One of the reasons why I decided to become a law librarian rather than practice law was because I knew I would be moving to the US and did not want to bother with taking additional law classes in the US or sitting for New York's or any other state's bar exam. It's so much easier to work in a different country as a law librarian than as a lawyer. That's not to say that a law librarian can change countries at a drop of a hat and instantly be at home in her/his new place. The basic techniques of the law librarian remain the same, but there are different resources (online and print) to use, and different terminology to remember.
I've be reacquainting myself with some of these things lately. So let me remember to never say shepardizing unless I'm doing American legal research. From now, using a citator is called noting up. When citing cases that are published in law reports (never the American "law reporters"), I mustn't put the year at the end of the citation. And for statutes, I'll try not to pine too much for a government published codification!
Well actually, I never used the USC if the USCA or USCS was available - unless I was helping a student with a legal research exercise. But still, the annotated codes are based on the official code. If that hadn't been around, the two commercial codes would probably be arranged totally differently from each other. I haven't been shy of criticizing the US at times, but I think it's high time that Australian statutes were republished in an American-style code. If the state of Minnesota can arrange a very nice codification of its laws, surely the Australian federal government could do likewise. I think that a reform like this would make it a lot easier for the average citizen to find a statute, whether they're looking online or in print.
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