World Court decisions will be available for the first time on the Internet, courtesy of the Cornell University Law School.

Official decisions of the International Court of Justice, as well as other court-related documents, are posted on the Cornell University's Law School Web page at . The International Court of Justice, whose seat is at the Hague, Netherlands, is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN) and considered the world's supreme judicial body. The web site will be available in both English and French, the two official languages of the UN.

"We will receive the decisions directly from the World Court, thereby ensuring their authenticity," said Claire M. Germain, professor of law and the Edward Cornell Law Librarian.

"By using the Internet, we are making World Court decisions accessible worldwide at the touch of a button," Germain said. "This development will not only bring greater awareness to World Court decisions, but it also will strengthen research in a number of related areas, such as international law, international affairs, political science and the United Nations."

David Wippman, associate professor of law who specializes in international law, said the World Court Web site will be a valuable service. "There is at present no reliable way to obtain authoritative and complete copies of current decisions as they are handed down," he said. "Interested parties must either suffer the long delays associated with publication in professional journals or hunt for an often unreliable Internet source. Placing official versions of World Court decisions on a single Web site will prove to be an enormous aid to anyone interested in contemporary international law or foreign affairs."

The International Court of Justice web page will feature the World Court's annual report, biographical information and photos of the judges, press releases and the texts of the four decisions rendered so far in 1996. Among them are the court's review of the legality of the use of nuclear weapons in armed conflicts. The court was divided on this matter. While the court failed to say the use of nuclear weapons is never permissible, it did make clear that such use was difficult to reconcile with principles of international law.

Another key ruling contained on the web page is the World Court's take on the matter of genocide in Bosnia. In this case, the court found that it does have jurisdiction in Bosnia's genocide case against Serbia. Now that jurisdiction is recognized in this case, the court will investigate charges that Yugoslavia organized and facilitated a campaign of genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Germain said the offer for the Law School to post World Court decisions on its web site came from World Court Judge Stephen M. Schwebel of the United States. "He wrote and phoned us about the idea, and we immediately took him up on his offer," she said. "We are ecstatic about this collaboration with the World Court."

Cornell Law School Dean Russell K. Osgood said the World Court connection seems a natural for the Law School.

"This match fits in with our current programs, especially the successful Berger International Legal Studies Program," Osgood said. The Berger Program fosters instruction and research in public international law and international economic law and offers various degree options, including a four-year joint degree program with l'UniversitŽ de Paris I, which leads to both an American juris doctorate and the equivalent of a French juris doctorate.

"The development of this program is also an indication of the important cooperation among faculty, students, the law library, the Law School and its Legal Information Institute," Osgood said.

Future plans for the web site include creating a link for scholarly analysis of World Court decisions and a complete archive of World Court decisions, dating back to the court's 1946 inaugural session.