LINKS TO:  INTERNATIONAL LAW WEB PAGES
                  Link to Index Page
Beginning Research in International Law:

As with U.S. legal research, the goal is to find primary authority to support an argument.  It is important to begin with secondary sources which will lead to the authoritative law.

REFERENCE TEXTS:

Accidental Tourist on the New Frontier : An Introductory Guide to Global Legal Research / edited by Jeanne Rehberg and Radu D. Popa.  Legal research in areas of international, foreign, and comparative law are explained by many experts in the field..   K 85 .A27 1998

Guide to International Legal Research, Compiled by the editors of the George Washington Journal of International Law and Economics.  Part I, the Introduction, gives the overview and research techniques. Part II provides outlines of primary and secondary sources, including Internet sources. Part III deals with regional areas, as well as selected individual countries.  REF KZ 1234 .G85 2002

An introduction to international law/ Mark W. Janis  This text discusses the history and nature of international law, the roles of customary law and rules set up among nations as practiced today.  (4th ed., 2003)
KZ 3140.J36 A35 2003.

Germain's Transnational Legal Research: A Guide for Attorneys / A very useful guide in a loose-leaf format, it presents procedural and practical issues of foreign and international law. Research in selected international law topics; foreign law research for 16 countries is included.
REF K85.G47 1991

Parry and Grant's Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law /  A general international law dictionary with concise definitions of a variety of international law terms and topics.
REF KZ 1161 .P37 2004

Good references for foreign legal abbreviations:

Bieber's Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations / 5th ed./ Comprehensive list

The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. (The ALWD Citation Manual does
not give foreign and international citations). Tables and Abbreviations section gives information for treaties, foreign jurisdictions, international organizations, and others as well as citation informaton.
 

WHERE TO START YOUR RESEARCH:

Internet research guides are excellent resources to help the researcher get started. They are comprehensive, give tips on research, and provide links to many sources.

Introductory Research Guides on the Internet:

American Society of International Law
This extensive site serves as a springboard for people beginning research in international law. It provides research guides as well as annotated links to further information for broad topic areas. It has a searchable database and gives current news. Most valuable are the links to law lists, directories, searching tools and major reference sites.
ASIL also provides E-Newsletters: ASIL INSIGHTS and INTERNATIONAL LAW IN BRIEF. Both focus on timely topics in international law and give summaries and evaluations of cases. They are delivered via email.

Guide to Foreign and International Legal Databases - NYU Law Library
NYU provides extensive links to search engines, directories, primary materials, and virtual libraries, as well as to human rights and foreign and international law topical databases. Includes "Evaluation of foreign legal databases"  and  Citing Electronic Information.

Harvard Law School: Foreign and International Law Resources (ILS)
Harvard's site is an excellent resource, with well-organized links to general and specialized sites. It includes sections on foreign law, European Union, Roman law, and Islamic law resources and has a listing of individual country sites.

SECONDARY RESOURCES IN INTERNATIONAL LAW: PRINT RESOURCES and ARTICLES on topics.

 Use the Loyola Online Catalog:
    Start with subject headings such as: International Law-sources or International Law-legal research.The background or historical context  must be considered in this type of research. Scholarly writings provide analysis of all the primary sources of international law and provide evidence as well as direction to the custom of international law. Commentary can update the research and provide current awareness as to other relevant issues and events that occur.
    Second, look for  international law journals and other serial publications to provide the background, giving more titles and book sources. They provide leads to primary sources with exact information such as numbers, dates, and exact titles for research.
    UsePeriodical indexes ,  in print and through electronic resources. They are important tools to access articles. INDEX TO LEGAL PERIODICALS, CURRENT LAW INDEX, AND INDEX TO FOREIGN LEGAL PERIODICALS are available in the law library. HEIN ONLINE is a source for articles which are pre-1980 (the year Lexis and Westlaw begin coverage.) This is a source for U.S. treaty information as well.

Do not depend on Lexis and Westlaw for this background research at first. Find some core print materials to get started. Use the electronic databases for international law cases or news sources. The sophisticated search capability can enhance research in analysis and evaluation of the topic you have chosen.
 

Sources of International Law:

1.Treaties and Conventions: The practice has evolved in the modern day world from bilateral or two-party "treaties" to multilateral  "Conventions" in which many parties are involved.

Multilateral treaties can be found through many sources, on the Internet, LEXIS and WESTLAW.
Print materials such as International Legal Materials may be needed for older treaties.
Bilateral treaties are published in different ways, depending on the countries involved. However, they may be difficult to find, and many times the text is not in English.
Status and backround information can be difficult to find, although the Internet is facilitating the publishing, especially at IGO sites.
Customary law is another concept that is included when international agreements are developed. Research in this area can be a difficult task. To gain a good understanding of this type of law, there are useful articles and books with discussions of international customs.

Treaties to which the United States is a party are easy to find, for the U.S. has the most extensive document system of any nation. Elements include: historical and current treaty collections; indexes and finding tools; full-text sources.
The status and background sources are important to the full research of treaties.
Internet sources give current treaty information,however one must depend on print sources for many of the older ones.

Treaties on a particular topic can be researched through an Internet Guide site, such as the Harvard ILS site.

 IGO sites  are increasingly providing more documents and in-depth information regarding specialized treaties: Environmental treaties , human rights, intellectual property, and the law of the sea are some examples.

The Loyola on-line catalog can also be used to find information using subject headings.

Research guides on treaties can be found at Law Library Resource Exchange (LLRX): Researching US Treaties and Agreements and Researching Non-U.S. Treaties and Agreeements.
 

2.  International Organizations IGO's:

Inter governmental organizations have become prominent forums in the world of international law. Nations come together and discuss global issues and develop policies and law. Many treaties are now drafted by IGO's. These agreements are signed and ratified by members, who are then bound by the terms of the agreement. Modifications are often necessary with so many parties involved.  Treaties are also the framwork for the IGO's structure, usually in the form of a charter. Therefore, it is important to study the charter of an organization to understand its purpose and functions.
 

3.Non-governmental organizations NGO's

These are private groups who are concerned with specific international issues. They are not governments and they can not make law. However, they are influential and they make recommendations which can be useful to resolution of conflicts.

Good links for lists of IGO's and NGO's and for finding important documents are at Northwestern University  web site.

4. International Courts and decisions:

  The International Law page at the UN site has links to these courts, treaty information, documents and other international law sources.

 The International Court of Justice, established by the Charter of the United Nations,  in 1945, is the entity which settles disputes among nations.

The  International Criminal Court   , set up through the Rome Statute in 1998, is an independent permanent
court which tries the most serious crimes of international concern.

Regional courts:

European Court of Human Rights  set up by the Council of Europe, through the Convention  for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 1950,  has its own web site and has become a strong influence in national court decisions involving human rights issues.

The European Court of Justice and Court of First Instancesettle disputes among members of the European Union.

 The  Inter-American Court of Human Rights, judicial arm of the OAS; the charter, documents and case-law are online.

Selective print materials of court decisions are in the library but are not complete.They may have to be ordered through interlibrary loan.

Topics of International Law:

Special Topics Collections:

A large number of specialized collections of bilateral and multilateral documents have been published. A subject approach is used to locate these materials. Areas such as environmental law, tax law and laws of armed conflict are covered. These sites are good to explore for a subject area topic for research.

Electronic Information System for International Law-ASIL project
http://www.eisil.org/index.php?sid=297648529&t=index
A new web site which gathers materials in a category arrangement, which includes locations of primary materials, selected web sites and helpful research guides to help streamline the research of international law.

The World Wide Web Virtual Library: Law
www.law.indiana.edu/law/v-lib/non-us.html
The Virtual Library provides many links to foreign and international law materials. They are divided into topics, listed in alphabetical order which can be browsed. Search can be done by information type; countries are listed alphabetically and links given to government information .

Office of the Legal Advisor
http://www.state.gov/s/l/
Provided by the U.S. Department of State, this site gives advice on legal issues, both domestic and international.  Links are provided to various international materials, such as UNCITRAL documents, Hague conferences and conventions, UNIDROIT documents.

Environmental Treaties and Resource Indicators
http://www.ciesin.org/
Called the ENTRI system, the treaty database is unique in that a set of basic questions are used as search terms. The questions relate to issues that are to be considered when searching for complex treaty information.

The WWW Virtual Library: International Affairs Resources
http://www2.etown.edu/vl/

A comprehensive site that provides a directory of a wide range of topics and many other links for international law research.

Research Guide to International Law on the Internet-University of Bologna
http://www2.spfo.unibo.it/spolfo/ILMAIN.htm
Professor Massimo Magagni organized this guide of annotated and special links of international law topics. It is thorough and often updated.