When should the federal government enact legislation that denies individuals' property rights?
The Legal Information Institute
http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/topic1.html
Cornell Law School
This site is
maintained by the The Legal Information Institute (LII) through the cooperation
of Cornell Law School. LII was launched in 1992 by Martin and Tom
Bruce, co-directors of the institute, and now contends with more than 8
million hits a week. According to the site, most peer law school
sites run, at best, a few hundred thousand hits a week. More than
90,000 web pages at other sites, among them those of the White House and
the U.S. House of Representatives, link to LII, and it has been cited as
a resource in more than 500 newspapers and magazines. Among its goals
are "to carry out applied research on the use of digital information technology
in the distribution of legal information, the delivery of legal education,
and the practice of law; to create key collections of primary legal materials
and commentary and information retrieval and resource location tools for
use by a large and diverse population of users; and to make law more accessible
not only to U.S. legal professionals but to students, teachers, and the
general public in the U.S. and abroad." The site offers an alphabetical
listing of "Law About" topics among which include Bankruptcy; City Planning,
Land-Use Planning and Zoning; Consumer Credit; Corporations; Credit; Realestate
Transactions; Sales; Debtor-Creditor; and Landlord-Tenant. After
clicking on a topic, the true usefulness of the site is revealed.
For each topic an overview of the applicable laws is provided as well as
a "Menu of Sources." Under the "Menu of Sources", are subheadings
linking to Federal Statutes, Federal Agency Regulations, Federal Judicial
Decisions and Rules, State Statutes, Key Internet Sources, and Useful Offnet
Sources. This website offers teachers and students the tools to examine
primary law related documents. Students in a law related course could
be given a data-retrieval chart to record extensive information on any
aspect of the law, such as land use. With this information, students
could be given a hypothetical case that does not explicitly violate any
existing statute. Using the existing statutes and a jurisprudential
approach, students could debate the case and come to a conclusion concerning
how they believe the court should rule. Due to the complexity and
detailed nature of the site, however, the site lends itself more easily
to usage by teachers who need to gather information on lessons related
to the law. The Key Internet Sources could also by a teacher to have
students begin thinking and exploring a specific law related topic.
TYPE OF WEBSITE:
ARCHIVE, REFERENCE (TEXT), GATEWAY
The Oyez Project
http://oyez.nwu.edu/index.html
Jerry Goldman and Northwestern
University
In 1989, Jerry
Goldman began work on an interactive multimedia project on the Supreme
Court with the aim of demonstrating it at professional meetings and using
it in his classes at Northwestern University. The effort expanded
in 1996 when he created a Web site to deliver digitally encoded versions
of complete oral arguments in several dozen Supreme Court cases. This "proof-of-concept"
received a significant boost from the National Science Foundation (for
hardware support) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (for content
support) to build a vast multimedia relational database on the U.S. Supreme
Court. The OYEZ Project now comprises more than 900 hours of audio materials,
summaries of 1,000-plus Supreme Court opinions, biographical materials
on all 108 justices, and a QuickTime virtual-reality tour of the Supreme
Court building. It is maintained by Jerry Goldman and Northwestern
University. Specifically, the site offers extensive coverage of individual
Supreme Court cases. The cases can be searched by date, docket number,
predetermined subject, or title. Once a desired case is located,
the website offers an overview of the docket, an overview of the entire
case, an interactive picture showing how justices voted on the case, a
Real Media audio file containing the arguments brought before the court
and a link to retrieve written opinions of the court from Findlaw.com.
One weakness of the site is the way in which the cases must be searched.
For a novice user, it can be difficult to determine what predetermined
subject a case would fall under. Therefore, the user may find himself
in a position of sorting through cases that have nothing to do with the
subject being sought. This website offers a teachers an outstanding
resource when examining the Supreme Court and cases decided by the court.
Students could examine the background to a case related to Housing or Consumer
Law prior to using the site. After an initial examination, the site
could be used to listen to portions or the whole of the actual arguments
presented in the case. The class could then debate the case and decide
what they think the court should decide. The site could then be used
to examine what the court actually decided by examining the case summary
and the written arguments of the court.
TYPE OF WEBSITE:
ARCHIVE, REFERENCE (TEXT, AUDIO, VIRTUAL REALITY)
Division for Public Education:
National Law-Related Education Resource Center
http://www.abanet.org/publiced/home.html
American Bar Association
This site is
maintained by the American Bar Association's Division for Public Education.
The ABA is the largest voluntary professional association in the world.
Its stated mission is "to be the national representative of the legal profession,
serving the public and the profession by promoting justice, professional
excellence and respect for the law." The Division for Public Education's
mission is "to promote public understanding of law and its role in society."
To achieve this mission, the division provides national leadership for
law-related and civic education efforts in the United States, conducts
educational programs for students and teachers, develops resources for
classrooms and the community, provides technical assistance and information
clearinghouse services, fosters partnerships among bar associations,
educational institutions, civic organizations, and others. The Division's
comprehensive school and community-based outreach reflects the ABAs long
standing belief that the effectiveness of the American legal system requires
the fullest public understanding of its purposes and functions.
This site offers information for many groups. For consumers it contains
dependable information on practical law, a glossary for legal terms and
directories of local legal services programs. For citizens it offers
Supreme Court cases at a glance and law and public policy issues.
For educators it offers directories of K-12 law-related education projects
and college legal studies programs. For students it offers information
about a career in the law and nationwide online youth summits. Specifically
the site's "Practical Law" section offers comprehensive but understandable
information on many topics including "Buying and Selling Home; Renting
a Home; Buying, Selling or Leasing a Vehicle; Consumer Law; Credit; Bankruptcy;
The Law and Your Home; and The Law and Your Business." This site
could be used as a beginning reference point for students and teachers.
For example, students might be given a hypothetical situation in which
they are ripped off when purchasing a car or home. Students would
be asked to determine what laws the salesman or realtor broke and what
rights of redress the purchaser has under the law. For teachers,
the site could be used to collect information when building a teacher centered
unit on Housing or Consumer Law. The only real weakness of the site
is that it is continually being modified with additions and revisions.
As a result some portions are still under construction and navigational
roadblocks emerge.
TYPE OF WEBSITE:
REFERENCE (TEXT), TEACHER RESOURCE
The National Housing Law Project
http://www.nhlp.org/index.htm
The National Housing Law Project
The National
Housing Law Project (NHLP) is a national housing and legal advocacy center.
It was established in 1968 with the goal of providing specialized legal
assistance on housing and urban development issues to attorneys working
for the then newly created legal services program. Since then, NHLP
has expanded its mission to advance housing justice for poor people by
increasing and preserving the supply of decent, affordable housing; by
improving existing housing conditions, including physical conditions and
management practices; by expanding and enforcing low-income tenants' and
homeowners' rights; and by increasing housing opportunities for racial
and ethnic minorities. NHLP works to achieve these goals by providing
legal assistance, advocacy advice and housing expertise to attorneys, low-income
housing advocacy groups, and others who serve the poor. NHLPs primary
areas of emphasis are public policy advocacy, litigation assistance, training,
and research and writing, focusing on issues and problems that will have
the greatest impact on the housing rights of the poor. This website
contains a lot of useful information but it can be difficult to navigate
and sort through the special interest group's propaganda. Under the
"What's New" section, recent changes in legislation and court cases dealing
with housing issues are discussed. Under "Public Housing", legislation
is discussed. Under a subheading called "Recent Developments," developments
in Legislation, Regulations, HUD Notices, Cases and Reports are covered.
This information is somewhat detailed and hard to manage but it does allow
the user to know what is going on in the field of Housing Law. Of
particular interest is the section called "Publications." This section
of the site holds an archive of articles written in the project's primary
publication, the Housing Law Bulletin. Although the articles
from the current year are only available through purchase, all previous
years are archived and accessible to the public. Finally, the "Links"
section contains many useful links related to Housing Law. The articles
cover virtually every aspect of Housing Law imaginable. This website
could be used to learn more about statutes dealing with Housing Law but
the "Publications" section is its most useful aspect. Teachers could
provide students with an article to have them begin thinking about the
subject. For example, students could be given an article discussing
a case in which a court considered whether or not employed applicants should
be given preferential treatment when deciding who should receive public
housing. This article on housing discrimination could serve as a
springboard to a unit dealing with Housing Law and its social implications.
TYPE OF WEBSITE:
REFERENCE (TEXT), GATEWAY, ARCHIVE (HOUSING ARTICLES)
U.S. Consumer Gateway
http://www.consumer.gov/index.htm
Unknown (Contributions Made
by Federal Agencies)
It is not quite
clear who publishes this web site but the .gov address indicates that it
is sponsored by the Federal Government. Consumer.gov claims to be
a "one-stop" link to a broad range of federal information resources available
online. It cites dozens of federal agencies as contributors to the
site. It is designed so that you can locate information by category
- such as Food, Health, Product Safety, Your Money, and Transportation.
Each category has subcategories to direct you to areas within individual
federal web sites containing related information. "ScamAlert!" provides
current information on fraudulent and deceptive practices in the marketplace.
This feature appears on each page, as necessary, and contains important
law enforcement information and tips to avoid scams. "In the Spotlight"
showcases new education and consumer awareness campaigns and other items
of significant interest on all pages. This site could be used to
explore consumer issues in the news. For example, students might
read a newspaper article about the recent Firestone tire recall and then
use this site to gather additional information. Students might be
asked to determine what laws apply to the recall, the rights of the consumer
under the recall, and what steps consumers might take to avoid purchasing
defective products. If the students decide that existing laws do
not do enough to protect consumers, they might use this site to file a
complaint with the appropriate federal agency or write legislation to fix
the problem.
TYPE OF WEBSITE:
REFERENCE (TEXT)