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• Discrimination and Equal Pay is a site set up by The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) specifically for legal advisers and the first section of the new site to go live focuses on sexual harassment.
• Barrister Neil Addison provides information on Harassment Law. This would be a useful source of reference for anyone involved with a case of racial or sexual harassment, stalking, bullying at work or harassing neighbours. There is a special section on the Scottish situation with some interesting reports on Harassment produced by the Scottish Executive and Parliament. There is also a section on Northern Ireland in the Protection from Harassment Act section and information on American, Canadian, Australian and Eire anti-stalking legislation.

• HSEdirect has been developed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in partnership with Butterworths Tolley. The site is designed to cater for anyone who has a responsibility for health and safety issues and management in the workplace, "whether youre a dedicated health and safety professional, a personnel manager, or a managing director of a small business".
  The free area includes daily news summaries, all HSE press releases, current consultative documents, Year 2000/2001 health and safety conference diary, useful contacts, FAQs (frequently asked questions) and links to other relevant sites.
  The subscription are includes commentary health and safety policy, employers duties to employees, employment protection and enforcement, and also approved Codes of Practice and HSE guidance on legislation, a selection of the most commonly used HSE forms, fully amended and annotated text of health and safety legislation, European Directives which relate to health and safety issues, and practical summaries of key cases, recent cases and cases of special interest.
• Medical-Legal Information Service, the online version of the journal Medical Litigation, offers a free section called Newsbriefs with a monthly review of medico-legal developments . For a subscription of 120 per annum, there is access to articles, cases, and judgments, all of which can be downloaded without additional cost. Subscribers can also download the 1998 Medical Litigation Index which lists over 1,500 case summaries, including selected Australian, Canadian and United States decisions.
• Mental Health Law Reports is a service from independent online publisher Context, based on the printed publications of Southside Legal Publishing Limited, which brings all cases relating to mental health law together in one place and will be of interest to legal professionals who work in public law and the administrative courts. The Reports include the full text of cases from the High Court, Court of Appeal and House of Lords relating to all aspects of mental health law, together with a summary and, where appropriate, commentary. Cases from the European Court of Human Rights are also covered, amounting to approximately 30 cases per year The Reports editor, Kris Gledhill, is a barrister specialising in Human Rights cases. He has a particular interest in the application of European Human Rights legislation in the UK courts.
• Medical Defence Union, provides some articles and news items on the site but most of the information is available for members only.
• Jonathan Goodliffe provides material on legal issues arising from alcohol misuse in a variety of different situations. His recent articles include Discriminating against the former drinker, Drink driving and the wider purpose of insurance and Insurance issues for people with mental health problems.
• Several firms provide useful links in the general health area:
  • David Evans provides a Health Care Focus (Newsletter) online and also a set of links to medical sites on the web, primarily intended for NHS Trusts, to support their claims managers.
  • Hempsons, with branches in London, Manchester and Harrogate, offer information on actions against the NHS and doctors etc and cover medical and employment topics in their news sections.
  • Lockharts, in London, provide information on the NHS, pharmaceuticals and other medical topics.
• Resolution provides complaints and dispute resolution services to NHS trusts and private health care providers and those representing users of health care services, such as independent complaints advocacy services. They also provide training in health care complaints management, customer care, communication and health law. These services are designed to reduce the human and financial impact of health care complaints, legal claims and disputes by ensuring their early and effective management.
• Patient Information Publications provides a set of links to medical resources, split into UK resources and non-UK resources (by which they mean, effectively, USA). According to Internet Magazine, where I found this site described, it is run by two GP surgeries in Newcastle, although I do not think that it says this on the site itself.
• Action for Victims of Medical Negligence is a charity assisting people who believe they have suffered injury or harm as a result of inappropriate medical care, poor treatment, or misdiagnosis/failure to diagnose. The organisation can refer people to solicitors on their panel and can also advise solicitors on clinical negligence issues. Membership of their panel is one of the two panels accepted by the LAB in order to get a legal aid franchise.
• Independent Drug Monitoring Unit (IDMU) provides expert evidence for the criminal courts in drug-related cases. The web site provides information about drugs and also an extensive set of links to drug-related sources.
• Institute of Mental Health Law provide a substantial source of information on Mental Health Law, including details of recent cases in a number of categories.
• Wiki Mental Health is an internet resource on mental health law in England & Wales, primarily for mental health practitioners, to which anyone can contribute. The site has been set up by a mental health solicitor. There are three sections to this website:
  i) Caselaw; regularly updated commentaries on the cases, with links to the full text judgments on Bailii. (Currently 480 categorised cases plus 66 other Bailii links.)
  ii) Legislation; The full text of, and a simple and up-to-date commentary on, the Mental Health Act 1983, the Mental Capacity Act 2005, and related legislation.
  iii) General articles to explain the concepts and terminology used in the caselaw and legislation sections and practical guidance for lawyers.
  
• CareandHealth covers topics related to social care, including an extensive section on acts (with direct links to the acts), bills, consultations, government guidelines and policies. There is also a news and features section and a very extensive and well described list of links by category, e.g. Addictions, Ageing & Older People, Bereavement, Care etc. There is also extensive information about benefits.

Health and Safety

• HSEdirect has been developed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in partnership with Butterworths Tolley. The site is designed to cater for anyone who has a responsibility for health and safety issues and management in the workplace, "whether youre a dedicated health and safety professional, a personnel manager, or a managing director of a small business".
  The free area includes daily news summaries, all HSE press releases, current consultative documents, Year 2000/2001 health and safety conference diary, useful contacts, FAQs (frequently asked questions) and links to other relevant sites.
  The subscription are includes commentary health and safety policy, employers duties to employees, employment protection and enforcement, and also approved Codes of Practice and HSE guidance on legislation, a selection of the most commonly used HSE forms, fully amended and annotated text of health and safety legislation, European Directives which relate to health and safety issues, and practical summaries of key cases, recent cases and cases of special interest.
• Health and Centre Centre from publishers Croner, provides information for health and safety professionals covering health and safety law and practice, including risk assessment, manual handling, COSHH, accident reporting, and other topics. (You have to register for some of the material).

• HUDOC (Human Rights Documentation) is the searchable database of the case-law of the supervisory organs of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Full text of the Convention can be found here.
• The text of the Human Rights Act 1998, which incorporates much of the convention is available on the Stationery Office website.
• Human Rights from the National Archives covers 800 years of human rights in the UK explored using original documents from The National Archives. There is a list of all documents related to Human Rights since the Magna carta and the site provides both pictures of the documents and transcriptions or translations. There is a description of the events of each time period and also a glossary of the terms used (e.g. Demesne, Enclosure, Interregnum etc). The National Archives is a wonderful resource overall, described as "the official archive for England, Wales and the central UK government, containing 900 years of history from Domesday Book to the present, with records ranging from parchment and paper scrolls through to recently created digital files and archived websites. Increasingly, these records are being put online, making them universally accessible."
• LEXICON is the Court Service web portal designed primarily for judges but available to all. This has a major sec tion of Human Rights links.
• Human Rights resources set up by the Ministry of Justice. The site covers relevant legislation in the UK and in Europe, and provides information on the departments or government bodies involved, reports and consultation papers available, links to other organisations involved and a section of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
• The European Human Rights Centre (EHRC) is a nonpartisan international human rights organization based in Strasbourg. It represents over 100 non-governmental and other not-for-profit organisations interested in the promotion of Human Rights throughout Europe and beyond. The purpose of the Centre is to contribute to the general advancement of the human rights research by promoting cooperation in Europe between organisation and goverment officials, and by collaborating with similar associations throughout the world.
• University of Minnesota Human Rights Library is a major resource for human rights, funded by the Ford Foundation and other public bodies. As well as a massive set of documents and materials (over 14,000 documents), a particular feature of the site is a set of links and materials by particular topics, so there are Anti-Slavery links, Art and Human Rights, Business and Human Rights, Bioethics and Human Rights, Children and Human Rights, Circumcision and Human Rights, Death Penalty and Human Rights, Democracy and Elections Links, Development and Poverty Links.... and so on.
• One Crown Office Row provide a Human Rights Update on their site which is a database of 800 reports and commentaries on human rights dating back to 1998 with a weekly update co-ordinated by Chambers Academic Rosalind English. The cases are taken from domestic courts and the Strasbourg court involving human rights points that demonstrate the impact of the European Convention on domestic law and also explores the practical impact of these cases for practitioners. This resource is made available free for all to use (you have to register on site but it is not too intrusive). There is a good search engine and it is possible to sign up for a weekly update by email. For less experienced users, it includes a practical guide to the Convention and the Act; what are "Incorporated Rights", "Procedures and Remedies" and so on.
• Bhatt Murphy is a firm specialising in human rights issues and who handle complex and serious cases against state agencies including the police, prison and immigration authorities. The site offers a series of "timelines" - these are histories of particular legal areas relating to police misconduct and prisoners rights, indicating the legislation, political initiatives, campaigns and case law of each area. There are timelines for Police Misconduct, Tariff Setting For Life Sentenced Prisoners, Deaths in Custody, Immigration Detention, Parole Hearings and the Prison Disciplinary System. There is also a very useful set of links to other bodies involved in these issues. Partner Fiona Murphy says "We hope that the site will be useful for clients, campaign groups, students and other lawyers working in this area."
• The Human Rights Lawyers Association is open to solicitors, barristers, judges, legal executives, in-house lawyers, government lawyers, legal academics, pupils, trainees and students who have an interest in human rights law.
• International Human Rights Association, based in India, is an association of bodies and people around the world who are working towards solving human rights problems - including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, National Human Rights Commission in different countries, Amnesty International, International Human Rights Movement and a number of NGO's in different parts of the world.
• Interights (International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights) is an international human rights organisation, established to provide leadership and support in the legal protection of human rights. Since 1982, in co-operation with lawyers, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and judges, it has promoted the effective use of human rights law to protect rights and freedoms worldwide. The site provides news, reports and papers on these topics and also commonwealth and international case law.
• The Commonwealth Human Rights Case Law Database provides summaries of recent human rights decisions from national courts in Commonwealth jurisdictions free of charge through a browse facility and a search engine. Many of the cases summarised are unpublished decisions which are not readily available in other jurisdictions. The database is hosted by Interights, the International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights. The database holds over 1,020 summaries from virtually every Commonwealth jurisdiction (currently 58) dating back to the mid 1990s.
• Advice on Individual Rights in Europe (AIRE) is an organisation based in London but with a Europe-wide remit and funding from the EU (as part of the EUROJUS network) and other public bodies. It provides information and advice throughout Europe on international human rights law, including the rights of individuals under the provisions of European Community Law; it has a special emphasis on ECHR materials on Family Law. The organisation also provides direct legal advice and assistance on a case by case basis to individuals, or to the lawyers who represent them, and, where appropriate, direct representation before international tribunals.
• Justice is an all party, law reform and human rights organisation working to improve the legal system and the quality of justice by promoting human rights, improving the legal system and access to justice, improving criminal justice, and raising standards of EU justice and home affairs. Justice has recently set up a separate site called The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights which was proclaimed in December 2000 and incorporated as Part Two of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe on 18 June 2004. This is the first formal EU document to combine and declare all the values and fundamental rights (economic and social as well as civil and political) to which EU citizens should be entitled. The site gives the detailed text of the Charter Chapters:
  1. Dignity
  2. Freedoms
  3. Equality
  4. Solidarity
  5. Citizens' Rights
  6. Justice
  7. General Provisions
  and also provides links to key reference texts, provides a FAQ page, a history page, and a detailed set of links to related bodies.
• Liberty (previously the NCCL) is the major independent human rights organisation which works to defend and extend rights and freedoms in England and Wales. Founded in 1934, it is the largest organisation of its kind in Europe. One of their functions is to pursue test cases through the English Courts and then the ECHR; there are details of these cases on the site. They also lobby Government and inform the media of important issues. There is also a particular section for Lawyers called Lawyers for Liberty.
• Your rights is a new site from Liberty (see above) on Human Rights topics. Primarily designed for individuals rather than lawyers, the site provides information from Liberty's legal team on the Protection of Property Rights, the Right Not to be Discriminated Against, the Right of Free Expression, the Right of Peaceful Protest, the Right to Know, the Right to Privacy, the Rights of Children and Young People, the Rights of Defendents, the Rights of Immigrants, the Rights of Parents, the Rights of People with Mental Disorder and the Rights of Prisoners, the Rights of Suspects, the Rights of the Bereaved, the Rights of Travellers, the Rights of Victims and Witnesses and the Rights of Workers. The site also covers ways in which the English legal system approaches these topics (civil action, judicial review, government, local government, courts, the media, police etc.) and information on the Human Rights Act itself. There is a comprehensive list of organizations and publications, a FAQ section and information on how to ask further questions on an individual basis (Liberty apparently already respond to around 5,000 individual questions a year). There is also a discussion forum.
• Scottish Human Rights Trust exists to support the Scottish people in the development of a human rights culture through education, information sharing and training. The site provides access to resources on human rights and the Human Rights Act.
• The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission was created by section 68 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, in compliance with a commitment made by the British Government in the Good Friday Agreement of 10 April 1998. The Commission has a full-time Chief Commissioner (Brice Dickson) and nine part-time Commissioners. Its role is to promote awareness of the importance of human rights in Northern Ireland, to review existing law and practice and to advise the Secretary of State and the Executive Committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly on what steps need to be taken to fully protect human rights in Northern Ireland. It is specifically charged with drafting a Bill of Rights to supplement the European Convention on Human Rights (which is being made part of the law in Northern Ireland as a result of the passing of the Human Rights Act 1998). There are papers and reports on the site and links to other related bodies.
• Doughty Street Chambers, Chambers of Geoffrey Robertson QC and Louis Bloom-Cooper QC. The site includes information on Human Rights topics, including articles and comment on the act, European Convention material, a news section, International material and a good set of interntional links.

Immigration

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• The Home Office Immigration and Nationality Directorate is an extensive source of information UK Immigration control, citizenship and asylum and provides information for people overseas as well as for people already here. There is a good set of links to other bodies involved in this area.
• The Asylum and Immigration Tribunal is the successor to the Immigration Appellate Authority and the Immigration Appeals Tribunal. The Tribunal was set up under the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants etc) Act 2004 and came into being on 4th April 2005. The purpose of the Tribunal is to hear and decide appeals against decisions made by the Home Office in matters of asylum, immigration and nationality. The site contains the information needed to pursue an appeal to the Tribunal and also provides information about procedures and hearing centres, daily court lists, a case law database and links to related legislation. The case law section includes Country Guideline Determinations and a List of Starred Determinations (although this is not complete yet).
• Immigration Services Tribunal was launched on 30th October 2000. It is part of the Court Service, an executive agency of the Department for Constitutional Affairs. The site provides information on how to appeal and procedures generally. There is also a database of decisions.
• The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) is an independent public body set up under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. It is responsible for ensuring that all immigration advisers fulfill the requirements of good practice. The site contains a facility to search for regulated organisations and advisers by area although this only includes advisers regulated by OISC - not solicitors or barristers. Parts of the site are available in many different languages.
• The Electronic Immigration Network (EIN) is a voluntary sector organisation specialising in the provision of information on immigration and refugee law via the Internet, particularly in the UK and Europe. Much of the site is designed for subscription users (albeit relatively low subscriptions, particularly for voluntary bodies) but there are free newsletters on the site and many links to organisations related to immigration and asylum. The members' area, which is aimed primarily at immigration law practitioners and advisors, provides:
  * legislation, including older legislation not otherwise easily available
  * caselaw including full text judgments from the Immigration Adjudication Tribunal and the Court of Appeal, as well as an increasing number of European and other overseas cases
  * Country of Origin information (supplied by HJT) which includes detailed immigration-related and human rights information, from around 40 of the countries from which most immigration (and particularly asylum) takes place.
  The site now has an improved searching process, each jurisdiction having its own search 'domain'. It is also possible to store selected materials (case texts, country reports etc) in a personal 'archive' in order to create a ready-to-print bundle which can be retrieved and adapted for other similar submissions in the future. Areas of the site which can be accessed without a subscription include an extensive Resources section, which is effectively a set of links to all other immigration-related web resources. This is organised by a series of overall topics (e.g. Asylum / Refugees (Europe), and can also be searched by the name of organisation or by location. There is a brief description given of each entry.
• 1 Mitre Court Buildings, previously 8 King's Bench Walk, have now set up a separate site Immigration Barristers containing links to recently reported cases in which they have been involved and a series of regular news items covering the latest developments in the fields of immigration, asylum and human rights law. You can register for these to be sent to you automatically. They also offer solicitors and OISC approved advisors quick access to a specialist immigration barrister. An email question is forwarded immediately to an available member of the immigration team with, generally, a reply within 24 hours (no fee is payable by either the lay client or the emailing advisor). They also provide a range of reasonably priced immigration law related online CPD courses, some of which can be taken online.
• Immigration Advisory Service is a charity with over thirty years' experience and more than 250 staff members. It has branches located throughout the UK and participates in the Community Legal Service scheme. All advisers are professionals specialising in immigration and asylum. IAS is an independent non-governmental organisation and gives free and confidential legal advice and representation tailored to each client's needs. IAS deals with over 7,500 appeals and 20,000 telephone enquiries every year. The site provides addresses of its local offices.
• Immigration Law Practitioners' Association, the UK's professional association of lawyers and academics (650 members) practicing in or concerned about immigration, asylum and nationality law. Membership is by application supported by two references and subject to an annual membership fee. It is only open to persons subject to a professional disciplinary body.
• Garden Court Chambers have created a bank of specialist legal resources relevant to their practice areas including Immigration Legal Resources (take "Resources" and then "Legal Resources"). Within each of these legal areas, they have then set up around a dozen sub topics where they have located cases, relevant legislation and useful links. The areas they cover under Immigration are Appeals & Judicial Review, Asylum & Refugee Law, Asylum Support (Community Care and Welfare Benefits), Deportation & Expulsion, Detention, Economic Migration & Work Permits, European Community Law, Family & Immigration Law, Human Rights and Nationality & Citizenship.
• Nik Nicol, of 1 Pump Court, offers extensive information on Asylum Support, including the interim provisions, information on The National Asylum Support Service (NASS), and links to news stories on this topic.
• See also the links on the Free Legal Information for Individuals page.

Insurance

• British Insurance Law Association (BILA) draws its membership from Insurers, Insurance Brokers and other intermediaries, Academic Lawyers, Solicitors and Barristers. BILA is also the British Chapter of the Association International de Droit des Assurances (AIDA) and is an active participant in its quadrennial world congress.
• The Association of British Insurers represents the collective interests of the UK’s insurance industry. The Association speaks out on issues of common interest; helps to inform and participate in debates on public policy issues; and also acts as an advocate for high standards of customer service in the insurance industry. The Association has around 400 companies in membership. Between them, they provide 94% of domestic insurance services sold in the UK. The site provides a useful glossary of insurance terms.
• Jonathan Goodliffe provides material on legal issues arising from alcohol misuse in a variety of different situations. His recent articles include Discriminating against the former drinker, Drink driving and the wider purpose of insurance and Insurance issues for people with mental health problems.
• Law Commission's insurance law project.

Intellectual Property, Brands, Patents, Trade Marks and Multimedia

• Patent Court Site on the Court Service site.
• The UK Patent Office, aimed at the general public as well as patent experts, offers information on patents, trade marks, copyright and intellectual property.
• The European Patent Office offers information on its own operation as well as links to many other national and international patent offices.
• European Commission's Intellectual Property Rights Helpdesk is a free site highlighting the importance of IPR protection and exploitation in the European context. There are a number of self-run tutorials on IPR and related subjects which can be downloaded, comprehensive news from across the EU on IP topics, FAQ's and forms. Most of the site is in 6 languges. There is a telephone help desk available although this seems to be mainly for organisations involved in "current or recently completed EU funded RTD projects and those who are potential participants in FP5 RTD Calls for Proposals". The site says that "it will also help applicants to locate professional advisers and patent attorney associations who will be able to assist them further" although I cannot see any sign of this on the site at present.
• Patent and other Intellectual Property Information Resources from the British Library. The site has sections describing free databases for patents around the world, trademarks, designs and patent offices. There is information on the resources contained in the BL itself, and lots of general information on patents for non specialists.
• The European Federation of Intellectual Property (EFIPWEB) represents over 100 non-governmental and other not-for-profit organisations interested in protecting the intellectual property of all europeans. There are over 300 programs, covering a wide spectrum of activities. The site contains information on Intellectual Property in a European context and extensive (detailed) information on latest patents (150,000 of these).
• Mewburn Ellis LLP is one of the UK's largest firms of Chartered Patent Attorneys, European Patent Attorneys, European Trade Mark Attorneys and European Design Attorneys. They cover the full range of intellectual property issues: Patents, Trade Marks, Designs, Industrial Copyright and related matters. There is a large amount of information on each of these topics, designed in a systematic way, which would be of use to lawyers and individuals alike.
• BPCouncil, based in Geveva, describes itself as a site for brand owners, professional services providers, technology vendors, enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies. It aims to provide a "dynamic virtual community" providing direct access to up-to-date information and resources. There is a lot of free information on the site (including news, articles, a newsletter, lists of organisations and an extensive glossary) as well as paid membership services.
• PLC IP&IT is a service for specialist IP&IT lawyers (both contentious and non-contentious) and general commercial lawyers who advise in this field, whether in-house or in private practice. The service is designed to keep its users up to date with developments in key areas of IP&IT law and to provide them with practical support. Subscribers receive practical updates explaining the implications of new developments as they occur. The service also provides access to a maintained know-how bank comprising practice notes, precedents and forms. The updates are integrated with the know-how bank and useful external resources. There is a free trial available of the service. You can sign up on the site.
• Waterlows provide a trademark database called Signature (subscription service). Signature has integrated the databases of the UK Trade Mark Registry and the Communities Trademark Office (OHIM) so that a single search retrieves all relevant records. It also includes a comprehensive database of UK registered companies.
• 5RB (5 Raymond Buildings) is a leading set of barristers specialising in all areas of media and entertainment law, Intellectual Property, defamation and freedom of expression. There are over 300 case reports on the site including cases in Intellectual Property. The case reports include very recent ones and in many cases, copies of the judgments are appended. You can also register on the site for email briefings with monthly round-ups of key issues and new cases covered on the site.
• Ipkat (Ipkat Intellectual Property Weblog) is an example of a "weblog", or "blog" and is one of the first (perhaps even the first) legal blog for the UK. The idea of a blog is that the author puts information and comments on a focused topic on a website, without complicated software or special effects, and they become popular (or not) according to the quality of the comments and information provided. This one comes from IP lawyers Jeremy Phillips and Ilanah Simon and is well worth a look.
• ipknowhow is a new international IP discussion forum intended for use by all IP lawyers, examiners, students and interested IP owners. You have to register to add your own postings but you can read the news items posted there without registration.
• Derwent Information, part of Thomson Scientific, is a leading supplier of patent information. They have recently launched a new Intellectual Property Services section which includes a free online newsletter called IP Matters. This offers feature articles on topical intellectual property issues, a directory of the main 40 patent-issuing authorities, Pl-x.com's Intangible Asset Market Indices - updated daily to assist tracking of the value of the knowledge economy, a bimonthly Industry Insight column supplied by Yet2.com and a news feed covering published articles on Intellectual Property - updated every 15 minutes. The also provide free workshops/training courses in their various products here.
• Legalease, the International Centre for Commercial Law, provides a International Patents and Trademarks database, a fully searchable database of law firms and patent and trademark agencies.
• Pipers are Patent Attorneys in New Zealand. They provide an international resource which becomes the world authority on international IP, patent attorneys worldwide, a virtual IP library and information on other patent, trademark and IP sites worldwide.
• Page Hargrave, Trade Mark and Patent Attorneys, provide a detailed review of the latest legal developments in UK and European Intellectual Property Law (take the "What's New" section) as well as much background information on the subject.
• Williams, Powell & Associates, European patent and trade mark attorneys, provide information for UK inventors and companies on patents and trademarks.
• Intellectual Property Law is a USA based site covering Patents, Copyright and Trademarks. There are articles, forums, and current news items with a news archive. There is also a set of links by country including relevant legislation.
• Delphion (now owned by Thomson) provides a massive patent database - granted and applied for - from the USA and the rest of the world. There are over 10 million patents available on the system. This is a subscription service. (Previously run by IBM).
• World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)
• Jordans provide trade mark search & registration, domain name, design rights, patents, copyright and other intellectual property services. Hover over "Jordans Services" on the left hand side and choose "Intellectual Property services" from the menu.
• Shepherd & Wedderburn Centre for Research into Intellectual Property and Technology at the University of Edinburgh - a good set of links to other resources.
• Jenkins are Trade Mark and Patent Attorneys with a very impressive set of resources on their site, including UK Patent Statutes and Statutory Instruments, comprehensively hyperlinked, here.
• Mayall's IP Links offers IP, patents and trademarks information including links to the Trade Mark Laws of many countries of the world, using the official statute data base of the country concerned if available or other material and versions of the statutes if necessary. John Mayall is a Patent Attorney and European Patent Attorney.
• brandslaw.com is a site set up by Field Fisher Waterhouse. The site offers free online information on all aspects of protecting brands globally, including online diagrams of the processes for UK and OHIM trade mark applications and opposition proceedings, updates on legal developments across the world, case reports covering trade mark decisions made by the UK Patent Office and the OHIM Court of First Instance of the European Communities, selected extracts from various treatises and a selection of newsletters, guides and articles to download or view online.
• Roiter Zucker provide substantive articles on IP and the Pharmaceutical Industry.
• The Chartered Institute of Patent Agents
• Richard Doble (European Patent Attorney and UK Chartered Patent Agent) provides FAQ's, published articles and useful links and services relating to Patents and other aspects of Intellectual Property in Europe.
• The Copyright Website
• Jeffrey R. Kuester's links
• Worldwide Listing of Patent Attorneys

International Organisations

• United Nations : www.un.org
• UN High Commissioner for Refugees: www.unhcr.ch
• UN Human Rights High Commissioner: www.unhchr.ch
• International Committee of the Red Cross: www.icrc.org
• NATO: www.nato.int
• Organisation for Security & Co-operation in Europe: www.osce.org

• European Union: www.europa.eu.int
• Council of Europe: www.coe.int
• Organisation of American States: www.oas.org
• Organisation of African Unity: www.oau-oua.org
• Association of South East Asian Nations: www.asean.or.id
• South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC): www.saarc-sec.org
• Non-Aligned Movement: www.nam.gov.za/nam.htm
• Commonwealth Secretariat: www.thecommonwealth.org

• World Trade Organisation: www.wto.org
• WIPO - World Intellectual Property Org.: www.wipo.int
• EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development): www.ebrd.com
• IMF: www.imf.org
• World Bank Group: www.worldbank.org
• Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation: www.apecsec.org.sg

• ICJ: www.icj-cij.org
• ECJ: www.curia.eu.int
• ECHR: www.echr.coe.int
• ICTY: www.un.org/icty/index.html
• ICTR: www.ictr.org
• ICC: www.un.org/icc
• International Tribunal of the law of the sea: www.itlos.org

• Royal Institute of International Affairs: www.riia.org
• Max Planck Institute of Comparative Public and International Law: www.virtual-institute.de/eindex.cfm
• University of Minnesota human rights library: www.umn.edu/humanrts

• European Journal of International Law: www.ejil.org
• American Journal of International Law: www.asil.org/Abtajo.htm

International Trade Law and Commerce

• Hieros Gamos, Global Trade Law offers Trade Treaties, International Trade Organizations, European Union, National Regimes, United States Laws, Regulations and Agencies and World Trade Associations.
• Public International Law at the University of Western Australia, includes International Trade Law.
  
• The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) is the core legal body of the United Nations in the field of International Trade Law.
• GATS Info Point contains a guide to the General Agreement on Trade in Services, news about the world trade in services and a link to the Market Access Database.
• International Chamber of Commerce
• World Trade Organisation
• Electronic Information System for International Law (EISIL) is an open database of authenticated primary and other materials across the breadth of international law. Areas covered include Environmental Law, Economic Law, Human Rights, Criminal Law, Communications, Disputes and the Use of Force and Private International Law.
• Mondaq Business Briefing offers reports on business, financial, economic and legal topics. You have to register for this service but it is free.
• Country Briefings is a company which provide business travellers and global professionals with reports on the business, economic and political climates in 31 countries. Reports are updated every 6 weeks. Prices start at 40 for one country's report but visitors can have access to the first report free.

Academic and Library Resources and Journals Online

• The Law Society Library Online has received the 2008 Halsbury's Award for Best Legal Information Service (Non-Commercial Sector) by the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL). The library project is a joint venture between the Law Society and LexisNexis and replaces Catalyst, the previous Law Society library catalogue and indexes. The new service includes a Queries and Enquiries Database of over 4,000 records, an English Cases Index case citator updated on a daily basis, a Commencement Index (an index to UK statutes going back to 1974), updates on EU legislation and free access to a monthly e-mail alert from LexisNexis. You have to register to obtain most of the content - Law Society members can register as well as anyone working for members of the Law Society, including trainee solicitors, legal information professionals etc.
• Latest law and criminology books published in the UK is a section on the Law School site at the University of Edinburgh. The pages are updated every day and are designed to provide an easy way for legal researchers to keep up to date with the latest publications. The site gives full details of publisher and so on but you can also buy the books via an Amazon link. Edinburgh Law School receives a small commission for all books sold in this way but there is no extra charge to the person buying. All commission earned is apparently used to buy additional books for the Law Library.
• FLAG (Foreign Law Guide) is a free database covering international legal resources held by UK law librariaes in Universites and research institutes including the British Library, the Advocates Library and the National Library of Wales. There are 10,000 records relating to the resources held - many often previously not widely known about. Note that this is a guide to where the printed - often historic - collections are held, not a guide to internet resources (many of these historic resources will never be available on the internet). The database has been compiled by a partnership of libraries led by the Institute of Advanced Legal studies at the University of London and has been financed by UK higher education funding bodies. The study has taken two years and has involved a shelf by shelf study of each library's contents carried out by Dr Peter Clinch. It will be kept up to date by an annual review of changes to the stock of all contributing libraries. It is possible to select not only the country, the type of legal material and the area of law, but also the region in which a collection is held (so you can find the nearest source of the material).
• ILAWS is the newly formed Institute for Law and the Web at Southampton University. They offer combined research and teaching strength in intellectual property law, IT law, Internet law, and public sector digital law. The site is a framework for their research and PhD programme and will include full text publications at a later stage, in particular the UK's leading IT law journal, the Computer Law and Security Report. There is also a blog from Lilian Edwards, Professor of Internet Law, called Pangloss, at http://blogscript.blogspot.com.
• The Foundation for Law, Justice and Society (FLJS) is a socio-legal think-tank affiliated to Wolfson College, Oxford and the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies. It aims to study, reflect on and promote an understanding of the role of law in society, through three programmes:
  • The Social Contract Revisited
  • Courts and the Making of Public Policy
  • The Rule of Law: Chinese Law and Business
  
• The Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA) is designed to facilitate accurate citation of authorities, legislation, and other legal materials. It was produced by the Oxford Law Faculty in consultation with leading academic law publishers and serves as the style guide for the Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal, as well as for theses written in the Law Faculty. It is the closest that the UK has to what in the US is known as the Blue Book. It can be downloaded (in pdf form) from the site. There is also an OSCOLA style for EndNote available at that site.
• Legal Library Services provide Law library supplies & library management. They can supply new & used law books and legal research material plus a professional team offering library management and ancillary support services. As they say..."We can provide any material, on any subject, in any format, from anywhere to anywhere......"
• The Social Science Information Gateway (SOSIG) (Law Gateway) provides guidance and access to global legal information resources on the Internet.The service aims to identify and evaluate legal resource sites offering primary and secondary materials and other items of legal interest. Descriptive records and links are created for legal service sites and specific documents. The jurisdictional coverage is wide, covering over 200 countries as well as international law.
• FLARE (Foreign Law Research) is a collaboration between the major libraries collecting law in the United Kingdom: Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Bodleian Law Library, Squire Law Library, British Library, and School of Oriental and African Studies. It is working to improve the coverage and accessibility of foreign legal materials at the national level and to raise expertise in their use. The work is currently focused on improving national coverage of the law of the transition states of central and Eastern Europe and building a distributed national collection of official gazettes.
• Universities of Warwick and Strathclyde's Journal of Information, Law and Technology, (JILT) specialises on law within an IT context. It makes full and exciting use of the new medium. There is a Current Legal News Section which is frequently updated.
• Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations provides an index of abbreviations for English language legal publications, from the British Isles, the Commonwealth and the United States, including those covering international and comparative law. A selection of major foreign language law publications is also included. The database mainly covers law reports and law periodicals, but some legislative publications and major textbooks are also included. There are 12,500 abbreviations for over 7,000 titles. It can be searched either from abbreviation to title or from title to abbreviation.
• Current Legal Research Topics Database Project from the Advanced Legal Studies Library of the University of London, lists the subjects of research currently being pursued (i.e. provisional dissertation titles) by students registered for research degrees in law (e.g. PhD, MPhil) at higher education institutions in the UK.
• University of Newcastle's Web Journal of Current Legal Issues covers current legal issues, judicial decisions, law reform, legislation and other topics.
• List of UK Law Journals, maintained by the University of Warwick, with basic details about each journal (mostly of course not on-line) but also, if available, links to the contents on-line, the abstracts on-line or the full journal on-line.
• The UK Centre for Legal Education (UKCLE) supports best practice in learning, teaching and assessment in law. It is part of the Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN) in the UK. UKCLE was established in January 2000 with the aim of promoting the development of learning and teaching in legal education at both the academic and vocational training stages. It builds on the work of two other projects, the National Centre for Legal Education (FDTL Phase 1; 1997-1999) and the Law Technology Centre (CTI Centre; 1989-1999).
• Jurist: Law Professors' Network, links materials by English (and Canadian and Australian) legal academics as well as (the majority) American law professors. The aim is to develop a multi-national academic resource. There are links to a number of subject-based legal collections.
• Roman Law Resources, with information on Roman law sources and literature, the teaching of Roman law, and the persons who engage in the study of Roman law. The site is maintained by Dr Ernest Metzger of Aberdeen School of Law.

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