Research centres and projects

The Innocence Network

The Innocence Network is an affiliation of organisations which provide pro bono legal services and support to people trying to prove their innocence for crimes for which they’ve been convicted. The Network is US based but includes organisations such as university law schools, non-profit organisations and law firms from around the world. The site has a clickable map giving details of all the innocence projects that form part of the Network. There is a bank of briefs submitted by innocence projects that are freely available to download from the site.

Centre for Crime and Justice Studies

Website of independent educational charity Crime and Justice Studies which is concerned with advancing public understanding of crime, criminal justice and social harm. There is information on the various projects run by the Centre along with news, comment and details of events. The Centre publishes the British Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice Matters the organisation’s newsletter. Both publications can be viewed on the site. There are also regular briefings covering topics such as criminal record checks, rough sleeping and undercover policing.

The Federal Trust for Education and Research

Website of the Federal Trust, a research charity “studying the interactions between regional, national, European and global levels of government”. Articles and pamphlets are made freely available on the site. These cover devolution in the UK, the UK constitution and the effects of Brexit on the European Court of Justice and international trade. There are also details of events held by the Federal Trust.

Rights in Exile Programme

This website brings together resources to assist lawyers who are representing refugees. The Rights in Exile Programme is run by lawyers and experts in human rights and immigration issues. The site provides access to a range of resources including the UNHCR Protection Manual, contact details of pro bono organisations arranged by country, country of origin information experts and online sources of international case law. There are also resources aimed at refugees including self-help kits to assist with writing Refugee Status Determination Interview statements.

Juriglobe: world legal systems

Website of JuriGlobe a research group of the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa. The site provides data on the different legal systems in the world- civil law, common law, Muslim law, customary law and mixed systems- and gives a directory of jurisdictions using each of the systems. The information is presented in different ways showing legal systems by geographic region, the systems used by United Nations member states and by population distribution.

Southern and Eastern African Regional Centre for Women’s Law

The Southern and Eastern African Regional Centre for Women’s Law (SEARCWL) is housed within the Faculty of Law at the University of Zimbabwe. It is engaged in training, teaching, research and publication in the area of women's law, socio-legal and human rights issues. Research papers, dissertations and theses produced by SEARCWL are available on the website in pdf format and details of its courses are provided. The E-Resources section provides e-journals, e-books and other material.

Free Law Project

The Free Law Project is a California based non-profit organisation providing free online access to primary legal materials. The Project is also involved with the development of technologies for legal research. Current work includes CourtListener (a searchable database of legal opinions from federal and state courts), RECAP (an extension for Firefox and Chrome to improve the use of PACER) and Juriscraper which gathers opinions from federal appeal courts, state supreme courts and oral arguments from all appellate federal courts that offer them.

Peter Forskaal: Thoughts on Civil Liberty

Website dedicated to and celebrating Peter Forsskål's influential treatise Tankar om borgerliga friheten (Thoughts on Civil Liberty) published in Sweden in 1792. Forsskal's work contributed to access to information and the abolition of prior censorship which was established in 1766 by law in Sweden. The site gives information about the history of the work, access to the original pamphlet text and in English translation and in several other languages. Details of events related to freedom of information, civil liberties and the legacy of Peter Forskaal are provided.

Haitian Law Digital Collection

The Haitian Law Digital Collection provides access to digitised versions of Haitian legal documents. The collection forms part of the Digital Library of the Caribbean a “cooperative digital library for resources from and about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean” administered by Florida International University in partnership with the University of the Virgin Islands and the University of Florida. The site currently offers documents from the mid nineteenth century through to 2007 including legislation, government publications and periodicals.

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