On the world stage, the U.S. is regarded as provincial. That is a tough fact to swallow, especially for those Americans who consider themselves culturally educated, well-traveled and multilingual. Most of the planet perceives Americans as open and friendly, but also as opinionated and narrow-minded. It largely is a consequence of our nation's size, wealth, power, relative youth and insistence on homogeneity.

While provinciality has its charms, it comes at a price. One of our shortcomings is a tendency to think about "the law" exclusively in domestic terms, even though U.S. companies, large and small, and sometimes individual Americans, are subject to treaties, regulations and jurisdictional whims of sundry nations around the globe. To be a player in the 21st century, one must stay abreast of worldwide legal developments.

Given this need for global legal awareness, it is impossible to heap enough praise upon the government agencies, librarians, attorneys and other concerned folk who have embraced the Internet as a means of facilitating access to international law and the laws of foreign nations. Of course, no single entity is as steeped in international law as the United Nations.

Even for the most cosmopolitan of visitors, the United Nations offers a solid and engaging site (www.un.org) that is available in English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Russian and Chinese. Select your preferred language and get ready to rumble -- but also to grumble; there are sections of the site that will challenge your intuition and patience, starting at the main page and continuing through layers of the most important sections, such as the Documentation Centre (www.un.org/documents) and Databases (www.un.org/databases).

The U.N. site is an enormous electronic warehouse, mostly available free of charge. It provides a wide range of material, from UN-specific documents like the U.N. Charter (www.un.org/aboutun/charter) to international treaties, agreements and reports. Be advised that you may need to download and install AlternaTIFF, a special browser plug-in for fast, reliable viewing of TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) image files.

Within the Documentation Centre is the Treaty Collection (untreaty.un.org/English/treaty.asp). Within that collection are databases (untreaty.un.org/English/access.asp) that afford access to the status and full text of more than 38,000 international treaties, including recently deposited multilateral treaties (untreaty.un.org/ENGLISH/notpubl/notpubl.asp).

The Documentation Centre is categorized according to the various U.N. entities. Security Council and General Assembly resolutions are available by way of the Documentation Centre main page, in both Word 97 and PDF (Portable Document Format). PDF documents can be accessed via the Acrobat Reader, which can be downloaded free of charge from Adobe Systems Inc. (www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html). Similar materials are accessible from links to the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the Secretariat and International Court of Justice in The Hague.

The ICJ is U.N.'s principal judicial arm. The ICJ's site (www.icj-cij.org/icjwww/icj002.htm) offers decisions, rules of court and other documents issued in the undertaking of the court's two primary functions: resolution of legal disputes submitted by member states, and issuance of advisory opinions on legal questions referred by international agencies. Access to the court, and all cases brought before it since 1946, may be obtained also through the Cornell Law School Library (www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library/International_Resources/icj.htm).

The site's International Law section (www.un.org/law), in addition to holding links to the Treaty Collection and the ICJ, offers areas devoted to the Law of the Sea (www.un.org/Depts/los/index.htm) and the U.N. Commission on International Trade Law, or UNCITRAL (www.un.or.at/uncitral/index.html), as well as a variety of other resources.

The UN could improve navigation on the site, yet it is a small complaint for an otherwise job well done. Congratulation have to be extended to an agency that finds the time and energy to embrace the Internet for our benefit while dealing with the more serious agendas of war and peace.

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