Yale Law Library - Foreign and International Blog : Latin America

Chilean Independence Day!

Teresa Miguel — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:57:00 GMT

Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, also sends her congratulations to Chile today, on its 199th anniversary of independence.

Not only is Chile know for its wines, but it is also one of the top five legal publishers in Latin America. Our Country-by-Country page contains several Chilean legal research guides to help you get started. Additionally, if you venture down to the Lower East Side, head to LC Call Number KHF where you can have a look at our Chilean legal collection, including current Chilean laws and the Civil Code of Chile in English. You can browse the collection in Morris. Look at the Latin American Journals & Serials page for a quick glance at our holdings in Chile. We even have a few Chilean DVDs.

Legal databases containing Chilean legal material include vLex and InterAm (subscription databases) and SciELO (open access).

Of course, for additional research assistance, please contanct the reference department.

Que lo pases bien!

EU and Cuba Renew Relations

Teresa Miguel — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 01:52:00 GMT

The BBC recently reported that the EU and Cuba have formally renewed ties that were severed 5 years ago following "a mass arrest of dissidents." Cuba will now receive 2 million Euros of aid for the hurricanes that swept over the island this summer; aid will increase to 30 million Euros next year.

The Yale Law Library purchases Cuban legal materials whenever possible, in both English and Spanish. You can find Cuban materials on the Lower East Side (LES), Call No. KGN. See, for example:

The Role of the Judiciary in Post-Castro Cuba - KGH2545 .S26 2003
Instrumentos internacionales sobre derechos humanos ratificados por Cuba - KGN3003 .I57 2001
La protección del medio ambiente en Cuba - KGN3305 .A67 C66 2005

Of course we also collect interdisciplinary materials involving Cuba and the United States. Try a Subject Heading search in our Morris catalog:

Cuba - Foreign Relations - United States; or
Cuba - Foreign Economic Relations - United States
When you pull up an item record on Morris, click on any of the Subjects Headings to view other related Subject Headings. Click again on any of the Subject Headings to find related books.

For a compilation of treaties involving Cuba, try another Subject Heading search: Cuba - Foreign Relations - Treaties . Also check out the new and improved United Nations Treaty Collection database. It's open-access and easy to search.

We also have a few Cuban DVDs:

Lucia (1968) by Humberto Solas (one of my all-time favorites!)
Quien Diablos es Julietta? (1967) by Carlos Marcovich
Check IMDB for reviews: Lucia and Julietta

The Avalon Project also has documents pertaining to Cuba, specifically the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Paraguayan President Granted Holy Dispensation

Teresa Miguel — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:41:00 GMT

In an unprecedented decision the Vatican has granted Paraguayan President-elect Fernando Lugo dispensation of "all obligations as a priest, as a bishop and as a religious man of the Divine Word" (my translation). The dispensation by Pope Benedict XVI was formally announced today in Paraguay by Orlando Antonini, Apostalic Nuncio of the Vatican. Antonini also stated that this decision was reached after several years of research and analysis into Canon Law.

President-elect Lugo resigned from the priesthood in 2006 when he decided to run for president. His victory in April 2008 ended the 61-year rule of the Partido Colorado in Paraguay. He will officially take office on August 15, 2008. At the time of his 2006 resignation, he was advised that he might be excommunicated for violating the Vatican's rule against clerical involvement in politics. Read more...

Yale has a fantastic Canon Law collection located on the LES (Lower East Side) of the library, with current and historical texts in many languages, such as:

The Canon Law (2002) (a handbook of Catholic Theology)
Die Geschichte der Quellen und Literatur des Canonischen Rechts (1875) (The History of the Sources and Literature of Canon Law (my translation) - a bibliography).

There are also several law reviews dedicated to Canon Law, such as:

There are several excellent, free, online research guides to assist with Canon Law research:

There is even a blog dedicated to Canon Law by Prof. Edward N. Peters, J.D., J.C.D., Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit, MI:

In Light of the Law

Latin American DVDs

Teresa Miguel — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:00:00 GMT

On recent trips to the Ferias de Libros de Guadalajara and Buenos Aires, I selected several dozen DVDs from all over Latin America and the Caribbean, including Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, and Uruguay. You can find them easily in the Morris catalog by conducting an Advanced Search with the country name as a Keyword, and limiting the Material Type to DVD-VHS. If you have any suggestions for domestic or foreign films to add to our collection, please send an email to Teresa Miguel. Remember, the film must have a legal premise or at least a tangential legal issue -- well, we have the run of Sex in the City because Miranda is a lawyer....

Latin American Journals and Serials

Teresa Miguel — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:17:00 GMT

All of the Latin American journals and serial publications held by Yale Law Library are available on the Latin American Journals and Serials website. The publications are organized alphabetically by country. Soon, other law school libraries with Latin American collections will add their holdings as well.

If you would like to suggest a new serial for the library, please send an email to Teresa Miguel.