InSITE
A Current Awareness Service of
Cornell Law Library

ISSN 1521-9046

ARCHIVE

Vol. 13, no. 24
August 11, 2008
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:

    1. Current Issue
    2. Archived Issues
    3. Searchable Database
    4. RSS Feeds RSS FEED of the Current Issue Editions [What is RSS?]
    5. E-mail subscription: send the following request to lyris@cornell.edu:
      join INSITE-L 'your name'
      where your name(include the quotation marks) is the name you want to be available to the list's administrator. You must send this message from the e-mail address where you want to receive the e-list's messages
    6. In print format for the Cornell Law School community

GAATW: Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women
    URL: http://www.gaatw.net/
    The Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) is a network of more than 80 organizations with the common goal of ending the trafficking of human beings for the purposes of labor or exploitation. GAATW states that it pursues its mission with an eye toward ensuring that "the human rights of migrant women are respected and protected by authorities and agencies." The GAATW and its partners produce a large volume of documents and reports about the trafficking of human beings, most of which are informed both by scholarly research and by the experiences of activists in the field and of the victims of trafficking themselves. There is an extensive file of reports on trafficking issues and specific countries in the "Materials" section, which also includes a sub-section listing links to the full text of pertinent international instruments from the University of Minnesota's online Human Rights Library. The GAATW issues a monthly e-newsletter covering recent news events related to human trafficking and announcements of new reports. A good-quality search engine is provided. Some portions of the website are available in Thai and Spanish as well as English.
    [Author: J. P. Cusker]
International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea
    URL: http://www.itlos.org/
    The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea establishes "a comprehensive legal framework to regulate all ocean space, its uses and resources ... [with] provisions relating to the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the continental shelf, the exclusive economic zone and the high seas. It also provides for the protection and preservation of the marine environment, for marine scientific research and for the development and transfer of marine technology." Charged with dispute settlement under this Convention is the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, located in Hamburg, Germany. The Tribunal's no-nonsense website contains relevant organizational information on the Convention and on the Tribunal's structure and operations. Under "Documents and Publications" are yearbooks and the articles of the Convention itself while under "Proceedings and Judgments" are the various transcripts, motions, and judgments of the Tribunal itself. Overall, the site is simple and well-organized, with the contents made more accessible by a site index and search page. The site is available in both English and French versions.
    [Author: J. P. Cusker]
Media Access Project
    URL: http://www.mediaaccess.org/
    The Media Access Project (“MAP”) is a non-profit advocacy organization “dedicated to promoting the public’s First Amendment right to access a diverse marketplace of ideas in the electronic mass media.” Most information available on the site reflects MAP’s positions. MAP focuses on and devotes sections of its website to six specific issues: ownership, broadband/open access, low power FM radio, public interest obligations, free speech, and civil liberties. Each issue’s section explains the issue and MAP’s position, and provides sidebar links to “resources.” The resources are documents created by MAP, and include press releases, legal filings, and articles. While slanted, MAP’s documents provide a basic, easy to read, overview of the major legal and social considerations for each area of concentration. Some resources sections contain “Featured Issues” links to subtopics. These links takes users to a webpage for the subtopic, with additional issue-specific resources. The “Links” section of the site, available from the main sidebar, contains links to outside legal resources, and is notable for its collection of links to other public interest advocacy organization, telecommunications law sources, and media trade associations. Users can sign up for email updates of MAP news through the “Press” link at the top of the page. The site has a policy blog, but it does not appear to be very active, and most postings appear to echo MAP press releases.
    [Author: L. Buechner]
NRA-ILA: National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action
    URL: http://www.nraila.org/
    The National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action is the lobbying arm of the NRA. While the site carries an obvious pro-gun bias, it can serve as a comprehensive source regarding firearms following the 2008 landmark Supreme Court decision, District of Columbia v. Heller. On the site, state-by-state and federal legislative updates are provided that detail all proposed and enacted legislation and regulations dealing with gun laws, as well as litigation news. The site also offers quick reference PDFs of gun laws which summarize the regulation of purchasing, possession, and carrying of firearms for each U.S. jurisdiction, followed by a citation to the relevant source of law. Links to each state’s official fish and game web page is provided within the "Hunting" section. The firearm glossary should prove useful to those unfamiliar with subject terminology. The site is fairly easy to navigate, and is searchable. For researchers interested in the latest legal news and updates regarding firearms in the U.S., this can be a useful site.
    [Author: J. Jones]
Sunlight Foundation
    URL: http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/
    The Sunlight Foundation was founded by Michael Klein and Ellen Miller in 2006. The Foundation aims to "shine a light on the interplay of money, lobbying, influence and government in Washington ... through “grant-making, blogging, projects and technical leadership." The Foundation's goal is to use new technologies to make information about the Congress and federal government available to the public, fostering "more openness and accountability in government.” Their homepage highlights recent posts to the Foundation's blog and related blogs. The "Grants & Grantees" section provides information on the recipients of the Foundation's grants and what the money has been used for. There are also sections on the Foundation's current projects, lawmaker profiles, and a list of websites related to government transparency (under "Investigative Resources"). The "Press Center" presents recent, relevant press releases and an archive of older press releases dating back to May 2006.
    [Author: S. Allen]


InSITE contributors: S. Allen, L. Buechner, J. Cusker, J. Jones, J. Pajerek (editor)
© 2008 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.