International Legal Research
Publically available international legal resources
Allie Lustigman
What we’ll be covering:
•
Publically available sources for finding cases and legislation
–
The resources and how to search them
•
Subject case searching
–
Which sources, how to search, boolean operators
•
Collections of international legal research resources and guides
•
Human Rights publically available resources
•
Further methods
•
Questions
Publically available sources for
finding cases and legislation
Publically available sources for finding cases
and legislation
• World Legal Information Institute (Wordlii)
http://www.worldlii.org/
– Combines resources from 120 jurisdictions.
– Covers cases, legislation and articles
– Utilise the search functions to increase chances of finding
relevant cases
Publically available sources for finding cases
and legislation
• Lawcite
http://www.worldlii.org/LawCite/
– Part of Worldlii
– Over 4 million cases, law reform documents and articles
– Not completely comprehensive but has some excellent
research functions
Publically available sources for finding cases
and legislation
• Lexadin
http://www.lexadin.nl/wlg/
– Main legislation for specific countries
• Europa
http://europa.eu/index_en.htm
– European legislation and treaties
Subject case searching
Subject case searching
• Worldlii http://www.worldlii.org/
– Use the Help link to see a list of Boolean operators and the
best ways to search
– Always go into Advanced Search
– Try to narrow down your search as far as possible, by
database and keywords
Subject case searching
• Lawcite http://www.worldlii.org/LawCite/
– Use the articles search, no keyword search for cases
– Key cases will be cited in articles
Subject case searching
• Lexology http://www.lexology.com/default.aspx?
– Free resource of briefings and articles from lawyers globally
– Similar to Lawcite - search for articles on a subject and you
should then find some relevant cases.
• Google Scholar http://scholar.google.co.uk/
– Search journal articles on your topic area and find
references to relevant and key cases
– Easy Google search functionality
Collections of international legal
research resources
Collections of international legal research
resources
• Jurist http://www.jurist.law.pitt.edu/world/index.htm
– Individual country links with information on their constitutions,
Human Rights information, Parliamentary information, and new or
key legislation for that country
• Cornell University http://www.law.cornell.edu/world/
– Split up by jurisdiction and country
– Links to Constitution, key political figures, key legislation and other
legal research resources
• Law Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/law/help/guide/nations.php
– A host of linked information and resources collated together
– Legal guides, country profiles, articles and reports, judicial
information
Collections of international legal research
resources
SPECIAL MENTION:
• Access to Law http://www.accesstolaw.com/index.php
– Excellent site collating all publically available sources for
international legal research, cases and legislation
– Provides a summary of each source
– Split up into sections by country, jurisdiction, and subject
area
Human Rights publically
available sources
Human Rights publically available resources
• US Department of State Human Rights Reports
http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/
– In depth reports for a range of countries on their Human
Rights laws and status
• Globalex http://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/
– Provides online guides to international, foreign and
comparative law research.
Further methods of research
Further methods of research
Further methods of research
• Libraries
– Books on international legal subjects including Media law for
example
– Law reports and journals
– Examples – Insitute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS) and
School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS)
Further methods of research
• Westlaw and Lexis pro bono offerings
– Westlaw International is ‘free’ if you subscribe to their other
offerings
– Lexis founded the International Law Book Facility which
provides legal texts to pro bono organisations around the
world www.ilbf.org.uk
– Happy to allow you to use Lexis Resources for pro bono
work such as for MLDI
– Reduced subscription rates for charities
Further methods of research
• Mailing lists
• Lislaw
– Email list mainly for law librarians.
– Often used to provide obscure cases and articles or
information on where to find them
– Sign up via the JISCMail site http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/
• Int law
– Email list for international law librarians
– Lots of international legal research enquiries
– Sign up here http://listserver.ciesin.columbia.edu/cgibin/wa?A0=Int-Law
Any questions?