InSITE
A Current Awareness Service of
Cornell Law Library

ISSN 1521-9046

ARCHIVE

Vol. 14, no. 16
April 6, 2009
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

Justice for the Poor
    URL: http://go.worldbank.org/SMIKY7M6O0
    Justice for the Poor (J4P) is a global research and development program sponsored by the World Bank. It aims at "informing, designing and supporting pro-poor approaches to justice reform" in a number of African and East Asian countries, where non-state and customary justices systems "are intertwined with, and are embedded in the social, economic and political structures." The "Themes" section of the website provides a topical approach to the many reports and briefing notes made available on the site. Thematic categories include: land and natural resources, conflict, crime and violence, local governance, customary law, gender, labor disputes, and development effectiveness. Country-specific material can be found in the "Country Programs" section, covering Cambodia, Indonesia, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Timor-Leste, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands. The "Publications and Reports" section arranges all of the available reports by country or theme for easy access. Most documents are available free of charge as PDFs; some are available in multiple file formats. Like other branches of the World Bank website, J4P is equipped with an efficient search engine. It is generally informative to users, but the only available language of the website is English.
    [Author: Yihan Zang]
National Commission for Women (India)
    URL: http://ncw.nic.in/
    The National Commission for Women (NCW) is a statutory body set up in 1992 by the government of India "to review the constitutional and legal safeguards provided for women; recommend remedial legislative measures; facilitate redressal of grievances; and advise the Government on all policy matters affecting women." The "Research and Studies Cell" section of the website provides an excellent overview of the studies undertaken by the commission on issues like violence against women, gender bias in judicial decisions and sexual harassment. All amendments proposed to various women-specific and women-related legislation are available in full text HTML in the "Legal Cell" section. New bills and laws proposed by the commission are available starting from 2005, and comments are invited on the draft policy documents on current topics. A brief overview of important court decisions concerning women since 1992 is available on the website. A key feature of the site is the complaints registration portal, where victims or any person may register complaints pertaining to issues such as domestic violence, gender discrimination, sexual harassment and dowry. Once filed, the status of the complaint can be checked using a registration number and password. Statistical summaries of complaints dating back to 1999 are compiled in the "Complaints and Counseling Cell." NCW's monthly newsletter, "Rashtra Mahila," is available on the website in both Hindi and English. It is a useful website for individuals and organizations interested in issues concerning women in India.
    [Author: Awantika Manohar]
Supreme Court of Japan
    URL: http://www.courts.go.jp/english/
    The website of the Supreme Court of Japan provides information about the Supreme Court and the affiliated Legal Training and Research Institute. The website provides an excellent overview of the judicial system in Japan, as well as a guide to judicial proceedings in Japan. The important judgments of the Supreme Court since 1950 are available in full text HTML in English and can be searched by the date of the judgment, case number, bench type (i.e., Grand or Petty), key word, and original court. Biographies of the current justices of the Supreme Court are available with their photos. The website includes a section about the Legal Training and Research Institute, which is the national agency responsible for "nurturing persons entering the legal profession." The website is available in both Japanese and English, and is keyword-searchable.
    [Author: Satoshi Sugino]
Thailand Law Forum
    URL: http://www.thailawforum.com/
    The Thailand Law Forum was created in 1997 by a group of American and Thai law professors to provide a free, neutral and up-to-date source of Thai legal information to the English-speaking public. The website provides access to the complete run (dating back to 1998) of the semiannual Thailand Law Journal, an English-language online journal containing significant legal scholarship by prominent Thai and international law academics. A selection of Thai legislation, treaties, and court decisions, primarily trade-related, can be found in the Thailand Law Database section. English language summaries of Thailand Supreme Court opinions from 2005 forward are available in HTML format. The website also supplies Thai legal news updates which are kept up-to-date, with archives dating back to 1999. A customized Google search engine allows for keyword searching of the content of the site.
    [Author: Nopparat Rerkpisut]


InSITE contributors: A. Manohar, N. Rerkpisut, S. Sugino, Y. Zang, J. Pajerek (editor)
© 2009 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.