International Legal ResearchPublically 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/cgi-bin/wa?A0=Int-Law

Any questions?