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International and Foreign Law Resources

• Multiple international law Resources:
• GENERAL
  • INTERNATIONAL LEGAL RESEARCH GUIDES
• TOPICAL:
  

  A-E

  F-L

  M-O

  P-Z

• International Commercial Trade Law
• International Environmental Law and Policies
• Oceans and Water Law

GENERAL:

• American Society for International Law:
  
  • EISIL, ELECTRONIC INFORMATION SYSTEM for INTERNATIONAL LAW [Law Text Database]
    "ASIL’s goal is to ensure, through EISIL, that web searchers can easily locate the highest quality primary materials, authoritative web sites and helpful research guides to international law on the Internet. To this end, EISIL has been designed as an open database of authenticated primary and other materials across the breadth of international law, which until now have been scattered in libraries, archives and specialized web sites."
  • ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law edited by Marci Hoffman and Jill McC. Watson.

• Cardiff Index to LEGAL ABBREVIATIONS

• FOREIGN LAW TRANSLATIONS by the Institute of Transnational Law, University of Texas at Austin. "This site is a resource for French, German, Italian, Austrian and Israeli legal materials in the fields of constitutional, administrative, contract and tort law. The English translations of decisions from Germany and France include cases from the Reichsgericht, the Bundesverfassungsgericht, the Bundesgerichtshof, the Conseil Constitutionnel, the Conseil d'Etat and the Cour de Cassation." Click here for Foreign National Government Law text resources.

• HEIN ONLINE (UW RESTRICTED) is a source for fulltext legal serials and books. The international offerings are expanding in scope and coverage.

• INTERNATIONAL LEGAL CITATION MANUAL
  The manual is organized by country and within each is categorized by: Background and Legal System, Constitution, Statutes, Administrative Regulations, Codes, Case Law and Sources (of information). Not all categories are available for all countries at this time. It is published by the Washington University Global Studies Law Review.

• UNIVERSITY of WASHINGTON, SCHOOL of LAW, MARIAN GOULD GALLAGHER LAW LIBRARY
  See especially: Reference & Legal Research.
  Within this page, be certain to see "Internet Legal Resources", then "Foreign and International Legal Indexing Sites". Electronic and print resources are intermingled.

• World Legal Information Institute [WorldLII], "Free, independent and non-profit access to worldwide law. 860 databases from 123 countries and territories via the Free Access to Law Movement." Full text of case law is emphasized.

INTERNATIONAL LEGAL RESEARCH GUIDES:

• GlobaLex: International, comparative and Foreign Law, Hauser Global Law School Program, New York University School of Law, by Mirela Roznovshci, Ed. Don't miss UPDATE: Basic Guide to Researching Foreign Law by Mary Rumsey, Foreign, Comparative & International Law Librarian at the University of Minnesota.

• An Introduction to Sources for Treaty Research By Mark Engsberg, Foreign and International Law Librarian at the Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School.

• International Legal Research Tutorial.
  "This tutorial is designed to teach students research strategies and methodology for researching both print and electronic sources of international legal materials. The tutorial includes review questions and a final review to give students an understanding of how these materials are organized, and to teach them how to locate international legal documents such as treaties, agreements and the documentation of international organizations. This tutorial is a collaborative project between Duke University School of Law and University of California, Berkeley, School of Law and was created with support from the Duke Center for Instructional Technology."

• Law Library Resource Xchange (LLRX) providing extensive key legal resources, both for the United States and elsewhere. See especially International Law Guides and Comparative & Foreign Law Guides.

• International Antitrust and Competition Law and Policy by Lyonette Louis-Jacques, Foreign and International Law Librarian and Lecturer in Law, University of Chicago D'Angelo
• New Horizons: Resources for International Competition Law Research (llrx.com) By Jean M. Wenger, Government Documents/Foreign & International Law Librarian at the Cook County Law Library, Illinois, USA.
• See also general links on ANTITRUST/COMPETITION

ASIAN LEGAL INFORMATION INSTITUTE (AsianLII), "Free access to Asian Law."

The AVALON PROJECT, Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy at the Yale Law School. "The Avalon Project will mount digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government. We do not intend to mount only static text but rather to add value to the text by linking to supporting documents expressly referred to in the body of the text."

CIVIL SOCIETY and NOT-for-PROFIT LAW:

• International Center for Not-for-Profit Law Online Library "a searchable directory of legal documents, court cases, reports, and other civil society resources from countries around the world."

CONSTITUTIONS WORLDWIDE:

• Constitution Finder, T.C. Williams School of Law, Univ. of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia, USA.
• Constitutions & Treaties In Force Reference by The Internet Public Library.
• Constitutions from European countries and elsewhere. from Guide To European Legal Databases By Mirela Roznovschi which is included in the Law Library Resource Xchange website.
  
• Primary print compilations of constitutions:
  
  • Constitutions of nations by Amos J. Peaslee, Contains print copies of historical constitutions by country. 1st ed. 1950 and 4th and last ed. 1974.
  • Constitutions of the countries of the world; a series of updated texts, constitutional chronologies and annotated bibliographies Edited by A.P. Blaustein and G.H. Flanz. 1971- (loose-leaf) Note: Only in the UW Marian Gallagher Law Library.
• Constitutional research:
  
  • Comparative Constitutions Project "We endeavor to....[produce] a cross-national historical dataset of written constitutions, to service a set of research questions regarding the origins and consequences of constitutional law and, not at all incidentally, the design of constitutions in developing and transitioning democracies." Note: Contains some text of new, revised, or draft contitutions.

COPYRIGHT LAW:
Collection of National Copyright Laws "This site endeavours to provide access to national copyright and related rights legislation of UNESCO Member States."

COURTS:

• Global Courts, a Comprehensive Guide to Supreme Court Decisions Around the World. "The purpose of this website is to serve as a guide for researchers and legal practitioners seeking information on Supreme Court decisions from around the World. It will give you access to the decisions or a way of finding them. Globalcourts.com also provide links to other court related sites, articles and information that may be of interest." Courts below the top level national court often will be found through this website.
• International Courts & Tribunals Project "(ICT Project) aims to provide a comprehensive search facility for final decisions of all international and multi-national courts and tribunals, whether global or regional." Is a function of the World Legal Information Institute (WLII).
• International Court of Justice.
• International Criminal Court.

CRIMINAL LAW AND STATISTICS:

• *Criminal Law Resources on the Internet* by the Buffalo Criminal Law Center, State University of New York at Buffalo, School of Law.
  
• European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics compiled by the Council of Europe.
• International Criminal Court (ICC):
  
  • International Criminal Court, as represented by the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC). See esp. "Factsheets and Core Texts".
    
  • International Criminal Law: A Selective Resource Guide. by Marylin J. Raisch and Gail Partin on LLRX.com.
    
  • International Criminal Court: Resources in Print and Electronic Format by Lyonette Louis-Jacques, Foreign and International Law Librarian and Lecturer in Law University of Chicago Law School, D'Angelo Law Library.
• INTERPOL "Mission: To be the world’s pre-eminent police organisation in support of all organisations, authorities and services whose mission is preventing, detecting, and suppressing crime."
• United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
• World Criminal Justice Library Electronic Network. See especially the country links found in Criminal Justice Links Annotated and also Criminal Justice Statistical Resources.

ELECTION AND PARLIAMENTARY LAW

EUROPEAN UNION LAW

FAOLEX "is a comprehensive and up-to-date computerized legislative database, one of the world's largest electronic collection of national laws and regulations on food, agriculture and renewable natural resources. Users of FAOLEX have direct access to the abstracts and indexing information about each text, as well as to the full text of most legislation contained in the database." (BY UN Food and Agriculture Organization)

"Forced Migration Online (FMO) provides instant access to a wide variety of online resources dealing with the situation of forced migrants worldwide...."

FOREIGN NATIONAL GOVERNMENT LAW:

GENERAL COUNTRY REFERENCE: OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT and UNOFFICIAL WEBSITES

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• **Martindale-Hubbell international law digest,** Call No. KF190.M35 (year), various locations in the UW Marian Gallaher Law Library.
  Digests or summarizes laws of individual countries.
• Foreign Law Guide (UW RESTRICTED) by Thomas H. Reynolds, electronic and print versions, provided by the UW Marian Gallagher Law Library. In the electronic version, click on "Countries and Jurisditions".
• World Legal Information Institute, "Free, independent and non-profit access to worldwide law. 860 databases from 123 countries and territories via the Free Access to Law Movement." Full text of case law is emphasised.

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• Caribbean Community Secretariat, CARICOM Law "Laws of Member States."
• Commonwealth Legal Information Institute, Free access to Commonwealth and Common Law
  "466 databases from 51 Commonwealth and common law countries and territories"
• Comparative/Foreign Law guides by LLRX.
• CIVIL SOCIETY and NOT-for-PROFIT LAW
• Doing Business Law Library "is the largest free online collection of business laws and regulations. We link to official government sources wherever possible...." Is part of the World Bank's Doing Business website.
• FOREIGN LAW: Legal Research Resources on the Internet and Finding Foreign Law Online When Going Global (esp. good for *English translation* of laws ) both authored by Lyonette Louis-Jacques, Foreign and International Law Librarian and Lecturer in Law University of Chicago Law School, D'Angelo Law Library. See also her "Legal Research on INTERNATIONAL LAW Issues Using the Internet".
  
• GlobaLex, International, Comparative and Foreign Law Research, Hauser Global Law School Program, New York University School of Law, Mirela Roznovshci, Ed.
• Government Gazettes Online.
• "Global Legal Information Network (GLIN) [by the U.S Law Lib. of Congress] is a public database of laws, regulations, judicial decisions, and other complementary legal sources contributed by governmental agencies and international organizations. These GLIN members contribute the official full texts of published documents to the database in their original language. Each document is accompanied by a summary in English and subject terms selected from the multilingual index to GLIN. All summaries are available to the public, and public access to full texts is also available in participating jurisdictions."
• "LEGISLATIONLINE is a free-of-charge online service provided by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). It compiles international texts and domestic legislation in the OSCE region (55 countries located in the Caucasus, Central Asia, Europe and North America) dealing with the rule of law and the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms." This database is very much Under Construction but can be useful.
• See Also:
  • Criminal Law and Statistics
  • Many other listings in this International and Foreign Law Resources webpage contain foreign legal information.

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Guide to Foreign and International Legal Databases, by Law Library, New York Univeristy, School of Law. Is a very useful and far reaching resource.

HUMAN RIGHTS LAW

International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) "The so-called "right of humanitarian intervention" has been one of the most controversial foreign policy issues of the last decade - both when intervention has happened, as in Kosovo, and when it has failed to happen, as in Rwanda. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his report to the 2000 General Assembly, challenged the international community to try to forge consensus, once and for all, around the basic questions of principle and process involved: when should intervention occur, under whose authority, and how. The independent International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty was established by the Government of Canada in September 2000 to respond to that challenge."

International Court of Justice.

International Criminal Court.

International Development Law Institute (IDLI) "is a public international organization with its legal headquarters in Rome, Italy...IDLI's mandate is to promote the use of legal resources in the development process in developing and transition economy countries."

"International Law Links", by the American Society of International Law (ASIL). Emphasis is on current events in international law, links to full texts, international law topical guides, and professional contacts and organizations. As publisher of the excellent _International Legal Materials_ (JX68 .I58 Per. Stacks and Lexis-Nexis), the Table of Contents of the latest issue is provided.

"International Resources: OVERVIEW" by the Cornell University Law Library, a substantial international law resource, including mirror sites and broader webguides for the ICJ and the ILO. Don't miss the Cornell Legal Research Encyclopedia, an Internet encyclopedia with major access points by Subject, Countries, United States, and International!

LAWLINKS "Legal information on the internet, An annotated list of web sites compiled by Sarah Carter, Law Librarian, Kent Law School, U of kent Canterbury, United Kingdom". A far reaching topical international law resource, with some extra emphasis on the law of the UK, other European Countries, and the European Union.

Legal Research on INTERNATIONAL LAW Issues Using the Internet, authored by Lyonette Louis-Jacques, Foreign and International Law Librarian and Lecturer in Law University of Chicago Law School, D'Angelo Law Library, an excellent resource. See also her "FOREIGN LAW: Legal Research Resources on the Internet".

LLRX Law Library Resource Xchange (LLRX) providing extensive key legal resources, both for the United States and elsewhere.

MARITIME/OCEAN LAW and ISSUES:
On the UN's International Maritime Organization webpage, don't miss the Links Directory button on the left side of the page.
See also OCEANS AND WATER LAW below.

Migration (International) and Refugee Law.

Multilaterals Project, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Boston, MA USA., providing extensive information on and texts of Multilateral Conventions and Treaties, and links to other international treaty sites.

NON-PROFIT LAW

PACIFIC ISLANDS
Law of the Pacific Islands: A Guide to Web Based Resources by Ruth Bird, Law Librarian, University of Melbourne Law School on LLRX.com.

Patent and Trademark Information at the University of Washington Engineering Library.

PEACE, CONCILIATION, RECONCILIATION, and TRUTH COMMISSIONS:

• Conciliation Resources, "serves as an international resource for local or national organisations pursuing peace or conflict prevention initiatives. The principal objective is to support sustained practical activities of those working at the community and national levels to prevent or transform violent conflict into opportunities for social, political and economic development based on more just relationships."
• Hague Appeal for Peace.
• INCORE (Institutue for Conflict Resolution)Peace Agreements. Clickable map which leads to fulltexts in Abobe Acrobat (.pdf) format. See additional resources at the INCORE homepage.
• The Peace Agreements Digital Collection "strives to contain the full text of agreements signed by the major contending parties ending inter- and intra-state conflicts worldwide since 1989 by the United States Institute of Peace Library."
• Peace Palace Library "The Library of the Peace Palace has one of the world's largest collections in the field of international law, public and private law, and foreign national law, as well as an extensive collection on international political and diplomatic history and the history of peace movements. Also, we house the Grotius Collection, the collection on the important 16th century Dutchman Hugo de Groot, founder of the science of international law." Located in The Hague, Netherlands. See the excellent topical Bibliographies.

• Guide to International Refugee Law Resources on the Web By Elisa Mason. See also the Update to "Guide to Country Research for Refugee Status Determination", by Elisa Mason.
• REFWORLD is the leading source of information necessary for taking quality decisions on refugee status..." provided by the UN High Commissioner on Refugees.
• See also Migration (below) and under "Treaties" (below) the ICRC, International Committee of the Red Cross.

• United Nations Treaty Collection
  Includes UNTS, Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Sec. General, and much more. NOTE: Much of this database has been frozen as of 15 Nov. 2007. See the first page for details and exceptions. A new service is being developed.
  LOGIN REQUIRED!
  "World-wide access to All databases has been offered via a single generic username/password combination:"
  Username: treaties
  Password: 12345
  **Also note that popup blockers get in the way of access: 1. Windows popup blocker should be set to either Temp allow or Always allow access or turned off. 2. Google popup blocker completely blocks access and needs to be turned off. Click on Settings on the Google bar in IE, then Options, then More, uncheck the box next to Popup Blocker. Be sure to reenable the popup blockers when finished.

• Treaties and Other International Agreements by the U.of Washington Law Library, covering web and print resources.

  American Society for International Law:

  • EISIL, ELECTRONIC INFORMATION SYSTEM for INTERNATIONAL LAW [Law Text Database] "ASIL’s goal is to ensure, through EISIL, that web searchers can easily locate the highest quality primary materials, authoritative web sites and helpful research guides to international law on the Internet. To this end, EISIL has been designed as an open database of authenticated primary and other materials across the breadth of international law, which until now have been scattered in libraries, archives and specialized web sites."
  • ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law
• Researching Non-U.S. Treaties By Stefanie Weigmann, reference librarian at the International Legal Studies Library at Harvard Law School.
• WORLD TREATY INDEX provided by the University of Washington Libraries (NB: Test Database). Allows various kinds of searches for treaties and provides citations to text sources.

• OTHER TREATY RESOURCES
• Australian Treaties Library. Much of the ATS (Australian Treaty Series) 1901 forward is online here. Look for the many mulitlateral treaty links throughout this page. As a major world country, Australia is party to many multilateral treaties and can potentially be a source for text and information about such treaties, including treaties within the South Pacific and SE Asian region. Also is a good source for Australia's bilateral treaties.
• Environmental Treaties and Resource Indicators (ENTRI Portal) at CIESIN/SEDAC.
• Frequently-Cited Treaties and Other International Instruments by the U. of Minnesota Law Library. "As an aid to law review citation-checking, the following is a list of treaties frequently cited in law review articles, along with available sources of hard copy. In addition, wherever possible, the entries are linked to the EISIL database of the American Society of International Law. EISIL provides additional citation information, explanatory material, and a link to the text of the treaty. If EISIL has no record for the treaty, a link to the full text is provided wherever possible."
• ICRC databases on international humanitarian law for law texts, by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Includes the so called "Red Cross or Geneva treaties/conventions on war", on this page "1949 Conventions & Additional Protocols".
  See also International humanitarian law (IHL). "Section explaining international humanitarian law (IHL), its role in the protection of victims of war and its relationship with the work of the ICRC. The main treaties are the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols."

• NB: Many other websites found throughout "International and Foreign Law Resources" contain treaty texts and information.

Truth commission websites:
(See also PEACE, CONCILIATION, RECONCILIATION...)

• Strategic Choices in the Design of Truth Commissions. "Truth commissions serve the primary purpose of unveiling the truth about past human rights violations. But in the eyes of many societies, there are corollary purposes that are closely aligned with uncovering the truth: to provide victims with acknowledgement, apologies and/ or compensation from the state; to ensure - through structural and legislative reform - that past human rights abuses will happen 'never again'; to bring those who have perpetrated grave human rights violations to justice; and to take care of the victims and survivors of human rights violations."
  
• The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
• "Brahm, Eric, Truth Commissions, Beyond Intractability. Eds. Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess. Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado, Boulder. Posted: June 2004."
• Truth Commissions. Provides text of commission reports supplied by the United States Institute of Peace Library.

United Nations "International Law" webpage.

• Selected U.N. Resources and Research Tools: Overview and Search Tips for Legal Research by Wiltrud Harms, Law School Library (Boalt Hall), U. of Calfornia at Berkeley.
• See also List of Conventions, Declarations and Other Instruments contained in General Assembly Resolutions (1946 onwards) found in the United Nations Documentation: Research Guide.

United States International Law:

• NB: Many pages above and below in "International and Foreign Law Resources" cover U.S. international law.
• Altlaw "provides the first free, full-text searchable database of Supreme Court and Federal Appellate case reports. It is a resource for attorneys, legal scholars, and the general public." Altlaw is not limited to international law.

WashLaw.
Washburn University School of Law Library's "WashLaw", another extensive source for foreign and international law texts, contacts and academic resources.

Women in International Law: Research Resources by Lyonette Louis-Jacques, Foreign and International Law Librarian and Lecturer in Law, D'Angelo Law Library, The University of Chicago Law School. "The following are suggested books and articles to read for background information on women and international law issues." Most references are hot linked in this very substantive page.

"World Legal Information Institute (WLII) "Free, independent and non-profit access to worldwide law. 860 databases from 123 countries and territories via the Free Access to Law Movement." Full text of case law is emphasized.

World Bank Law and Development webpage. "Effective legal frameworks and institutions are pivotal for alleviating poverty. This website's objective is to share legal knowledge for development."

World Legal Systems
"The initial idea to create this Website on "world legal systems" stems from a particular interest: the fact that both civil law and common law are taught at the Law Faculty of the University of Ottawa. The Faculty, through its National Program, further offers its students the possibility of taking a degree in both legal systems within a four-year time period, thereby improving their employment prospects. Thus it seemed desirable to afford them, through this Website, a true perspective of the importance of each of these two legal systems on an international level."

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International Economic Law
by Jean M. Wenger, Government Documents/Foreign & International Law Librarian, Cook County [IL] Law Library. This is a chapter from the ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law.

International Commercial Trade Law Databases:
Transnational Law Digest & Bibliography by the Center for Transnational Law (CENTRAL), Westfaelische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, Germany.
CISG and International Commercial Law by Pace University, School of Law. "CISG is the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, the uniform international sales law of countries that account for two-thirds of all world trade."

International Commercial Trade Law Websites:

• Antitrust Law
• Doing Business Law Library "is the largest free online collection of business laws and regulations. We link to official government sources wherever possible...." Is part of the World Bank's Doing Business website.
• Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA-ALCA)
• International Classifcation Codes and Trade Standards
  
• INVESTMENTS: Treaties and aggreements:
  
  • Investment, Technology and Enterprise Development (UNCTAD). See International Investment Agreements (IIAs)
    and online access to Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs): A Compilation and International Investment Instruments: A Compendium.
• Juris International, International Legal Insturments by the University of Montreal, Faculty of Law, Centre de recherche en droit public.
  "This collection offers the full text, often with descriptive summary, of various conventions, model laws, as well as standards and customs of international trade. The pages of information on these instruments include, where appropriate, the list of ratifications and adhesions per country."
• Lex Mercatoria "an ( international | transnational ) commercial law & e-commerce infrastructure monitor".
• SICE-Foreign Trade Information System by the Organization of American States (OAS) "- centralizes information on trade policy in the Americas. On the SICE Website, you will find the full texts of trade agreements in force for OAS Member States, new and ongoing trade policy developments, information on national trade-related legislation, links to international, regional and national sources of trade policy information and more! SICE, with more than ten years online, strives to provide OAS member states and other users up-to-date and relevant information."
• Trade Dispute Settlements:
  
  • IDTAD, Integrated Database of Trade Disputes for Latin America and the Carribean by the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Carribean.
  • World Trade Organization (and GATT)
• United States:
  
  • UPDATE: Basic Info and Online Sources for NAFTA and CAFTA Research (North American Free Trade Agreement and United States-Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement) By Francisco Avalos and Maureen Garmon on GLOBALEX.
  • Central American-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR):
    
    • Central American-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement page by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, International Trade Admin.
    • Dominican Republic-Central America FTA. page by the U.S. Trade Rep.
    • U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement page by the U.S. Embassy, San Jose, Costa Rica>
  • Regional Trade Aggreements by the U.S. Trade Representative, Office of the. "Regional trade initiatives are a key part of U.S. trade strategy...."

• See Also Federation of International Trade Associations (FITA)

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