Research Guides: Free and Low Cost Resources for Legal Research: Foreign and International Law

Treaties

Treaty Affairs
Dept. of State website, includes Treaties in Force and frequently updated list of treaties pending in the Senate.
Council of Europe Treaty Office
Official treaty website, includes explanatory reports as well as texts.
United Nations Treaty Collection
Collection of treaties and international agreements registered or filed and recorded with and published by the Secretariat since 1946.
Treaty Reference Guide
Overview of key terms used in the UN Treaty Collection to refer to international instruments: treaties, agreements, conventions, charters, protocols, declarations, memoranda of understanding, modus vivendi and exchange of notes.

Flare Index to Treaties This link opens in a new window
Treaties searchable by keyword, title, year, and place.

Frequently-Cited Treaties and Other International Instruments
Includes list of treaties frequently cited in law review articles, along with available sources of hard copy. Entries are linked to the EISIL database of the American Society of International Law.
GATT Digital Library
This site provides access to documents and information of and about the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), an organization that promoted international commerce and the reduction of trade barriers among member states from 1947-1994.
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Joint project of Stanford and the WTO.
Multilaterals Project
Archived site, not updated since 2008. Includes texts of international multilateral conventions and other instruments.

Constitutions

Constitute
Browse and compare constitutions of various countries by country or by topic. Constitute was developed by the Comparative Constitutions Project in collaboration with Google.

General Guides

Avalon Project (Yale Law School)
Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy. Created by Yale.
Basic Guide to Researching Foreign Law
GlobaLex guide, describes basic strategies for finding the laws of countries other than the U.S, primarily in English. The emphasis is on codes and laws rather than cases. The guide will also help you find secondary materials that describe other countries' laws. It includes links to websites and to other guides.
CIA - The World Factbook
information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 266 world entities. Our Reference tab includes: maps of the major world regions, as well as Flags of the World, a Physical Map of the World, a Political Map of the World, and a Standard Time Zones of the World map.
Country Studies and Area Handbooks
Published by the Library of Congress Federal Research Division under the supervision of the Dept. of the Army.
Eagle-i Internet Portal for Law Project
From the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. Eagle-i is designed to help legal researchers find relevant information on the Internet - providing insight into authoritative web resources and the most reliable sites and materials, through site profiles, content assessments and well-maintained dynamic links. Coverage includes: UK, European, Foreign, Comparative and International law.
GlobaLex
GlobaLex provides guides to international and foreign law research written by scholars well known in their respective fields. From the Hauser Global Law School Program at NYU School of Law.
Government Gazettes Online
Published by almost every government worldwide, these are useful to monitor the governmental actions and as primary source documentation in research.
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A project of University of Michigan. Government gazettes are the means through which the government can communicate to officials and the general public. Although most countries publish a gazette, their regularity and content varies widely, which is noted in the description of each gazette.
Human Rights Library
Treaties, UN documents, regional material, U.S. documents, and links to other human rights resources. Project of the University of Minnesota.
Legal Information Institute (LLI) - Global
Part of Cornell's Legal Information Institute. Gathers primary materials by country.
Nations of the World
Part of the Law Library of Congress Guide to Law Online. Includes selected links to useful and reliable sites for legal information on many countries.
United Nations: International Law
International law site includes links to international courts and tribunals
UN Resources from the Dag Hammerskjold Library
Lists UN resources by alphabetical order, by organization, and by topic. Includes statistics and terminology databases.
Foreign Law Translations (Univ. Texas Austin)
Translations of decisions and statutes from Austria, France, Germany, and Israel.

Case Law, Legislation, and Court Websites

Australasian Legal Information Institute
AustLII includes case law as well as over 280 databases from Australasian jurisdictions.
British and Irish Legal Information Institute
BaiLII includes British and Irish case law & legislation, European Union case law, Law Commission reports, and other law-related British and Irish material.
Eur-Lex
Free access to European Union law, including the Official Journal, treaties, legislation, case law, and legislative proposals.
European Court of Human Rights
Includes judgments and decisions, pending cases, and press releases. Documents are in pdf format.
Institute for Transnational Law
Resource for French, German, Italian, Austrian and Israeli legal materials in the fields of constitutional, administrative, contract and tort law translated into English.
International Court of Justice
Includes basic documents, court rules, decisions, and docket. Provides information about the court and permanent court of justice. Also includes press room and other publications.
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The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN). It was established in June 1945 by the Charter of the United Nations and began work in April 1946. The seat of the Court is at the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands). Of the six principal organs of the United Nations, it is the only one not located in New York (United States of America).
International Criminal Court
Includes legal texts, case law, and information about the court.

United Kingdom Statute Law Database This link opens in a new window
Official revised edition of the primary legislation of the United Kingdom made available online

World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII)

Citation Guides

Guide to Foreign and International Legal Citations by New York University School of Law Staff
Call Number: K89 .G85 2009
ISBN: 0735579792
Publication Date: 2009-03-18
Country citation guides; Citation guides for international organizations and related tribunals; Citation guides for international and regional tribunals.