Conducting Foreign and Comparative Legal Research
Prepared and presented by Alison Shea (aashea@law.fordham.edu)
5 STEPS OF FOREIGN LEGAL RESEARCH
1. What is the structure of the legal system you are intending to research?
 Is it a common law system, a civil law system, a mixed system? Is it influenced or
complemented by a separate body of religious law or a socio-political system? Is
there a supranational organization that also affects domestic law?
 If there are multiple sources of law that govern the jurisdiction, it is
imperative that you recognize this ahead of time and consult each of those
sources for relevant documentation
 Be sure that you have a solid grounding in the system you are looking to research,
otherwise the actual process of locating what you need will be more difficult and
time-consuming
 Use the Foreign Law Guide (detailed in #3) to find this information
2. Identify exactly what you need—a case, a statute or law, etc.—and how you need it
 Do you already have a citation, or will you need to consult some type of finding aid
to locate the legal document you need?
 If you have a citation but do not know to what it is citing to, use a source
like Prince's Bieber Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations or the NYU Guide
to Foreign and International Legal Citations (both available at the
Reference Desk)
 Will you be able to read it in its original language, or will you need to locate an
English translation?
 If you cannot read the native language of the source but do not need an
official English translation at this point, Google Translate
(http://translate.google.com) will be your new best friend
 There are a number of commercial translation services that will translate
the original full text source into English if you need to submit the source
to a court
 Will an electronic version be sufficient or will you need to locate the authentic print
copy?
 Remember that most jurisdictions outside the US do not have the same
rules regarding print as the most authoritative source, so there is,
increasingly, every possibility that the source you are looking for
(especially case law) will be “born digital” and might not ever be printed
 Similarly, do you need the authentic full-text of the item, or would a detailed
explanation or summary of the law (in English) be sufficient?
 If so, consider using a secondary source first [see #4 for suggestions]
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3. Identify the sources of law for the country and locate those sources where available in the
library’s collection by running a catalog search. Use the following resources to
determine what you are looking for:
 Foreign Law Guide: This source is the best starting point when you do NOT have a
citation or do not know where to look for a particular law. It is arranged by country,
although not every country has an entry. Each entry will include a comprehensive
essay detailing the development and function of the country’s legal system,
followed by a finding aid tool for the major sources of law (i.e., codes/statutes, case
law, etc.). The rest of the entry is organized alphabetically by topical subject
headings (i.e., Antitrust, Bankruptcy, Corporate law, etc.) which will list both where
you can find major controlling legislation for that topic as well as where you can
find the topic discussed generally.
o Fordham Law subscription database, access through this link:
http://lawlib1.lawnet.fordham.edu/eresources/erlinks/for_gen.html
 GlobaLex: A fantastic source for research guides on any number of foreign,
international and comparative law sources. The information and articles published
by GlobaLex represent both research and teaching resources used by legal
academics, practitioners and other specialists around the world who are active either
in foreign, international, and comparative law research or those focusing on their
own domestic law
o http://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/index.html
 DoingBusiness (business and gender laws): my all-time favorite site for free
authentic full-text sources, in English whenever possible, this site is run by the
World Bank and is the largest free online collection of business laws and regulations
for almost every jurisdiction that the World Bank deals with, and now includes a
compilation of gender laws intended to highlight how easy it is for female
entrepreneurs to start a business
o http://www.doingbusiness.org/lawlibrary/
 ASIL’s Electronic Research Guides: sponsored by the American Society of
International Law, this site includes a number of research guides on comparative
international legal topics that may be useful in pointing you towards relevant
domestic legal sources on topic
o http://www.asil.org/erghome.cfm
 Worldliis: The World Legal Information Institutes are free, independent and nonprofit access to worldwide law for a variety of jurisdictions, particularly good for
UK materials (BAILII) and Asian-Pacific jurisdictions (AsianLII and PacLII)
o http://www.worldlii.org/
 LoC/GLIN: The Global Legal Information Network, run by the Library of
Congress, is a public database of official texts of laws, regulations, judicial
decisions, and other complementary legal sources contributed by governmental
agencies and international organizations in their original languages. Each document
is accompanied by a summary in English and, in many cases in additional
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languages, plus subject terms selected from the multilingual index to GLIN.
Unfortunately it only contains information for about 30 countries at the present
time, and even then the coverage can be spotty
o http://www.glin.gov/
 NATLEX (labor law): database maintained by the International Labour
Organization (ILO) of national labour, social security and related human rights
legislation. Records in NATLEX provide abstracts of legislation and relevant
citation information, and they are indexed by keywords and by subject
classifications. Each record in NATLEX appears in only one of the three ILO
official languages (English/French/Spanish). Where possible, the full text of the law
or a relevant electronic source is linked to the record.
o http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex_browse.home
4. If you prefer to start with a comparative source rather than locate individual jurisdictional
sources, or if you have consulted the aforementioned compilations and are still unable to
locate what you are looking for, consult a secondary source
 Secondary sources often provide commentary on the legal issue, put the legal issue
in context, and/or provide a summary of the relevant legal documentation
 Locate secondary sources in relevant research guides and through searching the
library’s catalog
 Various compilations reprint subject-specific legislation in English with some
commentary. Examples of titles held in our library include:
 Constitutions of the countries of the world (electronically through our
electronic resources page and in print K3157.A2 C66)
 Comparative Environmental Law and Regulation (K3585.4 .C65)
 Investment Laws of the World (K1112 .A47 I59)
 International Copyright Law and Practice (on LEXIS and in print
K1420.5 .I5)
5. When all else fails, ask a librarian!
 Please feel free to contact me (aashea@law.fordham.edu, 212-636-6751, or in
person at the reference desk) or any of our other reference librarians (why not try
our virtual reference service: http://lawlib1.lawnet.fordham.edu/virtref)
COMPARATIVE LEGAL RESEARCH GUIDES
Globalex’s Comparative Law research guide:
http://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Comparative_Law1.htm
Duke’s Foreign and Comparative Law research guide:
http://www.law.duke.edu/lib/researchguides/foreign.html
Georgetown’s Foreign and Comparative Law research guide:
http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/guides/ForeignandComparativeLaw.cfm
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