Foreign & International Law

Researching Foreign & International Law
by Carol Furnish, Chase College of Law Library (September 1999)

Finding Foreign and International Law

Begin with a tutorial on locating foreign and international law. This site demonstrates how to find international agreements, laws and commentary of foreign countries, judicial opinions, and international organizations.

Internet Research for Professionals
Presentation by Genie Tyburski Research Librarian, Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP
http://www.virtualchase.com/legalresearcher/foreign.shtml

Basic Internet Guides

These sites provide starting points for researching an international law topic with up-to-date collections of links.

ASIL (American Society of International Law) Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law
http://www.asil.org/resource/home.htm

The European Union: Information Resources
http://www.eurunion.org/infores/index.htm

Foreign & International Law maintained by Harvard Law School Library.
http://www.law.harvard.edu/library/ils/index.html

Foreign and International Law Resources on the Internet: Annotated maintained by Cornell Law Library.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/library/guides/forin/forin.html
See also: The Cornell Legal Research Encyclopedia http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library/take1.html

Guide to Foreign and International Databases maintained by New York University Law Library.
http://www.law.nyu.edu/library/foreign_int/index.html

Guide to International Trade Law Sources on the Internet by Marci Hoffman, University of Minnesota Law Library.
http://www.llrx.com/features/trade.htm

Legal Research on International Law Issues Using the Internet by Lyonette Louis-Jacques, University of Chicago College of Law Library.
http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/~llou/forintlaw.html

United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods: Guide to Research and Literature by Claire Germain, Cornell University Law School.
http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/lawlibrary/salestoc.html

United Nations Documentation: Research Guide
http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/index.html

The WWW Virtual Library: International Affairs Resources
by Professor Wayne Selcher, Elizabethtown College.
http://www.etown.edu/home/selchewa/international_studies/firstpag.htm

Treaties & International Agreements

Treaty sources are available on the Web. Many of the sites provide updated status and ratification information.

Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy (Yale Law School) http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm

Council of Europe Treaties
http://www.coe.fr/eng/legaltxt/treaties.htm

Diplomacy and International Affairs Hypertext Information System
http://mads.diplomacy.edu:81/DOILM/GrFind.html

Hague Conventions on Private International Law
http://hcch.net/e/conventions/index.html

Internet Law Library-Treaties and International Law (Internet Law Library-Pritchard LAW WEB) Formerly sponsored by the U.S. House of Representatives.
http://www.priweb.com/internetlawlib/89.htm

Lex Mercatoria International Trade Law Monitor
http://www.jus.uio.no/lm/toc.html

Multilaterals Project (Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University)
http://www.tufts.edu/fletcher/multilaterals.html

Oceana Online(Quick U.S. Treaties Index FREE)
http://www.oceanalaw.com/OceanaONline/Online.html

Organization of American States Treaties
http://www.oas.org/EN/PROG/JURIDICO/english/treaties.html

Project DIAL, Treaties and International Agreements
http://www.austlii.edu.au/links/World/International/Treaties_and _International

Senate, House & Treaty Documents http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/cong006.html

Senate Treaty Page
http://www.senate.gov/activities/treaties.html

State Department Dispatch
http://www.state.gov/www/publications/dispatch/index.html

UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (Pace Law Library & the Pace Law School Institute of International Commercial Law) Contains the agreement, analysis, cases, and supporting materials.
http://www.cisg.law.pace.edu/cisg/text/database.html

United Nations Treaty Collection
http://www.un.org/Depts/Treaty/

The World: Travel Information

Classic 164 Currency Converter
http://www.oanda.com/converter/classic
Exchange Rates from Around the World
http://www.datastream.com/services/exrates.htm
Local Times Around the World
http://www.hilink.com.au/times/
Maps of the World (University of Texas at Austin)
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/Map_collection.html
Travel Warnings & Consular Information Sheets (State Department)
http://travel.state.gov/travel_warnings.html
Virtual Tourist
http://www.vtourist.com
Universal Currency Converter
http://www.xe.net/ucc/

Country Facts & Figures

The following sites provide background information on specific countries.

Country Fact Sheets (Export-Import Bank of the United States)
http://www.exim.gov/country/cntfact.html
The World Factbook (Central Intelligence Agency)
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html
U.S. State Department Background Notes (State Department)
http://www.state.gov/www/background_notes/

Country Studies

A selective list of "doing business guides", country studies, and governmental resources via the Web.

Business Services for U.S. Firms at Home and Abroad (State Department)
http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/business/business_services.html
Country Commercial Guides (STAT-USA)
A service of the Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. Includes market research reports, international trade statistics, National Export Directory, and current press releases. An individual account is $150.00 per year or more for a site license. The National Trade Databank (Market Reports) are available via Lexis-Nexis. See also: http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/www/
http://www.stat-usa.gov/hometest.nsf
Country Commercial Guides (State Department) http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/business/com_guides/index.html
Country Reports on Economic and Trade Practices (State Department)
http://www.state.gov/www/issues/economic/trade_reports/index.html
Doing Business Guides (Ernst & Young)
http://www.eyi.com/
Doing Business Guides (Lex Mundi)
http://www.hg.org/guides.html
Foreign Government Resources on the Web
(University of Michigan Documents Center)
http://www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/Documents.center/foreign.html
Guide to Law Online: Nations of the World
(Library of Congress-Global Legal Information Network)
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/glin/x-nation.html
Worldwide Governments on the WWW
http://www.gksoft.com/govt/en/world.html

International Organizations

Directories

These sites provide access to international agencies and organizations.

International Agencies and Information on the Web
(University of Michigan Documents Center)
http://www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/Documents.center/intl.html
International Organizations (Northwestern University)
http://www.library.nwu.edu/govpub/resource/internat/igo.html
International Organizations Information (University of Colorado)
http://www-libraries.colorado.edu/ps/gov/int/internat.htm
International Organization Web Sites (Union of International Associations)
http://www.uia.org/website.htm

Selected Organizations

Chambers of Commerce

American Chambers of Commerce Abroad
http://www.uschamber.org/intl/amcham.htm
http://www.uschamber.org/intl/index.html
Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America
http://www.aaccla.org
Eurochambres, The Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry
http://eurochambres.be/
World Chambers Network
http://www.worldchambers.com/

Embassy Information
The Embassy Web - Diplomatic Posts Worldwide
http://www.embpage.org/index.html
The Electronic Embassy - Foreign Embassies in the U.S.
http://www.embassy.org/

European Union
European Union (Europa)
http://europa.eu.int/index-en.htm
European Union: Court of Justice
http://www.curia.eu.int
European Union: Official Documents
http://europa.eu.int/abc/off/index_en.htm

Human Rights
Human Rights Library (University of Minesota)
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/index.html
International Humanitarian Law (International Committee of the Red Cross)
http://www.icrc.org

United Nations
United Nations Home Page
http://www.un.org
International Court of Justice (The World Court)
http://www.icj-cij.org

Other
International Monetary Fund
http://www.imf.org/
Latin America Network Information Center (University of Texas at Austin)
http://lanic.utexas.edu/
The National Law Center for Inter-American Free Trade
http://www.natlaw.com/
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Secretariat http://www.nafta-sec-alena.org/english/index.htm
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
http://www.nato.int/
Organization of American States
http://www.sice.oas.org/default.stm
World Bank
http://www.worldbank.org
World Trade Organization
http://www.wto.org

International News

American Journalism Review News Link
Links to thousands of newpapers and magazines.
http://ajr.newslink.org/news.html
BBC News Online
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Economist
http://www.economist.com/
ForeignWire
http://www.foreignwire.com/
Le Monde Diplomatique Some English available.
http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/
Mundo Latino
Hundreds of links to Spanish-language press arranged by country.
http://www.mundolatino.org/prensa/
Newspapers Online
Worldwide listings by country and type.
http://www.newspapers.com/
Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/

Statistical Sources

Sources for international statistics and the country studies also include statistical information.

Office of Trade & Economic Analysis
(International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce)
http://www.ita.doc.gov/cgi-bin/otea_ctr?task=otea
Statistical Data Locators
(Nanyang Technological University Library, Singapore)
http://www.ntu.edu.sg/library/statdata.htm
STAT-USA/Internet
Fee based service provided by the Department of Commerce.
Includes international trade statistics.
http://www.stat-usa.gov/tradtest.nsf
FEDSTATS
http://www.fedstats.gov/
Statistical Sources on the Web
(University of Michigan Documents Center)
http://www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/Documents.center/stats.html