In 2023 we shipped 600 boxes of books to 19 organisations in 12 countries – that’s about 5,500 books. We worked with law students, lawyers, in-house legal teams, publishers and law librarians to sort and pack valuable legal textbooks. University of Surrey law students Jodie-Lee Boyle and Elaf Hamid made a considerable impact as shipping coordinators, with Elaf continuing until summer 2024. Franz Zubieta Mariscal, our first ILBF representative in Latin America, joined us in June.

Our second law undergraduate essay competition was a great success with a very worthy winner announced in March. The Rt. Hon. the Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill, the Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales, launched our third law undergraduate essay competition in November at the launch hosted by competition sponsors McDermott Will & Emery.

While it is impossible to capture everything and everyone, we’ve compiled a few highlights from a very busy year to give a flavour of what was achieved. Our thanks to the recipients of books in Belize, Bolivia, Botswana, Burundi, DRC, Kenya, Malawi, Maldives, Rwanda, Spain, Sierra Leone and Zambia for their photos and for partnering with us. You can watch the highlights here.

Achieving our mission is a collective effort across the legal community: law firms, donors and packers of books, volunteers, funders, advocates and supporters. From law students, lecturers, lawyers, in house counsel, judges, publishers and law librarians – it’s impossible to quantify how many people support the ILBF in myriad ways.  What we do know is that our books reach many parts of the world where access to information, either in print or online, is not a given, and where books from jurisdictions like the UK provide valuable comparative materials to support research, and enhance knowledge of legal systems that are founded on the common law. It is our mission is to share legal knowledge.

Thank you to our partners, funders, book donors and volunteers for all your hard work and enabling us to achieve so much in 2023. Our success is due to the tremendous support we receive from across the legal community.

Here’s to more success in 2024.

With thanks and best wishes from the trustees, patrons and operating committee.

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