FREQUENTLY-ASKED-QUESTIONS (FAQ) ABOUT INT-LAW (as of 8 
December 1996; updated 16 August 2004)


1.  What is the History of INT-LAW?
2.  How do you subscribe to the INT-LAW list?
3.  How do you send a message to the INT-LAW list?
4.  How do you unsubscribe from the INT-LAW list?
5.  Who is on the INT-LAW list?
6.  What are the features of INT-LAW?
7.  What topics are covered on INT-LAW?
8.  Are there other lists which cover the same topics as INT-LAW?
9.  Is INT-LAW archived?
10.  How can I find out more about the INT-LAW list?


1.  WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF INT-LAW?


The INT-LAW Internet list was co-founded by Lyonette Louis-Jacques and
Milagros Rush at the University of Minnesota on 30 April 1991 to serve
as an electronic forum for discussions of issues and topics related to foreign,
comparative, and international legal resources and librarianship.  From
the beginning, Mila has served as the listowner, handling technical
problems related to INT-LAW such as helping people subscribe and
unsubscribe from the list, search list archives, etc.  Lyo focused on
publicizing the list, increasing the number and diversity of
subscribers to INT-LAW, and providing useful information and news, in
addition to helping to facilitate use of INT-LAW by subscribers.  Until 11
January 1994, Mila and Lyo served as co-moderators of the list,
resolving problems related to proper usage of the list, determining
the scope of coverage of the list, etc.  Currently, Mila serves as
sole listowner and moderator (m-rush@umn.edu).  Messages posted
to INT-LAW do not go to the list moderator first, but directly to the
list.  Problems of inappropriate postings are handled after the fact.
This reduces the delay in messages getting to the list; questions can
get answered more quickly.  And thanks to Mila's "behind-the-scenes" work and
the wonderful subscribers we have on INT-LAW, the list has run very
smoothly!  The quality of the discussions are high and there is very
little "noise" (irrelevant information).

Note also that W. Christopher Lenhardt is also an INT-LAW list manager
(for technical support).  He's at clenhardt@ciesin.columbia.edu and 
is a great contact when there are bouncing messages on INT-LAW.

2.  HOW DO YOU SUBSCRIBE TO THE INT-LAW LIST?


To subscribe, send the following message to majordomo@listhost.ciesin.org or majordomo@ciesin.columbia.edu:

subscribe int-law 

Leave the subject line blank and include no other text in the body of
the message.

See the INT-LAW webpage at:
http://sedac.ciesin.org/home-page/int-law.html

INT-LAW used to be on LISTSERV@TC.UMN.EDU. 

3.  HOW DO YOU SEND A MESSAGE TO THE INT-LAW LIST?


To send a message to the subscribers of INT-LAW, send the message to
INT-LAW@LISTHOST.CIESIN.ORG or INT-LAW@CIESIN.COLUMBIA.EDU .  For example:

To:  int-law@listhost.ciesin.org
Cc:
Subject:  1994 Ethiopian Constitution?
Message:
Good morning, INT-LAWers!  Does anyone know where I can get the text of the 
Ethiopian Constitution of 1994? 

Thanks!
Lyo

Lyonette Louis-Jacques
D'Angelo Law Library
University of Chicago Law School
llou@midway.uchicago.edu

Note that, when sending a message to list subscribers rather than to the
listserv software, you do include a descriptive subject in the subject
line and your name and other .signature information at the end of the message.


4.  HOW DO YOU UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THE INT-LAW LIST?


To get off of the INT-LAW list, send the following message to
MAJORDOMO@LISTHOST.CIESIN.ORG:

unsubscribe int-law

Leave the subject line blank and include no other text in the body of
the message.  Note that for unsubscribing, you do not include your
name.


5.  WHO IS ON THE INT-LAW LIST?

With MAJORDOMO, you send to MAJORDOMO@LISTHOST.CIESIN.ORG the 
command:

who int-law

with nothing else in the body of the message to find out what 
e-mail addresses are subscribed to INT-LAW.

Before INT-LAW switched to MAJORDOMO, here is the demographics 
INT-LAW had:

There are currently 1035 named and 5 concealed subscribers on INT-LAW
from approximately 50 countries (below are the statistics received
from a "rev int-law by c sh" command to the LISTSERV@TC.UMN.EDU:

*  INT-LAW  Foreign and International Law Librarians
*
*  Country        Subscribers
*  -------        -----------
*  Australia             82
*  Austria               10
*  Bahamas                1
*  Belgium               13
*  Brazil                 3
*  Canada                51
*  China                  3
*  Colombia               2
*  Croatia                1
*  Denmark                3
*  Ecuador                1
*  El Salvador            1
*  Finland                1
*  France                 9
*  Germany               33
*  Great Britain         41
*  Greece                 1
*  Hongkong               7
*  Iceland                2
*  Ireland                4
*  Israel                11
*  Italy                 12
*  Japan                 22
*  Lithuania              1
*  Malaysia               2
*  Netherlands           30
*  New Zealand           13
*  Norway                 4
*  Philippines            1
*  Poland                 2
*  Portugal               3
*  Romania                1
*  Russia                 2
*  Slovenia               2
*  South Africa           7
*  Spain                  8
*  Sweden                 7
*  Switzerland            8
*  Taiwan                 1
*  Thailand               1
*  USA                  577
*  Ukraine                1
*  Uruguay                1
*  Venezuela              1
*  ???                   48
*
* Total number of "concealed" subscribers:         5
* Total number of users subscribed to the list: 1035  (non-"concealed" only)
* Total number of countries represented:          45  (non-"concealed" only)
* Total number of local node users on the list:    1  (non-"concealed" only)
*

 A significant number of subscribers to INT-LAW are members of the Foreign,
 Comparative and International Law Special Interest Section of the
 American Association of Law Libraries, so sometimes you'll see
 references to the FCIL SIS and AALL in postings.  Some subscribers
 are also members of the American Society of International Law (ASIL)
 or the International Association of Law Libraries (IALL).  General law
 librarians, international documents specialists, law professors and
 students, publishers of law-related resources, lawyers, persons in related
 fields, etc. are also subscribers to INT-LAW.

 It is useful to get an idea of who is on the list and what countries
 they are from so that you can guess the likelihood of responses to the
 questions you post.  Also, finding out the names and e-mail addresses
 of the subscribers on the list enables you to pose questions directly
 to experts or people who have been helpful in the past.  In addition,
 there appears to be a delay sometimes in messages getting sent to
 INT-LAW subscribers; in cases of urgent need, you might want
 to make direct e-mail contact with specific individuals.  Keep in mind,
 however, that people are busy, and sending questions to the list and
 not to individuals, spreads the help around more.  Instructions for
 retrieving a list of INT-LAW subscribers by name and by country are in
 the "Technical Guide" described below.


 5.  WHAT ARE THE FEATURES OF INT-LAW?


 INT-LAW is a wonderful Internet resource with the following regular
 features:  1)  posting of advanced tables of contents for
 _International Legal Materials_ (ILM) and _American Journal of
 International Law_ (AJIL), two journals published by the American
 Society of International Law (ASIL) [NO LONGER DONE - LYO]; 2)  posting of news of key useful
 foreign and international legal publications in print and electronic
 format; 3) posting of news generally, and other helpful hints for the
 best use of INT-LAW and the Internet for foreign, comparative and
 international law work.  Of course, the ability to post questions and
 get answers is the best feature of INT-LAW!  Subscribers are very helpful.

 About 5-10 messages are posted each day on INT-LAW.  The traffic or
 flow of messages is not very high, but steady.  Like other BITNET
 lists, INT-LAW has a "digest" feature that subscribers can use for
 management of the flow of INT-LAW information (see the "Technical
 Guide" for instructions on how to get INT-LAW in "digest" format) 
[ INT-LAW is now a MAJORDOMO managed list and has different 
instructions for getting digests than BITNET LISTSERV lists - Lyo].  
 The main language used in INT-LAW postings has been English.
 Messages have been posted from time to time in other languages.  Normally
 the use of acronyms and abbreviations has been kept to a minimum or
 explanations have been provided by posters.  Messages sent to INT-LAW
 are not automatically sent back to the original poster as a list
 subscriber.  So it may sometimes seem as if your message did not
 successfully get to the list, but it has (there are ways to find out
 if your message did indeed get posted on INT-LAW; see the "Technical
 Guide" described below).  Also, replies to messages are automatically
 sent to the entire INT-LAW list, so be sure you want all INT-LAW
 subscribers to see your response when you reply, or if you want to
 respond privately, use the original poster's e-mail address.


 6.  WHAT TOPICS ARE COVERED ON INT-LAW?


 Over the years since INT-LAW was begun, there have been questions
 posed and answered on it concerning all types of topics.  Below is a
 sampling of some subjects discussed:  German abortion decision; GATT/WTO
 panel reports; Australian aborigine land rights; careers in
 international law; Russian constitution; EC software directive;
 ex-USSR database; Dutch euthanasia law; UN resolutions; war crimes
 tribunals; Canadia gender persecution guidelines; Mexican law core
 collection; world court directories; human rights; NAFTA; law of the
 sea; Japanese law in English translation; treaties; Uruguay Round
 final act; International Court of Justice's Bosnia decision; Antarctic
 treaty documents; "standing" in non-U.S. countries; international
 networking; Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty daily news digest on the
 Internet; legal status of sexual minorities worldwide; copyright, 
 labor & employment, securities, tax, arbitration, criminal law, 
 immigration, environmental law, investment law, etc. of foreign 
 countries; and more!


 7.  ARE THERE OTHER LISTS WHICH COVER THE SAME TOPICS AS INT-LAW?


 Foreign, comparative and international legal research questions can
 also be asked on various other lists.  EURO-LEX@LISTSERV.GMD.DE focuses on
 European law, including the law of the European Union.  CALL-L@UNB.CA
 is a list for Canadian Academic Law Librarians, so Canadian legal
 research questions can posted there.  LAW-LIB@UCDAVIS.EDU is a general
 U.S.-based law library list with over 2000 subscribers; questions concerning
 United States law may be posted there.  LIS-LAW@JISCMAIL.AC.UK is
 a list for law librarians in the United Kingdom and is a good place
 for asking questions about U.K. law.  BIBJUR is a list for German
 law librarians.  The INTL-DOC list covers documents of international
 organizations (UN, EU, OAS, UNESCO, OECD, etc.).

 Other legal e-forums include FORINTLAW, a list for discussion of substantive
 foreign, comparative and international law (while substantive law issues
 are discussed on INT-LAW, discussions of print and electronic legal
 publications have predominated over substantive law; FORINTLAW was
 intended to provide a forum to facilitate substantive discussions - most
 so far have focused on international business law).  Additional lists
 for substantive law discussions include JURIST-L, JUR-DE, LAW-FRANCE,
 LAT-LAW, CLNET, etc.  Some lists restrict the language(s) for discussions;
 some are multilingual.

 Depending on the subject matter of your research question or other
 factors, you might want to post to these lists instead of to INT-LAW.
 There is sometimes delay in messages getting to the INT-LAW list; questions
 posted to LAW-LIB for instance might get to list subscribers faster than
 questions posted to INT-LAW, so if immediate responses are needed and
 the question is an appropriate one for LAW-LIB, it might be better to
 post it there instead.  Other factors are numbers of subscribers on
 the lists and what countries are represented on each list.  To find
 out how to subscribe to these lists and about other relevant lists,
 check "Lyo's Law Lists" at http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/law-lists.
 "Law Lists" is a guide to law-related electronic mailing lists and
 Usenet newsgroups.  It indicates how to subscribe to them, and
 includes links to archives for many law-related lists on the Internet.


 8.  IS INT-LAW ARCHIVED?

Current INT-LAW archives are at:
http://listhost.ciesin.org/lists/public/int-law/

 It is good to get an idea of the kinds of questions and answers that
 have been posted on INT-LAW in the past so that you can get a sense of
 how to use the list for legal research, reference, cataloging, & other
 work, and so that you can see how useful the list is.  

 INT-LAW used to be archived fully at the University of Minnesota from
 May 1991 to date until about May 1996; currently, the INT-LAW archives
 from 1991-1993 are at the University of Chicago; the status of the
 archives from 1994-date at the University of Minnesota is unclear
 presently, but INT-LAW messages from late 1995 to date are available 
 at Cornell University Law School via gopher and web at the following URL:

 http://gopher.law.cornell.edu:70/1s/listservs/intlaw

 And very recent messages are also available at:

 http://mailmunch.law.cornell.edu/mhonarc/INTLAW/
 http://www.ljextra.com/mailinglists/intlaw-l/
 http://public.ljextra.com/mailinglists/intlaw-l/index.html

[THESE LINKS MIGHT NO LONGER WORK - TRY:
http://listhost.ciesin.org/lists/public/int-law/

 9.  HOW CAN I FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE INT-LAW LIST?


 Mila Rush has written a 3-part "Technical Guide to INT-LAW".  Parts 1
 & 2 were posted on INT-LAW on 7 January 1994, and Part 3, called
 "Searching INT-LAW Archives" was posted on INT-LAW on 27 January 1994.
 The first two parts describe how to send commands to the
 LISTSERV@TC.UMN.EDU to unsubscribe from INT-LAW, digest INT-LAW, set
 INT-LAW to NOMAIL while you're on vacation, get a list of subscribers
 to INT-LAW by name, country, e-mail address, via the REView command, 
 send messages to the INT-LAW list itself, etc.  Part 3 details how 
 to search the INT-LAW archives at the  University of Minnesota.
 Mila Rush at m-rush@umn.edu maintains a copy of the "Technical Guide
 to INT-LAW" and can be contacted with questions about INT-LAW and 
 how use it.

[THE ABOVE INFO RE THE TECHNICAL GUIDE IS OUT-OF-DATE, BUT IT 
SHOULD BE AVAILABLE VIA MAJORDOMO's INFO COMMAND OR VIA MILA RUSH - 
LYO]
 
 ----------------------
 Happy networking!
 Lyo.
 ----------------------

		 +
       .&______~*@*~______&.       m          Lyonette Louis-Jacques 
     "w/%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%\w"    mmm***      Foreign and International Law
       `Y""Y""Y"""""Y""Y""Y'      mm*****     Librarian & Lecturer in Law
    p-p_|__|__|_____|__|__|_q-q   mm**Y**     University of Chicago
 _-[EEEEM==M==MM===MM==M==MEEEE]-_.|..|....   LLOU@MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU