Ah, summer! Voilà l’été qui arrive! The perfect time of the year for a beach vacation, visiting your family and friends and also to think about your substantive note… As the Foreign, Comparative and International Law Librarian and Liaison to our Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law (AJICL), I have already met with a few of you to discuss research strategies, sources to consult and just to brainstorm topics of interest for your notes. I commend you all for that. What an absolute pleasure to work with students so dedicated and eager to embark on this journey. And believe me, what a journey it will be indeed.
However, everytime I say “research strategy” I hope I’m not scaring anyone. In the vein of trying to demystify the process, I’m going to mention just a few steps which I tend to tell most students, faculty and any researcher working on these topics.
First, the Law Library has an easy to use and concise LibGuide to help you with every single step related to writing your note. Sections include preemption, citation managers, plagiarism and much more. This is a great place to start your journey, get you situated and craft a well-informed plan that works for you. If you’re interested in Foreign, Comparative and International Legal (FCIL) research, there are other LibGuides which can be of particular interest to you: International Indigenous Resources, Mexican Law, International Trade Law and International Law in general.
At some point early in your research path, you need to think about your research question. I recommend researchers to write it down. Whatever you write can turn into something of an abstract. Even if you haven’t done any research at all, write down what your research question is, what you’re planning to do and why it is important, why should people read your note. I can guarantee you that whatever you write will change once you begin your research journey. It needs to. Writing down what your note will be about is going to help you find a crucial ally in your research: keywords.
Keywords are going to be your best friends through this entire research process. However, you will need to read more, find related sources and build your bibliography for you to find other keywords embedded in related taxonomies that you might not be aware of. This step will be crucial especially for those of you doing foreign and comparative legal research and you will have to go over it multiple times. I recommend to kickstart your research with the keywords you already have in general databases such as Google Scholar and HeinOnline. As you use keywords and find relevant secondary sources, please pay attention to more keywords mentioned in these sources. If you have specific countries or jurisdictions that you’re interested in, you can consult Foreign Law Guide, vLex and Globalex. Please pay attention to the omission of both Westlaw and Lexis from this list of sources and anywhere else in this post. Simply put, Westlaw and Lexis are not reliable sources for this type of legal research and that includes if you’re interested in Canada, other Commonwealth countries and the European Union (EU).
As you follow these steps multiple times and start building your bibliography, you will need to revise your research question, abstract and repeat. I usually tell researchers that it is imperative that you’re both Intentional and flexible throughout the research process for it to work to your advantage.
Please remember that the library is here to help! You can contact me or even better, you can take my 7-week class LAW 689C - Foreign, Comparative and International Legal Research meeting on Fridays this coming semester, Fall 2023 from 8:30 am to 10:30 am. In my class, we talk about primary and secondary sources in civil law countries, comparative law, legal taxonomies, translation, international organizations and more.
¡Éxito!
0 Comments.