aspects of this summer's London sportapalooza (and of sports in general):

• The most recent issue of Legal Information Management, a journal of the British and Irish Association of Law Libraries, is devoted to the Olympics and sports law. From the editorial: "The opening article, by Jack Anderson of Queens' University Belfast, defines the subject of sports law and argues that, in the truest sense, it has ‘arrived’ as a legal entity and an academic discipline. Mark James and Guy Osburn jointly discuss the legal status of the Olympic Charter and its interpretation by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. They also look at the impact of UK legislation in the context of the London Olympics. Simon Boyes reviews the literature in the field of sports law and traces its development to the current day. Esther Cho, of the John Wolff Comparative & International Law Library at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington DC, offers an essential, and detailed, research guide to the legal resources relating Olympic and international sports law. Meanwhile, Peter Charlish, of Sheffield Hallam University, tackles that most controversial, and often high profile, issue that affects sport, including the Olympics; the use of drugs. Away from the Olympics, Jonathan Morgan writes an insightful piece on The Jockey Club and judicial review and John Eaton, Librarian and Associate Professor of Law at the University of Manitoba, takes a look at gender equality in that most traditionally masculine of sports – Canadian ice hockey."
• The GlobaLex collection at the New York University School of Law has published a Research Guide on International Sports Law: "At its most noble level, sport is a powerful societal phenomenon that unites communities and fosters international exchange and friendship. At its basest level, the fervor sport induces can trigger violence and the desire to engage in illegal activities in order to gain a competitive edge. Moreover, at all levels, sport in today’s global community is about big money and the disputes that naturally follow. This guide is intended to highlight some of the resources researchers can use to explore the many aspects of international sports law. This guide covers the key institutions and organizations that govern international sports. Attention is paid to the structure and key documents of these institutions. Dispute settlement mechanisms for sport are included, with reference to sources of sports decisions. International treaties that relate to sports are listed, along with key policy documents. Finally, out of the many themes that arise in relation to international sports law, these themes are briefly covered in this guide: human rights, discrimination, violence, women and sports, and sports and the EU. "
• The Peace Palace Library in the Hague has produced 2 research guides, one on sports law, the other on the Olympics. Each provides the basic legal materials available in the Peace Palace Library, both in print and electronic format, handbooks, leading articles, bibliographies, periodicals, serial publications and documents of interest
• Exploring the Court of Arbitration for Sport: "The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), recognized as an emerging leader in international sports dispute resolution, was created specifically to address sports-related matters. Since its formation, the CAS has addressed a wide range of sports-related issues, including matters pertaining to the positive drug tests of athletes, the challenges to technical decisions of officials made during competition, and the eligibility of athletes to compete in the Olympic Games. Of significance, CAS awards have been recognized as developing a lex sportiva, that is, a set of guiding principles and rules in international sports law" (2006 article from Law Library Journal)
• Internet Research Guide for Olympic Studies: "Intute, a British university consortium that offers free online service access to evaluated web resources for education and research, published a subject booklet in 2008 entitled 'Internet resources for Olympic studies'. The booklet describes resources relating to associations, the history of the Olympic Games, past and future Games, athletes, sports research, event management, and legal issues (arbitration of sports disputes, disability sports, gender equity and doping)."
• The Australian Parliamentary Library just published The Olympics: background and London update: "This paper provides brief background information for Australian Parliamentarians on the origins of the Olympics and a snapshot of the development of the Games since the first modern Olympics were held in 1896. Particular reference is made to the Melbourne Olympics in 1956 and the Sydney Olympics in 2000. The achievements of Australian Olympians are also a special focus of the paper. The paper also provides an insight into some of the many social and political dimensions of the Olympics."

The report includes highlights of the past year's work. In particular, the Commission saw two pieces of legislation that derive from its work reach the statute book: the Estates of Deceased Persons (Forfeiture Rule and Law of Succession) Act 2011 and the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012.

A number of other reports are awaiting implementation in the areas of trust, marriage breakdown, conspiracy, business partnerships, renting homes, etc.

Part 4 of the report is entitled "Measuring Success" and provides interesting stats about the Commission's influence.

During the 2011 judicial calendar year, Commission reports were cited 310 times in UK judgments, and 38 times in the judgments of other common law jurisdictions.

The authors of the report also note that:

"the Commission’s work is widely quoted in academic journals and the media. A basic search on the internet reveals 512 references made in UK academic journals during the calendar year 2011, and our monitoring service picked up 658 references to the Law Commission from the media during 2011–12. Some of these will be made in support of the Commission; some may not be. At the very least these figures show that the Law Commission is gaining attention and stimulating debate on the issues with which we are tasked to deal. (p. 45)"

The Law Reform Commission of Ireland also appears influential, based on this recent table of implementations.

It is published by the Virginia-based National Center for State Courts and the Conference of Court Public Information Officers.

According to the inaugural April 2011 issue:

"This newsletter will provide news, information and resources on topics such as how courts are using new media, the impact of new media on court proceedings, ethical implications of judges and court staff using new media, and court policy issues relating to new media."

Most of the stories are about the United States, but there has occasionally been material about non-US matters.

The Canadian Centre for Court Technology tracks the same issues on this side of the border.

The article shows that police are solving more crimes than in the past.

Among the highlights:

• In 2010, three-quarters of homicides were solved by police.
• In 2010, almost three-quarters of violent crimes were solved by police compared with about one-quarter of property crimes.
• Police solved just over 8 in 10 aggravated assault and aggravated sexual assault incidents in 2010, among the highest clearance rates for violent offences.
• About 4 in 10 robberies were solved by police, the lowest of any violent offence.
• Police cleared about 1 in 6 break-ins and 1 in 7 motor vehicle thefts in 2010.

Overall, the so-called "weighted clearance rate" rose for the seventh consecutive year to 39.4% in 2010, up from 33.5% in 2003:

"The clearance rate represents the proportion of criminal incidents solved by the police. Police can clear an incident by charge or by means other than the laying of a charge. For an incident to be cleared by charge, at least one accused must have been identified and either a charge has been laid, or recommended to be laid, against this individual in connection with the incident. For an incident to be cleared otherwise, an accused must be identified and there must be sufficient evidence to lay a charge in connection with the incident, but the accused is processed by other means for one of many reasons (…)"

"Total clearance rates share the same limitation as total crime rates in that overall totals are dominated by high-volume, less-serious offences such as minor thefts, mischief and minor assaults. Many of these less-serious offences which drive the overall clearance rate are often difficult to solve. For example, by the time an incident of graffiti/mischief to property is reported to police, the accused may no longer be present at the crime scene, nor will there likely be any witnesses. In the calculation of the overall clearance rate, all offences are counted equally: the clearance of one mischief incident by police counts the same as the solving of one homicide incident."

"To address this limitation, a 'weighted' clearance rate was developed, similar to the concept used in the Crime Severity Index. The weighted clearance rate assigns values to crimes according to their seriousness, with more serious crimes being given a higher statistical 'weight'. For example, the clearing of a homicide, robbery or break-in would represent a greater contribution to the overall weighted clearance rate value than the clearing of a minor theft, mischief or disturbing the peace. The severity of an offence is determined using average sentences handed down by Canadian criminal courts. The more serious the average sentence for an offence, the higher the weight and, in turn, the greater impact on the overall clearance rate."

This year's Award goes to JuriBistro UNIK, the global search engine on the website of CAIJ, the network of courthouse libraries in Quebec.

With this single interface, one can simultaneously search Quebec Bar Association continuing education materials, the CAIJ catalogue, the full text of Quebec and federal caselaw and legislation, the full text of secondary literature from publisher Wilson & Lafleur, and the TOPO knowledgebase of answers by CAIJ researchers to more than 3000 questions from lawyers.

The Award honours a publisher (whether for-profit or not-for profit, corporate or non-corporate) that has demonstrated excellence by publishing a work, series, website or e-product that makes a significant contribution to legal research and scholarship.

Slaw.ca won the award in 2009.

Members of the Award Selection Committee were:

• Justice Eric (Rick) Libman, Ontario Court of Justice
• John Davis, Professor Emeritus, Osgoode Hall Law School
• Michael Decore, Manager of Information Resources and Access, Alberta Law Libraries
• George Tsiakos, Library Manager, Bull, Houser, Tupper, Vancouver

The 2012 Committee was chaired by CALL Past President, Rosalie Fox, who runs the library and information management branch at the Supreme Court of Canada.

The award, established by CALL in 1999, was renamed to honour Hugh Lawford (1933-2009), Professor of Law at Queens’ University and the founder of Quicklaw.

"Every year, the Chesapeake Group investigates whether or not the documents in the archive can still be found at the original web addresses from which they were captured. The group analyzes two samples of web addresses, or URLs, pulled from the archive's records"

"The first sample includes 579 original URLs for content captured from 2007-2008. This sample is revisited every year to document link rot and explore how it changes over time (…) "

"In 2012, 218 out of 579 URLs in the sample no longer provide access to the content that was originally selected, captured, and archived by the Chesapeake Group. In other words, link rot has increased to 37.7 percent within five years."

Link rot describes "a URL that no longer provides direct access to files matching the content originally harvested from the URL and currently preserved in the Chesapeake Group's digital archive. In some instances, a 404 or "not found" message indicates link rot at a URL. In other cases, the URL may direct to a site hosted by the original publishing organization or entity, but the specific resource has been removed or relocated from the original or previous URL" (from the 2011 link rot report)

More than 90% of the sample URLs were from state governments (state.[state code].us), organizations (.org), and Us government (.gov) top-level domains.

The Project has built a digital archive collection comprising more than 8,600 digital items. Most of the material archived is American. The Project is an initiative of the Georgetown Law School and Harvard Law School Libraries, and of the State Law Libraries of Maryland and Virginia.

This issue is also of major concern to Canadian legal researchers, as illustrated by the following posts here on Slaw:

• Link Rot and Legal Research, Ted Tjaden, August 3, 2005
• Link Rot is Alive and Well, Ted Tjaden, March 19, 2008
• Link Rot in Court Decisions, Shaunna Mireau, May 7, 2009

"The Guardian is taking stock of the new battlegrounds for the internet. From states stifling dissent to the new cyberwar front line, we look at the challenges facing the dream of an open internet"

Every day over a period of one week, the daily has tackled the major flashpoints relating to the future of cyberspace:

• the new Cold War (state censorship)
• militarization of cyberspace
• the new walled gardens (app stores, social network sites like Facebook)
• the IP wars
• 'civilizing' the web
• the open resistance (hacktivists and open Internet proponents)
• the end of privacy

To mark the 30th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms last Tuesday, the Canadian Bar Association organized events across Canada such as conferences, mock court sessions for high school students, and flash mobs:

"Lawyers and other members of the legal community in Ottawa celebrated by organizing a flash mob at noon on the busy Sparks Street at Metcalfe, right in front of the Federal Court and a stone’s throw from Parliament Hill. In front of dozens of curious tourists, media cameras, and civil servants on lunch break, legal professionals donned bright green t-shirts instead of their usual suits and danced their hearts out for their favourite constitutional document to a boombox playing the national anthem."

"The flash mob was choreographed by Alayna Miller, a lawyer at Sevigny Westdal LLP, as well as Vice Chair for the Ontario Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division (OBA-YLD), and, more importantly, a member of the Ottawa dance company Ottawa Dance Fusion."

[From one of my favourite sites: Apt613, whose tagline is "Arts and culture blog by day, secret society to prevent the zombie apocalypse by night" !]

The well-known, pioneering news site explains that it is "anticipating a significant reduction in funding (meaning several tens of thousands of dollars) from our primary benefactors".

It needs funds to:

• Redesign the JURIST.org website
• Fully develop a mobile version of JURIST.org, as well as iPhone and Android apps
• Increase outreach efforts to JURIST's audience
• Develop new programming, including audio and video coverage, seminars and conferences that will directly benefit our community
• Cover costs associated with managing our law student staff, such as development of staff manuals, training materials, and even the occassional pizza
• Establish an emergency reserve to cope with technical crises in a timely fashion
• Add professional staff support for JURIST's Commentary
• Add professional technical support
• Ensure continued funding for JURIST's existing professional staff

And JURIST's Publisher and Editor-in-Chief is a Canadian, the Halifax-born Bernard Hibbitts.

Hibbitts is a Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. A Rhodes Scholar, he studied law at Oxford, Dalhousie Law School, the University of Toronto, and finally Harvard Law School (LLM 1988), where he was Associate Editor of the Harvard International Law Journal. He is a former law clerk to Justice Gerald LeDain of the Supreme Court of Canada. He created the site that became JURIST in 1996. Quite the CV.

More background on JURIST:

• Law as a Seamless WebSite (JURIST 10th anniversary conference, March 2007): "The rights of Guantanamo detainees. The trial and execution of Saddam Hussein. The constitutionality of NSA surveillance. Immigration reform. These are some of the legal issues that shape public policy debate and define our world. They are the stories that eventually will form history. But even as they unfold, they are being reported in new ways that bear little resemblance to legal reporting as it was practiced just a decade ago. Technology and the Internet have ushered in a new era of information accessibility and immediacy for millions of people around the world, presenting both new opportunities and challenges for understanding the legal issues that affect our lives. JURIST … has been one of the key architects of this new legal reporting, changing how legal news is presented and understood every day. In celebration of JURIST’s 10th anniversary, the University of Pittsburgh School of Law joins JURIST in presenting a provocative conference exploring issues at the intersections of law, war, rights and social justice that have figured prominently in JURIST’s coverage in recent years, while also taking an insightful look at how the media have been reporting legal news and how the Internet and technology are changing the conversation".
• The Technology of Law (article by Hibbitts in Law Library Journal, vol. 102, no. 1, 2010): "Professor Hibbitts argues that contemporary fascination with the law of technology has led us to overlook the fundamental impact of the 'technology of law,' and offers suggestions for creating 'neterate' lawyers more comfortable and conversant with technology itself. He describes how the legal news service JURIST implements many of these suggestions and provides a unique learning experience for its law student staffers."