Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

Reviews published in the December 1, 2008 issue of InSITE:

• Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania
• Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.
• Federal Evidence Blog
  
• UNPO: Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization

Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania

Founded in 1993, the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) at the University of Pennsylvania bills itself as “the premier communication policy center in the country.”  APPC scholars consider the role of communication in shaping politics, civics, adolescent behavior, and other areas.  The Center has played a role in various policy debates, including debates over Internet privacy, campaign finance, and tobacco advertising.  The website provides details of APPC’s five major research areas: political communication, information and society, media and children, health communication, and adolescent risk.  For each area, the site links to relevant news, while featuring related publications.  The Library section of the site provides access to reports and other materials, but of great interest are the datasets.  The sets are organized according to the five major research areas and brief descriptions of the sets are provided.  Examples of datasets include election surveys and national health behavior surveys.  To access the datasets, users must register with the site. [MM]

Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.

The Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) was established as a nonprofit organization in 1988 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to provide legal and non-legal immigration support services to its member agencies, of which there are now 173.  Most of the member agencies are Catholic diocesan immigration programs, serving “low-income immigrants seeking family reunification, citizenship, and protection from persecution and violence.”  CLINIC now has 260 field offices in 48 states, and employs approximately 1,200 attorneys who serve 400,000 immigrants each year.  CLINIC’s member services are performed through divisions, including the Division of National Programs, the Division of Legalization, the Division of Advocacy, the Division of Religious Immigration Services, the Division of Administration and Development, and the Division of Training and Technical Support.  The site is loosely structured around these divisions, each of which may be accessed through a tab located in the page heading.  The site is kept very current and is extremely dense with important and relevant information which unfortunately is not well organized; however, the website does provide a basic search engine which functions well.  From the home page, a good publications link provides access to practitioner guides and handbooks, immigration reports, articles by CLINIC, and newsletters from CLINIC.  Most these publications are available in PDF format, although some are available in html.  There are fees ranging from $25 to $199 to access some of the handbooks, and readers must subscribe to view the newsletter.  Most of the reports, written by “some of the nation’s leading experts,” were not readily available, although this seemed to be a technical glitch rather than a service issue.  Also on the home page, a news link provides access to substantial news coverage of CLINIC from various news sources and CLINIC’s own press releases.  The site additionally provides links to US government office websites that deal with immigration issues, such as US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Department of Homeland Security, and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  The intended audience of CLINIC’s site is clearly their member agencies, but there is some information to be obtained by others in the field of nonprofit immigration work who are willing dig for it, and in some circumstances, pay for it. [AE]

Federal Evidence Blog

The Federal Evidence Blog is a free component of the Federal Evidence Review, a fee-based electronic legal journal.  The blog focuses specifically on recent cases and issues involving the Federal Rules of Evidence, together with various other cutting edge matters in evidence.  Geared toward legal practitioners, each blog entry highlights one case daily by providing an in-depth summary and thorough review of the procedural history, facts, issues, applicable rules, and outcomes of each case.  The blog is current to the day, and entries are organized in descending order from most recent to last.  In addition to a well-functioning basic search tool, the site provides a topical list of evidence issues cited in the blog, a list of rules recently cited within the blog, and a monthly archive extending back to June, 2008.  One of the blog’s best features is that it provides not only cites to the cases being reviewed, but also hyperlinks to pdf copies of the cases and to html copies of the federal rules of evidence at issue within the cases.  Occasionally other words in the article are hyperlinked as well to transport the reader to previous relevant blog articles or websites such as PACER.  Another helpful feature is a list provided at the end of every article that serves to link the reader to previous articles about related issues. Readers may sign up for the “Evidence Alert!” service which provides free periodic emails with updates on blog postings and developments in evidence.  In typical fashion, readers may also post comments or forward articles by email to other readers.  Overall the blog provides the busy litigator with an excellent resource with which to stay current on developments in the rules of evidence. [AE]

UNPO: Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization

The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) is a democratic, international membership organization comprised of indigenous peoples, occupied nations, minorities, and independent states or territories who have joined together to protect their human and cultural rights, preserve their environments, and to find non-violent solutions to conflicts which affect them. Members share the one condition of not being represented in major international fora, such as the United Nations, which results in limited representation in the areas of human rights and related arenas.  Visitors to the UNPO website may browse for territories and groups that are UNPO members.  Each entry covers facts regarding that group, tribe or territory such as population density, language, culture, and religion.  Historic backgrounds are often provided, as well as fact-finding reports.  The UNPO also provides information about its activities with the UN, including with the UN Commission on Human Rights, the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations, and the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.[BWK,JPC]

InSITE contributors: J.P. Cusker, A. Emerson, B.W. Kreisler, M. Morrison, J. Pajerek (editor)

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. This information can be accessed via the channels below, in addition to this mailing list:

1. Searchable database or by browsing current and archived issues on the web: InSITE home page (http://library2.lawschool.cornell.edu/insiteasp/)
2. RSS feed (http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/lawlibrary/insiteasp/public/rss.asp)
3. Print format for the Cornell Law School community.