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Limited Area Search Engines, Portals, Directories, Networks, and Guides
Limited Area Search Engines
Australasian Legal Information Institute--
AustLII, a search engine for
Australian legal information.
Law
Crawler-- Specialized search engine for U.S.
federal and state law, legal professionals, and lawyers,
from FindLaw.
LawRunner-- "Legal research tool, an
intelligent agent-based front-end interface for the
world's largest and best World Wide Web index,
Google." Also has "a directory of the LawRunner home
pages for every nation in the world."
World Legal Information Institute-- WorldLII, a "free, independent and non-profit global legal research facility developed collaboratively by [many] legal information institutes and other organisations," with databases and website catalog guide for online law research.
Portals, Directories, Networks, and Guides
American Society of International Law-- The professional society for those interested in international law. Excellent online information and publications, with a searchable database. The Electronic Resources section provides "access to international law resources from primary source documents to ASIL publications. In addition, our Electronic Resource Guide is available to you in conducting your own online research." Note especially their Electronic Information System for International Law, an excellent database with sophisticated search capabilities to find primary documents, recommended websites, and research guides in the principal areas of international law.
Audiovisual Library of International Law--
From the United Nations, "a unique, multimedia resource...
to provide high quality international law training and
research materials to an unlimited number of recipients on
a global level." Composed of the Historic Archives of
documents and audiovisual materials, a recorded Lecture
Series, and a Research Library "providing an on-line
international law library with links to treaties,
jurisprudence, publications and documents, scholarly
writings and research guides."
ConstitutionNet-- "Established as a joint initiative of International IDEA and Interpeace and maintained by IDEA with funding from the Government of Norway. It aims to service the knowledge needs of an expanding group of those involved in constitution building." Extensive set of knowledge tools, country information, data, constitutions and related documents, issue papers, multimedia, and more about the world's constitutions and constitution-building.
ECOLEX: The Gateway to Environmental Law--
From the United Nations Environment Programme and the
World Conservation Union, several large databases of
national and international legal instruments and materials
related to environmental management, searchable by subject
area, keyword, country, or date.
EUR-Lex-- The searchable portal of
the European Union for European Union Law, including the
Official Journal of the European Union.
FindLaw: International Law Resources-- One of the better starting points for searching international legal information on the Internet.
Foreign &
International Research-- Wide-ranging research guide
from the Library of the Yale Law School. Also try that
Library's Country-by-Country
Guide to Foreign Law Research.
Frederick K. Cox International Law
Center War Crimes Research Portal-- From the Case
Western Reserve University School of Law, a portal that
links websites related to international humanitarian law,
posts the text of research memoranda on issues before the
International Criminal Tribunal, provides a research guide
to international humanitarian law and tribunals, and posts
analytical articles on key topics in international
criminal law.
Global Legal Information Network-- From the Law Library of the U.S. Congress, "a [searchable] public database of laws, regulations, judicial decisions, and other complementary legal sources contributed by governmental agencies and international organizations." The Guide to Law Online is "an annotated guide to sources of information on government and law available online." The Global Legal Monitor is "an online publication from the Law Library of Congress covering legal news and developments worldwide." The Global Legal Information Catalog "includes information about publications which reprint the laws and regulations of multiple jurisdictions on a particular legal topic."
Global Legal Research Tools-- From New York University's School of Law, very helpful portal that "facilitates the efforts of those engaged in the study of global law to more effectively target their research or focus their instruction through... online teaching materials to international law instructors,... searchable databases for locating particular subject matters within global journals and indexes,... linked guides to other online global law resources, and... the European and global law book review programs." Especially useful are GlobaLex, the Guide to Foreign and International Legal Databases, and Introduction to Public International Law Research.
Hague Justice Portal-- "Gateway to
information, news and research on the Hague organisations
in the fields of international peace, justice and
security. It improves access to the Hague courts,
tribunals and organisations and encourages academic
debate... [an independent website] "created by The Hague
Academic Coalition, a consortium of academic institutions
based in The Hague." Posts the Hague Justice Journal.
infolaw--Gateway to the UK Legal Web-- Includes website listings of all UK law firms, groups, barristers chambers, law associations, and other lawyers, many selected legal resources, and more.
International Constitutional Law-- "Provides English translations of and other textual material related to constitutional documents. It cross-references those documents for quick comparison of constitutional provisions." The constitutions of most countries are in the database.
International and Foreign Law Community--
Free up-to-date content and resources in international and
foreign law, part of the LexisNexis Communities network,
with blogs, news, top cases, issues, podcasts, newsletter.
Requires free registration.
Juris International-- "Multilingual
collection... of legal information on international
trade... to facilitate and reduce the work involved in
research for business lawyers, advisers and in-house
counsel, and state organizations in developing and
transition economies, by providing access to [full] texts
which have often been difficult to obtain."
Jurist: The Legal Education Network--
From the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, the
international section of an excellent legal affairs
portal, with a U.S. version as well.
Lawlinks-- From the University of
Kent in the UK, "to help students and others find their
way around legal resources on the Internet." Posts guides
on Internet legal research and many annotated links by
topic or region.
Legislation.gov.uk-- Official repository of all approved legislation of the United Kingdom for over 1000 years, both original and as amended, "managed by The National Archives on behalf of HM Government."
Oceans and Law of the Sea-- From the
Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office
of Legal Affairs, United Nations, a major portal site on
the topic.
Foreign and International Law Guide--
By the Cornell Law Library, selective guide to Web sites,
providing links to texts of laws and court decisions,
international documents, directories, trade information,
and/or statistics.
TransLex-- From the Center for
Transnational Law, a research facility at the University
of Cologne School of Law, "a research and codification
platform for transnational [commercial] law," mainly on
European Union members, that allows you to search the
entire database, or "browse through any of the four
sections: principles, bibliography, materials or links."
United Nations International Law Site-- Information on the law generally, and as it relates to genocide, trade, the sea, key international treaties, the International Criminal Court, and U. N. legal bodies, including the ICJ. Note the International Law Research Guide for U.N. matters and the website of the International Law Commission of the United Nations. The United Nations Juridical Yearbook includes "certain documentary materials of a legal character concerning the United Nations and related intergovernmental organizations." The United Nations Treaty Collection "offers access to... records of [bilateral and multilateral] treaties and related subsequent treaty actions" and to much other material related to treaty law.
Other Sources
• Center for International Environmental
Law-- "Nonprofit organization working to use
international law and institutions to protect the
environment, promote human health, and ensure a just and
sustainable society... CIEL’s work covers more than sixty
countries on six continents." Posts information and
publications in many areas of environmental law.
• Constitution
Finder-- From the University of Richmond School of
Law, "this database offers constitutions, charters,
amendments, and other related documents. Nations of the
world are linked to their constitutional text posted
somewhere on the Internet."
• Electronic Legal Resources on
International Terrorism-- From the Terrorism
Prevention Branch of the United Nations Office on Drugs
and Crime, "comprehensive and accurate legal information
on the steps taken by the international community and
individual countries in the fight against international
terrorism. Stored data are accessible in full-text, and
provide up-to-date information on counter-terrorism
conventions, resolutions, and national criminal laws
worldwide."
• European
Court of Human Rights-- "The only truly judicial
organ established by the European Convention on Human
Rights... [ensuring], in the last instance, that
contracting states observe their obligations under the
Convention... All of the Court's judgments, and a
significant selection of decisions and reports, are
published [online] in the HUDOC
database."
• European Environmental Law Network--
Full text cases, legislation, dossiers, articles, and
other materials on European environmental law.
• International Commission of Jurists--
A leading organization of eminent jurists representative
of the different legal systems of the world and "dedicated
to the primacy, coherence and implementation of
international law and principles that advance human
rights."
• International Court of Justice--
Information from and about the world court, an organ of
the United Nations.
• International Criminal Court--
Official site of the United Nations court established to
try individuals for participation in war crimes and
genocide. Posts information about the Court and its cases,
videos of Court proceedings, the Official
Journal of the ICC, and more. Note especially the Legal Tools Project, which "aspires
to equip users with the legal information, commentaries
and software required to work effectively with
international criminal law. It seeks to serve as a
complete virtual library on international criminal law and
justice."
• International Humanitarian Law Database--
Keyword and country searches in treaties, documents,
national laws, commentaries, and reports, from the
International Committee of the Red Cross.
• International Water Law Project-- Provides information and links on international water law, treaties, policy, and related topics, with documents, case law, and bibliography.
• Multilaterals Project-- The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy's ongoing project to make available on the Web the texts of international multilateral conventions and other legal instruments.