Making the Connection in the
Caribbean…to the Rest of the World
Lyonette Louis-Jacques
University of Chicago Law Library
llou@midway.uchicago.edu
ACURIL, San Juan, Puerto Rico,
June 4, 2003
How to Make the Connection
Websites
Reference Tools
Databases
People Sources
Criteria for Deciding What to
Connect to (or Whom!)

Trustworthy?
 Well-organized?
 Useful content? Has or
knows stuff you need?
 Convenient?
 Known/familiar?
 Updated regularly?
 Annotated? Evaluated?
 Aesthetically pleasing?
Websites: Start with Your
Own or Make Your Own

You know where
things are in it
 You know what’s in it
(who’s on your team)
 You know what its
strengths are or what
the game plan is
 You can trust it
Lyo’s Personal Page for International Legal Research
Bill Schwesig’s D’Angelo Law Library International Page
University of the West Indies Law Library
UWI’s CariLaw (Caribbean Law Project)
UWI’s QUICKLAW Subscription
UWI’s Legal Resources Links Page
Connect to the Best Information:
Go Straight to the Source
Remember that Agencies Are on Your Team
(Domestic, Foreign, and International)

UK & U.S.
 United Nations
 Other Inter-Governmental
Organizations (IGOs)
 Regional Organizations
 Non-Governmental
Organizations (NGOs)
 Foreign Governments
Connect to Your Local Team
(Local Government Agencies)
And Don’t Forget Your Foreign
Team!
Precisa (Mexican government on the Net)
Legifrance (French laws)
HMSO (UK Legislation Page)
THOMAS (Access to U.S. bills and laws)
LC’s Global Legal Information Network (GLIN)
http://www.loc.gov/law/glin/
U.S. Dep’t of State: Country Reports, Trade,
Commerce, and International Law
Canada’s DFAIT/AECI
Connect to IGO Websites:
They’ve Got Everything;
They’re the Best!
United Nations Treaty Collection
Really Current Status of Multilateral Treaties!
United Nations Documentation Centre
OAS’ Legal Information Search Page
OAS’ Foreign Trade Information System (SICE)
World Bank’s Law and Justice Page
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
EUR-Lex: European Union Law Webpage
The Universe of Legal Information Is in
the Caribbean Right At Your Fingertips!
(Miss Universe participants at Trinidad and Tobago)
If You’re Not Sure Where to
Begin…
Check to see what’s in
your own library first
 Think globally, act
locally…first

Presenting…
 Major Websites
for Foreign and
International
Legal Research
Cornell’s Legal Information
Institute: International Law in a
Nutshell
Law about…(by topic/subject)
 Foreign Relations Law of the U.S.
 International Law
 International Trade
 Law by source or jurisdiction
 Recommended readings!

Cornell’s Legal Information Institute (LII)
LLRX.com (UK law guides and more)
LLRX.com’s Foreign Law Research Guides
LawLinks: Legal Information on the Internet
BAILII (British and Irish Legal Information Institute)
Inner Temple Library’s AccessToLaw Page
eagle-i (e-access to global legal information)
Treaties

U.S.
 Marci Hoffman’s
Guide

Other
 Stefanie Weigman’s
Guide
ASIL’s E-Resource Guide for International Legal
Researchers (and “Joe Public”)





Direct links to treaty
texts
Human Rights
International
Economic Law
Treaties
International
Commercial
Arbitration, and more!
ASIL’ Guide to IL Research on the Net
NYU: Focus on Foreign Law
Databases, and More!





Annotated links to
databases of primary
law
Evaluated, selected by
Foreign Law Librarian
Updated frequently
On target contents
Codes, legislation,
treaties, constitutions
New York University’s FCIL Research Page
Harvard’s Research Guides
National Laws By Subject (Harvard)
Australian Treaties Library (Multilaterals from 1856)
The Avalon Project’s Major Collections
Online Databases

LexisNexis
Especially for
Martindale-Hubbell
International Law
Digest, MatthewBender treatises,
foreign law
 CariLaw
 QUICKLAW

WESTLAW
Especially for
international tribunal
decisions, UK law
journals, Sweet &
Maxwell publications,
& int’l law journals
Online Public Access Catalogs
(OPACs)

Union catalogs
 Find foreign law
 Find treaties
 Verify information
 Tables of contents
 Browse call #s
 Links to e-articles
Standard Tools (Books)





Reynolds & Flores
PIL Nutshell
CIA World Factbook
Treaty indexes (TIF)
Martindale-Hubbell’s
Law Digest

The Bluebook
 Encyclopedia of
Public International
Law
 International Legal
Materials (ILM)
Reynolds & Flores
Standard Tools (Cont’d)






Restatement of the Law, The Foreign Relations of
the United States
Parry and Grant Encyclopaedic Dictionary of
International Law
International Law: Selected Documents
Yearbook of the United Nations
Matthew-Bender and Sweet & Maxwell
Legal research guides
How to Stay Connected





Read the basic international legal research guides
Read international news sources (see Harvard’s
page and the ASIL ERG (so you’re prepared for
requests for hot documents in the news)
Monitor listservs such as INT-LAW and EUROLEX (where you can also ask for help)
Attend conferences (see the IJLI “International
Calendar” for dates) and get to know the foreign
and international law specialists. Network!
Bookmark & try new links right away!
People Sources (Specialists in
FCIL Research)
Foreign Law Librarians
Documentalists/
IGO Librarians
Lawyers
Professors
Libraries with Strong FCIL
Collections in the Caribbean and
Beyond

University of the West Indies (UWI)
Faculty of Law Library (Barbados)
 University of Puerto Rico Law Library
 U.S. libraries (Chicago, Columbia, Harvard,
Berkeley, Tarlton (University of Texas at
Austin), Los Angeles County Law Library,
etc.)
 UK libraries (IALS, e.g.)
International Labor Organization:
Caribbean Information Services
Caribbean Association of Law Libraries (CARALL)
The Archives of the INT-LAW E-Mail List
How to Subscribe to INT-LAW
Send an e-mail message to:
majordomo@listhost.ciesin.org
With only the following text in the body:
subscribe int-law
LIS-LAW (UK Law Librarians List)
How to subscribe to LIS-LAW
Subscribe to LIS-LAW via:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/lis-law.html
Or send e-mail to jiscmail@jiscmail.ac.uk
with only the following text in the body:
subscribe lis-law Your Name
International Calendar for Legal Information Events
SEAALL (Southeastern Chapter, American Association of Law Libraries)
Checklist of Connections to Make









Check websites…
Check databases…
Check standard tools..
Research guides
OPACs
Indexes
Check people sources…
IGOs, NGOs, embassies
Listservs
Work
It!
Question #1: Does the North
American Commission for
Environmental Cooperation
have a Web page?

Yes, at http://www.cec.org/ (there is a link
to it from the NAFTA Secretariat page)
 Also NYU has a link from its International
Environment Law page; ditto with the
ASIL ERG for International Environmental
Law
Question #2: What does
“RIDC” stand for?

Revue internationale de droit comparé!
(using Sarah Carter’s wonderful
“LawLinks” page of abbreviations)
 Alternative sources include searching in a
full text journal articles database, searching
in an online catalogue, or an Internet search
engine such as Google
Question #3: Where can I find
the text of the 1958 New York
Convention?
It’s old, but it’s on the Net! The ASIL ERG
has a link to it. The Convention on the
Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign
Arbitral Awards is also at the AustLII
Treaties Library (ATS 1975 No. 25)
 It also available via other official and
unofficial sources such as UNCITRALand
InternationalADR

Question #4: Where can I find
English and Spanish
translations of French legal
codes?
From the French government’s Legifrance
web at
http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/html/codes_tr
aduits/liste.htm
 See also Reynolds & Flores’ Foreign Law.

Question #5: Where can you
find an English translation of
the French Vienot Report on
Corporate Governance?

My current favorite Internet search engine,
Google, is great for this type of question – a
document with a popular name on a hot topic.
 The European Corporate Governance Network
has a link to Vienot I and Vienot II in English
from the Mouvement des Entreprises de France
(MEDEF)
Google Search Results for: “Vienot Report” English
See What a Little “Eksperyans” Can Do?
How to Stay
Connected…Continued

Attend workshops, seminars, and training
courses (both substantive and bibliographic)
 Attend specialized database sessions
 Maintain a personal or institutional web
page
 READ, READ, READ research guides and
substantive international law articles
 Do you feel the burn?
You know you’re ready to
move up to the next level
when...

You take less time to find the right anwers
 Someone asks a question on a listserv and
you know you can answer that
 You no longer feel the burn…
Touchdown! You’re Connected to the World!
FIN
We’re
done!
See y’all
on
the Net!