Duke University Law Library: Collection Development Policy: Foreign Law

COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT POLICY FOR FOREIGN LAW

April 1999 1

I. Introduction

The Duke Law Library foreign law collection development project began in 1996 with the goal of developing a comprehensive collection development policy for foreign law comparable to the library's collection development policy for United States materials. The project's objectives were to 1) define collecting levels for foreign law materials and 2) develop selection criteria to provide guidelines for new purchases.

In stage one of its project, the library's collection development group defined collection levels for the foreign law collections by modifying the generally accepted collection definitions prepared by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). The modified definitions are found in Section III of this report. With the definitions completed, the collection development group evaluated the library's foreign law collections on a country-by-country basis. Library staff members reviewed the collection for each country and described the current collecting level. The results of this review are discussed briefly in Section II.

The collection development group then analyzed the descriptive data in light of university priorities, Duke's collection agreements with area research libraries, and potential resource sharing agreements among law school libraries in the southeast and nationally to come up with recommended collecting levels. Those recommendations were taken to the 1997-98 faculty/student Library Committee, which completed its review in April 1998. The Committee's recommended priorities were circulated to the law school faculty for comment in May 1998. The 1998-99 Library Committee reviewed the faculty comments and finalized the priorities.

II. Analysis and Recommendations

The library staff's initial analysis of the foreign law collections indicated that, for most foreign jurisdictions, the law library's collections were not extensive enough to support either instruction or research under the ARL definitions. As might be expected, because of the immediate value of common law materials for comparative research, and their ready availability in English, the collections were strongest for common law jurisdictions. Overall, the strongest collections were for Canada and the United Kingdom. Other strengths were in collections for Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland and Hong Kong. India and Pakistan have strong historical collections, largely because of materials received through the federal PL-480 program.

Civil law jurisdictions were found to vary widely in their holdings. The most complete collections were for France and Germany in Europe, and China and Japan in Asia. Apart from South Africa, the library collected almost no African materials, other than for some older materials for Anglophone countries and a small collection of Nigerian and Kenyan materials. There was a good collection of Russian materials, although the library did not have significant materials from former Soviet Republics. With some exceptions, there were no strong holdings for Latin America. Caribbean collections included some pre-independence statutes and reports, but few current materials.

The descriptive exercise was a first step in developing policies for future foreign law collection-building. The questions posed to the Library Committee in 1997-98 and 1998-99 were:

Should the library's policy be to develop and maintain basic level collections, as defined above, for all jurisdictions, unless they are specifically selected for greater (or lesser) development?
Given the law school's programs and priorities, current collection strengths, university priorities, language, and other factors, for what jurisdictions should the library develop collections at the instructional or research levels?
For what, if any, jurisdictions should the library maintain only minimal level collections, or consider the jurisdiction completely out of scope and collect nothing?
Should foreign law collection-building be premised more on subject than on jurisdiction? Under a jurisdictional approach, some selection decisions within each collecting level will be driven by subject concerns of the law school. Under a strict subject-based approach, selections of foreign law materials would be made primarily in consideration of academic strengths of the school, with jurisdictional coverage becoming a secondary objective.

In discussing these questions over two years, and considering comments of the faculty as a whole, the Library Committee developed the following priorities, which are reflected in the Country -by-Country analysis found in section IV of this policy.

Common Law Jurisdictions. Selected Commonwealth (and common law) jurisdictions (UK, Canada, Australia, Ghana (mixed), Ireland, Israel (mixed), Nigeria, India (national materials), Kenya, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland (mixed), South Africa(mixed)) should be collected at level 3 (instructional support) or level 4 (research collection). In general (see 4. below), all other common law jurisdictions should be collected at level 2 (basic information). For the capital campaign, the aspirational goal should be to collect at level 3 (instructional support).
Civil Law Jurisdictions. Selected civil law jurisdictions (Argentina, China (mixed) Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, and Japan) should be collected at level 3 (instructional support) or level 4 (research collection). In general, all other civil law jurisdictions should be collected at level 2 (basic information). For the capital campaign, the aspirational goal should be to collect at level 3 (instructional support).
Subject Collections. For selected subject areas, foreign law materials should be collected at level 3 (instructional support) or 4 (research collection) for all jurisdictions, if appropriate to support faculty research interest, the curriculum, or programs of the school. The Library Committee suggested bankruptcy, commercial/financial law, constitutional law, dispute resolution, environmental law, intellectual property, taxation, and world trade as areas of greater concentration.

The 1997-98 Library Committee recommended that, except as needed for designated subject collections (see 3. above), the library should attempt to sell or trade odd volumes and other materials beyond those needed for a level 2 (basic information) collection for jurisdictions for which the collection is not strong historically and for which there is little demonstrated need. The 1997-98 committee further recommended that, to implement this practice, the library should initially review its collections of Middle Eastern materials. The 1998-99 Library Committee recommended that at least one selected Middle Eastern jurisdiction (beyond Israel) be collected at the level 3 or 4 level.

In 1997-98, the library spent $273,600 (about 26 percent) of its total expenditures for non-electronic resources on foreign law materials. The figure and the percentage have both increased in recent years as the library relies less on print materials (particularly for multiple copies) for its domestic collections. Currently available funds, however, are insufficient to implement fully the priorities expressed in the foreign law collection development plan. Until addition funding is obtained, the library will develop annual plans for selective implementation of the plan, which will include maximum use of electronic sources of information. 2

An aspirational goal of the current capital campaign is to bring the library's budget for foreign and international law collections to the level of other research law libraries with substantial foreign law holdings. The campaign includes a $7,500,000 target (expected annual income of $350,000) specifically for foreign and international law.3 Of course, the establishment of major new and expanded priorities for foreign law collections is also likely to require additional staff or other arrangements to provide the language skills needed for identifying and processing materials, and to assist researcher in using the collections.

III. Definitions of Collecting Intensity Levels

The levels of collecting intensity used in this policy are based on the Association of Research Libraries, Office of Management Studies, Manual for the North American Inventory of Research Library Collection (January 1985). The definitions have been refined by the Duke Law Library staff to apply to non-U.S. legal materials.

Only works in the vernacular are considered to be primary sources. In common law jurisdictions, the primary sources of law are statutes and cases. Journals and treatises are considered to be secondary sources. In civil law countries, codes are primary (i.e. binding) sources of law. Traditionally, court reports, although important, are considered to be secondary sources. Journals and treatises are also considered secondary sources. See, e.g., Alan Watson, The Making of the Civil Law 168-178 (1981).

The description of the current collecting level for a jurisdiction does not include materials that are available in collective works covering many countries, such as Constitutions of the Countries of the World or Commercial Laws of the World, or in periodicals such as Commonwealth Law Bulletin.

0 - Out of Scope:
The Library does not collect any materials for this jurisdiction.

1 - Minimal:
A rudimentary collection of works about a jurisdiction, designed to give an overview of that jurisdiction's legal system. It includes general works and works on major subject areas (e.g. constitutional law) in English.

Primary Materials: The Library does not collect codes or court reports.

Secondary Materials: The Library collects English language general works, and a limited number of works in English on major subject areas (e.g. business law) .

2 - Basic Information:
A collection of materials that serves to describe and define the legal system of a jurisdiction, and to indicate the varieties of information available elsewhere. It includes general works and works on selected subject areas in English and major European languages. It may also include dictionaries, encyclopedias, selected editions of important works, historical surveys, bibliographies, handbooks, and a few major periodicals, in the minimum number that will serve the purpose. A basic information collection is not sufficiently intensive to support any advanced undergraduate or graduate courses or independent study. The Library relies on other libraries for more specialized materials.

Primary Materials: The Library collects selected codes or collections of statutes based on subject. The Library collects court reports from the highest court in common law jurisdictions. Codes and court reports should be as current as possible.

Secondary Materials: The Library does not collect any court reports for civil law jurisdictions. The Library collects selected English translations of codes based on subject. The Library collect s general works on the legal system as well as works on major subject areas, such as contracts, business law, etc. The Library collects secondary works in English and major European languages.

3 - Instructional Support:
A collection that is adequate to support most graduate instruction, or sustained independent study; that is, adequate to maintain knowledge of the legal system of a jurisdiction required for limited or generalized purposes of less than research intensity. It includes most primary sources, a wide range of basic monographs, complete collections of the works of more important writers, selections from the works of secondary writers, a selection of representative specialized journals, reference tools, and fundamental bibliographic apparatus. Practitioners' guides and looseleaf services, unless essential to a subject area, will not be purchased. Expensive monographs and serials are collected very selectively.

Primary Materials: The Library collects major codes or collections of statutes based on subject. The Library collects court reports from the highest court, and selected reports from lower courts in common law jurisdictions.

Secondary Materials: The Library collects selected court reports from civil law jurisdictions. The Library buys English translations of codes and court reports. The Library collects works in English and the vernacular on the legal system in general and on selected specialized subjects.

4 - Research:
A collection that includes the major published source materials about the legal system of a jurisdiction required for dissertations and independent research. It is intended to include most primary sources, important reference works, a wide selection of specialized monographs, as well as a very extensive collection of journals and major indexing and abstracting services in the field. Only the most important looseleaf services or other materials requiring frequent supplementation will be purchased. Practitioners' guides, unless essential to a subject area, will not be purchased. Expensive monographs and serials are collected selectively.

Primary Materials: The Library collects most codes or collections of statutes for both civil law and common law jurisdictions, and collects most court reports in common law countries.

Secondary Materials: The Library collects most court reports in civil law countries. The Library collects English translations of codes and court reports. The Library collects works in English and the vernacular on the legal system in general and on wide variety of specialized subjects.

5 - Comprehensive:
A collection in which a library endeavors, so far as is reasonably possible, to include all significant works of recorded knowledge (including manuscripts, dissertations, etc.) about a legal system, in all applicable languages. This level of collection intensity is one that maintains a "special collection;" the aim, if not the achievement, is exhaustiveness. Reserved for jurisdictions for which the Library has or seeks to have historically extensive collections.

Primary Materials: The Library collects all codes or collections of statutes, and all court reports in common law jurisdictions.

Secondary Materials: The Library collects all court reports in civil law jurisdictions, all translations of codes and court reports, and works in any language on all aspects of the legal system

1Interim reports were prepared in spring 1997 for the law school campaign planning committee and the faculty; and in September 1997 and November 1998 for the Library Committee.

2The availability of electronic foreign law resources is increasing, but it is not possible at this time to rely on remote electronic sources for most foreign law research. Relatively few reliable primary or secondary sources in foreign law can be obtained via the World Wide Web or other public or commercial information sources. It is also likely in the long run that electronic access to accurate, up-to-date and authenticated sources will be no less costly than maintaining print collections.

3Independently, the globalization subcommittee of the CPC acknowledged the desirability of $300,000 in additional annual funding for foreign and international law.

Updated 7/1/00

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