Web site for labor organization is created at Law School library

Jean-Pierre Laviec, right, chief of the Labour Law Information Branch of the International Labour Organization (IGO), cuts the ribbon dedicating the Cornell Law Library as an official mirror web site for the IGO during a ceremony April 9 in the library. From left are Professor John Barceló, director of the Berger International Studies Program, and Professor Claire M. Germain, the Edward Cornell Law Librarian. Charles Harrington/University Photography

By Darryl Geddes

The Cornell University Law Library has become the official mirror web site for the International Labour Organization.

The Cornell site, now in its final test stage, will provide researchers with a quicker response and greater access to the ILO web site in Geneva, Switzerland, by enabling researchers to access the site on the law school server. An additional mirror site is already in operation in Japan. To access the ILO web site from the Cornell Law Library web page, go to http://www.lawschool. cornell.edu/library.

"The information provided through the web site is essential information for forward-looking researchers and organizations concerned with globalization issues," said Claire M. Germain, law professor and the Edward Cornell Law Librarian. "Cornell law professors and students who work in labor law have already found the ILO site extremely useful and have downloaded documents for their own research and work."

"With the presence of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, a strong labor law component and a tradition of international and comparative law, the Cornell Law School is very logical fit to be a mirror site for the International Labour Organization," said John Barcelo, professor and director of the Berger International Studies Program at the Law School.

The ILO was created in 1919 as part of the World War I settlement to establish international standards to regulate labor conditions. It became a specialized agency of the United Nations in 1946 and serves as a clearinghouse on work and labor-related issues, including laws, regulations and data on workers and the workplace worldwide.

The ILO web site contains a collection of several databases including: ILOLEX, a full-text trilingual database (English/French/Spanish) on international labor standards; TRIBLEX, a thematic database on the case law of the Administrative Tribunal of the ILO; and NATLEX, a database of national labor law.

Work is currently under way to expand the site with a new database, LABORDOC, that will provide access to many more labor law documents.

The Cornell partnership with ILO goes beyond the distribution of information over the Internet. It has already led to student internships and faculty exchanges. And Laviec will teach a course on international economic law this summer, under the sponsorship of the School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions.