Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

Reviews published in the April 20, 2009 issue of InSITE:

• Assemblée nationale
• NTI: Nuclear Threat Initiative
• Supreme Court of India
• Takeovers Panel
  

Assemblée nationale
http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/

Assemblée nationale is the official website of the French Parliament’s lower chamber.  The National Assembly is composed of 577 members and sits in the XVIIIth century Palais Bourbon in Paris.  Apart from the historical introduction, this state-of-the-art website displays official and legal materials.  It covers both the legislative process, with links to bills and enacted legislation, and the working process taking place in the Parliament’s committees.  It is accessible not only in French but also in English, German, Italian and to visually impaired people, although it remains difficult to state with accuracy how many official documents are available in these languages.  Moreover, the website gives the most comprehensive access to debates or “travaux parlementaires” on a given piece of legislation, including all the committee debates and amendments. For every piece of legislation, there is a link to Légifrance, the main official legal website in France (annotated in vol. 4, no. 14 of InSITE).  Légifrance provides access to an electronic version of every Act of Parliament and the case law of the Conseil constitutionnel and other French courts.  There is unique access to the Official Journal of the French Republic, where all the legislation is officially published.  Légifrance and the National Assembly’s website are credited as official sources. The website is geared toward the citizen-at-large but is mostly used by government officials, lawyers and journalists.  It includes an effective search engine and links to the Senate’s website and its law-making process.  Although a specific document may be sometimes tricky to find, the website’s overall organization remains strong.  For instance, the first page displays informative headings with links to chamber and committees’ proceedings.  The remaining headings deal with the Budget, the European Union, Parliamentary documents and International Relations. [AP]

NTI: Nuclear Threat Initiative
http://www.nti.org/

Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) is co-chaired by CNN founder Ted Turner and former U.S. senator Sam Nunn, and governed by a board of influential experts from around the world.  NTI's mission is "to strengthen global security by reducing the risk of use and preventing the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and to work to build the trust, transparency and security which are preconditions to the ultimate fulfillment of the Non-Proliferation Treaty's goals and ambitions."  This website offers daily news updates as well as in-depth resources about the global threats from nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) weapons and related issues.  The "Research Library" section of the website features several databases, one of which provides analysis of regional and national information related to the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1540 (2004).  UNSCR 1540 requires states to "implement domestic legislation to prevent non-state actors from manufacturing, acquiring, or transporting NBC weapons within or from their territory."  The Research Library's "Country Profiles" section offers overviews and in-depth profiles of more than 20 selected countries' weapons programs and activities.  Recent (within the last month) updates to the country profiles are highlighted in a special section.  Within the "Teacher's Toolkit" section of the website, users can find tutorials, a glossary, and sample syllabi.  The site is keyword-searchable; searches may be targeted to a single specific section of the website, multiple selected sections, or the entire site.  The site is available in both English and Russian. [SYK]

Supreme Court of India
http://www.supremecourtofindia.nic.in/

The Supreme Court of India was established in January 1950, two days after India became a sovereign republic.  The Court plays the pivotal role of a federal court, guardian of the Indian Constitution and the highest court of appeal.  The Court's website covers an extensive range of topics comprising an overview of the Supreme Court, its history, constitution, and operation, and biographical information about sitting and former judges of the Court.  The practice rules and procedures of the court are available, as well as daily orders, cause lists, and status of cases.  The website provides a useful link to the judicial information system that maintains all reported judgments of the Supreme Court and several high courts from 1950 forward.  The site is descriptive and helpful for practitioners as well as clients with a pending case before the Court, and for the general public seeking information on various laws and the legal system in India.  Some portions of the site are best viewed using Internet Explorer. [KP]

Takeovers Panel
http://www.takeovers.govt.nz/

The New Zealand Takeovers Panel was established by the Takeovers Act 1993 to review the law relating to takeovers of specified companies and to make determinations and applications to the New Zealand court.  The Act enacted the Takeovers Code which aims to encourage and facilitate takeover activity and to enable all shareholders to take part in the process on the basis of equal treatment and full disclosure.  The Panel’s website provides useful information to shareholders, companies, lawyers and any other party interested in New Zealand takeovers law.  The “Who we are” section of the website contains a succinct explanation of the Panel’s functions and lists all the names of current Panel members.  The decisions and exemption notices issued by the Panel since 2001 are available in full text HTML.  Interested parties may review the Panel’s annual reports, issues of its newsletter, and practice notes from 2001 onward, in both full text HTML and in PDF.  All of these materials are browseable by the names of the relevant companies and date, and are full-text searchable as well.  The Panel periodically posts major articles and speeches relating to the Act and Code. The Panel’s website is well organized and easily navigated, with a site map and a search engine featuring both simple keyword searching and a more customizable advanced search. The site includes the Panel’s contact details so that anyone with a question regarding takeover issues in New Zealand may directly contact the Panel, its chief executive officer and lawyers via post, telephone, fax, and email. [PCHL]

InSITE contributors: S.Y. Kim, P.C.H. Liao, K. Panjrath, A. Pastorelli, J. Pajerek

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 archives 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.

Note to readers: this special issue of InSITE features annotations written by the LL.M. students in Prof. Leslie Knight’s “Principles of American Legal Writing” class.