International Law Journal Tech Check Training

This guide is a quick overview of some of the resources you may need to consult while conducting your "tech check". If you have any questions, would like to discuss a particular note topic, or encounter a particularly puzzling citation, please contact Stefanie Weigmann. Be sure to consult the the Tech Check Research Guide for tips, including information about using the Bluebook.

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 resources specific to international law, including treaties, decisions of international tribunals, as well as materials from the United Nations and European Union.

Also, there are resources for developing a note topic.

Researching International and Foreign Law

Public international law deals with the interactions between states, between states and international bodies and between international bodies. The sources of public international law are international agreements, customary law, judicial decisions and academic writings. Private international law governs relationships between individuals over state boundaries, and is regulated by treaty and domestic law. Foreign law is the domestic law of other states.

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:

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

For citing international and foreign materials, refer to:

Primary Sources of International Law

Treaties

Many of the primary documents you will encounter will be international agreements. International agreements, including treaties, can be bilateral, between two countries, or multilateral, among several countries. There are two ways to search for a treaty depending on whether the U.S. is a party or the U.S. is not a party:

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.) 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. 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. Try searching for it by performing a title or word search if you are unsure of its exact name.

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

  • HeinOnline Treaties and Agreements Library - is really the best source for the official versions of all treaties in which the United States is a party. It is also available in Microform (Law Micro JX236 1990 H45). It includes:
    • Treaties in Force - this indexes all U.S. treaties since 1955 (this is also available for free through the US State Department)
    • Guide to Treaties in Force - updates Treaties in Force
    • United States Treaties and Other International Agreements (UST) includes U.S. treaties from 1950-1984 (also available on Westlaw (USTREATIES) and Lexis (INTLAW;USTRTY)
    • Treaties and Other International Acts (TIAS) includes U.S. treaties from 1984 -1996
    • KAV Agreements is an unofficial source of U.S. treaties from 1987-1996
    • International Legal Materials is often the most current unofficial treaty source) (also available on Westlaw and Lexis)
    • Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America, 1776-1949 (commonly referred to as "Bevans") is a well-known index of treaties

Treaties and Other Agreements Online - is another unofficial source of full-text treaty documents. It is not as valuable a resouce as HeinOnline. This is also available in Microform

United Nations Treaty Collection - Also available in the Annex (Law Annex JX1977.A1 U5). This is a password controlled database so you need to ask for the password at the reference desk. This includes

  • Status of Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General - is an overview of all UN treaties with regard to ratification and entry into force which is also in the library (Law Ref Desk  JX 171 M85 )
  • United Nations Treaty Series - This is the PDF version of the paper series found in the library (Law Annex JX 1977 A1 U5) and can be used to determine volume and page.

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).

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


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.

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

  • Yearbook of the United Nations (Law Annex JX 1977 .A1 U53)
    • Note Bluebook Rules 21.7.6 and 21.7.9 apply to citation of this source.
  • Basic Documents of the United Nations (Law Annex JX 1977 A15 U5)
  • United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Yearbook (Law Annex JX 1977 .A1 U46)
  • Yearbook on Human Rights (Law Annex JX 1977 .A1 U54).
  • UN Chronicle (Mugar JX 1977 .A1 F64) which serves as a newsletter for the UN. It may also be viewed online.

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.

  • Dag Hammarskjold Library which has a quick index that links to PDF versions of common documents. The Official Documents System has a search engine to search for other documents.
  • 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 to find select full-text documents (not in PDF format). Covers documents issued 1944 through the present.
  • 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). Mugar has the complete core UN microfiche collection (Mugar Micro Mfiche).
  • 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
  • Use a search engine such as Googl

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.

Other EU research guides which can be of assistance include:

Citing European Union materials:

 

Researching the Law of a Foreign Jurisdiction

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:

 

Locating International Secondary Sources

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

Books

There is a more detailed discussion of how to find books. In brief use the BU online catalog to search for books and loose-leaf services related to international law available at the Boston University Libraries. If the book is unavailable at a BU library then search Worldcat to locate materials at other libraries which you can request via Interlibrary Loan.

Periodicals

There is a more detailed discussion of how to find articles. In brief, 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).
  • 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.
  • Full text law review databases on Westlaw and LexisNexis. However, please be aware, the date coverage of law review articles varies greatly.
  • Full text law reviews, many in date ranges which are not available on LexisNexis and Westlaw, can be searched or browsed through HeinOnline. Law review articles are in .pdf (Adobe Acrobat) officially paginated format.
  • Tip: Search the full-text of law review articles on LexisNexis and Westlaw to locate or find missing information from a citation.

To locate articles that are not legal in nature there are many databases that offer the full-text of recent articles and citations to older articles. See the Alphabetical List of Electronic Resources for these databases.

To find news articles:

 

Developing a Note Topic

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

If you are interested in a particular are of law or a particular organization all of the IGO websites have news sections.

There are general websites:

There are subject-specific websites, newsletters and blogs:

You could temporarily subscribe to a listserv. There are many which are very specific; see the following for a list: Lists, Newsgroups and Networks from ASIL

Bu subscribes to some services which have a daily news section:

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.

 

"Alphabet soup": IGOs and NGOs.

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. Where possible, they have been added below.

 

Some helpful web sites for international and foreign research

Maintained by: Stefanie Weigmann
Last updated: August 2007