It feels like we live in a totally different world since the last issue of the International Journal of Legal Information, doesn't it? Our routines, our lifestyles, and the news has become stranger, more uncertain, and laced with more sadness. We don't know what each successive day will bring, but the International Association of Law Libraries and the IJLI are doing their best to keep doing business as usual. Hopefully, this will provide some measure of certainty to our readers when it can be difficult to find it elsewhere.
In this issue, as always, we bring you all new content and information. Relax and take a break from the disturbing news as we present some of the excellent material from the 2019 IALL Annual Course on Law Libraries and Legal Information held in Sydney, Australia—and other interesting content as well, including the usual International Calendar, edited by Amy Flick, and book reviews, edited by Caroline Osborne.
This issue opens with a tribute to Petal Kinder, authored by Robin Gardner. Petal was a mover and shaker in the law library world. And she had a remarkable career. Among other positions of responsibility that she held, she was the Director of the law library for Australia's High Court, the highest court in that country. Petal also served as president of the IALL from 2011–2013, presiding over IALL annual courses in Kuala Lumpur (2011), Toronto (2012), and Barcelona (2013). Mostly, I think of Petal as one of my closest friends. When she passed away in April 2019 after a long fight with cancer, the law library world lost a bright light, and I lost a very dear friend. I admit that I was unequal to the task of writing a fitting tribute to Petal, so I leaned on Robin Gardner, one of Petal's Australian friends and colleagues, for the job. I cannot describe my relief when Robin readily agreed to do it. Her summary of Petal's career and Robin's personal recollections of Petal perfectly capture the essence of the warm, funny, and intelligent person who cared so passionately about law librarianship. Thank you, Robin.
In 2016, Petal advocated for holding the IALL annual course in Sydney in 2019. When that was approved, she put together an amazing team of legal information professionals who gave us one of the best conferences ever. She had fought off one bout of the disease and was in remission during the early part of conference planning. After much of the conference planning had been done, Petal's cancer returned and she passed away quietly, surrounded by loved ones, in April of 2019. Petal was justly proud of the lineup of speakers for the Sydney conference, and I am pleased that we have the texts of three of those presentations for this issue of the IJLI.
The first piece is the conference's “Opening Remarks” by Her Honor, Susan Kiefel AC, Chief Justice of Australia. Petal knew Justice Kiefel through their mutual work at the High Court. The Justice's comments set the perfect tone for the remainder of the conference. It was an honor to host the Chief Justice at the IALL conference and for her to open the conference.
Another high-profile speaker at the Sydney conference was her Excellency the Honorable Margaret Beazley AC QC. She is the 39th Governor of New South Wales. Governor Beazley commenced her five-year term of office on May 2, 2019—just a few months before the Sydney conference in October of 2019. Governor Beazley's article sketches the legal history and the lingering legacy of Australia's colonial past on the law and culture of Australia today. It makes for fascinating reading, and helps one place Australia's occasionally odd legal culture in context.
Stephen Frappell is the fourth of our Aussie authors in this issue. Mr. Frappell was a speaker at the IALL Sydney conference, too. His conference presentation—and now his article—provides a useful, detailed outline of Parliamentary Privilege in New South Wales.
The final piece in this issue focuses on the status of published legal scholarship in India. The three co-authors, Dr. Akash Singh, Ms. Sonam Singh, and Dr. Priya Rai, conducted an extensive review of publishing data from India's many law schools. Their inquiry examines the extent of Open Access publishing and related trends in the Indian legal information publishing paradigm. Read their article to learn a great deal about how the Indian legal academy publishes its scholarship and efforts to make that scholarship more widely available both within India itself and globally.
In closing, I just want to say that it's nice to have something interesting and informative to read during these most extraordinary of days. This issue of the IJLI fits the bill precisely. While we all await the passing of the immediate pandemic crisis caused by the coronavirus and its attendant COVID-19 illness, I urge all IJLI readers to follow the guidelines set out by the World Health Organization and your national, state, and local governments. Until it is safe to do otherwise, please stay home and stay safe.
