International Law Journal Tech Check Training

This guide is a quick overview of some of the most frequently used resources for different research areas. If you have any questions, would like to discuss a particular note topic, or encounter a particularly puzzling citation, please contact Stefanie Weigmann sweig@bu.edu.

Be sure to consult the the Tech Check Research Guide for tips, including information about using the Bluebook.

The areas covered here include:


Basic Resources

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

  • The Guide to International Legal Research (Law Ref Desk KZ 1234 .G85 2005)
  • Germain's Transnational LegalResearch: 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)

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)
  • Noble's Revised International Guide to Law Reports (Law Ref Desk K 38 N63 1998)
  • The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (Law Ref Desk, Dictionary, Law Reserve and Law Annex Ref KF 245 B55 2005) (18th edition)
  • Index to Legal Citations and Abbreviations (Law Ref Desk K 83 R3 1993)

For citing international and foreign materials, refer to:

  • The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (Law Ref Desk, Dictionary, Law Reserve and Law Annex Ref KF 245 B55 2005) (18th edition):
    • Rule 21: International Materials
    • Rule 20: Foreign Materials
    • T.2 Foreign Jurisdictions
    • T.3 Intergovernmental Organizations
    • T.4 Treaty Sources
    • T.5 Arbitral Reports

As you are probably aware the Bluebook is less than complete for foreign and international sources. The NYU Journal of International Law and Politics has just published their Guide to Foreign and International Legal Citation which could be used to supplement the Bluebook.

Treaties

There is a Treaty Research guide for a detailed explanation of research in this area. What follows is a brief overview of the main resources.

The Bluebook covers treaty citation format in Rule 21.4 (pg. 170) and in Table 4 (T.4, begins on page 334).

For treaties on a particular topic (i.e. environment, intellectual property, law of the sea, etc.) click here, or you can 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. However, you will probably need the official version for citation purposes.

To look up any unfamiliar treaty jargon, try the treaty terminology reference guide from the United Nations.

The most complete full-text databases BU has access to are:

Treaties and Other Agreements Online - is another unofficial source of full-text treaty documents. This database only has one simultaneous user.

United Nations Treaty Collection - Also available in the Annex (Law Annex JX1977.A1 U5). This database is currently in flux - it has not been updated since Nov. 2007 - and we are waiting for a new version to be rolled out. You can access it with the following ID: treaties and password: 12345.

Useful indexes include:

Other Sources of International Law

There are three other sources of international law aside from agreements as specified in the Statute of the ICJ: international custom, general principles of law and judicial decisions/academic writings.

Customary International Law

Customary international law is derived from the practices of states. It is extremely difficult to determine so it is best to look in secondary sources like treatises and articles.

International and Regional Tribunals

Jurisprudence is a constantly changing area as dispute settlement bodies created by treaties are added. It also includes domestic judicial decisions on international topics.

The Bluebook covers treaty citation format in Rule 21.5 (pg. 174-179).

To find information about where to find the judgments of the major international tribunals and courts click here.


The United Nations

The United Nations is an extremely complex organization with many documents so it deserves seperate consideration. You can link to the UN system to find the web sites of various UN bodies for news, information and documents. Or learn more about the structure and work of the United Nations.

The Bluebook, Rule 21.7, deals with how to cite various types of United Nations materials.

For a list of the major publications in this area see the Bibliography for Researching IGOs.

Finding United Nations Documents

There are many ways to search for UN documents, so first you should assess the document you are looking for. Is it old or new? Is it from a large body or a small committee? Recent documents should be available on the internet in PDF format. Older documents you need to use an index to find. The UN document number is the most important piece of information.

The single most useful UN website is the Official Document System (ODS) where most documents since 1993 are published in PDF. This can be searched by documents number or globally.

Other useful websites are:

For older documents you need to look in the library's microfiche collection

  • UN documents is a microfiche collection (Law Micro) ranging from 1946-1950 and from 1976- present. There is also a trade component (Trade (UNCTAD) documents 1976-present) and a human rights component (Human Rights documents 1986-present).

United Nations Document Research Guides

Other IGOs

Sometimes it can be helpful to look at an org chart of an organization in order to determine what type of document you are looking for. Here are the two best websites for finding the URLs of IGOs.


The European Union

The Europa web site and the Pappas Law Library European Union Guide are helpful resources for learning about the EU. For legal materials you need to go to Eurlex and the Court of Justice of the European Communities website.

If you are interested in gaining a background in a particular policy area, a source which often provides citations to important legal documents is the European Commission.

The Bluebook covers EU citation format in Rule 21.5.2 and Rule 21.8.2.

You will find that the Bluebook does not cover the citation of EU documents very thoroughly. When in doubt you might refer to The Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities since England is an EU member.

Foreign Law

For an overview of sources of law in foreign jurisdictions see:

The Pappas Law Library does not collect the primary materials for many countries: only England and Canada are collected in any depth. However, constitutions of many countries can be found in both their official language and translated into English in the following source:

International Secondary Sources

There are many instances where your starting point will be secondary sources, for example, if you have an unclear citation.

There is a detailed discussion of how to find books and articles available if you follow the links. Bear in mind that with the articles in particular these only reflect U.S. articles about foreign and international law. There are specific resources which can expand you search beyond these resources:

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

Developing a Note Topic

You must begin to moniter current awareness sources. Some organizations and IGO's have newsletters which traditionally were the best source of developments. Recently Blogs have added a new twist to current events reporting.

You could temporarily subscribe to a listserv. There are many which are very specific. ASIL offers several very informative list servs.

BU subscribes to some services which have a daily news section that you can have sent to your e-mail:

The news letters, blog monitoring and services might generate a topic and then you can search on traditional news sources for a more in depth look at a particular topic.

 

Maintained by: Karina Condra
Last updated: February 2009