Developments in European information issues: Networks and relays – Services – Products, May 2001

Enhancements to Eurolaw on the web

ILI has introduced a new guided search option to Eurolaw, their version of the CELEX database. This is offered in addition to the standard field search interface. The new guided search is intended to lead unfamiliar users through the search process step by step. When users first login, they are asked to select which type of search they want to conduct. If your PC accepts cookies it will remember the last type of search used and go directly to that screen so that expert users do not repeatedly have to go through an extra stage.

Selecting the guided search link brings up a screen with seven different categories of material: treaties, agreements between EU and non-EU countries, legislation, COM documents, case law, information and notices from the OJ C series, and European Court of Human Rights cases. These sections do not of course match directly the CELEX sector numbers. Also the category COM documents has the additional descriptor “Preparatory documents” following in brackets and does in fact include other preparatory documents such as ESC opinions. The European Court of Human Rights cases are not EC case law and do not feature at all in the official CELEX database but have been added to the ILI product in response to user demand. These cases are brought under the Council of Europe's European Convention on Human Rights and the full texts of the judgements are freely available on the European Court of Human Rights' website at http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/

To carry out a treaty search under the guided option, the treaty name is selected from a pull down list and it is possible additionally to specify the article number and year or search by keyword. For other categories of material boxes can be completed giving, for example, title search term, case number or Official Journal reference. Click on the “Submit query” button to show the number of hits, then on the “View” button to see the results list. The record display allows users to move directly to the text or analytic section. Records of European Court of Human Rights cases also include a link to the European Convention on Human Rights.

Another new feature of the database is the link to UK Statutory Instruments from 1987. This can be made either by clicking on the Union Jack flag on the search screen or on a directive record where the flag appears both at the top of the record and at the start of the implementation section. Again this information is freely available but it is quick and convenient to be able to link directly to it from the EC text. Subscribers who currently take the CD-ROM version of Eurolaw may wish to consider moving to the web version to be able to take advantage of the extra features. For more information contact ILI:

ILI
Index House
Ascot
Berks SL5 7EU
Tel: +44-(0)1344-636400
Fax: +44-(0)1344-636314
E-mail: databases@ili.co.uk
URL: http://www.ili.co.uk/en/

CPT torture prevention database launched

The Council of Europe's European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) has launched a new database. This gives access to the full texts of all the CPT's published reports (currently over 70 in total), public statements and substantive sections of the Annual General reports. The reports were previously available via the CPT's website at http://www.cpt.coe.int/. The major advantage now is the search facility which can be used to search by any term in the text or to select from a list of

Keywords, detention places, categories of detainees or states. According to the press release announcing the new database, the aim is to create a tool for those involved with deprivation of liberty issues such as public authorities, NGOs, intergovernmental organisations, research institutions and lawyers. The database is part of the HUDOC project, which produced firstly the database of case law of the European Court of Human Rights (see http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/).

As an introduction to new users three files are available from the database home page in pdf format: a guided tour, code list and search help information. The code list includes

Keywords, places, persons and states. The search function supports truncation using the *, masking of a single letter using the ? symbol, and phrase searching where the phrase is enclosed in double inverted commas. The Boolean operators are &, ?, &^ representing AND, OR and AND NOT respectively. The database search form offers fields for text,

Keywords, places, persons and states with options to select visit type (eg periodic or ad hoc) and date (eg start date of the visit, document date or date of publication). Documents can be sorted according to two separate criteria which can be selected, eg date, relevance, state or language. The default option does not include variations of terms though this can be selected if required. When entering terms from the code lists, clicking on the grey button to the immediate right of the field brings up the alphabetical list. Clicking on the button with the red top opens up the hierarchical list. Click on a term to select it and it is automatically entered into the search field. Where more than one term is selected, an OR search is constructed. There is a checkbox to include or exclude narrower terms. When searching using codes, the results will include both French and English hits. To carry out the search click on the Search button in the top right of the screen.

What is confusing at this point is the fact that it is not immediately obvious that the search has been carried out. Only small red print on the right hand side of the screen under the Search button shows the number of hits. Otherwise the screen looks unchanged. In fact the results can be viewed either by clicking on the red text showing the number of hits or simply by scrolling down - the results are listed underneath the search form. The HTML display can be obtained by clicking on the titles in the results list. This brings up a two-part screen where the top purple part provides the reference details and codes allocated and the bottom white part of the screen has the report text. Theoretically it should be possible to display the original format of the document by clicking on the Word Icon in the results list but there was some technical difficulty with this on the date it was tested. However clicking on the Word icon on the top menu bar of the full record did work successfully so this is no doubt just a little teething problem in what is otherwise a straightforward but useful resource.

UK regional website developments

Improvements have been made to the website for the European Information Network in the UK established by the European Commission Representation at http://www.europe.org.uk/. New features on the public part of the site include a “library” of downloadable documents, a feedback mechanism, and a registration page where users can register to receive e-mail information updates and newsletters. The original information detailing contacts by region, accessible via an interactive map as well as through the search function, together with news, links and other more substantial documents at a national or regional level, is still available and is updated by regional webmasters. The content of the “library” is currently very limited but should become useful as it grows. Coming shortly will be a private intranet for registered regional EU information providers. This will offer access to a wider range of documents, e-mail facilities for the network, and a discussion board. Any EU information provider who wants to be included in the intranet should contact their regional webmaster via the regional contact information on the website. They will be added to the contacts database and receive a username and password which will allow them access to the private section of the site. They will also then in future be able to amend their own contact details, which should help to ensure that the most current information is available.