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The United Nations on the Web: Bogeyman No More

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2019

Abstract

The client with a United Nations-related question, once the bogeyman of law librarians, can now be approached with confidence, in the knowledge that many questions can be readily answered by recourse to the Internet – through websites that are either free, or relatively inexpensive to access, or through commercial hosts such as Lexis and Westlaw. This contention is supported with particular reference to treaty research.

It must be emphasized that the functions and structure change continuously and, of course, the documentation changes as well.

United Nations Documentation: a Brief Guide

The UN is a major publisher. Over the more than five decades of its existence, it has published hundreds of thousands of documents (reports, studies, resolutions, meeting records, letters from Governments, etc.) on topics of key interest (disarmament, the environment, human rights, international law, peace-keeping, etc.).

Under the circumstances, it might initially seem impossible to track down precise information in view of the overwhelming amount of data available, but a systematic approach to your research will always yield results.

United Nations Documentation Research Guide

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 by the International Association of Law Libraries 

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References

1 United Nations Documentation: A Brief Guide, New York: UN, 1994.Google Scholar

2 United Nations Documentation Research Guide, prepared by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library (www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/basic.htm).Google Scholar

3 See, e.g., the works cited in the Research Guide. Google Scholar

5 “Mining the ‘Deep Web’ with Sharper Shovels,” New York Times, January 25, 2001, D1.Google Scholar

9 The range of guides to international law research produced by Marylin Raisch, (International and Foreign Law Librarian, Bora Laskin Law Library, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto) being outstanding examples. (http://www.lawlib.utoronto.ca/***intmat.htm).Google Scholar

10 Shahla Aly is Vice-President, Communications Sector, IBM Canada. Ms Aly was speaking at the opening of the conference, “Not a Box but a Window: Law Libraries and Legal Education in a Virtual World,” hosted by the Bora Laskin Law Library, University of Toronto. (See http://www.law-lib.utoronto.ca/conferences/future/index.htm).Google Scholar

12 If in doubt, go to the Site Index (a highly recommended approach to any website).Google Scholar

20 ICJ Decisions are also available via Westlaw (INT-ICJ).Google Scholar

21 http://www.virtual-institute.de/en/wcd/wcd_home.cfm. “The World Court Digest represents a reproduction, in a systematic arrangement, of the views on questions of international law which are expressed in the judgements, advisory opinions and orders of the International Court of Justice as well as in the separate opinions of individual judges. The World Court Digest is a continuation, in a new shape, of the Fontes Juris Gentium, Series A, Section I, which, in its first four volumes, cover the decisions of the Permanent Court of International Justice and the Hague Permanent Court of Arbitration and is devoted, in volumes five to seven, to the jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice from its establishment until 1985. The period from 1986 to 1995 has been reproduced in the two volumes of the World Court Digest which will be continued periodically in the future.”Google Scholar

25 http://www.igc.org/icc/index.html. “This site is the primary NGO provider of online information about the proposed permanent International Criminal Court.”Google Scholar

29 And see the ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law: UN (under “Current Developments Resources – http://www.asil.org/resources/un1.htm#section9).Google Scholar

35 http://www.asil.org/resource/un1.htm. The UN Guide is part of the larger and entirely wonderful Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law (http://www.***asil.org/resource/Home.htm).Google Scholar

38 Although see the Secretariat's Limited Publication Policy (http://untreaty.un.org/English/secr-no5.asp).Google Scholar

40 Note that the treaties in the database are stored in Tiff format and users with older browsers may not be able to download the necessary plug-in – although this should only make the process of printing out more difficult than otherwise. (see http://untreaty.un.org/ENGLISH/series/plugin/install_plugin.asp.Google Scholar

41 http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/iltreat.htm (scroll down to “additional UN treaty sites”).Google Scholar

43 Lyonette Louis-Jacques (Foreign and International Law Librarian and Lecturer in Law D'Angelo Law Library, University of Chicago Law School) recently promoted the web-site in her presentation on the “Best of the Web for International Law” to the annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Law Librarians (London, Ontario, 28 May 2001).Google Scholar

47 See those listed in the guide prepared by Marci Hoffman and Paul Zarins at the ASIL web-site: http://www.asil.org/resource/un1.htm#Section3 and those prepared by Marylin Raisch, above n9.Google Scholar

49 To subscribe to the list, send the following message to , “SUBSCRIBE INT-LAW Your-first-name Your-last-name.Google Scholar