March 15, 2003 issue. This file presents an archive copy of the issue of the FYI France ejournal, ISSN 1071-5916, which was distributed via email on March 15, 2003.
Versions of the following have appeared online regularly, since 1992, as a feature of the FYI France ejournal, ISSN 1071-5916, which is distributed for free via email every month except August. Ejournal subscriptions may be obtained via email request to: kessler@well.sf.ca.us
Here this file is one of a number made available -- hopefully
attractively, all in one place, and relevant to libraries and online
digital information work in France and Europe -- as part of FYI France
(sm)(tm), an online service to which anyone can subscribe for 12
months by postal mailing a check for US $45, payable to Jack Kessler, to
PO Box 460668, San Francisco, California, USA 94146 (site licenses also
are available): please write your email address on the front of your
check. Please email suggestions for improvements to me at kessler@well.sf.ca.us
--oOo--
1) Several fine digital library websites follow, which supply the very necessary overview: how different the French and their law appear to be, at first glance... just one of the many chasms now opening, perhaps, in the depths of the Atlantic pond -- altho' if you dig a little, you find it really isn't all that different --
A wonderful page of very useful links, plus the Law-France econference:
"The Law-France mailing list
"Law-France is an open but moderated mailing list for the exchange of information about the practice of law in France.
"It also welcomes discussion about other francophone countries, though this will mainly take place in other regional forums. Postings from members are collected, edited and sent out periodically in digest form. A policy of terseness and minimal use of quotes will be enforced. In this way, busy professionals will be able to quickly scan the digest for useful and interesting items.
"French and English may be used indifferently. A member may guard total anonymity or only when asking a question. That means an eminent jurist can speak freely without risk of ridicule. Besides continual innovation in the functions of the forum, special attention is given to the software needs that might improve and economize the operations of legal professionals.
"Send email to law-france-request@amgot.org with subscribe on the Subject line. Information will be sent to you giving instructions on how to use the service."
[Currently Law-France reaches 1125 subscribers, of which 20% in France / DOM-TOM, 10% "non-French francophone", 15% "anglophonia", and "the rest from Germany, 'old' EU and 'new' democracies" -- 20% academics, 10% attorneys or other private legal workers, 20 "identified magistrates", 30 businesspeople, and 25 "government & NGO".]
Links, Codes -- you can read French Law online in - the - original -- if you want to, or need to -- also, lawyers, notaries, & all sorts of other useful stuff...
A very well - organized and comprehensive introduction to, and overview of, the general constitutional and legal and research picture.
More links -- including online fulltext Constitutions, and several versions of the Declaration of the Rights of Man, and "Medieval Sourcebook: The Law of the Salian Franks". Quite a few dead links here, though...
Apparently an additional incarnation of the previous... but with different add - ons and features...
the rue Cujas, Paris 5ème...
This is "la Bibliothèque Interuniversitaire Cujas de droit et sciences économiques" -- their website, which offers a steadily - increasing variety of very useful things, among which their,
"Informations" -- for the nostalgic,
plus all sort of useful things about "Accès et horaires -- Consultation & Prêt -- Fonds documentaire -- Services", & a wonderfully librarianly "Du bon usage de la bibliothèque" --
"respectez le silence, n'utilisez pas de téléphone portable, ne fumez pas, n'apportez ni boisson ni sandwich..."
["above all, no toilets", as Umberto Eco says]
and a useful "Autres Bibliothèques" set of links.
"Inscriptions" -- nothing in libraryland is free, any
longer -- although the prices here seem reasonable,
"Formation" -- so take a library tour!...
Des formations d'environ 1 heure sont proposées aux usagers de la bibliothèque.
Les points abordés
"Catalogue" -- the BibCujas OPAC -- periodicals, plus "Les références des ouvrages, thèses étrangères et mémoires entrés à la bibliothèque depuis 1952, les thèses françaises depuis 1987".
"Bibliothèque électronique" -- the following all online now and digitized, in .pdf --
"Guides Cujas" -- very useful pathfinders --
"CERDOC" -- the Cujas Documentation Center -- online databases, CDROMs, etc.
"Publications Intergouvernementales" -- "Le service des Publications Intergouvernementales de la Bibliothèque Cujas gère un fonds spécialisé de droit international et de droit communautaire."
"Ressources Internet" -- a wonderfully - enormous, and growing, and extensively - annotated, sitothèque for law -- many non - French resources, and particularly if it is about French law, and it is online, you will find it here...
2) And the following are several good resources -- some very new -- on the history and comparative analysis of French law --
Introductions and Overviews and General Reference
Issues
Background
The History
And, for lawyers who just wanna have fun...
3) And, one relevant quote... this to bear in mind as all of us fuss, now, with our International System -- throwing out the United Nations baby, in our impatient struggles with our New World Order bathwater...
-- from Robert Bolt's 1961 play, "A Man for All Seasons", about Sir / Saint Thomas More --
Margaret: [Indicating Richard Rich] Father, that man's bad.
More: There is no law against that.
Roper: There is! God's law!
More: Then God can arrest him.
Roper: Sophistication upon sophistication!
More: No, sheer simplicity. The law, Roper, the law. I know what's legal, not what's right. And I'll stick to what's legal.
Roper: Then you set man's law above God's!
More: No, far below; but let me draw you attention to a fact -- I'm not God. The currents and eddies of right and wrong, which you find such plain sailing, I can't navigate. I'm no voyager. But in the thickets of the law, oh, there I'm a forester. I doubt if there's a man alive who could follow me there, thank God... (He says this last to himself)
Alice: (Exasperated, pointing after the retreating Richard Rich) While you talk, he's gone!
More: And go he should, if he was the Devil himself, until he broke the law!
Roper: So now you'd give the Devil benefit of law!
More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
Roper: I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
More: (Roused and excited) Oh? (Advances on Roper) And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you -- where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast -- man's laws, not God's -- and if you cut them down -- and you're just the man to do it -- d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?
--oOo--
FYI France (sm)(tm) e-journal ISSN 1071 - 5916
*
| FYI France (sm)(tm) is a monthly electronic
| journal published since 1992 as a small-scale,
| personal experiment, in the creation of large-
| scale "information overload", by Jack Kessler.
/ \ Any material written by me which appears in
----- FYI France may be copied and used by anyone for
// \\ any good purpose, so long as, a) they give me
--------- credit and show my email address, and, b) it
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Use of material written by others requires their permission.
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Copyright 1992- , by Jack Kessler,
all rights reserved except as indicated above.
--hjlm--
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