Title: Hague Justice Portal

Source/Sponsoring Agency: Hague Justice Portal; Hague Academic Coalition

URL: http://www.haguejusticeportal.net/

Date Checked: 1/21/2010      Status: Active

Date Annotated: 1/21/2010

Topics: Foreign Law; Human Rights Law; International Law

Other keywords: The Hague; international peace; international justice; international security; international tribunals; international criminal law; International criminal courts

Contents: Launched in 2006, the Hague Justice Portal (Portail Judiciaire de La Haye) was created by The Hague Academic Coalition to provide a virtual gateway to news, research materials, and general information pertaining to The Hague’s role in international peace, justice, and security. Designed to improve access to the Hague courts and encourage academic debate, the portal’s main projects include the Hague Justice Journal, the PCA Awards Project (with the Permanent Court of Arbitration), and the DomCLIC project (Domestic Jurisprudence on International Criminal Law). Much of the site is available in both English and French, with various pages also available in Dutch. Current news features are prominently displayed on the main webpage, and each news article is supplemented with bookmarks, email and other sharing tools. Beside the news articles appear links to additional materials provided by The Hague, including research files, court documents, news and commentary related to that particular news topic. The Academic Research portion of the website provides free access to a comprehensive collection of files compiled by The Hague and organized by region, topic, and courts and tribunals. For ease in browsing, regions are in turn divided into countries, and topics are in turn divided into sub-topics. The "Courts and tribunals" category includes not only each of the courts in The Hague, but international tribunals from all over the world as well. Individual materials are organized according to their nature and are primarily composed of publications, court documents, transcripts, fact sheets, press releases, news articles, and other miscellaneous materials. Although a search feature is not available for the Academic Research portion of the site, a well-functioning Google search feature is available for the website as a whole. A search on the topic of Charles Taylor produced a myriad of results, including PDF and html copies of court documents, copies of news articles and links to relevant websites. The site also offers access to the subscription-based Hague Justice Journal (Journal judicaire de la Haye). Offered in English and French, the Hague Justice Journal is a peer-reviewed publication designed to critically examine the development of international justice. As a supplement to its own publications, the site additionally provides links to other websites, including those of various law journals, governmental agencies and NGOs active in the international law and justice. Finally, in addition to their freely available research materials, the portal also offers a forum for “Academic Communities” in which registered members may share information, knowledge, documents, and libraries. Interested individuals can sign up by contacting the editorial board of the Hague Justice Portal.

Author of Annotation: A. Emerson