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American Justice System in Movies, Tapes, and Primary Documents

Avalon Project at the Yale Law School
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm
Yale University Law School's Avalon Project seeks to "mount digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government."   The site contains a very good repository of primary sources related to the field of law. The documents are presented both chronologically and by topic (under Major Collections).

Picturing Justice
http://www.usfca.edu/pj/index.html
Picturing Justice provides insightful commentaries on the portrayal of law, lawyers and legal issues in television and movies.

Oyez Oyez Oyez
http://oyez.nwu.edu/
Oyez, Oyez, Oyez, a site produced by Northwestern University, is a multimedia database of Supreme Court cases.

Famous American Trials [RealPlayer}
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/ftrials.htm
"Created by Professor Doug Linder of the University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School, this site tells the stories of twelve famous trials from American history with a mix of images, primary documents, and Linder's own analysis and overviews. Some of the trials featured include the "Scottsboro Boys," the Chicago Seven, the Rosenbergs, the My Lai Courts Martial, and the Scopes "Monkey" trial. Most of the trial studies include biographical sketches, chronologies, maps (where appropriate), a number of complete or excerpted original documents, quotes from trial participants, images, bibliography and links, and Linder's description and commentary."

Anatomy of a Murder: A Trip Through Our Nation's Legal Justice System
http://library.thinkquest.org/2760/
"Users can learn about our justice system by following a murder case from the discovery of the body through the trial of the accused. The site includes summaries of about thirty landmark Supreme Court cases dealing with subjects such as: search and seizure; right to an attorney; self-incrimination; and the death penalty. A glossary of legal terms and a section on controversial issues are also presented." This is a ThinkQuest site.

Florida CyberCourt Home Page
http://www.flcourts.org/sct/cyber/index.html
"This site is designed to provide educational materials for secondary school teachers and students, and functions as a resource for law-related education."  The site highlights a case of the month and provides background information such as the following: "A summary of facts related to the Case of the Month; A summary of facts related to a hypothetical case; Information about the Florida State Courts System; Information about the differences between criminal and civil cases, and trial and appellate courts; Supplemental information and INTERNET sites which provides additional information related to the Case of the Month; Test Your Knowledge, a quiz to find out how much you know about the Florida State Courts System; and A teaching curriculum for interested teachers (geared for upper middle and high school students). This curriculum contains a number of law-related educational activities, hyperlinks to other relevant sites, and a hypothetical case based on similar facts and premises of the case of the month."

General 

Litigator's Internet Resource Guide: Rules of Court
http://www.llrx.com/columns/litigat.htm
This page contains a collection of links to federal, state, and local court rules. Includes Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure; Civil Procedure; Criminal Procedure; Evidence; the U.S. Supreme Court; and the U.S. Tax Court.  Federal Local Court Rules are covered by jurisdiction for Courts of Appeal, U.S. District Courts, Bankruptcy Courts, and Court of Claims. Extensive coverage for all states includes both state rules and state local rules. Some of the links require passwords or special software.  Genie Tyburski a Web Research Applications Specialist for Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll.

Understanding the Federal Courts [.pdf file, 417K]
http://www.uscourts.gov/UFC99.pdf
The 1999 edition of Understanding the Federal Courts, an overview of the "operation, and administration of the entire federal court system" has been recently released. The report covers the relationship between the courts and the other branches of government, the structure and jurisdiction of the federal courts, and an overview of the judicial process and administration. A list of legal terms and directories of the US District Courts and Courts of Appeals is also included.  The document is in PDF format.

Federal Sentencing Guidelines Manuals and Amendments
http://www.ussc.gov/index.htm
This is the homepage for the United States Sentencing Commission. Click on the site map for an overview of this site. The site includes guideline manuals and federal sentencing statistics (very interesting) by states.

Federal Judicial Center Information
http://www.fjc.gov/
The Federal Judicial Center is the research and education agency of the federal judicial system. Some great information: Information includes educational material for court personal, history of the federal judiciary and publications.

Legal Information Institute
http://www.law.cornell.edu/
The Legal Information Institute is a research activity of the Cornell Law School.  This site has links to Supreme Court Decisions, American Legal Ethics Library and the Federal Rules of Evidence (http://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/fre/overview.html).  One may also search the site.

Fourth Judicial District Court Legal Terminology
http://www.courts.state.mn.us/districts/fourth/General/LegalTerms1.htm#top
This site contains a glossary of Legal Terms from the Fourth Judicial District Court.

Associations

American Bar Association
http://www.abanet.org/publiced/
This is the home page for the American Bar Association, for an overview of the site click on the site map.  Included in this website is information for the general public, law students and law professionals.  The site includes Facts about the Judicial System and FAQ plus Mock trials for K-12 students (in the left frame click on General Public Resources, Public Education and then Mock Trials).

American Mock Trial Association Website
http://www.collegemocktrial.org/
The Mock Trial Association's website has a page that covers their rules and policies (AMTA Rules-Policies).  The information here may help students define their roles in a trial.

For Fun 

Dumb Laws
http://www.dumblaws.com/
This site has a collection of the "dumb laws" that are still on the books in different states and cites.

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Note: Please keep in mind that the Internet is a fluid medium and sites are constantly being added, moved and deleted.  If you find a dead or redirected link or you would like me to add a new resource please contact me at morsilka@shenet.org . Please give me the name of the task, the title of the link and link address.  Thank you.