Category: Legislation & Regs

Law Library of Congress Releases Collection of Research Reports Offering Comparative Analysis of Foreign & International Law since the 1940s

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Those of you who follow federal legislation may be familiar with CRS Reports. The Congressional Research Service is a non-partisan legislative branch agency, housed inside the Library of Congress, that provides comprehensive analysis on issues that may come before Congress.  Although created for Congress, these reports can be tremendously insightful on matters of federal policy …

WI Tax Index & Appeals Commission Decisions Available on Wisconsin.gov

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I recently discovered that Wisconsin Tax Appeals Commission Rulings and Orders are now available in full text on Wisconsin.gov.  The Tax Appeals Commission (TAC) is an independent state agency that was created by the Wisconsin State Legislature to hear and determine disputes between taxpayers and the Wisconsin Department of Revenue and, in some limited instances, …

UW Law’s State Democracy Research Initiative Newsletter Showcases Resdistricting & State Constitutional Law Expertise, State Supreme Courts Research

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Interested in UW Law School’s new State Democracy Research Initiative?  Sign up for their free newsletter for news on the latest research, happenings, and events.  Issues will be published at the end of each semester.  Here are some highlights from the inaugural issue: REDISTRICTING EXPERTISE With a decennial redistricting cycle in full swing, we have …

Hein Completes Indexing of WI Sessions Laws from Inception (1836-2019)

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As a legal historian, I’m a big fan of Hein’s Session Law Library which contains the session laws of all 50 U.S. states as well as Canada, Australia, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and the D.C. Register. All states are current within 60 days of the printed publication, and all states are available back to inception.  This …

Researching Local Law – Municipal & County Legislation, Tracking, & Legislative History

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When researching a legal issue, local laws are an often overlooked resource.  Municipal and county governments pass ordinances on a variety of topics, including administrative procedures, standards of conduct, and zoning.  Although many of these laws are available online through local government websites or through services such as eCode or municode, they can be difficult …

WisconsinEye Subscription Now Required for On-Demand Legislative & Supreme Court Video Archive

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According to an email sent to registered users, WisconsinEye is implementing subscription-based access for all users of on-demand content effective February 22nd.  Although legislative and Supreme Court content will still be available live and for 24 hours following an event, on-demand access to the recorded video archive will now only be available to paid subscribers. …

UW Madison Libraries Features Law Library’s Digital Publication of Tribal Laws Pilot Project

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The UW Law Library recently received an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership Grants for Libraries grant to improve access to tribal laws.  A recent news article from the UW Madison Libraries features our Digital Publication of Tribal Laws Pilot Project. From the article, University of Wisconsin–Madison Law Library: Empowering Libraries: The …

UW Law Library Receives IMLS Grant to Improve Access to Tribal Laws

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Last week, the Institute of Museum and Library Services today announced that the University of Wisconsin Law Library was awarded a three year National Leadership Grants for Libraries grant in the amount of $239,087 to improve access to tribal laws.  Our project, which was one of 38 projects that received an IMLS grant, is featured …

US Sup Ct Holds that Annotations in Official State Code Ineligible for Copyright Protection

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Earlier this week, in a 5 to 4 decision, the US Supreme Court held that the annotations in an official state code are ineligible for copyright protection. In Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org Inc., the Court affirmed that the annotations to the Official Code of Georgia Annotated are not eligible for copyright protection because they were created …

Supreme Court hears Oral Argument re Copyright Status of Official State Code

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On Monday, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Georgia v. Public.Resource.org regarding the copyright status of the state’s official legal code including annotations written by LexisNexis. From SCOTUSblog The problem is that the published volumes in which [the Georgia] statutes appear include not only the laws themselves, but also a series of annotations …