According to Ms Susan Kurtas, part of the reference team at the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, United Nations, the UN has launched the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs launched the Audiovisual Library of International Law, which "aims to provide free, scholarly resources to students and practictioners around the world, particularly in regions where there are few resources for the study of international law.

The website has three main parts:

The Historic Archives present documents, photos, and digital film footage relating to the UN role in the development of international law.  This section includes the texts of treaties, some General Assembly declarations, and certain Security Council resolutions.  Each legal instrument also has a procedural history and/or related documents (travaux preparatoires). 

The Lecture Series contains lectures by leading scholars on topics in international law, and includes a bibliography of related materials.  The 100 lectures posted so far are each about an hour long and discuss various aspects of international law.  Most are in English, but other official languages of the UN are also represented.  Certain scholars contribute introductory texts for the Historic Archives as well as lectures. 

The Research Library provides links to other web-based research resources in international law, including other UN sources, national treaty series, and selected scholarly articles provided by HeinOnline (still in pilot/beta)."

OK, stocks have tanked recently, retirement plans are looking sad, credit is squeezed, banks may be semi-nationalized...but one thing we are learning is that causes and effects are truly global. What better time could there be for yet another wonderful new international law and relations tool to be released, and this is a formerly expensive CD now made free as a digital repository: the Yearbook of the United Nations
now online from 1946 through 2005! In its print incarnation, this is where I send students for gathering information on the UN actions regarding major world events and the documents supporting those actions. It is more context-rich than AccessUN, and voting records on resolutions of the General Assembly are included. It is in PDF. Searching appears easy.
For example one can just search for "Gulf War" across the 1991-1998 volumes, as in HeinOnline, and get the actions and documents collected in the relevant sections of these very large volumes. Brilliant, and perfect for what one hopes is a new age of cooperation and multilateralism.

This month the United Nations re-launched its invaluable treaty research service, United Nations Treaty Collection, but at a new URL: treaties.un.org

And in addition, the American Society of International Law has launched a new free database entitled i-lex: The Legal Research System for International Law in U.S. Courts.
"This online database of select U.S. court cases and related materials is designed to serve as a practical resource for members of the judiciary and other legal professionals to identify and understand how international law is interpreted and applied by U.S. courts at both the federal and state level."
More work for guide updating...but great new resources!

An important  emerging research issue in the area of treaties is underscored by this recent IL Post from the American Society of International Law. The issue is of equal interest to the practicing bar; an excerpt of the Society's announcement of a new task force on the issue is posted as follows:

"On March 25, 2008, the Supreme Court held in Medellin v. Texas that the International Court of Justice's March 31, 2004, Judgment in the Case Concerning Avena and Other Mexican Nationals, while creating an international legal obligation applicable to the United States, does not create binding federal law enforceable in U.S. courts and that the President does not have the constitutional authority to mandate that a state comply. Medellin appears to merge the question of whether a treaty is enforceable in federal court with the question of whether that treaty is binding federal law, stating that non-self-executing treaties are neither. ...Medellin suggests that if it cannot be clearly determined that Congress understood the treaty in question to be self-executing when providing advice and consent to ratification, the treaty will be considered non-self-executing and will not be treated as U.S. domestic law. This could call into question the status not only of treaties with binding ICJ dispute settlement clauses, but also of many other existing
bilateral and multilateral treaties for which there is neither domestic implementing legislation nor a clear record that they are self-executing."

The post goes on to state that the aim of the Task Force on Treaties in U.S. Law will be to examine existing treaties regarding their status and to consider possible executive or legislative actions that might be advisable to clarify their status and that of future treaties.

Early this morning an NPR commentator marked today as the anniversary of Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1, 87 S.Ct. 1817, 18 L.Ed.2d 1010
(U.S.Va. Jun 12, 1967), reversing convictions for violating a state ban on interracial marriage. We are a freer people.
Likewise today the historic ruling in Boumediene v. Bush.
"that the petitioners at GTMO have a constitutional right to petition for habeas corpus and that the DTA/MCA process of D.C. Circuit review from CSRT decisions is not an adequate alternative to habeas."
In addition to this ruling in Boumediene, which is filled with the results of some clarified British legal history research that warms the heart of any curator of historical materials, the court also handed down The Republic of the Philippines v. Pimentel (re to determine ownership of funds allegedly misappropriated by Ferdinand Marcos
during his reign as Philippine president) and Munaf (US Citizens can challenge their detentions in Iraq).
Mark Wojcik called it a "trifecta" on the International Law Prof Blog, but his links go via Cornell and are interposed with a plea for a donation to LII. Most worthwhile, but unless you are a son or daughter of Cornell, today may not be the day you want to pause. All are posted at ScotusBlog, nudge-free.


and there will be an "Insta-Symposium" on Boumediene, as annouced at Opinio Juris.

The memo is conveniently located on the web site of the Washington Post (sometimes these are randomly on other publications' sites, and ones we in this region might not access every day) in two parts. Look at the pdfs linked in the box at the center of the article. The article itself is notable in that it quotes our own Professor Marty Lederman (also in today's New York Times), and the release of the memo has been brought into the fascinating set of postings by Yale Professor Jack Balkin over at Balkinization concerning theories of the "living Constitution."  And happily, Jack Balkin is the guest speaker at our upcoming Spring Scholarship Lunch April 16th, where his topic will be "The Blog that Ate the Law School: The Legal Academy in a Digital Age." We presume he will be building on that topic as also presented in the many discussions of blogging and scholarship at the AALS meeting in January (including his panel with Eugene Volokh and others).

The Doing Business Library, created by The World Bank, is an amazing resource which links to the official business codes of 178 countries. These include civil codes, securities, banking, tax, trade and labor laws. Users can search for laws in a single country, multiple countries or by region. Since the World Bank tries to link to the official government sites wherever possible, the laws are in the official language of the country.

On Int-law list discussion, the only place anyone could really find some of the emerging charges etc. is here:

Combatant Status Review Tribunals/Administrative Review Boards-

• http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Combatant_Tribunals.html
• http://www.defenselink.mil/news/commissions.html

How are you observing UN day? For what is happening around the globe, look here: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24393&Cr=UN