Go to the main WWW Virtual Library site.The WWW Virtual Library: International Affairs ResourcesGo to the main WWW Virtual Library site.

Please select the next resource category that you want.


International and National Law
scales of justice
Limited Area Search Engines, Major Portals, Key Directories, and Guides
Other Principal Sources of Information

Limited Area Search Engines, Major Portals, Key Directories, and Guides

Limited Area Search Engines

Australasian Legal Information Institute-- Search engine for Australian and world law.

Law Crawler-- Specialized search engine for worldwide, regional, or country legal web and databases searches, from FindLaw.

LawRunner-- "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."

Major Portals, Key Directories, and Guides

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."

ECOLEX: A 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.

Electronic Resources-- From the American Society of International Law: "ASIL's electronic research tools provide 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.

EUR-Lex-- The searchable portal of the European Union for European Union Law, including the Official Journal of the European Union.

FindLaw: Foreign & International Legal Resources-- One of the better starting points for searching international legal information on the Internet.

Frederick K. Cox International Law Center War Crimes Research Portal-- From the Case Western Reserve University School of Law, a fine 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.

GlobaLex-- "Electronic legal publication dedicated to international and foreign law research. Published by the Hauser Global Law School Program at NYU School of Law [and] committed to the dissemination of high-level international, foreign, and comparative law research tools in order to accommodate the needs of an increasingly global educational and practicing legal world." Excellent source for guides to country or topic-focused research in international, comparative, or foreign 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 Multinational Collections Database "lists items which reprint the laws and regulations of international jurisdictions on a particular legal topic, comparative in nature."

Guide to Foreign and International Legal Databases-- Excellent, by Mirela Roznovschi, Reference Librarian for International and Foreign Law at the NYU School of Law Library.

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 Law Site of the United Nations-- 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 websites of the International Law Commission and of the Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations.

Introduction to Public International Law Research-- From the Hauser Global Law School Program, New York University School of Law, a thorough guide to printed and online research on this topic.

Intute: Law-- Fine source from the United Kingdom, "provides guidance and access to global legal information resources on the Internet. The service aims to identify and evaluate legal resource sites offering primary and secondary materials and other items of legal interest. Descriptive records and links are created for legal service sites and specific documents."

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, an excellent legal affairs portal, with an international section.

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.

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.

Research A-Z-- From the Harvard Law School Library, a thorough guide to research on all aspects of national and international law through all the relevant media, including online sources.

Selected Foreign & International Resources for the Legal Researcher-- By the Cornell Law Library, this is a large and excellent selective guide to Web sites, providing links to texts of laws and court decisions, international documents, directories, trade information, and/or statistics.

TransLex-- From CENTRAL, 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 Treaty Collection-- "Prepared and updated regularly by the Treaty Section of the Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations, this on-line service offers access to over 158,000 records of treaties and related subsequent treaty actions."

World Legal Information Institute-- "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.

Other Principal Sources of Information

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.

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, "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 Environmental Law Network-- Full text cases, legislation, dossiers, articles, and other materials on European environmental law.

Interdisciplinary Journal of Human Rights Law-- Annual "peer-reviewed, scholarly journal designed to address international human rights issues more broadly," published by the Council for American Students in International Negotiations. Posts all articles online in full-text.

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." Note the ICJ Legal Resource Center, "a searchable database of the ICJ's press releases, reports, legal documents and key external legal materials."

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 & Diplomacy's ongoing project  to make available on the Web the texts of international multilateral conventions and other instruments.

OceanLaw Website-- "Contains leading resources on international fisheries law, policy and management and a discussion/mailing list on ocean affairs," plus law of the sea material. Rich guide to international fisheries and marine mammal law and related conservation, management, and law of the sea issues, with a large collection of primary materials (such as legislation, treaties, and cases) and much secondary information. Includes the Internet Guide to International Fisheries Law.

Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database-- Focuses on international water conflicts and negotiations, with a searchable database of abstracts and texts of scores of water-related treaties, case studies of international water conflict resolution, news files, bibliographies, maps, and a digitized inventory of international watersheds. The aim is to aid in the assessment of the process of water conflict prevention and resolution. From Oregon State University.

Top of Page
Home

Copyright © 1997-2009 Wayne A. Selcher.
.
This directory is edited and maintained by
Professor Wayne A. Selcher
e-mail