A Visit to the New York Public Library

Alexander Rainof

These last few weeks Charlotte has spun her web with the purest of silks, having become, for the sake of the NAJIT membership, a bookworm at the New York Public Library (http://www.nypl.org/). Her temporary home proved to be truly magnificent; as it enters its second century of service, the NYPL has created one of the most useful and extensive sites on the Internet. The location is so comprehensive and varied that nothing short of a modern Ariadne is needed to guide the judicial interpreter and translator through this superb Internet labyrinth of interconnected links. Charlotte has bravely assumed the mantle of her sister, replacing the famous gold thread of yore with some cybernetic silk of her own.

In fact, in this issue of Proteus Charlotte will discuss in some detail only one of the many sites that can be accessed from the New York Public Library Home Page: The Internet Law Library of the U.S. House of Representatives. Select from the NYPL Home Page, under The Research Libraries, the link to the “Science, Industry and Business Library” (SIBL). This will connect you to eight new links under the heading Sources of Information in Science, Industry and Business (http://www.nypl.org/research/sibl/index.html), all of them rich in information: 1) “How to Find U.S. Company Information,” 2) “Worldwide Business Directories at SIBL,” 3) “International Trade Home Page,” 4) “International Statistical Yearbooks at SIBL,” 5) “Patents and Trademarks at the New York Public Library,” 6) “New York State and Federal Legal Materials on the Internet,” 7) “Selected Internet Sites in Science, Business and Government,” and 8) “List of Electronic Resources at SIBL.” Choose number six, “New York State and Federal Legal Materials on the Internet,” which will, in turn, open a menu of six sites:

“State Legal Materials,” “New York City,” “United States Federal Law,” “Special Topic: Taxation,” “Foreign and International Law Sites,” and “Other Legal Web Sites.” “State Legal Materials” connects to the New York State Court of Appeals Decisions and to bulletins which offer extensive notes and commentary on significant recent New York Court of Appeals decisions by Cornell law students, as well as to the New York State Senate (which includes bills and resolutions, the New York State Constitution, the 1996 Session laws and the Governor’s chapter and veto messages), the New York State Assembly (which also includes bills, resolutions, statutes, etc.), and the New York State Home Page.

“New York City” includes links to the New York City Council (which contains the full text of Local Laws of 1995), to the City of New York Home Page (Mayor) and to the Public Advocate’s Home Page.

“United States Federal Law” has links to United States Supreme Court Decisions, Decisions of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the United States Government Printing Office, U.S. Congressional Bills, The United States Code, the United States Senate, the United States House of Representatives, the Code of Federal Regulations, and the Federal Register.

“Special Topic: Taxation” connects to the Internal Revenue Service (which includes regulations, publications, and tax forms), as well as to many other sites providing tax information.

“Foreign and International Law Sites” is of particular interest to the forensic translator and interpreter. Under the crosslink it has with the House of Representatives one can access “Laws of other Nations (Listed by Countries)” and “Treaties and International Law.” Other sites available are: Foreign and International Law (Cornell), Canadian Law (Université de Montréal), and the International Trade Law Project (which includes the texts of such treaties as NAFTA, GATT, and the Maastricht Treaty).

“Other Legal Web Sites” connects with the Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, the WWW Virtual Library - Law, Law Links (LEXIS), and others.

All of these sites provide excellent materials for training in terminology, sight translation, and simultaneous interpretation. However, “Laws of other Nations (Listed by Countries),” under “Foreign and International Law Sites,” is of particular importance to the forensic translator and interpreter. Being part of the Internet Law Library of the U.S. House of Representatives, it can be located directly through its new site, http://law.house.gov/52.htm, where—oh joy!—one can access 196 nations (including less well-known countries such as Bhutan, Comoros, Kiribati, Niue, Tuvalu and Vanuatu). Each country constitutes a separate link, where one can often find not only numerous legal documents such as constitutions, assessments of human rights policies, laws in general, specialized laws (e.g., elections, copyright), but financial and even philosophical and literary texts as well.

Often these documents are available in both the national language of each specific country and in English. For instance, Colombia has the text of its 1982 Constitution in both Spanish and English. This is the case with several of the other Spanish-speaking countries from where a variety of texts in Spanish and English can be downloaded. Brazil has the text of the Brazilian Constitution in both Portuguese and Spanish, while Canada and France have numerous documents in French and English including, in the case of France, the entire text of the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, the Law on the Use of French, the Declaration of the Rights of Man of 1787, and documents on Family Law. Switzerland has a draft text of its constitution in French, German, and Italian, as well as texts in English. Germany has a plethora of documents in both German and English with, surprisingly enough, some texts in Spanish, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian as well. Greece offers texts in Greek and English and, of course, selections from Plato and Aristotle. Hungary has texts in Hungarian, English, and French; Iran in both English and Farsi; and Israel in English and, again somewhat surprisingly, in Spanish. Italy not only has numerous texts in Italian and English, but also documents relating to Roman law in German and, naturally, in Latin. The Japan link includes a text of the Japanese Constitution in Japanese, English, and yes, in Spanish, as well as the texts of the Second World War Instruments of Surrender, and the text of the Copyright Laws of Japan (in Japanese), among others. For the texts in Japanese a decoding program is needed. Mexico also has an abundance of texts available, including the Civil Code, the Constitution, Statutes, Election Laws, the text of NAFTA, a projection on the National Development 1995-2000, and information relating to visas and monetary policy. Romania offers the text of its Constitution in Romanian, English, and in Spanish. Russia has the text of its Constitution in English and Russian (the Cyrillic requires a decoding program), while the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, besides Russian, also provides documents in English, French, Turkish, and German (including the Communist Manifesto). Yugoslavia posts documents, in both English and French, relating to the proceedings of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

In summary, every nation listed, from Albania to Zimbabwe, offers invaluable information which can be used by the forensic translator and interpreter for training in vocabulary acquisition, sight translation, and simultaneous interpretation. Charlotte hopes that you will visit this wonderful site often, and profit from it, and will meet you again soon, at the New York Public Library.

This concludes today’s web on the WWW in Charlotte’s Corner. We would be most grateful to all of you if you were to share with us any useful URL you may have discovered. We will try to include them in Charlotte’s Corner, and will most certainly give you credit for your contribution. Please send your information, or any questions you may have, to Dr. Alexander Rainof, either by mail (1021 12th Street, #101, Santa Monica, CA 90403); by e-mail (arainof@ucla.edu); or by fax (310-395-1885), or through my Web site (http://www.electriciti.com/~trey/alexis/) which has an e-mail link.

Editor’s note: This is the first of two parts.