Though secondary sources are undoubtedly valuable research tools for domestic legal research, they are even more valuable for researchers investigating laws outside their home jurisdiction. Secondary sources may explain foreign legal systems, describe particular foreign legal frameworks, provide citations to relevant foreign law, and sometimes even publish those laws in English. Consider locating secondary sources that are either jurisdiction- or subject-specific. Consider, too, searching for comparative law publications offering global or regional discussion of your subject. In addition to the resources below wherein you can locate books, encyclopedias, treatises, and journal articles, you may find valuable content for free on the web. Be somewhat wary of resources available for free online, focusing in particular on their currency and source of authority. Consider focusing your web research on materials published by intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, and on government websites.
Catalogs
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Library CatalogSearch for print and electronic books. To locate secondary sources discussing foreign law, use the the Advanced Search form and search for the country name in the "Subject" field, plus the area of law of in the "Any" field. Note, too, that certain scholarly and news articles are also searchable from the library catalog.
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WorldCatLocate print and electronic books and journals held by other research libraries, which you can then request via Interlibrary Loan.
International Encyclopaedia of Laws
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International Encyclopaedia of LawsThis Wolters Kluwer database contains monographs comparing domestic laws in many broad subject areas. After selecting the link above or from Law Databases A-Z, select Encyclopaedias from the top menus, then browse by subject. Content covering various jurisdictions is available within each title, and content for particular jurisdictions is available in PDF format. Coverage can be quite detailed and comprehensive!
v|lex
vLex offers both primary and secondary materials for more than 130 jurisdictions. To browse available content for a jurisdiction, select Browse > All Jurisdictions > the appropriate region > appropriate jurisdiction, and browse available books, journals, and blogs.
HeinOnline
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Foreign & International Law Resources DatabaseSearch across resources, or browse available yearbooks and journals to identify titles offering coverage of your jurisdiction. (Note that given its scope of coverage, some resources within this collection focus on international law (law between nations), rather than foreign law (the law of a particular domestic jurisdiction).)
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Index to Foreign Legal PeriodicalsIn addition to utilizing search tools to locate articles that may discuss the law of particular jurisdictions in the Hein legal journal libraries, researchers should also consult IFLP: a voluminous, searchable index of articles from law journals published in foreign jurisdictions, or covering foreign & international law. Some full-text articles in the index are available in HeinOnline. For others, check the library's Journal Search page to determine whether the article is available in another VU database, and if not, place an Interlibrary Loan request.
Westlaw and Lexis
Westlaw and Lexis both provide some books and journals covering foreign law, but researchers should bear in mind that only U.S. content is searchable from the main search bar in these platforms. As such, researchers may gain a more accurate sense of what is available for their jurisdiction by first selecting:
- the International Materials link in Westlaw, or
- or the International tab in Lexis,
and narrowing to their jurisdiction, or searching across international secondary sources. The International Materials Index in Westlaw is another tool that researchers can use to browse both available secondary and primary sources.
Researchers may also wish to explore Westlaw's Practical Law platform, and toggle from the U.S. law default view to Global Home. Researchers can browse content by practice area or by jurisdiction.
