LibGuides: Foreign, Comparative & International Law: Source Materials

United States Law

United States Law: The laws of the United States, how they give force to the international legal order and how they are themselves shaped by international agreement and the international legal consensus, make them an important source of International Law. The most essential source of United States law is of course the Constitution of the United States of America. Statutes (the United States Code) and Regulations (the Code of Federal Regulations) may be found at the following links and also in Lexis+, WestLaw and Bloomberg Law:

Code of Federal Regulations
The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) annual edition is the codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the departments and agencies of the Federal Government.

The CFR is also available in print on the Second Floor at call number KF70 .A3.
Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation
The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation, popularly known as the Constitution Annotated, encompasses the U.S. Constitution and analysis and interpretation of the U.S. Constitution with in-text annotations of cases decided by the Supreme Court of the United States.

The current edition of this title can be found in the Reference Area at call number KF4527. A1, and previous editions can be found on the Second Floor at the same call number.
e-CFR
Up-to-date publication of C.F.R., containing updates made since last annual publication.

Though provided by the federal government, eCFR is not an official publication of the CFR.
Federal Register
Published by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) , the Federal Register is the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents.
Lexis+ Federal Register
List of CFR Sections Affected
The List of CFR Sections Affected lists proposed, new, and amended Federal regulations that have been published in the Federal Register since the most recent revision date of a CFR title. Each LSA issue is cumulative and contains the CFR part and section numbers, a description of its status (e.g., amended, confirmed, revised), and the Federal Register page number where the change(s) may be found. It is published by the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration.
United States Code Annotated
United States Code Annotated has all 54 titles and includes the Constitution, court rules and appendixes. Annotated materials include notes of decisions, cross references, research references, and more.
United States Code Service
LexisNexis updates legislation as it is received from the source. Please see individual sections for the most recent currentness information.

United States Case Law

United States Case Law: Depending upon the forum and the claims involved in the particular case, a researcher may need to find United States cases to fully research their international law question.

West Digest System: Use the West Key Number System online to find United States cases relevant to International Law (West Topic Number 221) inquiries.

Court websites (Federal courts and federal courts in Pennsylvania):

Supreme Court of the United States

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

Court websites for other jurisdictions in the United States are available online.

Treaties

Treaties: Treaties are agreements between various sovereignties, and are an indispensable source of law in international law research. For more on treaties to which the United States is a party, see the Villanova Law Library’s Research Guides webpage for a guide on U.S. Treaties. For information on multilateral treaties and other international agreements, see:

ICRC IHL Databases International Humanitarian Law Treaties
Searchable database of international humanitarian law treaties.
ILO NORMLEX Information System on International Labour Standards
NORMLEX is an information system which brings together information on International Labour Standards (such as ratification information, reporting requirements, comments of the ILO's supervisory bodies, etc.) as well as national labour and social security laws. It has been designed to provide comprehensive and user friendly information on these topics and includes the NATLEX database.
Institute of Advanced Legal Studies FLARE Index to Treaties
The Flare Index to Treaties is a searchable database of basic information on over 2,000 of the most significant multilateral treaties concluded from the 1600s onwards and a number of significant bilateral treaties signed between 1353 and 1815, with links to the full text, where available, providing a research tool aiding scholars and students, lawyers and librarians in researching the international law of treaties - whether they are new or experienced in the field.
Kavass's Current Treaty Index
Designed to fill the gap in official sources of current treaties, the Current Treaty Index is an extensive and comprehensive catalogue of treaty information published twice a year. The Current Treaty Index also includes multiple indexes arranging information numerically, by subject, chronologically and geographically.
Kavass's Guide to the United States Treaties in Force
Edited by Igor I. Kavass, Guide to the United States Treaties in Force is designed to be used in conjunction with Treaties in Force (TIF) and provides access points well beyond those found in Treaties in Force. Professor Kavass' career-long indexing of treaties and agreements greatly expands upon the rather simplistic approach of the U.S. Department of State's indexing in Treaties in Force. The Guide contains three parts and a supplement: Part 1 is a numerical list of bilateral and multilateral treaties and agreements listed in TIF; Part 2 provides expanded subject lists of the treaties and agreements; and Part 3 provides a chronological index to U.S. multilateral treaties and agreements in force. Finally, the supplement cumulates and indexes the information about treaty developments that have occurred since the cut-off date of the latest edition of TIF.
United Nations Treaty Collection
The United Nations is the depositary of more than 560 multilateral treaties which cover a broad range of subject matters such as human rights, disarmament and protection of the environment.

International Courts and Tribunals

Information from International Courts and Tribunals: Some resources for case decisions and related information from international courts and tribunals may be found at the following suggested sites.

International Court of Justice
Access the court's docket, decisions, information about the judges, court rules and more.
International Criminal Court
Court records, investigations, opinions and other information about the tribunal.
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a United Nations court of law that dealt with war crimes that took place during the conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990s. This website provides access to the wealth of resources that the Tribunal produced over the years.
EUR-Lex Access to European Union Law
Access European Union (EU) treaties, acts, cases, legislation and news.
European Court of Human Rights
Contains docket, hearing links, opinions and other court information.
European Union Court of Justice: CURIA
The mission of Court of Justice of the European Union is to ensure that "the law is observed" "in the interpretation and application" of the Treaties.As part of that mission, the Court of Justice of the European Union: reviews the legality of the acts of the institutions of the European Union, ensures that the Member States comply with obligations under the Treaties, and interprets European Union law at the request of the national courts and tribunals. The Court thus constitutes the judicial authority of the European Union and, in cooperation with the courts and tribunals of the Member States, it ensures the uniform application and interpretation of EU law. The Court of Justice of the European Union, which has its seat in Luxembourg, consists of two courts: the Court of Justice and the General Court (created in 1988). Links to materials from both courts.

Other international courts and tribunals may be found online.

International Business Arbitration

International Business Arbitration: For information regarding international business and trade arbitration, see the following suggested websites and legal information databases:

Restatement of the Law - The U.S. Law of International Commercial and Investor–State Arbitration
This work spans a broad range of legal issues arising in the American law of international commercial arbitration. A comprehensive project, its scope includes arbitration agreements, the judicial role in the U.S. and abroad, enforcement and preclusive effect of international arbitral awards rendered in the U.S. and abroad, and ICSID Convention arbitration.
Lexology Panoramic: Arbitration
Arbitration contains expert local insight into arbitration laws and institutions worldwide, providing essential 'need to know' answers to the fundamental questions facing corporations and counsel. This guide gives a comprehensive overview of the entire process, from the drafting of contractual clauses through to the enforcement of awards in local courts. The book deals with: laws and institutions, arbitration agreements, constitution of arbitral tribunals, arbitral proceedings, interim measures and awards.

Foreign Law

Foreign Law: Foreign law is the law of foreign sovereignties. Use the following resources to locate the laws of individual nations:

Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute (LLI) World
"The LII collection of world legal materials gathers, country by country, continent by continent, the Internet-accessible sources of the constitutions, statutes, judicial opinions, and related legal material from around the globe (excluding the U.S. material held in the LII's other collections). It also holds resources and document collections of International law."
Foreign Law Guide
"Acclaimed by librarians, academics, and researchers alike, the Foreign Law Guide (FLG) is an essential database offering relevant information on sources of foreign law, including complete bibliographic citations to legislation, the existence of English translations and selected references to secondary sources in one virtual destination. Broad in content and global in scope, the FLG is an indispensable resource for comparative law research and a fundamental tool for developing a foreign and comparative law collection. Approximately 190 jurisdictions are systemically covered and updated by a global team of experts."
Globalex
Foreign, Comparative, and International Law resources provided by the Hauser Global Law School Program, New York University School of Law.
International Labour Organization NATLEX
Database of national labour, social security and related human rights legislation.
LLRX: Comparative/Foreign Law Resource Guide
Law and Technology Resources for Legal Professionals
World Legal Information Institute
Free, independent and non-profit access to worldwide law; 1834 databases from 123 jurisdictions via 14 Legal Information Institutes.

Foreign Law Practice: Service of Process

American Bar Association

ABA International Law Section
Serving as a gateway between international legal practitioners in the U.S. and those practicing around the globe.

Historic Sources of Law

Gale: The Making of Modern Law: Foreign, Comparative and International Law, 1600-1926
"Provides researchers with instant, full-text access to foreign, comparative, and international legal literature. This collection gathers together over 2,700 titles across nearly 3,500 individual volumes, totaling 1.4 million pages, that address issues in the realms of foreign, comparative, Islamic, Jewish, and even Roman and ancient law. The vast majority of the titles—over 2,000—concentrate on international law, while more than 800 titles devoted to foreign law address legal systems in specific countries."
Gale: The Making of Modern Law: Foreign Primary Sources, 1600–1970
This database complements the collection of treatises found in "The Making of Modern Law: Foreign, Comparative, and International Law, 1600–1926" and provides through monograph publications an interpretive analysis of various legal codes, the "primary sources" of law. Jurisdictions include Great Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, as well as other countries in Northern and Eastern Europe.