International Court Decisions:
Electronic Access
Faye Jones
Spring 2006
Challenges in International Legal Research
• Formal names and informal names
• International Court of Justice (ICJ) aka “World
Court”
• Differing styles of publication patterns
• Ex., Charters, Gazettes, advisory opinions
• Terminology and citation forms that may be
unfamiliar to many U.S. researchers
• Variety of sources: Primary sources, secondary
sources, digests, bibliographies, Lexis, WL &
the Internet
Beginning International Law Research
• Develop vocabulary
• Nutshell, hornbook, law review article, pathfinder, web site
• Best tutorials: Duke Law School and EISIL PPT and introduction
• Find a guide to unfamiliar citation forms and
abbreviations
• Bieber’s Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations, KF246 B46 2001
(Copies at the Reference Desk and available for check out)
• Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations
• With a full citation, an Internet search may be helpful
• Ex., 36 ILR 277
• If you have the exact title, check Aleph, the library’s catalog
• Find a research guide
• Search the Internet, Lexis or WL
Beginning Research: Find a Guide
• UN Documentation: Research Guide
• International Law Pathfinder
• HLS Research Guides
• International Courts and Tribunals
•
•
•
•
Hastings ICJ Research Guide
IALS Public International Law Research Guide (UK)
FSU Research Guides
Powerpoint presentations online via Google
advance search
• Marci Hoffman, Researching Foreign Law, Advanced Legal
Research, 11/10/2005, UC Berkeley
International Courts: Background
• Pre-WWII - small number of international
courts and tribunals (ICTs)
• Post-WWII – proliferation of ICTs
•
•
•
•
•
Criminal courts
Human rights
International trade
Labor
Regional
Impact of the Internet
• Most ICTs have put decisions online
• Official websites by agency, court or tribunal
• Fragmentation remains a challenge
• WorldLII – free-access, nonprofit, independent legal research
resource
• WorldLII International Courts & Tribunals Project, 6th
Conf. on Law via the Internet, Paris, November 3-5,
2004
• 30+ websites, no consolidation
• 30% no search engine
• 30% not searchable via Google
• 25% not in html format, offer few navigation aids
ICT Project: A response to fragmentation
• Project goals: searchability, consistency &
decentralization wherever practical
• All final decisions of ICTs searchable together
• Not including interim decisions
• Consistent formatting of decisions
• E.g., ‘Context’ links to search terms
• Consistency in citation form
• Ex., McElhinney v. Ireland [2001] ECHR 754
• Regional decisions on regional sites
• Ex., ECJ is on BAILII
• French language decisions on Droit Francophone
ICT Project Content
• As of November 2004:
• 20 ICTs nearly completed
• French & Spanish still being added
• Over 20,000 full-text decisions
• Other content to be added:
• Permanent Court of International Justice
• Other international criminal courts
• Database of Court statutes, rules, etc.
• Future:
• ICT cooperation
• Australian Research Council funding for back runs of decisions
• Possible collaboration with PiCT (Project on International
Courts & Tribunals)
• Keep checking WorldLII for new content
WorldLII Searchability
• Searches
•
•
•
•
Default is to search all decisions
Popular combinations of databases allowed
Individual courts or combinations allowed
Searches can be repeated over larger
collections
• Navigation
• Go directly to a case using ‘v’
• Update (note-up) using ‘near’
Other Sites
• ECHR on HUDOC
• Searching
• by article number and section
• by outcome of the case
• Ex., search Conclusion section to see if there was a violation
or if damages were awarded
• EISIL
• Electronic Information System for International Law
• Created by ASIL, American Society of International
Law
Lexis
• International Law Topical Practice Area
• International News & Business (a very short sample)
• News & Business > Country & Region (excluding U.S.)
• Use checkboxes to select sources for searching across
categories, pages, and tabs. Show Me...
Country Reports
(Walden) Americas (excluding U.S.)
Country
Briefings Asia Pacific
World News,Bus Anal. & Country
Info,and Selected Legal Texts and
Codes Europe
Worldwide Market Share European
Union Middle East & Africa Afghanistan Albania
• See online in Lexis for much more
Westlaw
• International Practice Topical Law
• International/Worldwide Materials
• Multi-National Materials
Asia and the Pacific Rim
Central America and the Caribbean
European Union
Europe and the United Kingdom
Middle East and North Africa
North America
South America
Sub-Saharan Africa
Databases Listed Alphabetically by Country or
Region
Finding a Job in International Law
• Careers in International Law: a guide to career paths and
internships in international law, American Society of International
Law, (aka ASIL careers guide), Career Planning/Ref K115 I58
2003
• International Public Interest Law: a guide to opportunities in the
U.S. and abroad, (Joint Harvard/Yale project), 4th ed., Career
Planning/Ref KF118 P82 P83 2002
• LLM Guide Worldwide
• FSU resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
Terry Coonan, Center for the Advancement of Human Rights
Mark Ellis, International Bar Association
Professor D’Alemberte
Margaret Clark, Reference Librarian, 644-9244, mclark@law.fsu.edu
Oxford Program, Shirley Oglesby, 644-4578, soglesby@law.fsu.edu
Reference Desk, 644-4095