Flexing Your International Legal Research Muscle!

Flexing Your International Legal Research Muscle! By Lyonette “Lyo” Louis-Jacques University of Chicago Law Library (for the Chicago Journal of International Law, Sept. 4, 2001)

Presenting… The Best of the Web for Foreign and International Legal Research

Best of the Web, Part I: General F/IL Pages Our U of C Law Library web page ASIL’s ERG Harvard, NYU HarvardNYU LLRX.com Cornell’s LII

Best of the Web, Part II: Specialized Resources Yale’s Avalon ProjectAvalon Project IGO websites (UN, etc.) NGOs/Assocs. Gov’t Agencies Research Centers/Think Tanks

The Avalon Project’s Major Collections

United Nations Documentation Centre

AccessUN

EUR-Lex: European Union Law

EU Cases via WESTLAW (see also EHHR)

EU Legislation: Directives, Regulations, Decisions, Treaties

Standard Weights (E-Tools) Internet search engines (such as Google) Online catalogues (WorldCat is great!) Full-text journal article databases and indexes (WESTLAW’s TP-ALL, LEXIS, JSTOR, ProQuest; LegalTrac, IFLP, PAIS, PSA, etc.) News sources (LEXIS, WESTLAW, etc.) Gateways/Portals/Meta-Pages (FindLaw, SOSIG, BUBL, Yahoo!, Hieros Gamos, JURIST) Directories, listservs, & other “people” sources

Congressional Masterfile (via Congressional Universe)

Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS)

CSA’s Worldwide Political Science Abstracts

Treaties United Nations’ Treaty Collection United Nations’ Treaty Collection AustLII/DFAT’s Treaties Library Treaties Library U.S. Treaties via LX/WL Yale’s Avalon ProjectAvalon Project Fletcher’s Multilaterals Project Multilaterals Project Gov’t Agencies, IGOs, NGOs, etc.

United Nations Treaty Collection (has weekly treaty status updates via Multilateral Treaties Deposited)

Australian Treaties Library (Multilaterals from 1856)

LexisNexis

International Legal Materials (I.L.M.) via LexisNexis

Finding the Citation to the “New York Convention” via TP-ALL

Treaties (Cont’d) U.S. Marci Hoffman’s Guide Marci Hoffman’s Guide Other Stefanie Weigman’s Guide Stefanie Weigman’s Guide

Finding Foreign Law Online Generally, and in Translation NYU Foreign Primary Law on the Web GLIN Finding Foreign Law Online When Going Global Finding Foreign Law Online When Going Global Harvard

Finding Foreign Law/in Translation (Cont’d) Check research guides Check OPACs Check indexes Contact embassies Use listservs *Reynolds & Flores

Personal Trainers (“People” Contacts for Research Help) Gov’t agencies, Organizations, etc. Professors Your Friendly U of C Librarians! Lawyers

But sometimes you have to sweat it out with hardcopy… Check for call numbers in the online catalog Walk to the Reserve Reading Room, the Reference Area, and most of the time, the 6 th Floor Pull out the books and check them out for answers And you’ll become very familiar with…

Standard Weights (Books) Reynolds & Flores World Almanac CIA World Factbook Treaty indexes (TIF)TIF Martindale-Hubbell’s Int’l Law Digest World Treaty Index Encyclopedia of Public International Law International Legal Materials (ILM)

U.S. Treaties in Force (as of January 1, 2000)

International Legal Materials (I.L.M.)

FIN

We’re done! See y’all at the Ref desk!