Foreign & Comparative Law
Research
University of Washington School of Law
Gallagher Law Library
April 11, 2005
Terminology
Types of Legal Systems:
Types of Law:
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• International Law
Common Law
Civil Code
Combination of both
Religious Law
Customary Law
– Public
– Private (conflicts of law)
• Foreign Law
• Comparative Law
• Transnational Law
See
http://www.droitcivil.uottawa.ca/
world-legal-systems/engmonde.html
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Some Considerations for
Foreign Law Research
• Conceptual Difficulties
• Language Barrier
• English Translations
– Official?
– Authoritative? Current?
– Free translation tools on the Web
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Caveat!
http://world.altavista.com/
www.systransoft.com
www.google.com/language_tools?ht=en
www.freetranslation.com
www.worldlingo.com/en/products_services/worldlingo_translator.html
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Abbreviations & Acronyms
– Look in the source where you found the abbreviation
– Bieber’s Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations
– Index to Legal Citations and Abbreviations
– World Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations
– Law Reports Searchable by Abbreviation or Title
http://www.library.unsw.edu.au/~law/repsrch.html
– Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations www.legalabbrevs.cardiff.ac.uk/
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Dictionaries
– Search Marian (ex: french and dictionaries and english)
– Fox, Dictionary of International and Comparative Law
– European Commission http://europa.eu.int/eurodicautom/login.jsp
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Multi-Jurisdictional Sets
• Reynolds & Flores, Foreign Law: Current Sources
of Codes and Basic Legislation in Jurisdictions of
the World
• Constitutions of the Countries of the World
• Martindale-Hubbell International Law Digest
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• Germain’s Transnational Law Research
• Modern Legal Systems Cyclopedia
• International Encyclopedia of Comparative Law
• Szladits, A Bibliography on Foreign and Comparative Law:
Books and Articles in English
• Civil Law Tradition: Europe, Latin America & East Asia
• Introduction to Foreign Legal Systems
• Accidental Tourist on the New Frontier: An Introductory
Guide to Global Legal Research
• Comparative Legal Traditions in a Nutshell
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General Foreign Law Web Sites
• Law Library Resource Exchange
http://www.llrx.com/comparative_and_foreign_law.html
• Foreign and International Law Sources on the Internet:
Annotated
www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library/guides/foreign2/
• World Legal Information Institute
www.worldlii.org/catalog/215.html
Separate sites for Australasia, UK & Ireland, Canada, Hong
Kong, Pacific Islands, Southern Africa, USA, and France at
www.worldlii.org (see box at lower right corner of the screen)
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• Law Library of Congress “Guide to Law Online: Nations of
the World”
www.loc.gov/law/guide/nations.html
• World Legal Systems
www.droitcivil.uottawa.ca/world-legal-systems/engmonde.html
• FindLaw
www.findlaw.com/12international/countries/index.html
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• Columbia University Law Library
http://www.law.columbia.edu/library/Research_Guides/foreign_
law/foreignguide
http://www.law.columbia.edu/library/Research_Guides/foreign_
law/forlawresources
• NYU Law Library
www.law.nyu.edu/library/foreign_intl/index.html
• Social Science Information Gateway www.sosig.ac.uk/law/
• Government Gazettes Online
www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/gazettes/index.htm
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Gallagher Law Library’s
Research Guides
• http://lib.law.washington.edu/ref/guides.html
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Chinese Law
Taiwan Law
Japanese Law
Korean Law
Foreign & Comparative Law Research
Legal and Judicial Systems in Countries Around the World
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Foreign Law Research –
General Approach
1. Begin with Secondary Sources
- Understand the legal system of the country
- Is there a research guide for the country?
- Read analysis or commentary of your topic that puts the
issues into context
- Identify the sources of law
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2. Find Primary Laws
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Get primary law source names from secondary sources
– English translation?
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Check various library catalogs
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See if laws are posted on the Web and linked from
research guides on the Web
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Reprinted in secondary sources?
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Summary or abstract in English?
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Interlibrary loan requests
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Online Library Catalogs
• Marian, Gallagher Law Library’s Catalog
http://marian.law.washington.edu/
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Golden’s Federal Statutes
Inland Revenue Board Web Site
Malaysian Master Tax Guide
Taxes and Investment in Asia and the Pacific
• UW Libraries’ Catalog
http://catalog.lib.washington.edu/search~/
• Summit and OCLC WorldCat
http://marian.law.washington.edu/
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Library of Congress
Subject Heading Searches
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Law – (country or region)
Comparative law
Justice, administration of – (country or region)
Legal research – (country)
Courts – (country or region)
ex: law – malaysia
ex: justice administration of – malaysia
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Journal Articles
• Periodical Indexes
• Full Text Databases
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Periodical Indexes
• Legal Trac (1980 - )
http://lib.law.washington.edu/research/dbind.html
800+ journals from U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and
New Zealand
Westlaw: Legal Resource Index (LRI)
Lexis: Legal Resource Index (LGLIND)
• Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (IFLP) (1985 - )
http://lib.law.washington.edu/research/dbind.html
500 legal journals published worldwide
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• Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (IFLP) cont.
– Basic Search
– Advanced Search
• “Subject words”
– Legal Research AND country name
– Legal System? AND country name
• Keywords
– Legal AND country name
Don’t forget to look at all the subject headings assigned to a particular article.
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Periodical Indexes for Other Disciplines that Are
Law-Related:
• EconLit – journals on economics
• PAIS International – journals on international relations,
political science, and social sciences
Many more discipline-specific indexes at
www.lib.washington.edu/types/databases/
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Full Text Databases
• Hein Online
http://lib.law.washington.edu/research/dbind.html
– PDF
– Begins with vol. 1
– Do “Full Text Word and Phrase Search”
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Enter the country and keywords describing your topic
Choose “all words” radio button
Consider limiting by date of publication
Sort by date
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• Westlaw
JLR – full text (coverage begins from mid-1990s for
many journals)
• Lexis
ALLREV – full text (coverage can begin as early as mid
1980s depending on the journal)
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Country-specific Databases
• Westlaw
Directory > International/World Materials > Databases Listed
Alphabetically by Country or Region
• Lexis
Legal > Legal (excluding U.S.) > Country
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UW Libraries’ Full Text Databases:
• JSTOR – full text of many scholarly journals
• Social Science Research Network (SSRN) – journal
abstracts and full text of working papers for law & social
sciences
• Project Muse – 100+ scholarly full text journals in the
humanities and social sciences
More full text databases at
www.lib.washington.edu/types/databases/
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Connecting from Off-Campus
You can connect to online databases licensed by the
Gallagher Law Library or the UW Libraries using
your UW NetID.
See www.lib.washington.edu/help/connect.html
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Conclusion
Questions?
Reference Office:
– Stop by in person
– Send email to lawrefst@u.washington.edu
– 543-6794
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