Liberian Law Collection
About this collection
The Liberian Law Collection held at the Cornell Law Library is a portion of the Milton R. Konvitz Liberian Codification Project housed at the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives. Boxes 1-3, 8-12, and 15-31 of the Milton R. Konvitz Liberian Codification Project were transferred to the Cornell Law Library in 2005. These papers provide a partial reflection of Konvitz's 30 years’ work directing the Liberian Codification Project, which drew up the official body of statutory laws that is still in force in the Republic of Liberia today, despite the recurrent political upheaval there. Konvitz also edited the opinions of Liberia's Supreme Court.
The documents in this digitized collection include printed session laws and statutes, including many works which are now rare or difficult to obtain. Digitization of selections from the collection was completed in two phases. The first, in 2015, concentrated on the earliest materials; the second phase, completed in 2019, focused on binders of printed inverse microformat pages, stapled to pages with notes by Konvitz. Approximately 10% of the collection has been digitized to date. A number of these documents have been extensively annotated by Konvitz in the margins. These form a dispersed set of notes that he made while working towards a completed set of codified laws. Copies of these annotated documents are not currently available online but can be made available to researchers. In addition to session laws and statutes the collection contains many administrative documents including contracts project budgets, notes about meetings, receipts for materials, and descriptions of physical facilities.
Historical context
The United States ambassador to Liberia, Edward R. Dudley, approached professor Konvitz on behalf the president and government of Liberia. The agreement between Cornell University and the government of Liberia provided for the preparation of a complete code of laws drawn along the line of the American federal and state models. Since Liberia’s ruling elite were descended from free black Americans, the seeds of an American style legal system were already present. The undertaking was to prepare a comprehensive code of law that would be based on and reflect Liberian experiences and ideas. The Law Library’s relationship with the Liberian government continued after the end of the Liberian Law Codification Project. In 1989, former Law Librarian Jane Hammond traveled to Monrovia to organize a new National Bar Association Law Library as part of the ALA Library Fellow Program for 1988-89. she worked with U.S. Information Agency and local staff to sort and catalog donated materials to form the core of the new library’s collection.
Using the collection
For assistance with physical collection items, contact the Cornell Law Library at lawref@cornell.edu for assistance.
More information
- Collection steward
- Jackie Magagnosc, Cataloging & Continuations Management Librarian
- Metadata creation
- Jackie Magagnosc, Cataloging & Continuations Management Librarian; Steven Folsom, Metadata Design & Operations
- Credits
- This collection overview was originally prepared by Sabrina Sondhi, Director for Administrative Services, Law Library (2021) and revised by Jackie Magagnosc (2024).
- Collection sources