by Janice Selberg
Wayne State University Law Library
Herewith is a sampling of INT-LAW activity from Winter, 1995/96:
Randall J. Snyder, Thu, 7 Dec 1995: The Assistant Legal Adviser for Private International Law has just provided me with information on their new database. The attached memorandum describes its purpose, content, etc. Please use and enjoy it!
We are pleased to inform you that the Office of the Legal Adviser (L/PIL), U.S. Department of State, has gone online with its "Private International Law Database" (PILDB). The PILDB is accessible via the Internet on World Wide Web at http://www.his.com/~pildb/
The PILDB will make it easy for lawyers, interest groups, scholars, and others in the United States and abroad to examine and download documents, information about ongoing international projects, completed conventions, rules, model laws and legal guides. L/PIL will place documents newly received in electronic form from intergovernmental organizations on the system as quickly as possible.
The PILDB is intended to provide users with information about developments in the international efforts of four intergovernmental organizations to unify or harmonize private law—the U.N. Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the Hague Conference on Private International Law, the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), and the Organization of American States in its periodic Specialized Conferences on Private International Law (CIDIPs). Information on the PILDB includes:
We are organizing documents where possible under the following subject categories:
Users may at no cost browse through the system, and download and print out any of the documents on the system. The documents are, however, provided for general information only, and the Department of State makes no warranty as to their timeliness, accuracy, formatting or completeness.
Lyonette Louis-Jacques, Thu, 14 Dec 1995: Collections of embassy and consulate pages for various countries on the World Wide Web include:
Other sites include:
Mary Whisner, Mon, 8 Jan 1996: Marci Hoffman has compiled an excellent list of links to human rights resources on the Internet, with helpful annotations (so you have a good idea of what each site includes, without having to try every link just to see):
Human Rights and Related Sources Available Through the Internet: http://www. umn.edu/humanrts/links/links.htm (part of the University of Minnesota Human Rights Library)
Peggy Jarrett and I spoke to a human rights seminar last week, and I was grateful to be able to give the students this URL, rather than attempting to come up with a list of sites on my own.
Wiltrud Harms, Mon, 8 Jan 1996: I would like to draw your attention to a very useful article written by Jean M. Jablonski and Debra A. Kellman which appeared in vol.XXI, no.2 (1995) of the Brooklyn Journal of International Law, pages 537-597.
In my opinion this article will be a most welcome help for those embarking on U.N. documents research (not just at the Brooklyn Law School library). I have photocopied it and am keeping it on my desk to have it handy for our patrons here at Boalt Hall.
Lyonette Louis-Jacques, Tue, 23 Jan 1996: The January 1996 issue of Information Today has an article, "Price Waterhouse 'Doing Business Guides' Now Available via Internet," that gives the URL for Price Waterhouse via Trade Point USA's I-TRADE (the International Trade Resource and Data Exchange) at http://www.tpusa.com/. PW has a home page at http://www.pw.com/ also.
There's free access to the new "Doing Business In" guide for Denmark for sure, but I'm not certain there's free access generally, and nothing at the site gives me more info about access as far as I can tell. The article says 12 "Doing Business Guides" are now available on the Internet with more to come. I tried to access a few other countries, and got the table of contents, and was able to see a few sections of their guides, but not others (got an autorization request sometimes).
Anyone with more information, please let me know. Especially if it turns out that access is free for all the guides.
Roger Wiesenbach, Fri, 26 Jan 1996: I checked out this site and confirm your findings, evidently this is a statement of intentions. The PW guides and other services on the TPUSA site should be quite valuable when they get it going.
On the other hand, I got a copy of "Doing Business in France" free from the Price-Waterhouse office in Paris, though one of our subscribers reported having to pay $15 from the LA, California office.
This is a 270-page compilation of the essentials on France, well worth the $15 if you're going to do business here. We did a scan/OCR on the more interesting parts, especially the legal institutions, and make it available as a 42k ASCII file. Email to law-france-request@amgot.org with "DO_BIZ" in the subject: line.
Since TPUSA is a non-profit operation and the guides are already written and give good PR for their sponsor and it's still not practical to charge for things on the Net, I would expect them to be offered free.
Otherwise, this site offers The Economist Intelligence Unit and Dun & Bradstreet Information Services, as well as:
Free Services
Subscription Services
Olga Shargorodska, Tue, 30 Jan 1996: I checked the site and found one publication for free, namely, Doing Business in Denmark. Other similar publications were not available without a password. They have two types of subscriptions.
Maxine Grosshans, Wed, 14 Feb 1996: Does anyone know if the case Vogt v. Germany (Case # 71994454535) has been published either in hardcopy or on the 'Net?
This decision was handed down by the European Court of Human Rights on September 26, 1995. I have found a synopsis of the case in a Times article of November 1, 1995—but I need the full text. We receive the reports of the European Court of Human Rights, but it has not been published there yet.
Ian M. Sainsbury, Tue, 20 Feb 1996: The Council of Europe has produced a typescript,at least in a English version,but it is subject to editorial revision.I think that it is obtainable direct from the Court itself.
Alastair Walls Tue, 20 Feb 1996: Does anyone know if the European Court of Human Rights decision in the IRA/SAS case is available anywhere on the internet?
Ron Slye, Tue, 20 Feb 1996: Don't know if its on the Internet, but it is reprinted in the Human Rights Law Journal (vol. 16, no. 7-9) at page 260 (1995).
Hans Wassgren, Tue, 20 Feb 1996: I've tried to browse through the WWW in search for the address and phone/fax numbers of the Internat. Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at the Hague, the Netherlands?
Kif Augustine Adams, Sat, 17 Feb 1996: Try the following WEB site. It has links to the Tribunal's home page. I am not 100% sure if the address is there, but the site has lots of useful information about the Tribunal, as well as various official documents.
http://www.linder.com/berserk/berserk.html
Wiltrud Harms, Tue, 20 Feb 1996: Ronald Slye informed us last November that the website for the War Crimes Tribunal (Former Yugoslavia) could be reached through http://www.cij. org/cij/. I think this still works but a little while ago I also found it at http://www.igc.apc.org/ tribunal/.
Juergen Broehmer, Wed, 21 Feb 1996: Would somebody please send a citation or downloading address for the United Nations Central Product Classification?
Karien Smeding, Wed, 21 Feb 1996: Provisional Central Product Classification Statistical Papers, Series M No. 77—ST/ESA/STAT/SER.M/77. Department of international economic and social affairs, statistical office of the United Nations, New York 1991. Sales No. E.91.XVII.7 ISBN 92-1-161329-9
Alexander Trunk, Thu, 22 Feb 1996: Does anybody know the status of the bill of 15 Nov. 1995 modifying the First Part of the Russian Civil Code (probably in connection with the entrance into force of the Second Part of the Code)? The State Duma passed a resolution on 15 Nov. 1995 (Nr.1304-I GD, Sobranie Zakonodatelstva 48/1995, position 4614) saying that they passed the law and sent it to the Federation Council. Has the Federation Council already decided? Has the law already been published?
O. Shargorodska, Fri, 23 Feb 1996: I checked with our legal specialists and they told me that so far nothing is signed yet by the President. If you need the text that is in the works now (I was told this is about Article 64 re creditors and investors), then let me know your direct fax and I MIGHT be able to get it for you. On the other hand I am not sure you need something that is not law yet.
Annebeth Rosenboom, Mon, 26 Feb 1996: In reply, the Institute of East European Law and Russian Studies of the Leiden University writes to me: "As far as is known to us, the 15 November bill has not yet been signed by the President. Neither has the bill been published. The most recent source upon which we base this is Rossiiskaia gazeta of 20 February 1996."
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