RESEARCH STRATEGY
1) Prepare a list of online resources which may be used to research
Belgian legislation concerning:
• negotiable instruments
• credit facilities
• securitisation of transactions
• recourse to pledged assets
Meta-directories
As an alternative to standard search engine
searches, directories are useful sources of information. Directories are
lists of Internet resources collected, edited and updated by people rather
than computers. Directories are designed to be browsed, as you would the
index of a book, but can also be searched.
Several directories can be searched at once
using a meta-directory (sometimes called a meta-index) in the same way
that a meta-search engine searches several search engines at once. This
can save valuable time when searching for information, and the human factor
involved in the organisation of directories and meta-directories means
that the information found is often more useful than that found through
search engines.
In order to identify legal resources relevant
to this task it will be useful to find a law directory detailing sources
of Belgian law in English. A meta-directory would help you locate and
search several directories at once.
To find a meta-directory
for law, use the Google search engine (www.google.com)
and enter the following search query:
meta-index law
Click on the link to the
CataLaw: Metaindex of Law and Government.
CataLaw allows you to search
through the catalogue according to Topic, Region or
Extras. In the Topic field, choose Banking Law.
Scroll through the resulting
page until you see links to various international sources under the heading
Usual Suspects.
Under the heading Multinational,
click on the link to the AustLII - World:Subject Index:Banking
and Finance. This will take you to the World Legal Information
Institute, a useful directory containing legal resources listed under
various categories.
From the World Legal Information
Institute website, choose the By Country link
and then choose Belgium in order to get a quick
overview of Belgian legislation available in English.
When using meta-directories such as CataLaw
and directories such as the World Legal Information Institute, it is important
to explore them thoroughly to see what options are available for narrowing
or broadening your search.
Note also that the CataLaw
directory listed several other directories under the heading Multinational,
which could be useful when researching foreign legislation in English.
Other links on that menu, such as Legal Topics: Business and
Commercial Law might also be useful.
Use the resources outlined above to find
the answer to question 1.
Research tip: Directories
The human element involved in collecting
the links included in directories can be a great advantage over
search engines, which contain information gathered together relatively
indiscriminately by computers. However, while search engines are
kept up-to-date automatically, directories generally rely on people
to maintain them. If a directory is not well maintained, you may
find that some of the links you wish to follow are ‘dead’.
If you find a dead link, try one or
more of the following:
• Run the name of the website
to which it leads through a search engine. This will often lead
you to the information you need.
• Try some of the other links included in the directory. These
will often lead to similar information.
• As a last resort, you may need to find a different directory.
As directories depend on people to
keep them up-to-date, they often include an email address to which
dead links can be reported. Those responsible for maintaining directories
are generally very grateful for such assistance.
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Answer
The many links found at the World
Legal Information Institute and Catalaw directories will lead you
to detailed information on Belgian legislation covering the above
four points.
Examples of resources found at these
directories are:
Negotiable
instruments
Credit Facilities
Securitisation of Transactions
Recourse to Pledged Assets
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2) Prepare a memo to the partner responsible for Intabank outlining
Internet services which may be used to keep up-to-date with any changes
in Belgian legislation concerning regulatory issues and letter of credit
arrangements.
Receiving updated information
In question 1 you discovered a number of
websites containing valuable information required by the partner responsible
for Intabank. However, the information contained in these websites may
change rapidly.
There are a number of services
on the Internet which allow you to be alerted to such changes without
having to check websites manually for updates. Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts)
and Copernic Agents (www.copernic.com) are both examples
of this kind of service.
Google Alerts
Google Alerts is a free service which monitors
your areas of interest on the Web for new information and changes. When
new information is added to the websites searched by Google, Google Alerts
will automatically inform you via email. There is no need to register
for the service, although each request will be confirmed via email.
Go to Google Alerts and
use the Create a Google Alert box in the top right-hand corner
of the screen to set up an alert.
The box instructs you to “Enter the
topic you wish to monitor”. Try entering the following search queries:
Belgian “banking
laws”
Belgian “letter of credit”
Belgian “negotiable instruments”.
Copernic Agent
Another useful tool for keeping track of
Internet searches is the Copernic Agent. Copernic Agent also offers a
free service which can be enhanced for a fee.
Copernic Agent Basic, a free service, allows
you to perform Web searches and store the results for later use. It includes
Web page previews, relevancy rankings of the returned links and various
sorting functions. In addition, Copernic Agent Basic can be instructed
to focus on a particular country, in this case Belgium.
In addition to saving valuable time in performing
legal research, using alerts and saving the results of past searches can
help you focus on related legal English concepts and terms, as well as
keep up-to-date with changing vocabulary.
Try various combinations of keywords in
both Google Alerts and Copernic to see which return the most useful information
on the following:
• negotiable
instruments
• credit facilities
• securitisation of transactions
• recourse to pledged assets
Once you have found the most successful
combinations of keywords in Google Alerts and/or Copernic, set the alert
function to inform you of any changes.
When drafting your memo, remember to include
the following information:
• Which combinations of keywords give
the best returns for each of the four areas of research?
• Which search engine provides the most useful results (Google or
Copernic)?
• How to set Google Alerts and Copernic Agent Basic to track the
search queries for any changes.
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