Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

Reviews published in the August 6, 2007 issue of InSITE:

• Federal District Court Filings & Dockets
• Foreign Law Translations
• Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA)
• Social Watch
• Transparency International: the Global Coalition Against Corruption

[RJ]

Federal District Court Filings & Dockets
Justia is the newest kid on the block to provide free legal information to the public, similar to Cornell’s Legal Information Institute and FindLaw.  According to their website, Justia strives to provide the public with easy access to primary U.S. legal materials, as well as explanatory essays, blawgs, and other secondary materials.  They also provide website, blogging, and online marketing solutions to private law firms, which appears to be how they support their free services.  The Federal District Court Filings & Dockets site, still in beta, is a very interesting use of web 2.0 technology.  Users can search all federal district court filings from January 1, 2006 to the present by party name, jurisdiction, or subject matter.  Results provide party names, case number, date filed, court, name of judge, type of law suit, specific cause of action, basis of jurisdiction, and whether a jury has been demanded and by which party.  Links are then provided into the U.S. Court’s subscription PACER system for further information.  Tailored blog, news, and web searches are created for the user, requiring only one click to access results.  Finally, users can add their search to any one of many RSS feeds.  This could be a very useful tool for practicing attorneys and legal researchers alike to freely search and monitor specific parties and/or substantive areas of law. [JJ]


Foreign Law Translations
The Institute for Transnational Law is hosted by the School of Law at the University of Texas at Austin.  This site is a resource for French, German, Austrian, and Israeli legal materials in the fields of constitutional, administrative, contract and tort law. The English translations of decisions from Germany include cases from the Reichsgericht, the Bundesverfassungsgericht, and the Bundesgerichtshof.  Translations from French include decisions of the Conseil constitutionnel, the Conseil d'Etat and the Cour de cassation.  Since it is very difficult to find any English translations of foreign court opinions or statutes even at subscription services, this is a valuable resource, although the material available is limited. According to the Institute for Transnational Law's website, their intention is to eventually "build a comprehensive database of leading French and German cases, beginning with the areas of contract, tort, commercial, and constitutional law (mainly human rights) and making them available to foreign audiences who cannot access the originals."  The site does issue warnings that the collection is not complete and “should not be relied upon for the basis of a legal opinion or course of action without careful review of current applicable authority."  Because the English translations are intended to emphasize readability rather than exactness, no absolute reliance on the translations should be considered. [CF]


Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA)
Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) is the American regional center for the Pesticide Action Network (PAN), one of five such regional centers worldwide.  PAN consists of over 600 nongovernmental organizations, institutions, and individuals in over 90 countries.  PAN and PANNA seek “to replace pesticide use with ecologically sound and socially just alternatives.”  PANNA sees pesticide use as a health and environmental hazard that both undermines food security and threatens agricultural biodiversity.  The website provides a source for publications, as well as explanation of pesticide issues.  The Resource Library offers reports, articles, guides, videos, and databases.  Topics are numerous, including DDT, hunger and food security, and pesticides and autism.  Some material must be purchased, but much of it is available in full-text online.  Links to relevant websites, including the PAN Pesticides Database, are provided.  The Campaigns and Projects section offers significant discussion of PANNA activities; the group currently focuses on pesticide drift, corporate accountability, and pesticide-free lawn care, among other areas.  Among the extensive information in this section are PANNA’s public comments on administrative actions, as well as advice on how individuals can get involved in pesticide matters. [MM]


Social Watch
Social Watch is an international NGO watchdog network monitoring poverty eradication and gender equality.  Visitors to the organization's website may peruse country reports from over 60 countries and principalities.  In these reports, members of Social Watch's national coalitions detail progress made towards internationally agreed-upon commitments and goals, compiled from the latest available authoritative statistical sources.  Social Watch also produces issue papers, under the "Big Issues" section.  These papers are arranged by date and by topic, specifically the ten commitments of the World Summit for Social Development.  A wonderful resource from this website includes the graphic arrangement of data under the site's "Progress and Regressions" section.  These social indicator resources are in PDF and HTML, and go back to 1999.  The site's "Development Indicators" section also presents its data in interactive graphical form, but this information is not easily printed.  Social Watch is available in Spanish as well as English. [BWK]


Transparency International: the Global Coalition Against Corruption
Transparency International (TI) is a global nongovernmental organization with more than 90 local national chapters and chapters-in-formation. TI is not an investigatory organization. Its mission is to generate educational materials, lobby for reform, and provide advice on how to combat corruption. Its website is current, reporting on recent and upcoming events. The home page is organized with links to current news; regional pages that connect to TI chapters; research, surveys, and indices; and helpful tools such as an anticorruption handbook.  The pages within the site are not stylish, but provide links to full text PDF scholarly articles (with shorter summaries,) working papers, annual reports from 1999, press releases and conference notices.  Each page is searchable, has a direct e-mail feature, and provides the name and contact information for the editor of the page.  TI also links to CORISweb ( http://www.corisweb.org/) its portal to over 16,000 resources.  CORISweb allows anyone to enter information that meets editorial standards in a variety of languages using simple online forms. CORISweb includes databases on resources, events, projects, news, contacts and courses. [JMC]

InSITE contributors: J. Callihan, C. Finger, J. Jones, B. Kreisler, M. Morrison, J. Pajerek (editor)

About InSITE: InSITE highlights selected law-related 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.

Digital versions of this information can be accessed via:

1. Searchable database or by browsing current and archived issues on the web: Click InSITE at www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library

2. E-mail subscription. Send the following request: SUBSCRIBE InSITE-L <YourFirstName> <YourLastName> to: listproc@cornell.edu

3. Readers can subscribe to the new InSITE RSS feed at http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library/RESOURCES/insite.htm

The contents of InSITE and any recommendations therein are the opinions of the authors and do not reflect the views of Cornell University. InSITE is copyright protected by Cornell Law Library, © 2007 Cornell Law Library. Permission to republish InSITE issues on Law Librarian Blog has been granted. For permissions, contact Jean M. Pajerek [jmp8@cornell.edu].

Cornell Law Library URL: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library

About InSITE: InSITE highlights selected law-related 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.

Digital versions of this information can be accessed via:

1. Searchable database or by browsing current and archived issues on the web: Click InSITE at www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library

2. E-mail subscription. Send the following request: SUBSCRIBE InSITE-L <YourFirstName> <YourLastName> to: listproc@cornell.edu

3. Readers can subscribe to the new InSITE RSS feed at http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library/RESOURCES/insite.htm

The contents of InSITE and any recommendations therein are the opinions of the authors and do not reflect the views of Cornell University. InSITE is copyright protected by Cornell Law Library, © 2007 Cornell Law Library. Permission to republish InSITE issues on Law Librarian Blog has been granted. For permissions, contact Jean M. Pajerek [jmp8@cornell.edu].

Cornell Law Library URL: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library