This amazing website, sponsored by the Université Pierre-Mendès-France in Grenoble, contains a vast collection of Roman Law, ranging from the Senatus Consulta to the Leges Romanae Barbarorum, in the original Latin. In addition, it contains translations of these resources in English, French, and Spanish. This is a complete collection of the source materials of the Civil Law.
The Annotated Justinian Code website, put together by Tim Kearley, Director of the George W. Hopper Law Library at the University of Wyoming, contains PDFs of Justice Fred Blume’s copiously annotated (4,500+ pages) English translation of Justinian’s Code—the only English translation made from the Latin version regarded as most authoritative. (Scott’s heavily criticized translation was made from another Latin version.)
The site also contains: Blume’s scanned translation of the Novels; his 100+ page “The Code of Justinian, and it’s Value”—an address he delivered part of to the Riccobono Society in 1938 but which has never been published; and a few other Blume-related items.
(This doesn't address Civil Law but my other interest, IP)
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) presented a high-level forum on December 12, 2007 with the intent of exploring possibilities to enhancing capacity in the field of intellectual property (IP) as a strategic policy approach to utilizing the IP system for alleviating poverty and promoting wealth creation in least developed countries (LDCs). The forum provided an opportunity for ministers, senior policy-makers and Geneva-based diplomats from LDCs to exchange views and gain insights regarding IP capacity building measures for the use and management of the IP system... It also focused on exploring practical solutions to questions about how the IP system can be developed to serve as a policy tool for economic growth in LDCs.
Ministers from a number of LDCs held a special plenary session on the theme: “Building IP Capacity and a Knowledge Base for Wealth Creation, Social and Cultural Development”. The plenary session was followed by a series of presentations by international experts on a range of topics, including the use of the patent system for technology development and transfer; strengthening business identifiers to facilitate the commercialization of products and services generated by LDCs; the role of copyright and related rights and collective management societies as a contributor of economic growth; recent international developments in the area of IP and traditional knowledge, genetic resources and expressions of folklore; the role of higher education and research and development institutions in LDCs as catalysts of national innovation; and building capacity in all relevant areas of IP in accordance with national development plans. The program is available at: http://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/mdocs/en/wipo_ip_ldc_ge_07/wipo_ip_ldc_ge_07_inf_1_prov_3.doc
The German Ministry of Justice has reposted books 1 & 2 of the BGB in English to their site after almost a year from the withdrawl of the English translation. You can find the new translation of books 1 & 2 here.
The Gallagher Law Library at the UW School of Law is sponsoring a blog tracking legal conferences throughout the world. This blog is an excellent place to keep track of upcoming conferences. Please, take a look at it: http://depts.washington.edu/lawref/confblog/
These are three collections of digitized legal and civil law original resources available on the web.
The Junta de Andalucia ,through their Cultural Chamber, has a virtual library (biblioteca virtual not the librería virtual, which is the virtual bookstore) with a collection of digitized original legal materials going back to the XVI cent.
The Universidad de Sevilla through their main library has a collection of digitized original materials which contains a several legal and civil law sources.
Finally, the Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de Sevilla has the PixeLegis project which is dedicated to digitizing legal and civil law materials from the XIX cent.
These three different projects for digitized materials make access to original resources easier for the researcher. Enjoy your search!
Here's a great resource for French law in English. French-Law Net, http://french-law.net/, is edited by Nicolas Jondet, a lawyer and Ph.D. candidate in copyright law at the University of Edinburgh School of Law. This blog "provides news updates in English on recent developments in French Law, focusing on Intellectual Property, Technology and Medical Law."
With thanks to Mary Whisner, the official goddess of Reference, who tipped me off to this great resource. Check out her blogs at: http://www.blogger.com/profile/06780343632178750011
