Finding Foreign Law

Ten Steps

#1

Find statutes and regulations

• Martindale-Hubbell Int. Law Digest

• WORLDLII

• Parline

• Government Gazettes

• Global Legal Information Network

Parline

#2

Find Case Law

• See if Global Courts links to the country's highest court.

• WORLDLII also links to many foreign courts' pages

Worldlii Courts

#3

Learn the country's general government structure

Individual ministries or an office of information might be able to provide

you with the laws or cases you need.

Three sources of government information:

• Northwestern University

• Library of Congress Portals to the World

• University of Colorado at Boulder's List

#4

Look for an international organization's compilation of national laws on a particular

subject.

A few examples…

• FAOLEX (food and agriculture)

• NATLEX (labor law)

• ECOLEX (environment)

• WTO (trade policies)

UNESCO

World Intellectual Property Organization - WIPO

#5

Post to a listserv used by lawyers and law librarians from around the

world.• Here's an example:

INT-LAW@listhost.ciesin.org (Foreign, Comparative, and International Legal Resources)

#6

Look in the library catalog for a comparative treatise.

For some subjects, you might look for a non-law treatise that might include the law in an appendix.

#7

Find scholarly articles in journals and law reviews.

These might quote the law or have that article author's original translation of

the law.

Three electronic subscriptions:

• Oxford

• Kluwer

• Cambridge

#8

Find a Globalex Guide or SOSIG link list.

SOSIG

#9

Contact either that country's embassy where you live or else your country's embassy in the country you are researching.

If the embassy does not have the laws you need, they may be able

to connect you with someone who can get you the law.

• Foreign embassies in the U.S.

• U.S. embassies in foreign countries.

#10

Contact a law library that collects law materials from the country you

are researching.  • Academic law libraries

• National libraries

• Parliamentary libraries

• Worldwide Library Directory

http://www.law.pitt.edu/library/international/foreigntopten

At last…

We arrive at the end.