Introduction
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple is one of the four Inns of Court, situated close to the River Thames on the South side and Fleet Street on the North.
Gillian Kalitsi
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple has had a library since early Tudor times but was re-founded in 1641 when Robert Ashley bequeathed his collection of books to the Inn. The library has been housed in various places throughout the Temple, its first purpose built home was opened in 1861 by the then Prince of Wales, unfortunately this neo-gothic structure was made unsafe by an incendiary attack in 1941. Fortunately, the majority of the books had already been sent out of London for safe-keeping so only a “working library” remained.
The present library was designed by Sir Edward Maufe and opened in 1958 by the Queen Mother, a Royal Bencher of the Inn. In 2005 a project began to utilise the space in the library attic this was completed in July 2007. The library attic was converted into a state of the art archive which houses the administrative and financial records of the Inn from 1501 onwards as well as manuscript material relating to the history of the Middle Temple and its Members. It consists of an archive office, conservation studio and an archive repository. The conversion of the library attic allowed the library to re-house the extensive collection of United States law on the third floor.
European Union Collection
As the European Union Librarian I have responsibility for the EU collection, which contains law reports, journals, loose-leaf publications, pamphlets, judgments and opinions of the European Court of Justice. Our run of the Official Journal is in English and French, although the subscription to the French version was cancelled in 1998. We also stock the civil codes for France and Belgium and keep a small, concise collection of French, Italian, German and Belgian legal materials. Currently I am trying to build up a collection of legal materials for the new EU member states, such as Poland and Bulgaria, due to the influx of economic migrants and the resulting litigation that may occur for our new members.
We also house various editions of EU primary legislation, eg the Treaty of Rome, Treaty on European Union (Maastricht) and Treaty of Amsterdam. The library has the official European Court Reports as well as the unofficial series, Common Market Law Reports, which covers selected cases only. The library also holds European Law Reports of Cases in the UK and Ireland and International Litigation Procedure, a series concerned mainly with the 1968 Brussels Convention. Major European journals on Community law are held as well as a selection on more specialist subjects, e.g. European Competition Law Review, European Intellectual Property Review. Relevant law of the member states is also kept. European Commercial Cases contains, in English, reports and digests of selected case before national courts. European Current Law records legal developments throughout Europe, including non-EC member states.
Enquiries
Middle Temple is mainly a self-service library, but we are always happy to provide assistance. In 2007 the library was re-arranged to accommodate the ever growing stock, which is now organised according to subject area, for example Hansard, statutory instruments, Command Papers and Halsbury's can all be found on the same floor of the library. Users often request more information on a subject area and we usually recommend known texts, specialist law reports or journals. Users may not be aware of the OPAC or electronic sources, such as Hein Online, so they often need help with these.
Another popular query is for a case referred to but not reported. Usually the case has been referred to in Blackstone's or another popular text. The first thing is to do a search using an electronic source. Lexis-Nexis has an unreported case database for UK cases that can often provide the answer. If the case is old and not found in an electronic source then The Digest, Annotated British, Commonwealth and European Cases is an excellent source.
I have had some interesting enquiries specifically regarding the EU. Usually they are looking for a judgment from the European Court of Justice and I go straight to Curia. Two recent enquiries I had that took a few hours to deal with were: whether Cyprus was a signatory to the Brussels Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters. When new member states join they are expected to become signatories of EU treaties and conventions and of course transpose current EU legislation. Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004. I ascertained that the Brussels Convention had become a Regulation in 2001 and therefore Cyprus would no longer need to be a signatory, as no measures are required to implement EC legislation in national law because an EC regulation is considered binding law for the member state.
With the second query I was asked to ascertain if a case had been put forward in a Member State regarding an action for recovery of social assistance from a person liable to pay maintenance to the beneficiary of the assistance. In this case I could find no evidence of this occurring in any of the Member States. I find European Current Law an excellent source for European legal developments.
Lawtel has a good searchable database on EU case law and allows you to search by subject area in the EU case law database. LexisNexis is a good source if you are searching for EU case law. Westlaw allows you to search EU cases by the court where the decision was made, such as the Court of First Instance, and then by the month of the judgment, which I find to be a useful feature.
I probably use hard copy sources as much as I do electronic sources. My favourite source is European Current Law which reports on cases not found in many English EU publications. I also update an index with all cases from the Court of First Instance and European Court of Justice that are published in the Common Market Law Review. I prefer to go to the original source when looking for cases or legislation, so will use Eur-Lex and Curia over Lawtel.
As well as the index I also update the EU Legal Information Sources Guide which covers the sources available in Middle Temple Library and some free websites which might interest those researching European and human rights law. At the enquiry desk there is an index for staff use listing EU sources of information, such as contacts at EU libraries, reference information and specific EU subject areas like the harmonised tariff system and vertical agreements.
Acquisitions policy
Regarding the acquisition of EU stock I mainly order books bi-monthly, and we also have a quarterly meeting with the Chair of the Library Committee, who advises on library stock selection. I have responsibility for an annual budget. The bulk of my budget is spent on loose-leafs, serials and law reports, and therefore the books I order need to complement this collection. Although I will usually order a new edition of a well-loved text, I like to supplement these with texts relating to new areas of legislation in the EU, for example with the Brussels II Regulation and EC shipping law. When possible I will visit our main legal bookshops to look at a book before purchasing it and of course make use of the various catalogues sent to us. Readers are encouraged to make suggestions and when the book is not bought we always respond with an explanation.
It is quite easy to get sidetracked with the main areas of interest within the European Union - competition law, for example. I keep up to date with EU developments by subscribing to several email feeds from the EIA, EP London Press, Brussels News and I also try to attend conferences on the EU held by the Federal Trust, and training sessions as necessary. Keeping up to date with developments in the EU allows me to make more informed choices when carrying out stock selection and answering queries.
The library makes use of free and charged online resources such as Lexis Nexis, Lexis US, HeinOnline, Casetrack, Westlaw and Lawtel.
Library stock
Middle Temple has an extensive collection of legal resources. The library uses the fixed shelving system as this allows our members to locate items more easily. We keep a small but comprehensive collection of practitioner texts and loose-leafs. The library exists to meet the needs of barristers throughout their careers and our comprehensive holdings of legal material including textbooks, legislation, law reports in paper and electronic form reflect those needs. Jurisdictions covered include England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Europe, the United States and some areas of the British Commonwealth.
The library has other specialist collections as do the other three libraries of the Inns of Court. Middle Temple's specialists collections are; United States law, capital punishment and ecclesiastical law. The library also has a complete run of the London Gazette from its first issue in 1665/6, when it was entitled the Oxford Gazette, to the present day.
Archive and rare books
The Rare Book and Manuscript Collection contains over 7,000 early printed books, and approximately 200 manuscripts. Our collection of rare books is looked after by the Rare Book Librarian who is also responsible for the exhibitions, usually four per year, of rare books in the library and the Benchers Smoking Room. In addition, we have many non-legal texts, including a manuscript copy of Luis Pacheco de Narvaez's Libro delas grandecas dela espada [ca. 1600], an early work on fencing, complete with illustrations, and John Lathbury's Commentary on Lamentations [ca. 1406]. The library's rare book collection contains the largest collection of John Donne's library in private hands. We also hold the majority of Robert Ashley's collection, which re-established the library in 1641, and manuscript books, incunabula and later printed works. With regards to our legal texts we hold a collection of Roman-Dutch law books.
Fifty years in the new library
As I mentioned earlier in the article, the present library was designed by Sir Edward Maufe and opened in 1958 by the Queen Mother, a Royal Bencher of the Inn. On the 7th November 2008, the 50th anniversary party of the library was held. Our Reader Services Librarian organised the party, inviting former library staff of the Middle Temple, along with our colleagues from the other three Inns of Court libraries, friends, members of the Inns and business associates. In total over 100 people attended the champagne and canapé reception.
