Cornell Law Library - InSITE: Archived Issues

InSITE
A Current Awareness Service of
Cornell Law Library

ISSN 1521-9046

ARCHIVE

Vol. 11, no. 8
December 19, 2005

InSITE highlights selected law-related World Wide Web sites in two ways: as an annotated publication issued electronically and in print; and as a keyword-searchable database.

The law librarians at Cornell evaluate potentially useful Web sites, select the most valuable ones, and provide commentary and subject access to them. These information can be accessed as following:



Civicus: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
    URL: http://www.civicus.org/
    CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation is an international alliance of over 1000 members from 105 countries that has worked for over a decade to strengthen citizen action and civil society throughout the world, especially in areas where participatory democracy and citizens' freedom of association are threatened. The Civicus “Programmes” section is broken into Civil Society Watch, Civil Society Index (CSI), the Legitimacy and Transparency Programme, Participatory Governance Programme, and the World Assembly. Each program is described in detail. The Civil Society Index is a participatory needs assessment and action planning tool, with a photo album for training purposes, a lengthy methodology, detailed implementation framework information, country reports, and other documents and publications. The “Resources & Services” section contains the Alliance’s newsletter, an organizational toolkit, articles and speeches from the organization, and thorough descriptions of the Alliance’s publications. There is also an extensive subscription-based members’ section to the Civicus site. Civicus is searchable through Google and the COL Knowledge Finder.
Commission for Looted Art in Europe
    URL: http://www.lootedartcommission.com/
    The Commission for Looted Art in Europe (CLAE) is an independent, non-profit entity that provides expertise in matters related to art and cultural property looted by the Nazis. Bearing a mandate to represent both the European Council of Jewish Communities and the Conference of European Rabbis, CLAE assists “families, communities and institutions worldwide with research, identification and recovery of looted cultural property.” The website is basic in design and is organized into several components that describe the work of the organization. In addition to a description of services provided by CLAE, the site reproduces texts of several international agreements on looted cultural property and restitution, including the 1998 Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art. The site also provides two case studies, the Dorotheum Case and the Glanville Family Case. These illustrate the work of CLAE and two of its successes.
European Union Constitution
    URL: http://www.unizar.es/euroconstitucion/Home.htm
    A project of Citizenship and Democratic Legitimacy in the EU (CIDEL), this website is aimed at researchers, journalists, and citizens interested in learning about the basic documentation and 50-year process which has resulted in the proposed Constitution for the European Union. The site brings together official documents, links, and other resources relevant to the main treaties that have given rise to the currently-debated Constitutional Treaty. Researchers will be especially interested in the site’s detailed bibliographies. The treaties themselves are reproduced in each of the three stages of preparation, negotiation, and ratification. The texts are available in PDF and HTML. The European Union Constitution site is in English (and only English), but many documents and usually the bibliographies are not. The site is not searchable, and it is difficult to tell when individual pages were last updated.
Freedom From Religion Foundation
    URL: http://www.ffrf.org/
    The Freedom From Religion Foundation, founded in 1978, is a non-profit educational organization constituting a membership of various freethinking members, including atheists, agnostics, and other skeptics. The primary purpose of the group is “to promote the constitutional principle of separation of state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.” The Foundation’s activities include filing lawsuits, publishing a freethought newspaper and freethought books, and sponsoring freethought essay competitions. The group has also established a freethought book collection at the University of Wisconsin’s Memorial Library. The website provides information about the Foundation’s activities and provides access to its publications. Books can be purchased via the site, while brochures and nontracts are available in full-text. The Legal Accomplishments section provides details of the group’s successful cases, as well as other legal challenges and successes. These include efforts to end prayers at a university graduation, removal of Ten Commandments monuments from public property, and the ending of a grocery store discount offered to Catholics.
International Center for Transitional Justice
    URL: http://www.ictj.org/
    The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) assists countries pursuing accountability for past mass atrocities or human rights abuse. The Center works in societies emerging from repressive rule or armed conflict, as well as in established democracies where historical injustices or systemic abuse remain unresolved. The Center's programs cover capacity building, transitional justice approaches, outreach and analysis, and in-country assistance. These programs cover a wide geographical area, including Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East. Reports on each country are detailed and updated frequently. The site's "Research" section works to address the complex issues confronting policymakers and activists by identifying issues that merit more in-depth research and analysis. "Transitional Justice Approaches" covers topics such as reparations, prosecutions, truth-seeking, and vetting. The ICTJ website is viewable in English, French, and Arabic. Most documents are available in PDF.

InSITE contributors: B. Kreisler, M. Morrison, J. Pajerek (editor)
©2005 Cornell Law Library

The contents of this publication and any recommendations therein are the opinions of the authors and do not reflect the views of Cornell University.