[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 150 (Tuesday, October 20, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12721-S12722]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. THOMAS:
  S. 2645. A bill to create an official parliamentary station in the 
United States fully to participate in the Global Legal Information 
Network; to the Committee on Rules and Administration.


       global legal information network participation act of 1998

  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, as the world is catapulted into the 
electronic information age, the United States has a rare opportunity 
not only to participate in a truly international legal database but 
also to sustain a leadership role in setting the highest standard for 
the creation and maintenance of such a database. It is also a 
fortuitous moment for the Congress to encourage and support an effort 
that will inure to the direct benefit of the Congress in its 
legislative functions by having access to foreign laws 
contemporaneously with or shortly after publication in the country of 
origin. This effort, conceived and developed by our own Law Library of 
Congress, is the Global Legal Information Network, popularly referred 
to as ``GLIN.''
  GLIN is an international, cooperative, non-commercial database of 
legal information contributed to by governments of member nations in 
Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. As a mission-driven project, 
GLIN was developed by the Law Library as a way to organize and gain 
access to legal information so that the Law Library could respond to 
requests from Congress in a timely, efficient manner since the Law 
Library is responsible for doing research and analysis on the laws of 
other nations, comparative law, and international law. This continues 
to be the goal of the Law Library's participation in GLIN.
  The database comprises abstracts of legal material, full texts of 
laws and regulations, and a legal thesaurus. The GLIN database is 
structured so that the full range of legal material including 
constitutions, laws and regulations, judicial decisions, parliamentary 
debates, scholarly writings, and legal miscellanea can be added to the 
database over time as countries are able to make these contributions.
  Since 1995, GLIN has become a truly ``global'' legal information 
network and the Law Library has trained technical and legal teams from 
numerous countries plus a team from the United Nations. These countries 
are at various stages of compliance with the GLIN standards for 
organizational, technical, and telecommunications capabilities.
  GLIN is the centerpiece of the Law Library's transition from a paper-
based library to one that effectively exploits the advantages of 
electronic sources of information. The amount of time and resources 
needed to acquire, process, and store foreign legal material make

[[Page S12722]]

GLIN a top priority for the Law Library, and as the United States 
station for the network it has also undertaken the task of putting 
United States law into the database using the same high standards 
demanded of other nations. To date, the Law Library has not received 
appropriated funds for work on GLIN.
  What other Parliaments around the world are doing concerning many of 
the issues we face is vital for our legislative functions. A 1886 
treaty, still in force today, recognized the important need for the 
exchange of official journals, parliamentary annals, and documents. 
Congress needs access to the most reliable, current legal information 
available. GLIN can provide this information, but only if it is 
developed and maintained properly. With limited resources, and using 
the only technology and technological support available from an already 
strapped technology support staff in the Library of Congress which is 
consumed by other Library programs, participation by the Law Library in 
GLIN is at a critical point. The system now requires urgent updating 
and upgrading to enhance the performance of the Network and to attract 
additional countries, particularly those that are of interest to 
Congress. To best serve Congress, it is essential that the Law Library 
retain a leadership role technologically and content-wise. To 
facilitate such participation, the Law Library needs a special 
appropriation to bolster its staff and technological infrastructure on 
its own without being dependent or in competition with other Library of 
Congress programs.
  Besides affording the Law Library the ability to bolster resources to 
meet this important growing initiative, this special appropriation will 
permit the Law Library through development and training to fulfill its 
natural role as the largest law library in the world to set the highest 
of standards for the form and content of legal information to be 
exchanged between nations to ensure that such material is accurate and 
complete, and thereby totally reliable. It also fosters 
interparliamentary cooperation.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 2645

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       The Act may cited as the ``Global Legal Information Network 
     Participation Act of 1998.''

     SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS AND DECLARATIONS OF PURPOSE.

       The Congress makes the following findings and declarations:
       (1) It is the policy of the United States to promote the 
     reasonable, timely and authentic exchange of official legal 
     information between parliaments of nations of the world as 
     originally expressed in the 1886 Convention for the Immediate 
     Exchange of the Official Journals, Parliamentary Annals, and 
     Documents:
       (2) participation by the United States in an international, 
     cooperative, noncommercial legal database contributed to by 
     governments of member nations, the ``Global Legal Information 
     Network'' (GLIN), which would be available over the Internet, 
     contributes to the promotion of security and international 
     understanding through the exchange of legal information and 
     promotes the rule of law, and therefore is in the interests 
     of the United States;
       (3) the timely and accurate availability of laws and 
     regulations of the United States and other legislatures 
     around the world is of the utmost importance to the Congress, 
     both in its own work as well as in the interests of 
     developing and nurturing interparliamentary cooperation; and
       (4) the centralization of the function and control of 
     participation by the United States in such an international 
     legal database will assist in establishing uniformity for the 
     electronic exchange and retrieval of legal information.

     SEC. 3. THE UNITED STATES GLIN STATION.

       In order to carry out the purposes of this Act,
       (a) the United States station for the Global Legal 
     Information Network shall be the Law Library of Congress in 
     the Library of Congress;
       (b) The Director of the United States GLIN station shall be 
     the Law Librarian of Congress.
                                 ______