Foreign & Comparative Law Research

University of Washington School of LawGallagher Law Library

March 29, 2006

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Terminology

Types of Legal Systems:

• Common law• Civil law• Combination of both• Religious law• Customary law

See World Legal Systems, http://www.droitcivil.uottawa.ca/world-legal-systems/eng-monde.html

Types of Law:

• International law– Public– Private (conflicts of law)

• Foreign law• Comparative law• Transnational law

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Some Considerations for Foreign Law Research

1. Conceptual difficulties

2. Language barrier / translations• Official?• Authoritative? Current?• Free translation tools on the Web

– Caveat!– http://world.altavista.com/ – www.systransoft.com – www.google.com/language_tools?ht=en– www.freetranslation.com– www.worldlingo.com/en/products_services/worldlingo_translator.ht

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3. Abbreviations & Acronyms• Look in the source where you found the abbreviation• Bieber’s Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations• Index to Legal Citations and Abbreviations• World Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations• Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations

www.legalabbrevs.cardiff.ac.uk/

4. Dictionaries• Search MARIAN (keyword ex: french and dictionaries and english)• Fox, Dictionary of International and Comparative Law• European Commission

http://europa.eu.int/eurodicautom/login.jsp

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Today’s Research Session

• Understanding legal systems of other countries– books– articles– research guides– web sites

• Finding constitutions of other countries– books– web sites– current or previous versions?– constitutional courts

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Understanding Legal Systems of Other Countries

• BOOKS1. Multi-jurisdictional print sources at Gallagher Law Library

• Reynolds & Flores, Foreign Law: Current Sources of Codes and Basic Legislation in Jurisdictions of the World

• Martindale-Hubbell International Law Digest• Germain’s Transnational Law Research• Modern Legal Systems Cyclopedia• Law and Judicial Systems of Nations• Danner, Introduction to Foreign Legal Systems• Accidental Tourist on the New Frontier: An Introductory Guide to Global

Legal Research• Civil Law Tradition: Europe, Latin America & East Asia (historical

background)• Comparative Legal Traditions in a Nutshell (historical background)

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2. Search for books about a country

http://marian.law.washington.edu/ • MARIAN• UW Libraries’ catalog• SUMMIT• OCLC

3. Call number list for countries

http://lib.law.washington.edu/ref/forcall.htm

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3. Search by Library of Congress subject headings

Search Terms:• Law – (country or region)• Legal research – (country)• Courts – (country or region)• Justice administration of – (country

or region)• Comparative law

Examples:• Law – malaysia• Justice administration of - malaysia

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Legal Systems of Other Countriescontinued…

• ARTICLES– Indexes

• LegalTrac (1980- ) http://lib.law.washington.edu/research/dbind.html

1300+ legal journals and news articles from U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand

Also on Westlaw: Legal Resource Index (LRI)

Also on Lexis: Legal Resource Index (LGLIND)

• Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (IFLP) (1985- ) http://lib.law.washington.edu/research/dbind.html

550+ legal journals published worldwide

Also on Westlaw: (IFLP)

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• IFLP continued…o Basic Searcho Advanced Search

– Subject words

» Legal Research AND country name

» Legal System? AND country name

– Keywords

» Legal AND country name

o Don’t forget to look at the subject headings assigned to an article.

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– Full-text • HeinOnline http://lib.law.washington.edu/research/dbind.html

– PDF, (1808 – last year)

• LexisNexis– Legal > Secondary Legal > Law Reviews & Journals– Legal > Legal (excluding U.S.)

• Westlaw– JLR– Directory > International/Worldwide Materials

For Lexis & Westlaw, click on the “i” icon next to the database name for more information.

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– Indexes & Full-text Databases from Other Disciplines

http://www.lib.washington.edu/types/databases/ • Examples by subject areas:

– African Studies, East Asia, International Studies, Near East Studies, Scandinavian Studies, etc.

• Examples by database name:– Expanded Academic Index or ASAP– Index Islamicus– PAIS International– etc.

– Social Science Research Network (SSRN)

http://www.ssrn.com

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• RESEARCH GUIDES– Print sources mentioned previously– Gallagher Law Library’s guides http://lib.law.washington.edu/ref/guides.html

• Countries Around the World• Foreign & Comparative Law Research • Australian Law• Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, and Korean Law• Islamic Law

– Law Library Resource Exchange http://www.llrx.com/comparative_and_foreign_law.html

– Law Library of Congress, Guide to Law Online: Nations of the World www.loc.gov/law/guide/nations.html

– NYU GlobaLexhttp://www.nyulawglobal.com/globalex/index.html

– Foreign and International Law Sources on the Internet: Annotated www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library/guides/foreign2/

– Columbia University Law Library http://www.law.columbia.edu/library/Research_Guides/foreign_law/foreignguide

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• WEB SITES (w/ links to primary sources)– World Legal Information Institute

www.worldlii.org or www.worldlii.org/catalog/215.htmlLook at the links under “Legal Information Institutes” on the bottom right corner of the screen at www.worldlii.org. Separate sites exist for Australasia, UK & Ireland, Canada, Hong Kong, Pacific Islands, Southern Africa, USA, and France.

– University of Houston Law Centerhttp://www.law.uh.edu/libraries/fi/foreignlaw.html

– Cornell Legal Information Institutehttp://www.law.cornell.edu/world/

– NYU Law Librarywww.law.nyu.edu/library/foreign_intl/index.html

– Columbia University Law Library http://www.law.columbia.edu/library/Research_Guides/foreign_law/forlawresources

– Social Science Information Gatewaywww.sosig.ac.uk/law/

– Government Gazettes Onlinewww.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/gazettes/index.htm

– Law Library of Congress, Global Legal Information Network (GLIN) http://www.glin.gov/

– FindLawwww.findlaw.com/12international/countries/index.html

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Constitutions of Other Countries

• Books– Constitutions of the Countries of the World– Constitutions of the World (at Suzzallo Reference)

• Web sites– Constitutions, Treaties, and Declarations

http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/const.htm – University of Richmond, Constitution Finder

http://confinder.richmond.edu/ – Constitutions hyperlinked from sites listed on previous two slides

• Current or previous versions?• Constitutional courts

– Constitutional Courtshttp://www.venice.coe.int/site/dynamics/N_court_links_ef.asp?L=E

– Worldwide Constitutional Courtshttp://www.concourt.am/catalog/ccourt.htm

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Foreign Law Research – General Approach

1. Begin with Secondary Sources- Understand the legal system of the country

- Is there a research guide for the country?

- Read analysis on your topic that puts the issues into context

- Identify primary sources/publications of law

2. Find Primary Sources- Check various library catalogs

- See if laws are posted on the Web and linked from research guides on the Web

- Reprinted in secondary sources?

- Summary or abstract in English language?

- Interlibrary loan request

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Connecting from Off-Campus

You can connect to databases

licensed by the Gallagher Law Library or the UW Libraries

with your UW NetID.

How to: www.lib.washington.edu/help/connect.html

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Questions?

Reference Office:

• In person

• Email lawrefst@u.washington.edu

• 543-6794