Information provided on this page will assist both novice and veteran users of CataLaw. While navigating this site will be intuitive to most, here are some tips which may help you save time and effort.

About CataLaw...

Tips: Find What You're Looking For...

Error Messages Can Be Beaten...

Focused Sites v. Usual Suspects...

Index Quality Rating...

Don't Retrace Your Tracks...

Privacy Policy...

About CataLaw

CataLaw is a searchable index of legal information on the Internet with a unique quality: It is an index of other indexes, or a "metaindex." In other words, it is a catalog of catalogs of law on the Internet -- hence its name. CataLaw speeds research by arranging all legal and government indexes on the Internet into a single, simple, intuitive metaindex.

CataLaw is designed to ease the difficulty of finding law on the Internet. Highly focused research is often hindered by information anarchy and overload. Existing general information indexes and search engines on the Internet are of only limited assistance to the specialized information needs of academia and professions.

The response in the area of law was the creation of exclusively legal indexes. However, there are currently about 100 such indexes based in many different jurisdictions. Each has unique focuses, biases, strengths, weaknesses, and classification schemes. Information overload has been replaced by index overload.

The goal of CataLaw is to solve this new problem by being a single gateway to all legal and government indexes on the Internet. Each page within CataLaw lists hyperlinks to all sub-pages within all other indexes pertinent to a single legal subject ("Usual Suspects"). Also included are links to additional sites that, while not comprehensive, provide links to subject-specific information ("Focused Sites").

Using CataLaw, it is possible to survey the Internet for all available information on any topic of law, law and/or government of a particular region, or law-related subjects -- without wasting time stumbling through irrelevant or tangential web sites.

Tips: Find What You're Looking For

There are two ways to find the page within CataLaw that links to the information you are looking for. The first is to begin at the homepage or the map. Both contain links to every page within CataLaw. Alternatively, begin at the search form.

If you are looking for information about a topic for which there is no dedicated page, the search will help you find it. Do not be discouraged if the search turns up empty. Use the map to find the page with a title relating to the topic you want.

It may help to use CataLaw if you know how information is classified. Here are the classification rules in the order they are followed (i.e. Rule #3 will only apply if #1 and #2 do not):

1. If a linked resource contains information specifically about a subject of law, it appears on the most appropriate Legal Topics page.

2. If a linked resource contains information specifically about a subject related to law, it appears on the most appropriate Extra Information page.

3. If a linked resource contains information generally about the executive, legislative and/or judicial system of a country or region, it appears on the most appropriate Regional Law page.

Error Messages Can Be Beaten

Due to frequent changes in directory or file names by site administrators, you may receive the 404 error: "The requested object does not exist on this server." Frequent updating of CataLaw's links minimizes, but cannot eradicate, these errors. However, there are often ways around them.

The most frequent solution is to access the URL without the final directory or file name. For example, if the URL that failed is:

          http://www.domain.com/dir1/dir2/file.html

Try these alternatives and look for a promising link:

          http://www.domain.com/dir1/dir2/

          http://www.domain.com/dir1/

          http://www.domain.com/

Focused Sites v. Usual Suspects

CataLaw's links are divided into two types: "Focused Sites" and "Usual Suspects". The former type includes links to sites with information exclusively about one topic. The link is generally to the home page of a site. The latter type includes links to sites with information about several topics. The link is generally to a specific page at a site, and a link to the home page is on the Usual Suspects page.

The links of each type are further subdivided according to their content. Most often, the subdivision is according to regional focus. Where appropriate, additional and/or alternative means of descriptive organization have been used. The goal in every case is to enable you to quickly find the information you want.

Index Quality Rating

CataLaw's links are rated and grouped according to relative quality when they were compared to similarly focused indexes. There are three quality ratings:

1^st Class

2^nd Class

3^rd Class

Quality is judged in three areas:

Scope: Comprehensiveness of the index.

Detail: Description of included resources.

Structure: Organization, index navigation.

Not all linked indexes are rated. Generally, only when there are more than five similarly focused indexes has their relative quality been evaluated. When there are fewer resources, it is worthwhile to visit them all, so that ratings are unnecessary.

Don't Retrace Your Tracks

This section will help you use your web browser to assist your research.

A common feature of web browser software is the ability to keep a record of locations visited. Often, "visited links" will be displayed by the browser using a different colour than unvisited links.

Many links from CataLaw contain similar information. To avoid re-reading information, you can use the colour differences for visited links. All that is necessary is to erase or "expire" your browser's record before you begin research. Pages visited subsequently will be recorded anew. In the course of your research, colour difference will usually indicate an already visited link. Since you've already been there, don't retrace your tracks!

Here are instructions for expiring the record of visited links for the two most popular web browsers. To the best of my knowledge, following these instructions will have only the described effect, but you follow them at your own risk. Users of other browsers should examine the "Preferences" or "Options" menu for similar commands:

Netscape Navigator...
Microsoft Internet Explorer...

1. Select the "Options" menu.
2. Select the "General Preferences" option.
3. Select the "Appearance" tab.
4. In the "Link Styles" box click the "Expire Now" button.
5. Click "OK".
6. Click "OK" again.

1. Select the "Go" menu.
2. Select the "Open History Folder" option.
3. Select the "Edit" menu.
4. Select the "Select All" option.
5. Press the "Delete" key.
6. If asked to confirm the delete command, do so.
7. Click the "Back" button to continue browsing.

Please note that this strategy is not infallible. First, some web pages do not have colour indications of visited links. Second, sometimes two different Internet addresses will link to the same page, and only the address already visited will be coloured differently. You've been warned!

Privacy Policy

No identifying or personal information is collected by this site about its visitors. The information collected consists of each visitor's domain name/IP address, referral data, browser/platform type, and pages accessed. All information is collected and analyzed only on an aggregated basis. This site is a member of the Burst Media advertising network. Its privacy policy is located here.