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Dear Jill I am replying off list, because of course I can't give any legal advice. However, we have the same difficulty with a lot of the American Society publishers in terms of governance. They will not or cannot take the risk in the same way that we cannot. The ideal situation for us is English law (not UK) law. This means that if you end up in court, your institution need only brief and pay for an English lawyer. Any other governance means that you will need an English lawyer and a lawyer from whatever jurisdiction you have signed up to. New York law is a compromise, because it is similar to English law, but you would still need to employ a New York lawyer too. Silence is difficult, in the event that you have to take a case to court. This impasse is a matter of risk assessment - and really only your own institutional lawyer can advice. Clearly if there is a blanket prohibition on contracts with any jurisdiction other than England, you cannot enter into a licence agreement with one of these American societies, who never (in my experience) move on this point. In actual fact the risk is quite low - but as I say, only your institution can take the decision in terms of the management of that risk. Kind regards Lorraine -----Original Message----- From: An informal open list set up by UKSG - Connecting the Information Community [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jill Taylor-Roe Sent: 07 March 2011 13:36 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [lis-e-resources] governing law re ASME site licence Dear colleagues, may I enquire what other subscribing UK Libraries have done re the ASME site licence, which is governed by the Laws of the State of New York. As is our custom with any non-UK licence, we requested either that the governing law be changed to that of the UK or that the publisher would agree to remain silent on the governing law. Most unusually,(in our experience) they have replied to say that the governing law must remain as the State of New York. As we have always been advised by our legal folk not to accept any licence which does not permit us to either be silent on the governing law or replace overseas Law with UK law, we are now at something of an impasse. Thus I wondered if any other UK libraries had come across this issue and if so how you had dealt with it. Kind regards Jill Jill Taylor-Roe Head of Liaison & Academic Services Robinson Library Newcastle University Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4HQ tel: +44 (0) 191 222 7652 email: [log in to unmask] lis-e-resources is a UKSG list - http://www.uksg.org/serials UKSG groups also available on Facebook and LinkedIn lis-e-resources is a UKSG list - http://www.uksg.org/serials UKSG groups also available on Facebook and LinkedIn