A law library, like every other library exists to meet the requirements of acquisition, storing, processing and disseminating of legal materials to carter for the needs of Lawyers and the legal public. Typically a law student / lawyer is bookish – no profession depends on books more than lawyers. He is from the beginning taught the art of legal research which means finding the law especially for justice administration and legal research. The symbiotic relationship between a lawyer and his books makes it indispensable that law materials be organized in a logical and practical manner.   It is not uncommon to see a lawyer with his wig and gown, dash into the library to check on the correct citation of a case on his way to court. Collection development and organization of these legal materials therefore become an urgent necessity. Keywords: Moys, Classification, Legal Materials, Rules, Guide, Organisatio

Eteng, Uwem

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Information and Knowledge Management                                                                                                                                        www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-5758 (Paper) ISSN 2224-896X (Online) Vol.8, No.3, 2018  13 Moys Classification and Thesaurus for Legal Materials: Rules and Guide in the Organization of Law Materials  Uwem Eteng (PhD) Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. University of Lagos  Abstract A law library, like every other library exists to meet the requirements of acquisition, storing, processing and disseminating of legal materials to carter for the needs of Lawyers and the legal public. Typically a law student / lawyer is bookish – no profession depends on books more than lawyers. He is from the beginning taught the art of legal research which means finding the law especially for justice administration and legal research. The symbiotic relationship between a lawyer and his books makes it indispensable that law materials be organized in a logical and practical manner.   It is not uncommon to see a lawyer with his wig and gown, dash into the library to check on the correct citation of a case on his way to court. Collection development and organization of these legal materials therefore become an urgent necessity. Keywords: Moys, Classification, Legal Materials, Rules, Guide, Organisation  1. Introduction Moys classification scheme is used in a number of libraries and it covers only the K classes of LC and 300 class of DDC. Moys is flexible being complimented by two other classification schemes – The Library of Congress Classification Scheme LC and The Dewey Decimal Classification Scheme (DDC) that make it adaptable to small or big collections. This paper will concentrate on Moys and Library of Congress Classification Scheme (LC) in organization of law materials.   2.  Structure of Moys Physically the Scheme is divided into sections namely • Schedules which contain all the K classes categories and sub categories of Law that each denotes. For example K    Journals and Reference Books KA    Jurisprudence KB     General and Comparative Law KC     International Law KD    Religious Legal System KE     Ancient and Medieval Law Primary materials KF   Common Law, Primary Materials, British Isles KG   Common Law, Primary Materials, America KH    Common Law, Primary Materials, Australasia Treatises (Common Law) KL     Common Law, treatises, general KM   Common Law, treatises, public Law KN    Common Law, treatises, private law Other Jurisdictions (Non Common Law) KP     Preferred Jurisdiction  KR   Africa KS    Latin America KT    Asia and Pacific KV    Europe KW    European Union Law Non legal materials KZ    Non legal subjects  • Appendix 1     Criminology • Tables with various contents to assist in number building for appropriate call marks Table 1         Primary Materials Table 11      Secondary materials Table 111   Dates Table IV      Common law jurisdictions Table V       Courts Information and Knowledge Management                                                                                                                                        www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-5758 (Paper) ISSN 2224-896X (Online) Vol.8, No.3, 2018  14 Table VI      Special legal forms and topics Table  VII    Persons Table  VIII    Non legal forms and treatment • Index to Jurisdictions contains a block of numbers that cannot be exceeded during computation for correctness. Names of countries are arranged alphabetically • Index to Thesaurus at the back of the scheme helps locate and also assist in call number deconstructions  3. Unique arrangements adopted by the Scheme 3.1 One of the primary principles of Moys is that primary and secondary materials be separated as seen in Tables 1 and 11. Primary materials contain law themselves and they include Parliamentary publications, Legislations, Law Reports, Digests and are arranged by form. Secondary materials contain general treatises of law, materials on Public and Private law and are arranged by subjects. (see Moys Classification and Thesaurus (MCT) 2013).  3.2 Classes KF - KH contain primary materials of British Isle, America and Australasia. Among them only England and Wales KF 1 - 99 and the United States KG 301 - 99 have full schedules for primary sources. Any primary material sought in these two classes, for example LAW REPORTS will be found within its categories instead of using Table 1 for computation or number build up.  Example LAW REPORT of England and Wales     KF 55               LAW REPORT of United States                         Early report                                       KG 350 Scope Notes for classes KF - KH direct that primary materials for other jurisdictions within their categories be arranged using Table 1 with sub sections A, B, C, D, E or F as indicated.  Columns E and F use notations from the DDC. (Column E is only included in Table 1 (Primary materials).  Table 11 (Secondary Materials) include coloumns  A, B, C, D or F). For Example, L a w  r e p o r t  o f  W e s t  I n d i e s          West Indies                             KG 1631 - 1640 (C)            Early Law Report                   (Table 1C)        8.1                  Full number                              KG. 1638.1   Full call number as indicated above shows the addition of the column number 8.1 to the Base number 1631 less 1 = KG 1638.1     Nigeria uses Table (1 A) since it is a preferred or owner’s jurisdiction. No call number computation  in this case. Law Report of, for example, Fiji Island is treated differently because it is not from the preferred or owner’s jurisdiction • Locate the block of numbers for Fiji Islands KT 5401 – 20 (D) using the Index to Jurisdictions. This index is arranged alphabetically for easy identification. • The column is D • Enter coloumn D as directed in Table 1 since it is a primary material and pick the number for Early Law Reports which is 6.1 • Add the number 6.1 to the base number of Fiji Islands and subtract 1 Full number KT 5406.1 Example     Law Report of Fiji Islands                                Fiji Islands                                                              KT 5401 – 20 (D)           Table 1D                                                                  6.1      Full number                                                                  KT 5406.1  3.3 Classes KC and KW are complete and have their numbers fully enumerated in the schedule putting together both Primary and Secondary materials within their categories. They do not use either of these two Tables for call number computations since they are self-sufficient.   Example    L aw Report of Nigeria Early Report (primary material)             KP 40      Full number                                            KP 40 Information and Knowledge Management                                                                                                                                        www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-5758 (Paper) ISSN 2224-896X (Online) Vol.8, No.3, 2018  15    3.4 Classes KL-KN (KL, KM, KN) contain legal treatises of general materials, textbooks in Public and Private law respectively. Treatises are secondary materials that use Table 11 for number building. In their call Mark computations, other Tables (any of the 8 Tables) may be used as directed.  Table IV is especially used by this classes KL - KN to subdivide subjects by common law Jurisdictions. Table IV includes names of Common Law countries with numbers for computation of call numbers. Example Lives of Scottish Jurists        Biography                                                             KB  10 - 15           Collections by country, A - Z                            KB 11                    Scotland (Table IV)                                              2  Full number                                                                KB 12 In the above example, cuttering for country A-Z as instructed is not necessary since Scotland is listed among the common law countries in Table IV and allocated  number 2  3.5 Table V (Courts), Table VII (Persons)  have both plain numbers and mixed notations for subjects.  Table VIII (Special Legal Forms and Topics) has only mixed notation (mixed notations include both letters and numbers, e.g.Q12)   Example Tables                  10             1                                           nos          nos                         Table V                                                           Courts                              2.5         X25                     Administrative courts  Table VII                                                       Persons                             2.2          Q22                      Female                              Table VI                                                       Special Legal Forms and Topics                            Z8                                        Remedies, damages, etc                               The Authority control file in the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies emphasizes that, a cataloguer confronted with a table containing subjects with plain numbers on one side and mixed notations on the other, must use the mixed notation for number building to avoid, as much as possible, number additions from being unwieldy. Example in Table VI1 (Persons)   3.6 Classes KA, KB and KM have a range of additional 100 numbers as optional alternative under Criminology Appendix 1. These 100 numbers appear as extensions under KA 100 – 199, KB 300 – 399 and under KM 700 – 799.   3.7 Appendix 1 CRIMINOLOGY  This appendix as the name implies is an addendum or better still an appendage that can only be used by the three classes of KA, KB and KM. Its usage is not so discretionary, one must be directed. Subjects can be placed    European Community Law                                      KW        Law Reports (primary material)                               Judgments or Orders of the Court                   KW   51.2             Consumer protection (Secondary material)     KW  112 Men  in trade unions            Trade union                                           KN195           Men (Table V11)                                  Q21   Full number                                                    KN195.Q21    International Law                                                      KC         Law Reports (primary material)               General collections                                         KC  20         Conflict of Laws (Secondary material)                     General works                                                 KC  2000  Information and Knowledge Management                                                                                                                                        www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-5758 (Paper) ISSN 2224-896X (Online) Vol.8, No.3, 2018  16 alternatively in these three categories ( Eteng, 2017).   3.8 Class KZ is the last category and reserved for non legal materials that are related to law. As law gets so sophisticated it is adopting a multidisciplinary outlook so almost every subject now is related to law. We can foresee the KZ class getting very bulky  4. Alphabetical Subdivisions It is very common to see topics or subjects in Moys Scheme and even the Library of Congress Subject Heading (LC) being instructed to subdivide by A - Z. This implies that a further breakdown of a particular topic is necessary to make the call Mark more specific to the subject of document.  Example    Company Law                                                       KN      Capital                                                              KN 263          types of Shares, A - Z e. g.                           KN 263.59                Non voting shares                                                 .N7              Preference shares                                                  .P5 In the above example, further subdivisions were required under types of shares.  The few examples given may not cover all the types of shares; it might not at the point of cataloguing cover even the type of shares of the subject of document.  Cataloguers should join their own examples by bringing out specific types from the subject of document and cutter using the Moys Cutter Table. Example  The subject of document might be about Redeemable shares.  Using the Cutter table, the cutter number for Redeemable shares will be           Redeemable shares                                         .R4  Full number                                           KN 263.59.R4                                                                    5. Treatment of Common and Non Common Law materials Moys divides the modern national legal system KF - KH into Common Law systems and KR - KW into non-common law systems. Common Law systems are those systems that adopted the English Law (see Table IV) with listings of common law jurisdictions namely England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Channel Islands, Canada, United States, West Indies, Australia and New Zealand.   5.1 Moys treats common law countries as one legal system and other jurisdictions as separate legal systems (Myas 2011).According to (Fear n. d.) Common law materials are treated differently and are arranged by subjects instead of by jurisdictions as it is the case with non-common law materials. This is because laws of the Common law countries come from the same source therefore similar to one another due to precedents; division of their materials initially by subjects instead of jurisdiction therefore keeps the materials together on the shelves. For example, all books on Insurance from England, New Zealand, United States will have similar characteristics and should be kept together on the shelf for easy access and retrieval by users.   5.2 Materials from non-common law jurisdictions are arranged according to jurisdictions so typically they reflect regional arrangements. These jurisdictions have block of numbers attached to them (see Index to Jurisdiction) which defines the range within which the call mark must be located. They are also inclusive of alphabets column divisions for computations, example A, B, C, D, E or F         Example   Hong Kong  KT 4351 –4400 (C)  6. Linking Subjects Moys scheme has a unique method of bringing multiple subjects together.  A book can only be located in only one place on the shelf so subjects are inadvertently collapsed into one. Example Two separate subject as contained in the content of a book are represented in the Index as reciprocity + International law  KC 231.1 The plus ( + ) sign is used when showing the different aspects of a preferred term followed by appropriate delimiting term. The delimiting term sets the context for which the preferred term operates. In this case, the delimiting term is International Law. Example International Law                                      KC       Commercial agreement                       KC    231                          Reciprocity                                     KC   231.1   Full number                                             KC    231.1      Information and Knowledge Management                                                                                                                                        www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-5758 (Paper) ISSN 2224-896X (Online) Vol.8, No.3, 2018  17 7. Alternative Placements Moys provides a number of alternative placements for types of materials and subjects (Fear n. d.)  KP - Preferred jurisdiction has materials for own country. KP class category can be used anywhere depending on where the user is.  If one is in Nigeria then Nigerian materials use KP, so also materials about Ghana, for Ghana will also use KP in Ghana etc. Materials that would have stayed together on the shelves end up being separated because they are KP materials and are kept according to own country.  Evidently the KP subjects from both tables are limited. Table 1 contains 60 units of numbers for primary materials and Table 11 has 150 units of numbers for secondary materials. In all, 210 units is inadequate for own country as the subject of law is becoming more sophisticated and multidisciplinary. Numbers can further be built by replacing N with P. Numbers are constructed by using the numbers from KN 350 area, replacing the ‘N’ with a ‘P’ and subtracting 200 from the actual number. Thus KN 350 becomes KP 150. (Fear http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AULawLib/1999/56.pdf.)  Criminology table - when added to the three class categories of KA,  KB and KM not only provide extensions by 100 numbers each but add other characteristics to the subjects making them to be placed alternatively  Reference materials could be placed together under K1  but sometimes are placed with their subjects  8. Conclusion Classification schemes (like Moys) exist to effectively organize law materials to facilitate subject access. The most important step in this organization is to standardize the access points to at least reduce variations in content interpretation and bring libraries closest to uniformity in processing and retrieval.  References Eteng,U (2017), “The Moys Scheme in the Classification of Law Materials: How Moys is applied in Practice”  Inter. J. Acad. Lib. Info. Sci. vol 5 (8).  Fear, J. “Moys Classification for Legal Materials: A Guide”. Available at: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AULawLib/1999/56.pdf. Library of Congress Subject Heading. 34th Edition. Washington, Library of Congress.  Mhyas, A. M. (2015), “The use of classification schemes in organizing law collections”.  Workshop on law libraries organized by National Judicial Institute. Moys, E. (2013), “Moys Classification and Thesaurus for Legal Materials. 5thedition”. London, Butterworth.   

Moys Classification and Thesaurus for Legal Materials: Rules and Guide in the Organization of Law Materials

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Moys Classification and Thesaurus for Legal Materials: Rules and Guide in the Organization of Law Materials

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