The stunning attacks of Sept. 11 have left an indelible mark on everyone. A look at a few law and policy Web sites is useful to help understand the context of the unraveling events,

The Jurist, a legal education portal edited by a team of law professors from the U.S. and around the world, serves as a gateway to legal information and scholarship online. The "Terrorism Law and Policy" site http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/terrorism.htm is well-organized, with sections on terrorism and terrorists, counter-terrorism policies, U.S. anti-terrorism laws, world anti-terrorism laws, civil liberties, and bio-terrorism legal issues, as well as academic commentary and a bibliography. The "World Law" feature of The Jurist includes Afghanistan http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/world/afghanistan.htm, with a description of its history, legal system and human-rights record.

The Findlaw portal features "Special Coverage: War on Terrorism" http://news.findlaw.com/legalnews/us/terrorism/index.html, with links to documents, laws and cases, as well as a "Terrorism Forum" with commentary from attorneys and law professors http://writ.news.findlaw.com/terrorism.html.

Several sites concentrate on the international-law perspective, including the Dag Hammarskjold Library Resource Page on International Terrorism http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resources/terrorism/index.html, which links to the full text of UN General Assembly and Security Council resolutions and international conventions. The UN Press Releases http://www.un.org/News/Press will be one of the first sources to feature the text of any new resolutions. United Nations Documents on Global Issues: Terrorism http://www.un.org/partners/civil_society/docs/d-terror.htm organizes links to documents from many UN committees, agencies and organizations. The American Society of International Law points to legal resources on terrorism found on the ASIL Web site http://www.asil.org/terrorind.htm, including analyses by legal scholars of international legal issues related to the terrorist attacks http://www.asil.org/insights.htm.

CIAO, or Columbia International Affairs Online http://www.ciaonet.org, presents theory and research in international affairs, including working papers, conference proceedings, journal abstracts, books, event schedules, policy briefs, economic indicators, links and resources, and maps and country data. Featuring material from think tanks, university research institutes, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other organizations, CIAO is a subscription database made available to the UB community on BISON.

Alternative Resources on the U.S. "War Against Terrorism" http://www.pitt.edu/~ttwiss/irtf/Alternative.html from the International Responsibilities Task Force of the American Library Association's Social Responsibilities Round Table, presents links to many sites, including Foreign Policy in Focus http://www.fpif.org, which features many pieces addressing terrorism, and the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan http://rawa.fancymarketing.net/index.html, which features graphic reports and analysis from Afghanistan.

Finally, don't overlook the UB Online Catalog http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/bison, where you can track down Jihad vs. McWorld by Benjamin R. Barber and other illuminating books from our own collection.