In 1906, U.S. Secretary of State Elihu Root founded the American Society of International Law (ASIL) to educate the public on the subject of international law and to encourage its use as a medium for resolving international conflicts and disputes. This distinguished organization continues to play an important role in the international law community today and through its Web site http://www.asil.org offers organized access to international-law sources relevant to current issues in the United States and the world.

The ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law http://www.asil.org/resource/intro1.htm comprises extensive, well-organized bibliographic essays on a number of international-law topics, with an impressive array of imbedded links to the Internet. CD-ROM sources and commercial online databases also are described. The bibliographies include the United Nations, Human Rights, Treaties, International Environmental Law, International Criminal Law, Private International Law, International Economic Law-including International Trade-and Lists, Newsgroups & Networks. Anyone researching interational-law topics will benefit from these valuable guides to electronic sources.

Another feature clickable from the Information Resources on the International Law page http://www.asil.org/info.htm is ASIL Insights http://www.asil.org/insights.htm, containing the full text of brief, background essays by international-law experts on topics of concern in current news stories. Three recent topics include "The Special Court for Sierra Leone," "The Right to Participate in the Debates of the Security Council" and "Implications of Codex Standards for the Regulation of Genetically Modified Food." Sign-up is available to receive "ASIL Insights" via email.

The table of contents of recent issues of two prominent ASIL publications, the American Journal of International Law (AJIL) http://www.asil.org/Abtajo.htm and International Legal Materials (ILM) http://www.asil.org/Internati.htm also can be viewed. International Legal Materials, published bimonthly since 1962, reproduces the full text of important treaties and agreements, judicial and arbitral decisions, national legislation, resolutions from international organizations and other documents. The American Journal of International Law, a scholarly journal with articles, editorials, notes and comment by experts in the field, as well as summaries of important cases and other materials, has been published quarterly since 1907 and also is searchable in full text on JSTOR http://www.jstor.org from 1907-96, and on LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe from 1980 to the present.

The UB Law Library subscribes to many international legal research materials, print and electronic, including the United Nations Treaty Collection, a database often mentioned in the ASIL Web pages. A librarian at the UB Law Library reference desk will be happy to show you how to access this and other sources. The UB Law Library also offers several subject bibliographies that serve as guides to selected print and electronic sources in the UB collection on international law http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/law/guides_handouts/
ub.html#international, including U.S. Treaties, Multinational Treaty Sources and Treaties:Subject Compilations, Human Rights, International Human Rights of Women and International Environmental Law. Enjoy exploring historical and cutting-edge international-law issues in the books and now in cyberspace!

-Nina Cascio and Richard McRae, University Libraries