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NetWatch December 2003

Authors: Anne Greenshields
Librarian - Law, Murdoch University
Ian Lee MPsych, Grad Dip LIS
Librarian, Murdoch University Library
Issue: Volume 10, Number 4 (December 2003)

 Primary Legal Materials on the Internet - Case Law, Statutes and Extrinsic Material

Australian legal sites and developments

Primary Legal Materials on the Internet

Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) "independent review of a wide range of administrative decisions made by the Australian government and some non-government bodies". Procedural information for the tribunal and current decisions. Archives of decisions older than a week are kept on the AustLII site.
URL: http://www.aat.gov.au/
URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/aat/

Agreements, Treaties & Negotiated Settlements Project "an ARC Linkage project examining treaty and agreement-making with indigenous Australians and the nature of the cultural, social and legal rights encompassed by past, present and potential agreements and treaties". Provides both a browsable and searchable database of treaty information of "1,422 entities with references to 309 published resources".
URL: http://www.atns.net.au/

Collection of Laws for Electronic Access (CLEA) "The Collection of Laws for Electronic Access (CLEA) database is a unique international electronic archive of intellectual property legislation... provides easy access to multilateral treaties and to the intellectual property laws of a wide range of countries". From the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
URL: http://clea.wipo.int/clea/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=main-h.htm&2.0

International Court of Justice Decisions added to WorldLII. 1993+
URL: http://www.worldlii.org/int/cases/ICJ/
URL: http://www.worldlii.org

Southern African Legal Information Institute (SAFLII) decisions from the Constitution Court of South Africa, the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa and the Land Claims Court of South Africa, selected South African Consolidated Legislation and publications of the South African Law Commission.
URL: http://www.saflii.org/

WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center "Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center was established in 1994 to offer Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) options, in particular arbitration and mediation, for the resolution of international commercial disputes between private parties"
URL: http://arbiter.wipo.int/center/index.html

Australian sites and developments

Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) "independent review of a wide range of administrative decisions made by the Australian government and some non-government bodies". Procedural information for the tribunal and current decisions. Archives of decisions older than a week are kept on the AustLII site.
URL: http://www.aat.gov.au/
URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/aat/

Agreements, Treaties & Negotiated Settlements Project "an ARC Linkage project examining treaty and agreement-making with indigenous Australians and the nature of the cultural, social and legal rights encompassed by past, present and potential agreements and treaties". Provides both a browsable and searchable database of treaty information of "1,422 entities with references to 309 published resources".
URL: http://www.atns.net.au/

Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Association ANZSLA provides a resource for lawyers, coaches students and academics. Attempts to facilitate information exchange between legal professionals and sports administrators.
URL: http://www.anzsla.com.au/

Attorney Generals Department: Publications
http://www.law.gov.au/www/agdHome.nsf/HeadingPagesDisplay/Publications?OpenDocument

Consumer.Gov.au This is the Official Site of the Ministerial Council on Consumer Affairs. Provides information for consumers, businesses, a news section and a series of links and explanations
URL: http://www.consumer.gov.au/index.html

Documenting a Democracy This site attempts to trace the path of the Australian democracy via the documents left behind. "The documentary records of Australia's eight governments are in the custody of archives located in each capital city. The eight government archives in partnership planned and produced this website with the support of Australia's National Council for the Centenary of Federation."
URL: http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/home.htm

High Court of Australia, Library Catalogue
URL: http://library.hcourt.gov.au/

Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services "established by the Western Australian Parliament under the Prisons Act 1981 (WA) in 2000. In December 2003, the Inspector of Custodial Services Act came into operation. The role of the Office is to bring independent external scrutiny to the standards and operational practices relating to custodial services within the state. The Office, which falls within the general portfolio responsibility of the Minister for Justice, is answerable directly to the Parliament".
URL: http://www.custodialinspector.wa.gov.au/newoicsFrameset.html

Publications Register - tool for finding Australian Commonwealth Government publications.
URL: http://www.publications.gov.au

Commonwealth of Australia: Government Publications

Joint Statutory Committee on Corporations and Securities. Reports (with submissions and transcripts).
URL: http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/corporations_ctte/reports/index.htm

Employment, Workplace Relations and Education
URL: http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/EET_CTTE/reports/index.htm

Attorney Generals Department: Publications
URL: http://www.law.gov.au/www/agdHome.nsf/HeadingPagesDisplay/Publications?OpenDocument

Parliamentary Library Publications

Western Australia

Law Reform Commission of Western Australia Annual Report for 2002-2003
URL: http://www.lrc.justice.wa.gov.au/

Legal Aid of Western Australia: Annual Report
URL: http://www.legalaid.wa.gov.au/Annual/2002/default.htm

Ministerial Working Party on Drug Law Reform: Final Report (Western Australia)
URL: http://www.dao.health.wa.gov.au/wadaso/html/contents/publications/reports_official/drug-law-reform/law-reform.html

Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services "established by the Western Australian Parliament under the Prisons Act 1981 (WA) in 2000. In December 2003, the Inspector of Custodial Services Act came into operation. The role of the Office is to bring independent external scrutiny to the standards and operational practices relating to custodial services within the state. The Office, which falls within the general portfolio responsibility of the Minister for Justice, is answerable directly to the Parliament".
URL: http://www.custodialinspector.wa.gov.au/newoicsFrameset.html

Administrative Law

Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) "independent review of a wide range of administrative decisions made by the Australian government and some non-government bodies". Procedural information for the tribunal and current decisions. Archives of decisions older than a week are kept on the AustLII site.
URL: http://www.aat.gov.au/
URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/aat/

European Institute of Public Administration. Conference details, publications including working papers, language glossary of public administration law terms in various European languages.
URL: http://www.eipa.nl/home/eipa.htm

Biotechnology

Ethical Issues in Genetic Research - An introduction for members of Australian Human Research Ethics Committees.[pdf] "The completion of the Human Genome Project will continue to have a major effect on the speed and nature of disease gene discovery. Keeping abreast of new techniques to assess research proposals will be an increasingly important task for human research ethics committees".
URL: http://genetics.law.utas.edu.au/links/about.php?linkID=1451
URL: http://www.genecrc.org/site/ge/images/IEC_Manu.pdf

Business, Corporations & Securities

Corporate Citizenship and the Role of Government: the Public Policy Case, Australian Parliamentary Library, Research Paper No. 4 2002-03, 01.12.2003
URL: http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/rp/2003-04/04RP04.htm

CSRwire: Corporate Social Responsibility Newswire Service (USA)
URL: http://www.csrwire.com/

Sentencing: Corporate Offenders Report 102 (2003) New South Wales Law Reform Commission
URL: http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lrc.nsf/pages/r102toc

Censorship & Privacy

Electronic Frontiers Australia: Promoting and Protecting On-line Civil Liberties (Australia) issues papers, links to relevant submissions etc.
URL: http://www.efa.org.au

Office of Film and Literature Classification The OFLC classify all film, video and computer games whether locally produced or from overseas. "The Classification Board also provides classifications to the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) on internet content, advice to enforcement agencies such as the police, and advice to the Australian Customs Service" Links to the Act, Code, Regulations and other publications.
URL: http://www.oflc.gov.au/splash.html

Children and Young People

Child Labor Research Initiative (CLRI) contains a legislative database from many nations, essays, and research documents. The legislative database is underdevelopment and has limited search functionality.
URL: http://www.childlaborlaws.org/

Online Courts for Kids: Learning About Law on the World Wide Web (US) Explanations of the US legal system to help parents explain "TV shows such as Law and Order, the Practice, LA Law and First Monday."
URL: http://access.wa.gov/kids/courts.aspx

Citizenship & Migration

Corporate Citizenship and the Role of Government: the Public Policy Case, Australian Parliamentary Library, Research Paper No. 4 2002-03, 01.12.2003
URL: http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/rp/2003-04/04RP04.htm

Inquiry into the Migration Amendment (Agents Integrity Measures) Bill 2003 and Migration Agents Registration Application Charge Bill 2003 Australia. Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee (Report tabled 25 November 2003)
URL: http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/legcon_ctte/migagents03/report/report.pdf

We are Australian–The Constitution and Deportation of Australian-born Children, Australian Parliamentary Library, Research Paper No.3 2002-03, 24.11.2003
URL http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/rp/2003-04/04RP03.htm

Civil Rights

Electronic Frontiers Australia: Promoting and Protecting On-line Civil Liberties (Australia) issues papers, links to relevant submissions etc.
URL: http://www.efa.org.au

Constitutional Law

Constitution Finder a simple to use list of links to the constitutions, charters, amendments of the counties of the world. Just choose and click.
URL: http://confinder.richmond.edu/

Documenting a Democracy This site attempts to trace the path of the Australian democracy via the documents left behind. "The documentary records of Australia's eight governments are in the custody of archives located in each capital city. The eight government archives in partnership planned and produced this website with the support of Australia's National Council for the Centenary of Federation."
URL: http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/home.htm

Consumers

Consumer.Gov.au This is the official Site of the Ministerial Council on Consumer Affairs. Provides information for consumers, businesses, a news section and a series of links and explanations
URL: http://www.consumer.gov.au/index.html

Crime

Cross-Border Investigative Powers for Law Enforcement Report from the Australian Attorney Generals Dept., November 2003
URL: http://www.law.gov.au/www/agdHome.nsf/AllDocs/RWP5EB0987799F1D124CA256DE40014B32C?OpenDocument

Harmful Error - investigating Americas local prosecutors.
URL: http://www.publicintegrity.org/pm/default.aspx

Homophobic Hostilities and Violence against Gay Men and Lesbians in New South Wales this report details the results of a study conducted "across NSW from March to August 2003, involving 670 survey respondents and focus group participants" (NSW. Crime Prevention Bureau).
URL: http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/cpd.nsf/pages/hide2bsafe

Model Criminal Code: Issue estoppel, double jeopardy and prosecution appeals against acquittals. Amendments to chapter 2: general principles of criminal responsibility. Australian Attorney Generals Dept.
URL: http://www.law.gov.au/www/agdHome.nsf/AllDocs/RWP943DA1E8847E222FCA256DEA00129FAC?OpenDocument

National Criminal Justice Reference Service USA (NCJRS) is a federally funded resource offering justice and substance abuse information to support research, policy, and program development worldwide.
URL: http://www.ncjrs.org/

Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services "established by the Western Australian Parliament under the Prisons Act 1981 (WA) in 2000. In December 2003, the Inspector of Custodial Services Act came into operation. The role of the Office is to bring independent external scrutiny to the standards and operational practices relating to custodial services within the state. The Office, which falls within the general portfolio responsibility of the Minister for Justice, is answerable directly to the Parliament".
URL: http://www.custodialinspector.wa.gov.au/newoicsFrameset.html

Report of Review of the Law of Contempt from the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia
URL: http://www.lrc.justice.wa.gov.au/Reports/R93-Report on Contempt.pdf/

Sentencing: Corporate Offenders Report 102 (2003) New South Wales Law Reform Commission
URL: http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lrc.nsf/pages/r102toc

Directories, Guides and Search Engines

Constitution Finder a simple to use list of links to the constitutions, charters, amendments of the counties of the world. Just choose and click.
URL: http://confinder.richmond.edu/

Electronic Information System for International Law a database created by the American Society of International Law.
URL: http://www.eisil.org/index.php?sid=870670125&t=index

Encyclopedia of Law and Economics, from Edward Elgar and the University of Ghent.
URL: http://encyclo.findlaw.com

Guide to Law Online links to world wide legal sites provided by the Library of Congress
URL: http://www.loc.gov/law/guide

International Law Dictionary & Directory free online dictionary with many relevant links to other reference resources
URL: http://august1.com/pubs/dict

International Law Office the International Bar Association’s “official online media partner.” Includes an international Law Directory database with various search options.
URL: http://www.internationallawoffice.com/
URL: http://www.internationallawoffice.com/directory/

Legal Lexicon's Lyceum an extensive legal dictionary from the "'lectric law library"
URL: http://www.lectlaw.com//def.htm

JURIST Australia: The Legal Education Network A subject directory of Internet resources in law including eJournals, Australian Legal News, hosted by the Macquarie University School of Law.
URL: http://jurist.law.mq.edu.au/

Publications Register - tool for finding Australian Commonwealth Government publications.
URL: http://www.publications.gov.au

Dispute Resolution

WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center "Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center was established in 1994 to offer Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) options, in particular arbitration and mediation, for the resolution of international commercial disputes between private parties"
URL: http://arbiter.wipo.int/center/index.html

Education

Bridging the Skills Divide Australia. Employment, Workplace Relations and Education Committee (PDF format and Word format) - Tabled 6 November 2003
URL: http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/EET_CTTE/skills/report/index.htm

Hacking Australia's Future, Threats to institutional autonomy, academic freedom and student choice in Australian higher education Australia. Employment, Workplace Relations and Education Committee (PDF format and Word format) - Tabled 7 November 2003
URL: http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/EET_CTTE/highed2003/report/index.htm

Environment

Annual Review of Population Law From the Harvard Law School the Annual Review provides "a database of summaries and excerpts of legislation, constitutions, court decisions, and other official government documents from every country in the world relating to population policies, reproductive rights and health, women's rights, HIV/AIDS and related topics. The period covered by the database is 1974 through the present (2002-)".
URL http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/annual_review/annual_review.htm

Convention on Biological Diversity, from the United Nations Environment Programme. Documents, reports, discussion.
URL: http://www.biodiv.org/

Family Law Relationships

Family Law Online Provided by the Commonwealth Attorney General's Department, Family Law Online is designed to provide access to family law issues and informatio in an accessible way. Factsheets available on a number of browsable topics including, protection, relationships, alternatives to going to court and property.
URL: http://www.familylaw.gov.au/accesspoint

Family Violence Resources - US Legislation From the National Criminal Justice Reference Service a guide to USA legislation codes and cases.
URL: http://www.ncjrs.org/family_violence/legislation.html

Gender

Equal Marriage for Same Sex Couples (Canada)
URL: http://www.samesexmarriage.ca/

Homophobic Hostilities and Violence against Gay Men and Lesbians in New South Wales this report details the results of a study conducted "across NSW from March to August 2003, involving 670 survey respondents and focus group participants" (NSW. Crime Prevention Bureau).
URL: http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/cpd.nsf/pages/hide2bsafe

International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission
URL: http://www.iglhrc.org/site/iglhrc/

Health

The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law provides advocacy for people with mental disabilities. Provides news and features, court report information, alerts and legislative updates. (USA)
URL: http://www.bazelon.org

Ministerial Working Party on Drug Law Reform: Final Report (Western Australia)
URL: http://www.dao.health.wa.gov.au/wadaso/html/contents/publications/reports_official/drug-law-reform/law-reform.html

Human Rights

The European Centre for Minority Issues "(ECMI) advances majority-minority relations in the wider Europe through action, research and documentation."
URL: http://www.ecmi.de/doc/index.html

Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services "established by the Western Australian Parliament under the Prisons Act 1981 (WA) in 2000. In December 2003, the Inspector of Custodial Services Act came into operation. The role of the Office is to bring independent external scrutiny to the standards and operational practices relating to custodial services within the state. The Office, which falls within the general portfolio responsibility of the Minister for Justice, is answerable directly to the Parliament".
URL: http://www.custodialinspector.wa.gov.au/newoicsFrameset.html

Indigenous Australians

Agreements, Treaties & Negotiated Settlements Project "an ARC Linkage project examining treaty and agreement-making with indigenous Australians and the nature of the cultural, social and legal rights encompassed by past, present and potential agreements and treaties". Provides both a browsable and searchable database of treaty information of "1,422 entities with references to 309 published resources".
URL: http://www.atns.net.au/

Inquiry into the Progress Towards National Reconciliation Reconcilliation Off Track Australia. Senate Legal and Constitutional committee (Report tabled 9 October 2003)
URL: http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/legcon_ctte/reconciliation/report/report.pdf

Insurance

Inquiry into the Disclosure of Commissions on Risk Products - Report [PDF] - Tabled 12 August 2003
URL: http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/corporations_ctte/dcrp/report/report.pdf

Intellectual Property

Collection of Laws for Electronic Access (CLEA) "The Collection of Laws for Electronic Access (CLEA) database is a unique international electronic archive of intellectual property legislation... provides easy access to multilateral treaties and to the intellectual property laws of a wide range of countries". From the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
URL: http://clea.wipo.int/clea/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=main-h.htm&2.0

Ethical Issues in Genetic Research - An introduction for members of Australian Human Research Ethics Committees.[pdf] "The completion of the Human Genome Project will continue to have a major effect on the speed and nature of disease gene discovery. Keeping abreast of new techniques to assess research proposals will be an increasingly important task for human research ethics committees".
URL: http://genetics.law.utas.edu.au/links/about.php?linkID=1451
URL: http://www.genecrc.org/site/ge/images/IEC_Manu.pdf

Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia (IPRIA) based at the University of Melbourne run jointly by the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Economics and Commerce, and the Melbourne Business School.
URL: http://www.ipria.org

International Law

The Centre for the Study of Global Governance
URL: http://www.lse.ac.uk/Depts/global/

Child Labor Research Initiative (CLRI) contains a legislative database from many nations, essays, and research documents. The legislative database is underdevelopment and has limited search functionality.
URL: http://www.childlaborlaws.org/

Collection of Laws for Electronic Access (CLEA) "The Collection of Laws for Electronic Access (CLEA) database is a unique international electronic archive of intellectual property legislation... provides easy access to multilateral treaties and to the intellectual property laws of a wide range of countries". From the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
URL: http://clea.wipo.int/clea/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=main-h.htm&2.0

Electronic Information System for International Law The EISIL database is a collaborative project created by the American Society of International Law and currently aims to provide information in the following areas; General International Law, Human Rights, Economic Law, Environmental and Criminal Law.
URL: http://www.eisil.org/index.php?sid=870670125&t=index

International Law Office the International Bar Association’s “official online media partner.” Includes an international law directory database with various search options.
URL: http://www.internationallawoffice.com/

World Bank World Development Report 2004
URL: http://econ.worldbank.org/wdr/wdr2004/

Journals, Essays and Newspapers

Berkeley Electronic Press Journals, a collection of free journals for law, economics, business and marketing.
Set up a free account to access full text articles. Law journals include Global Jurist, Issues in Legal Scholarship and Theoretical Inquries into Law.
URL: http://www.bepress.com/alljournals.html
URL: http://www.bepress.com/gj/
URL: http://www.bepress.com/ils/
URL: http://www.bepress.com/til/

CSRwire: Corporate Social Responsibility Newswire Service (USA)
URL: http://www.csrwire.com/

The Paper Chase From the United States an up to the minute report of legal matters in the news.
URL: http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase

Law Reform

Law Reform Commission of Western Australia Annual Report for 2002-2003
URL: http://www.lrc.justice.wa.gov.au/

Report of Review of the Law of Contempt from the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia
URL: http://www.lrc.justice.wa.gov.au/Reports/R93-Report on Contempt.pdf/

Sentencing: Corporate Offenders Report 102 (2003) New South Wales Law Reform Commission
URL: http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lrc.nsf/pages/r102toc
URL: http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lrc

Scottish Law Reform Commission documents are being added to BAILII.
URL: http://www.bailii.org/scot/other/SLC/
URL: http://www.bailii.org

South African Law Commission
URL: http://www.saflii.org/za/other/zalc/

Legal System

Legal Aid of Western Australia: Annual Report
URL: http://www.legalaid.wa.gov.au/Annual/2002/default.htm

The National Association of Community Legal Centres (NACLC) "is the association of state community legal centre organisations in Australia. Member organisations represent around 160 community legal centres nationally".
URL: http://www.naclc.org.au

The National Pro Bono Resource Centre is "an Australian independent, non profit organisation that encourages pro bono legal services, supports lawyers and law firms to make it easier for them to provide high quality pro bono legal services and works with the profession and the community sector to match services with the clients and groups most in need of assistance".
URL: http://www.nationalprobono.org.au/

Pro bono net Australia "is designed to support information exchange between pro bono lawyers, staff of community legal organisations and others providing free legal services. It is based on the successful US based ProBono.net used by over 15,000 people".
URL: http://www.probono.net/au

Media and Communication

Centre for Innovation Law and Policy is an academic institution dedicated to the study of innovation law and policy. (USA) The scope of this project includes "the law, institutions and policies that affect, or are affected by, the development of technology".
URL: http://www.innovationlaw.org/

Internet Rights Forum "This private body, supported by the French government, is a collective adventure: all the actors of the internet, private companies, non-profit organisations, public authorities and users are called to discuss and suggest the uses and rules of online activities."
URL: http://www.foruminternet.org/en/

The Lawyer in Popular Culture: A Bibliography An extensive bibliography of movies and books featuring lawyers.
URL: http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/lpop/lpopbib2.html

Online Courts for Kids: Learning About Law on the World Wide Web (US) Explanations of the US legal system to help parents explain "TV shows such as Law and Order, the Practice, LA Law and First Monday."
URL: http://access.wa.gov/kids/courts.aspx

Social Services

The National Pro Bono Resource Centre is "an Australian independent, non profit organisation that encourages pro bono legal services, supports lawyers and law firms to make it easier for them to provide high quality pro bono legal services and works with the profession and the community sector to match services with the clients and groups most in need of assistance".
URL: http://www.nationalprobono.org.au/

Pro bono net Australia "is designed to support information exchange between pro bono lawyers, staff of community legal organisations and others providing free legal services. It is based on the successful US based ProBono.net used by over 15,000 people".
URL: http://www.probono.net/au

The National Association of Community Legal Centres (NACLC) "is the association of state community legal centre organisations in Australia. Member organisations represent around 160 community legal centres nationally".
URL: http://www.naclc.org.au

Sports Law

Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Association ANZSLA provides a resource for lawyers, coaches students and academics. Attempts to facilitate information exchange between legal professionals and sports administrators.
URL: http://www.anzsla.com.au/

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