Introduction to International and Foreign Legal Research

While the process of legal research in any jurisdiction follows the same basic steps, US legal sources differ from foreign legal sources. There are also numerous helpful resources specifically for researching international law, including treaties, decisions of international and regional tribunals, as well as materials from the United Nations and European Union.

Regardless of the jurisdiction, it is best to start any legal research project with secondary sources. Secondary legal sources include treatises, loose-leaf services and law review articles. There are many international and foreign secondary sources.

This guide is a quick overview of some of the resources you may need to consult. In the course of your research, if you have any questions or would like to discuss researching a particular topic, please contact the reference librarians.

Researching International Law

Public international law differs from private international law. Private international law governs relationships between individuals; whereas public international law deals with the interactions between states or other international bodies. The sources of international law are international agreements, customary law, judicial decisions and academic writings.

If the materials you require are not available at any of the Boston University libraries, you can request many materials through interlibrary loan. Consult a reference librarian for more information.



Reference Resources

There are numerous resources at the Pappas Law Library to assist you with international legal research.

For an overview of international legal research or information about a specific topic within international law, take a look at:

  • Guide to International Legal Research (Law Ref Desk KZ 1234 . G85 2004)
  • Germain's Transnational Legal Research: A Guide for Attorneys (Law Ref Desk K 85 G47 1991)
  • Accidental Tourist on the New Frontier: An Introductory Guide to Global Legal Research (Law Ref Desk K85 .A23 1998)
  • Encyclopedia of Public International Law (Law Annex Ref JX 1226 E5 1992)
  • Public International Law in a Nutshell (Law Reserve and Law Annex JX 3091 .B84 2002)

To decipher international, as well as foreign legal abbreviations, try:

  • Bieber's Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations (Law Ref Desk, Law Annex, Law Reserve and Dictionary K 89 B53 2001) (easy to use in print, but also available through Lexis)
  • Noble's Revised International Guide to Law Reports (LawRef Desk K 38 N63 2002)
  • The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (Law Ref Desk and Dictionary KF 245 B55 2005)
  • Raistrick's Index to Legal Citations and Abbreviations (Law Ref Desk K 85 R3 1993)
  • Guide to Foreign and International Legal Citations (Law Ref Desk K 89 .G85 2006)
  • Georgetown Law School's research guide on deciphering international law Abbreviations and Acronyms which includes some of the suggestions above as well as other helpful sources.
  • Please note, the ALWD Citation Manual does not address international and foreign legal citations

For citing international and foreign materials, refer to: The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, 18th edition (Law Ref Desk, Dictionary, Law Reserve and Law Annex Ref KF 245 B55 2005):

  • Rule 21: International Materials (p.168)
  • Rule 20: Foreign Materials (p. 164)
  • T.2 Foreign Jurisdictions (p. 243)
  • T.3 Intergovernmental Organizations (p. 332)
  • T.4 Treaty Sources (p. 334)
  • T.5 Arbitral Reporters (p. 335)

International Primary Sources

Treaties

Many of the primary documents you will encounter in the area of public international law will be international agreements. International agreements, including treaties, can be bilateral, between two countries, or multilateral, among several countries. In general, it is not difficult to find bilateral or multilateral treaties to which the United States is a party or other multilateral treaties. However, finding bilateral treaties to which the United States is not a party may be more challenging.

For treaties on a particular topic (i.e. environment, intellectual property, law of the sea, etc.), consult Treaty Resources by Topic and search the online catalog to locate loose-leaf services and books on the topic. Often, the text of important international agreements are collected in these publications. Many international organizations include the text of treaties relevant to their particular interest on their web sites.

Once a treaty is in force, internationally, it is binding on the parties. Within the US, treaties to which the US is a party are equal in status to federal legislation, i.e., becoming part of the "supreme Law of the Land." Note that there are a few differences between a treaty and an executive agreement.

To look up any unfamiliar treaty jargon, try the treaty terminology reference guide from the United Nations. You can also consult helpful treaty research guides on the web:

If you have the name of a particular treaty and it is a major treaty, it may be separately bound and held in the library. Search the web catalog.

Selective List of Helpful Electronic Resources to find treaties to which the US is a party, accessible through BU:

Customary International Law

For customary international law, derived from the practices of countries, look in secondary sources like treatises and other books.

 

International and Regional Tribunals

Some of the international entities which issue judgments or decisions include:

Regional and other organizations' courts and tribunals, including:

The United Nations

Learn more about the structure and work of the United Nations, its main bodies, see a diagram of the UN, its publications and databases, visit the News Centre and more at the information-packed UN web site.

Search the BU online catalog for books about the United Nations and its various bodies, such as:

Finding United Nations Documents

  • UN documents fiche collection (Law Micro) 1946-1950 and from 1976- present. Also, Trade (UNCTAD) documents 1976-present and Human Rights documents 1986-present. Mugar has the complete core UN microfiche collection (Mugar Micro Fiche).
  • AccessUN: This Internet database, secured by IP address, is accessible at all BU computers. It is also accessible off-campus to all BU faculty and students through the proxy server.
    • Search AccessUN to find UN document numbers for use with the fiche set (see above) or find select full-text documents. (Does not include full-text of treaties, but provides citations to the United Nations Treaty Series, or UNTS.)
    • Covers documents issued 1946 through present.
    • Harvard Law School's ILS Department has prepared a guide to using Access UN with valuable information regarding using search terms, connectors and the most helpful fields by which you can search.
  • UNDOC: Current index: United Nations Documents Index. (1979-1996) (Law Micro JX1977.A1 U45)
  • UNDEX. United Nations documents index. (Mugar Reference X JX1977 .A2 ) Series A, B, C (1974-1979)
  • United Nations documents index: cumulated index, (1950-1962) (Law Annex Ref JX1977.A1 U42 1974)
  • United Nations Documentation Centre includes documents for the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, as well as selected documents from the Secretariat.
  • Use a search engine such as Google, and search by UN document number.

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United Nations Document Research Guides

The European Union

The Europa web site and the Pappas Law Library European Union Guide are helpful resources for learning about the EU. Also, the European Commission Delegation in Washington provides a helpful A-Z Index to European Union web sites. The EISIL (Electronic Information System for International Law) web site also provides helpful information regarding the European Union, with persistent links to its primary documents, brief explanations regarding these documents, and to helpful European Union-related web sites.

Other EU research guides which can be of assistance include:

Locating International Secondary Sources

  • Books: Use the BU online catalog to search for books and loose-leaf services related to international law.
  • Periodicals: To find the location of periodicals, including law reviews and newspapers, search the BU online catalog for the title of the journal or newspaper, i.e. Harvard Law Review, New York Times, etc.

You can verify or locate citations to legal periodical articles by searching:

  • Legaltrac: An index of law review articles from 1980 to present. Also on Westlaw (LRI) and LexisNexis (LGLND). This database indexes English-language articles from countries such as the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland. It consists of mainly abstracts but does contain some full-text articles.
  • Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals: This database, secured by IP address, is available from any computer on the BU campus. The IFLP indexes articles about international and comparative law of countries other than United States, British Isles, and British Commonwealth.
  • Hein Online (BULaw only) provides access to many older, as well as current, law journal volumes in full-text which are NOT available on LexisNexis and Westlaw. Articles are in Adobe's .pdf format.
  • Legal Journals Index (LJI): This index is only available on Westlaw. Coverage is from 1986 to present. This index provides "references to or abstracts of articles from more than 430 legal journals published in the United Kingdom and other European countries or covering topics pertaining to the laws of the European Union and its member states" per its scope note.
  • Full text law review databases on Westlaw and LexisNexis. However, please be aware, the date coverage of law review articles varies greatly. (Always check the source information or scope screen corresponding to the particular database.) Some helpful databases include:
  • Tip: search the full-text of law review articles on LexisNexis and Westlaw to locate or verify a citation or quote.

Locating news articles:

  • Search newspapers which the BU libraries hold using the online catalog, searching for the title of the newspaper (i.e. The New York Times)
  • You can locate newspaper articles on Westlaw and LexisNexis.
  • The BU libraries subscribe to World News Connect, a very current source for news from across the globe.

"Alphabet soup": IGOs (international or intergovernmental organizations) and NGOs (private organizations)

Researching the Law of a Foreign Jurisdiction

Some additional helpful web sites for international and foreign research include:

Helpful print resources for foreign legal research include:

  • Foreign Law: Current Sources of Codes and Basic Legislation in Jurisdictions of the World, Law Ref Desk K38 .R49 1989 (commonly referred to as "Reynolds and Flores"). (This is the print equivalent to the Foreign Law Guide, which is accessible by BULaw-affiliated individuals, by IP access).
  • Germain's Transnational Legal Research: A Guide for Attorneys (Law Ref Desk K 85 G47 1991) (Chapter V)
  • Martindale Hubbell International Law Digest, KF 190 .M375 2004
  • Guide to International Legal Research, Ref Desk KZ 1234 .G85 2005 (see chapter 5, Research by Geographic-Geopolitical Region)
  • Constitutions of the Countries of the World, Law Annex K 3157 B53

If you are conducting foreign legal research, you may also want to review the web guide on Comparative Law, by Paul Norman, available at NYU's Globalex site.

Last updated: May 2007