I also find it interesting. My current library is a university that doesn't
have a law school, but contains the county law library. There are very few
combined libraries. Of course, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock is
also the Pulaski (sp?) County Law Library. However, that is a law school. My
institution, Western Kentucky University, does not have a law school. Yet we
have all the reporters, selected law reviews, and generally what you might
expect in a county of 90,000 people. We even receive money from court fees on
criminal cases, and we have a half-time law librarian (the position is
currently vacant, so if you want a job look at
http://www.wku.edu/Dept/Support/HR/311413.htm).
I find it interesting that some states mandate there be a county law library
in each county, but they don't say what should be in the library. In
Kentucky, most rural counties have nothing but the statutes and state cases.
One nearby county only has the statutes. So how effective is that at
disseminating the law?
--Bryan M. Carson
Bryan M. Carson, J.D., M.I.L.S.
Coordinator of Reference and Instructional Services
Western Kentucky University Libraries
1 Big Red Way
Bowling Green, Kentucky 42101
Phone: 270-745-5007
Fax: 270-745-2275
bryan.carson@wku.edu
Kerry Prindiville wrote:
>
> I think this is a very interesting discussion, especially since I work in a
> county law library, and I would not mind seeing more of it.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Norman, Patrick J. <PNORMAN@ReillyGoodwin.com>
> To: Digest Law-Lib (E-mail) <law-lib@ucdavis.edu>
> Cc: 'Andy Grossman' <andygr@yahoo.com>
> Date: Wednesday, March 29, 2000 9:52 AM
> Subject: RE: County Law Libraries
>
> >Excellent response and thank you. Certainly this exchange is exactly what
> >the law library listserv is all about. You raise a number of issues
> >collateral to library access that are well known, complex, and interesting.
> >Your appreciation for the field obviously runs deep. Please contribute
> more
> >on topics dealing with comparative jurisprudence and legal access.
> >
> >As for your comments on the burgeoning American legal system, they are on
> >the whole accurate. My professional life is filled with the topic on many
> >levels. One thing you may wish to consider is that the proliferation of
> law
> >and lawyers in America is much more than an incidental curiosity. It
> deeply
> >impacted the American people, and historically freed rather than restricted
> >citizens. It may seem trite and naive to claim that America is somehow
> more
> >free than other nations, but after serious study and reflection it not only
> >seems a fair conclusion, but one of the defining aspects our unique
> culture.
> >Whether such freedom is worth the lawyers and neurotic excesses is another
> >question. One good thing: American jurisprudence produces enough
> >literature to keep the world's legal scholars and law librarians busy and
> >paid.
> >
> >By the way, what is the name of your book, and is it in general
> circulation?
> >Would like to discuss a number of other issues with you off the listserv,
> >including some of your general conclusions regarding American jurisprudence
> >and your current publishing efforts. Take it easy. Or as people said
> >during my many stays in Britain, "cheers."
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: Andy Grossman [mailto:andygr@yahoo.com]
> >Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2000 4:08 PM
> >To: Law-Lib Listserve
> >Subject: Re: County Law Libraries
> >
> >
> >You ask, seemingly with some doubt, how I know that
> >county law libraries do not exist outside North
> >America. Of course I canot know every country in the
> >world, although in 20 years in the diplomatic service
> >I encountered a few, and in putting together my book
> >on European nationality laws and sources of law (the
> >material collected, but NOT used in the book
> >(including translations of the vernacular versions
> >that WERE used) are at
> >http://www.bigfoot.com/~nationality.
> >
> >I actually visited Parliamentary, national and
> >university law faculty libraries in EVERY non-EEA
> >European country EXCEPT Estonia, Russia and Bosnia,
> >plus Liechtenstein (which is EEA) (because primary
> >materials on those countries laws could be found in
> >other cities I was in: London, Lausanne, Brussels and
> >Los Angeles).
> >
> >Here in the UK, public libraries are likely to have
> >Halsbury's Laws of England (a commentary, but NOT
> >Halsbury's Statutes, the primary laws). If one wants
> >to look at case law, one has to visit a court library
> >or a law school library. You could argue that the
> >court libraries are "county law libraries" but they
> >are not that in the sense you would expect to find in
> >the US.
> >
> >In France, one can buy the annotated civil code, the
> >criminal code and all the other codes quite cheaply
> >(under $20) in large bookstores -- and it was
> >Napoleon's concept that the civil code should be in
> >every home, easily understandable. Civil law
> >jurisdictions do not apply case law as common-law
> >jurisdictions do, and "digests" don't exist quite the
> >way they do in Anglo-American law countries.
> >"Doctrine" -- commentaries by academic experts, are
> >the secondary source of law.
> >
> >It would take quite a long essay to explain just why
> >litigious America is different from the rest of the
> >world -- not necessarily better or worse, just
> >different -- and why access to the law is more
> >important in the US. It also tends to be cheaper:
> >there are more lawyers. Not necessarily better ones on
> >average, but more of them. Most Europeans would say
> >that US law has become unnecessarily complex. I would
> >add that it has become unnecessarily politicized.
> >(Sunday's CBS "60 Minutes" on indefinite detention of
> >certain convicts not susceptible of deportation is an
> >example: it's clearly a violation of the Refugee
> >Convention and Protocol (as to authenticated refugees
> >anyway); but then Congress can ignore and implicitly
> >abrogate a treaty if it wants to.
> >
> >Andy Grossman
> >University College London, SLAIS
> >
> >
> >
> >44
> >--- "Norman, Patrick J." <PNORMAN@ReillyGoodwin.com>
> >wrote:
> >> You stated in your law-lib post "(Of course nowhere
> >> else in the world but
> >> North America
> >> is there such a thing as county law libraries.
> >> Certainly not here in
> >> Britain.)" It is unclear how you know this. As for
> >> Britain I am wondering
> >> what the situation is. The law must be made public
> >> if it is to be known and
> >> understood. This is requisite even under British
> >> constitutional standards.
> >> Certainly there are public libraries available that
> >> house necessary domestic
> >> legal sources. Clarification on the topic would be
> >> of general interest.
> >> Please respond.
> >
> >
> >
> >__________________________________________________
> >Do You Yahoo!?
> >Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
> >http://im.yahoo.com
> >
> >
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