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International Law Resources

PURPOSE OF GUIDE

This guide is meant to serve as a resource for law students interested in conducting international law research. 

INTERNATIONAL LAW RESEARCH GUIDES

Globalex - an electronic legal publication dedicated to international and foreign law research.

  • Published by the Hauser Global Law School Program at NYU School of Law. 
  • Includes over 40 topics in International Law.

American Society of International Law (ASIL) - their e-RG (Electronic Resource Guide) is a narrative format guide to various topics in international law with links to primary and secondary sources available online.

Institute for Advanced Legal Studies (IALS) - has several research guides on International topics.

REFERENCE SOURCES

Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Law (MPEPIL) -- Includes articles on international law topics by leading international law scholars; 1991-current.

Parry & Grant Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law, 3rd - Not just definitions, but encyclopedic treatment.

Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (IFLP) - Contains selected articles on international law from many jurisdictions. Searchable by subject and journal title. Not just an index but has links to full-text if the title is included in HeinOnline's collection. 

Oxford International Journals - a large collection of journals, including both current and archival content.

PRIMARY MATERIALS

World Legal Information Institute (Wordlii) - a free site containing not only foreign law from many jurisdictions, but now an International Law Library with an International Courts and Tribunals database and an International Treaties Collection. Included here are decisions (ICC and ICJ), treaties, including UN League of Nations Treaty Service and United Nations Treaty Service to current. Also has links to other Legal Information Institutes containing international law.

Electronic Information System for International Law (EISIL) - Contains links to primary documents, organized by international law subject. From ASIL. (Note: link currently not working post site hack).

United Nations (UN) - Main page has links to UN bodies and documents. There's also an International Law tab on the main page. Provides main UN bodies and links to primary documents.

  • Treaties - database of 550 multilateral treaties as well as depositary notifications.
  • International Court of Justice (ICJ) -- includes access to cases, basic documentation, jurisdictional information, and publications.
  • UNBISnet- digital library collection of UN documents searchable by document number, UN agency/committee, etc. It represent the holdings of the UN office in Geneva and the UN Dag Hammerskjold Library in NY.
  • Official Documents System (ODS)- Contains full text of UN documents since 1993; resolutions of major UN bodies since 1946. Does not contain treaty text.

EU-Europa -- the official gateway to all things EU. Links to legislation, treaties and other official documents.

  • Treaties/Legislation: Eur-Lex-Access to European Law -- This site has all of the primary law-treaties-underlying EU institutions. Has full text of the Official Journal.
  • Judicial body: European Court of Justice 
  • Dockets: Bloomberg Law has docket filings for international jurisdictions, including the EU. Click the Litigation & Dockets tab, then Search Dockets. Next to Courts, click International, then choose your court and enter either party name, case number, or keywords. Note: Bloomberg Law is not available at the UA College of Law.

Council of Europe (COE) -- a body of over 45 member states devoted to promoting democracy, human rights, and the rule of law across Europe and beyond. Resources of interest:

  • Treaties -- includes text of all Council of Europe treaties, their explanatory reports, the status of signatures and ratification, the declarations and reservations made by States, as well as notifications issued by the Treaty Office since 2000.
  • Judicial body: European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) -- provides case law, hearings, statistical information, official texts, and library collections on human rights and the convention.
  • Hudoc -- link to database of the case law of the court; multiple filter options including by document collection, keyword, language, importance, state article, and more.

TREATY COLLECTIONS

HeinOnline Treaties -- several collections of U.S. treaties, official and unofficial. HeinOnline also provides International Legal Materials (ILM), the ASIL collection of selected treaties, and the World Treaty Library with non-US treaty collections.

Westlaw and Lexis 

  • Westlaw has various databases on international law, regional and multi-jurisdictional collections.
  • Lexis has an international law section containing links to cases treaties, etc.

SUBJECT SPECIALTIES

Criminal Law

International Criminal Court (ICC) -- Investigates and, where warranted, tries individuals charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community (genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression).

  • Resources include court records, case law, core legal texts, reports, fact sheets, a resource library, and legal tools.
  • Provides a list of ongoing investigations and defendants.

Intellectual Property

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) -- WIPO is the global forum for intellectual property policy, services, information, and cooperation.

  • In addition to IP law, treaties, and judgments, provides information related to patent and technology, trademark, industrial design, plant variety, and geographical indication.
  • Other resources include standards, statistics, terminology, country profiles, and publications.

Trade

World Trade Association (WTO) -- run by over 160 member governments that negotiate trade agreements covering goods, services, and intellectual property.

  • A collection of documents, data, and resources includes official documents, publications, statistics, economic research, multimedia, and other resources.
  • See Legal Texts for related treatises/agreements, decisions, and declarations.
  • WTO provides a separate search page for all public General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) documents

United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) -- the core legal body of the United Nations system in the field of international law.

  • In addition to texts and status tables and working documents, UNCITRAL is home to a specialized trade law library. The library includes access to CLOUT, the case law database, as well as publications, courses, colloquia materials and more.

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) -- an intergovernmental organization of 195 countries that promotes the interests of developing countries in world trade.

  • Publications include policy briefs, working papers, reports, and handbooks.
  • Statistics webpage provides UNCTAD statistics, weekly updates of trade and GDP nowcasts, key indicators in Country Profiles, and a selection of infographics.

UNILEX -- an "intelligent" database of international case law and bibliography on the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts and on the United Nationals Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), which are considered two important international instruments for the regulation of international commercial transactions.

  • Search cases by date, court, arbitral tribunal, article & issue, type of contract involved, nationality of parties, domestic law involved, and international law involved.
  • Search bibliographies by author, article, area.

OTHER CASE LAW COLLECTIONS

Oxford Reports on International Law (ORIL) -- coverage of international public case law.

  • Reports from international courts, domestic courts, and ad hoc tribunals.
  • Case reports contain full text of each decision, headnote, and analytical commentary, plus English translation of a number of key non-English decisions.

MISCELLANEOUS

Travaux Preparatoires -- working drafts prior to final treaty used sometimes for treaty interpretation; similar to legislative history of a statute.

 The Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI) - Two dozen CALI lessons on researching International Law.

  • Lessons include researching CISG, Customary International Law, European Union, finding International Court of Justice opinions, IGO's & NGO's, International Environmental law, Private International Law, and more.

Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations -- database of abbreviations for English language legal publications, including those covering international and comparative law.

  • Covers mainly law reports and law periodicals, but some other legal publications included.
  • Includes a wide selection of major foreign language law publications
  • Index features over 295 jurisdictions and is under continuous development with new abbreviations and titles added regularly.