ht. Libr. Rev. (1977) 9,363-368

International Association of Law Libraries

I. KAVASS*

The mobility of world population and the growth in the interdependence of nations affects every aspect of life in our increasingly complex, techno- logical society. These effects extend even to librarianship. Librarians are expected to answer reference questions and give information about legal literature and official publications, not only of their own country, but practically of every other country in the world. The number of countries is increasing and each country produces its own mount of official and semi-official legal publications. Countries which were formerly agri- cultural are now entering the age of technology and atomic energy, producing even more societal complexities and constantly changing legal systems which generate a plethora of legal literature. Furthermore, and in spite of rumours about diminishing international co-operation, the number of international organizations continues to swell, the scope of their activities expanding in relation to their increasing memberships and larger staffs, and, accordingly, the number of their official docu- ments and other publications also expands. Together all of these con- ditions place a large burden on librarians. Identifying and finding publications which contain relevant information on specialized foreign or international law topics requires background education about the various legal structures of the world, extensive bibliographic experience in the areas of the relevant documentary materials, and continuous awareness of current developments. Now, this is not an easy job. It can be very interesting and gratifying when one is successful in tracking down the required information, but the frustrations caused either by limitations of library holdings or inadequate bibliographic data far ex- ceed the gratifications of success.

It is not in the least remarkable that frustrations of this kind are shared by all people doing this kind of work throughout the world. One small group of law librarians eventually became so completely frustrated by their individual helplessness to improve the efficiency of legal informa- tion retrieval that they decided to get together and form a professional,

* Igor I. Kavass, Vanderbilt Law Library, Nashville, TN. 37203, U.S.A.

364 I. KAVASS

international organization which would enable them to pool their legal and documentary reference resources. Thus, in a meeting held at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York in June 1959, the Inter- national Association of Law Libraries was born. Groundwork for this meeting had been carefully and laboriously laid over several years by William R. Rolfe, then Law Librarian and Professor of Law at North- western University, William B. Stern, Foreign Law Librarian at the Los Angeles County Law Library, and Kurt Schwerin, Assistant Librarian and Associate Professor of Law at Northwestern University. They had experienced the raised standards, higher efficiency, and improved status brought about in the United States by the American Association of Law Libraries, and they felt the same results could be achieved on an inter- national level. To this end, Article 2 of the IALL Constitution makes it the purpose of the Association “to promote on a co-operative, nonprofit and fraternal basis the work of individuals, libraries and other institu- tions concerned with the acquisition and bibliographic processing of legal material on a multi-national basis.” Professor Rolfe was elected the first president of the Association and William B. Stern became its first secretary.

As a result of the affluent 1960’s, the availability of other resources made the primary aims of the Association seem less relevant to its members. However, the more immediate and practical demands of modern research as well as the paucity of means to maintain large collections of a variety of legal materials has made the exchange and documentation objectives of the Association uppermost once again.

The metamorphosis experienced by the Association during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s was due primarily to its expanded membership base. IALL became a focal point for organizing meetings and seminars of those who are interested in international and foreign law from six continents and forty-six countries. The dissemination of the information presented at these meetings or submitted by members was through the IALL Bulletin, whose first editor was Professor Bartolomaus Landheer, the former head of the Palace of Peace Library in the Hague. Subsequent editors were Dr Wilhelmina Peletier, Jacob D. Korevaar, and Dr Ivan Sipkov. In 1973, the Association felt the Bulletin needed to be expanded to include not only a directory of resources, but also scholarly articles and bibliographies, as well as specialized surveys and book reviews, most of which could be contributed by members themselves. The result of this alteration in scope and format of the Bulletin was the advent of the International Journal of Law Libraries. Then, in 1974, the Association appointed Klaus Menzinger of Freiburg University as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal and Ivan Sipkov of the Library of Congress as Associate

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LAW LIBRARIES 365

Editor-in-Chief, along with a number of editors in other countries. This new team of editors modified the format of the Journal to correspond with international standards for law periodicals and greatly augmented its professional impact.

The IALL has generally aimed to have conferences and seminars where its members could meet and experience a truly international ex- change of information about legal literature and documentation, legal systems, and documentary publications of specific countries or continents. The objectives of these meetings is to provide the participants with in- creased awareness and greater reference ability in the performance of research and reference work involving the use ofinternational and foreign legal materials. In June 196 1, the Association held the first ofsuch meetings at Harvard University. The proceedings of the conference were sub- sequently edited by Professor Kurt Schwerin of Northwestern University Law School and published in booklet form by the Association. Other meetings were held at The Hague (April 1965), Uppsala (1966), Geneva (1967) and Washington (1970). The Uppsala meeting was held in conjunction with the 7th Congress of Comparative Law, and the Geneva meeting with the World Conference on World Peace through Law.

With the continuing growth of the Association, it became apparent that communications with members needed to be more frequent. Con- sequently, the Association introduced the IALL Newsletter which con- tains news and information about law librarians and their libraries throughout the world.

After seven years of careful planning, the Association held its first special seminar for law librarians in Luxembourg in late September of 1966. The seminar was offered as a course in law librarianship and legal bibliography with special reference to European law. This type of meet- ing was novel to the law library profession, but its value was realized by the participants, and a precedent was established.

The second such meeting, held in Cambridge, took place in March 1969. The Association chose as its focal point for this course law librarian- ship and legal bibliography of the common law. Attendance of this meeting was greater than the first, and it became apparent that seminars of this type were beneficial to the Association and its members, as well as to the governments and private research foundations who participated in them.

Three more courses followed : a conference on German, Austrian and Swiss law in Heidelberg, September 1970; a workshop on European Unification Projects and the law of Italy in Rome, September 1972; and a seminar on American law in Washington, D.C., November 1974.

366 I. KAVASS

These IALL meetings have continued to provide meaningful interaction among members and have become instrumental in bringing about a better understanding of the law library profession through its special seminars. .

Following the Washington seminar, and in conjunction with the International Federation of Library Associations Conference, the IALL held an Open Meeting on Law Library Planning on 19 November 1974. Papers for this meeting were submitted from India, Nigeria, Canada, Germany, and the U.S. Some of the papers presented at the meeting were subsequently published in the International Journal of Law Libraries 3, Number 1 (March 1975). The Association sought, through this open meeting, to find a common theme for the development of law libraries in all parts of the world.

At the November 1974 meeting of the Board of Directors in Washing- ton, a resolution was passed for the Association to become an affiliate of the International Federation for Documentation (FID) . Furthermore, the Association sought and received the special status of a UNESCO association at this time.

From 24 February to 7 March 1975, the President and several other IALL members actively participated in a Workshop on Law Libraries in Lagos, Nigeria. The development of law libraries in developing countries is an imminent need, and the purpose of meetings such as this one is to emphasize this need and assist in its fulfillment. Hopefully, the Associa- tion will be able to hold similar meetings in other parts of the world as IALL grows and broadens the scope of its activities.

Between 5 August and 9 August 1975, the Association held a special workshop on selected problems of the law of the European Communities at the European Academy at Bergisch-Gladbach, and at West Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany. The course was organized by Dr Gerhard J. Dahlmanns, past president of the Association, and sponsored by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation. Further aid was provided by the Ministry of External Affairs, Federal Republic of Germany, and the Liaison Office to the European Communities of the Federal Republic of Germany. The faculty of the workshop consisted of leading experts on European Com- munities law as well as officials of the European Communities. The participants of the workshop came from such countries as Uganda, Sudan, Gambia, Nigeria, Liberia, United Arab Republic, Turkey, Greece, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Federal Republic of Germany, Australia, the United Kingdom and several South American countries, along with a strong contingent from the United States.

The final, major meeting of the year was the IALL Roundtable Discussion on the Law Library Profession, Its Structure and Organiza-

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LAW LIBRARIES 367

tion, which was held in conjunction with the International Federation of Library Associations General Conference in Oslo. Primary papers for the discussion were submitted from Malaysia, the United States, and the Federal Republic of Germany, and were published in b~tionaZ~ournaZ of Law Libraries 3, Number 2 (July 1975). At the conclusion of this meet- ing, a general resolution was passed by the participants for submission to appropriate governments emphasizing the international importance of legal documentation and law librarianship.

The Board of Directors, at its annual meeting in Oslo, outlined further objectives of the Association:

(1) Intensive expansion of IALL membership. (2) Development of minimum professional standards for law libraries as a guide-

line for all countries of the world. (3) Promotion of co-operation for legal documentation, legal literature, and law

librarianship in the developing countries. (4) More efficient and thorough exchange of information of legal publications

and documents of the member nations. (5) Eventual establishment of uniform law library practices in order to facilitate

and expedite legal research and information regarding legal developments.

Another successful roundtable conference was held in August, 1976. Organized once again in conjunction with the annual meeting of the International Federation of Libraries at Lausanne, Switzerland, the IALL membership discussed on that occasion the significance of Legal Literature and Documentation in Developing Countries. Papers were presented by participants from Nigeria, the Philippines, Rhodesia, the United States and several European countries. The proceedings of this conference are published in the International Journal of Law Libraries 4, Numbers 2 and 3 (July and November, 1976).

More specifically, the Association plans to hold a Sixth IALL course on the Legal Literature of Socialist Countries in August 1977 in Buda- pest, Hungary, a roundtable conference on International Law Library Co-operation in Brussels, Belgium, in September 1977 under the auspices of IFLA, and a Seventh IALL Course on Japanese Law in Tokyo, Japan in September 1978.

The Board of Directors of the International Association of Law Libraries consists of prominent librarians and lawyers from many countries. Indeed, there has been global representation by the Board members almost continuously since the inception of the Association. Several internationally prominent men have served the Association in presidential capacity, and they deserve to be mentioned here :

1965-67 Howard Drake, late secretary and librarian of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in London.

1967-7 1 Louis C. Coffin, Law Librarian of the Library of Congress.

368 I. KAVASS

1971-74 Hans G. Leser, Professor of Law at Marburg University in Germany. 1974-77 Gerhard J. Dahlmanns, Marburg University in Germany.

Membership in the IALL enables librarians, general and specialized, to keep abreast of international developments in law and provides an essential communications link with other librarians and documents specialists throughout the world. Information found in the Association’s Journal is useful and beneficial to anyone with an interest or need in the areas of international, foreign, and comparative law.

Applications for membership may be obtained by writing to :

International Association of Law Libraries c/o Vanderbilt University Law Library Nashville, Tennessee 37203

Membership fees are modest: U.S. $20 or 50 Swiss Francs for indivi- dual membership and U.S. $32 or 80 Swiss Francs for institutional membership. Membership includes, along with the right of participation in Association activities, subscription to the International Journal of Law Libraries, which is published three times a year, and subscription to the IALL Newsletter, which is published quarterly.