UPDATE: Foreign Law – Subject Law
Collections on the Web
By Jennifer
Allison
Jennifer Allison is a Librarian for
Foreign, Comparative, and International Law at the Harvard Law School Library. She
is a 2007 graduate of Pepperdine University School of Law, and received her
MLIS degree from San Jose State University in 2010. She has served as an
assistant editor of Brill's Foreign Law Guide, for which she is also the editor
of the country entries for Germany and Austria, since 2013.
Resources listed in this guide are
freely available online, with the exception of those specifically indicated as
subscription databases.
NOTE: This article is a complete re-write of the original by Charlotte Bynum.
Published February 2017
Subjects
- General Multi-Subject
Resources
- Animal Law
- Antitrust/Competition Law
- Bankruptcy/Insolvency Law
- Commercial Law (including arbitration,
business entities, securities, trade, banking, and taxation)
- Constitutional Law
- Criminal Law and
Procedure
- Election Law
- Environmental Law
- Human Rights (including child
law, disability law, family law, gender law, health law, LGBT law, and
refugee / asylum law)
- Intellectual
Property Law
- Labor and Employment Law (including
occupational health / safety and social security)
- Legal
Profession and Practice
- Maritime and Air and Space Law
- Military/Armed Conflict/Terrorism
Law
- Property Law
- Public Administration Law
- Religion and Law
- Technology / Data Law
- Tort Law
General Multi-Subject Resources
There are several online resources for multi-jurisdictional legal
research which cover a broad range of subjects.
They are listed below in alphabetical order.
1. CCH Intelliconnect is a Wolters Kluwer subscription
database. It is organized topically, and several of the covered subjects
provide access to legal research materials (primarily secondary sources) for
foreign (non-U.S.) jurisdictions.
2.
The
World Bank's Doing Business Law Library is an online resource of national
laws and regulations covering many subjects primarily related to business.
Links to government sources are provided when possible.
3.
Foreign Law Guide is a subscription database published by Brill. It provides
information about primary and legal secondary sources for nearly every
jurisdiction in the world. Each jurisdiction includes a directory of sources
organized by subject.
4.
Although
its primary focus is corporate law, the subscription database Getting the Deal Through includes information about
national legislation and regulation in more than 80 subjects covering many
diverse legal disciplines for more than 150 jurisdictions. Its content is
updated very frequently.
5.
Global Regulation is an online database of
machine-translated English-language laws from jurisdictions around the world,
searchable by subject.
6.
GlobaLex includes one of the largest
collections of international, comparative and foreign law research articles.
Some focus on particular geographic areas, such as the GlobaLex Source of Online Legal Information for African Countries, which includes a subject
directory of online sources for African law. There are also several topical
comparative law articles.
7.
The International Encyclopedia of Laws is a component of the Kluwer Law
Online subscription database (it is also available as a series of print
volumes). It contains encyclopedia-length entries, with detailed descriptions
of primary legal sources, for selected jurisdictions on the following legal
subjects: civil procedure, commercial and economic law, competition law,
constitutional law, contracts, corporations and partnerships, criminal law, cyber
law, energy law, environmental law, family and succession law, insurance law,
intellectual property, intergovernmental organizations, labor law, media law,
medical law, migration law, private international law, property and trust law,
religion, social security law, sports law, tort law, and transport law.
8.
The Law
Library of Congress's Global Legal Monitor publishes articles that discuss
legal developments in jurisdictions around the world. These articles often
include references and links to primary sources. It is searchable by subject.
9.
Lexadin: The World Law Guide
is web directory of legal source (including legislation and case law)
for many of the world's jurisdictions. Organization is by country; within each
country's "legislation" listing are links to laws organized by
subject. It was last updated in 2011.
10.
Although
not browseable by subject, the LLMC Digital subscription database provides access to digitized
primary and secondary legal materials covering multiple subjects for many of
the world's jurisdictions, with a focus on historical materials.
11.
The United Nations Member State National Best Practice Database provides a small library of
articles that discuss national laws on several topics related to the rule of
law, such as access to justice, anti-corruption, criminal justice, human
rights, and more.
12.
The
vLex subscription database provides access to statutes, case
law, and secondary materials for selected jurisdictions in Europe, the
Americas, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, although it does not provide an
option to browse by subject.
13. WorldLII is an internet global legal research directory
maintained by regional legal information institutes. To browse WorldLII by subject,
visit http://www.worldlii.org/catalog/272.html.
Animal Law
The Global Animal Law Project's
Animal Welfare Legislation Database includes national, European, and global
animal welfare legislation and standards.
Antitrust/Competition Law
Note: See also CCH IntelliConnect,
Doing Business and Getting the Deal Through, under General Multi-Subject
Resources above.
The Organization of American
States' (OAS) SICE Foreign Trade System Competition Policy National Legislation
Database is an online resource for antitrust laws in jurisdictions
throughout the Americas.
Bankruptcy/Insolvency Law
Note: See also CCH IntelliConnect,
Doing Business and Getting the Deal Through, under General Multi-Subject
Resources above.
The
World Bank Global Insolvency Law Database is an online database of
insolvency laws from selected jurisdictions.
Commercial Law
(including business entities, securities, trade, banking, and taxation)
Note: See also CCH IntelliConnect,
Doing Business and Getting the Deal Through, under General Multi-Subject
Resources above.
Thomson Reuters RIA Checkpoint, a
subscription database, includes an International Tax Library, with English
translations of commercial and tax legislation from many foreign jurisdictions.
Another source for foreign and international tax materials, including country
analyses, is the subscription IBFD Tax Research
Platform.
The World
Bank and the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Global Banking Law Database
provides a free resource specifically for national banking laws.
Several subscription database
provide access to foreign primary and secondary sources related to international
commercial (investment and trade) arbitration, including Kluwer Arbitration, Global Arbitration Review, Juris' s Arbitration Law, Investor-State Law Guide, and
Transnational
Dispute Management.
There are a few free online
sources related to international trade law that include jurisdiction-specific
information. Two of them include judicial decisions from national courts
related to international trade law: the Elisabeth Haub's (formerly Pace) Law School CISG Database and UNILEX. In addition, the UN Conference on Trade and
Development's (UNCTAD) International Investment Agreements navigator
includes a database of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) from jurisdictions
around the world.
Constitutional
Law
There are a multitude of free and
subscription-based online resources for foreign and comparative constitutional
law research.
HeinOnline's World Constitutions Illustrated
Library provides access to an extensive collection of historical and
current constitutional texts for every jurisdiction, for many of which in
multiple languages. This subscription-based resource also features links to
numerous constitutional law secondary sources (legal periodical articles and
historical treatises).
Oxford's Constitutions of the World,
part of the Oxford Constitutional Law subscription database, is also very
comprehensive, and includes sub-jurisdictions. Its secondary content includes
references to Oxford University Press constitutional law treatises.
Of the online resources for
constitutional law materials, the following, listed in alphabetical order,
stand out for being reasonably complete and up-to-date:
1. The Comparative Constitutions
Project provides multijurisdictional systematic data for the study of the
origins and consequences of constitutional choices.
2. Constitute is a database that
allows users to research the world's constitutions by topic and jurisdiction.
3. The University of Richmond
Constitution Finder offers a directory of constitutions that the researcher
can search or browse by jurisdiction and language.
Criminal
Law and Procedure
Lyonette Louis-Jacques, Comparative
Criminal Procedure: A Select Biography, GlobaLex (Nov./Dec. 2016), lists a
number of online sources for this type of research.
The International Criminal Court's
ICC Legal Tools database includes a "national jurisdictions"
library, with a legal system overview, an overview to national criminal law and
procedure, and national Rome Statute implementing legislation, for selected
jurisdictions.
The International Crimes
Database includes a collection for case law related to international crimes
from national tribunals.
There are several multi-jurisdictional
sources of national criminal case law and legislation that the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime has made available online. These include the Drugs and Crime Legal
Library, the SHERLOC
Organized Crime Portal, and the Human Trafficking
Knoweldge Portal. The Office on
Drugs and Crime also has a Legal Li brary on Drug Control which includes both
criminal and non-criminal national legislation related to drugs.
There are also other UN multi-jurisdictional
databases related to criminal law, including the UN Global Database on
Violence against Women and the UN
National Legislation on Piracy Database.
Prevent Genocide International's
Domestic Laws and Penal Codes Database provides free access to national
laws related to genocide prevention, organized by jurisdiction.
Information on national capital
punishment laws, including execution statistics, is freely available through
the Cornell Center on
the Death Penalty Worldwide Death Penalty Database.
The International Money
Laundering Information Networks AMLID database includes national criminal
legislation and regulations related to money laundering for selected
jurisdictions.
Although it has not been updated
recently, the Bureau of
Justice Statistics' World Factbook of Criminal Justice Systems offers
narrative descriptions of the criminal justice systems for selected foreign
jurisdictions.
Election Law
There are two online databases
that include national legislation related to elections:
1. The
ACE Electoral Knowledge Network.
2. The International
Foundation for Electoral Systems Election Materials Database.
For election-related legislation
specifically from jurisdictions in Asia, the Asian
Network of Free Elections offers an online database.
Environmental Law
There are many online sources for
national legislation, regulations, and case law on environmental law.
ECOLEX
is a comprehensive global source of primary and secondary environmental law
sources. A similarly broad source is ELAW, which can browsed by topic.
The Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) of the United Nations maintains several online databases
with access to national environmental laws, including the following:
1. FAOLEX,
a comprehensive legislative and policy database for food, agriculture, and
renewable natural resources.
2. FISHLEX, a database of
national legislation and bilateral/multilateral agreements related to foreign
fishing in coastal waters.
3. WATERLEX, a database of
national legislation related to water resources management.
4. FAO/WHO Water Law and Standards
Database, a web interface linking to FAOLEX through which the user can
search specifically for national water laws.
UN Habitat's UrbanLex Urban Law Database
includes selected national laws governing the management and development of the
urban environment.
The
Columbia Law School Sabin Center for Climate Change Law Database of Climate
Change Laws of the World provides online access to climate change laws,
regulations, policy, statements, and directives issued by governments around
the world.
The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency
(NEA) Nuclear Legislation Database includes regulatory and institutional
framework governing nuclear activities in OECD and NEA member countries.
Human Rights
(including child law, disability law, family law, gender law, health law, LGBT
law, and refugee/asylum law)
Resources that provide access to
human rights legislation and case law may include materials related to one or
more of the subtopics listed in the heading above.
Online resources with general
human rights information include the following:
1.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner
on Human Rights (UN OHCHR) Universal Human Rights Index provides access to
country-specific human rights information emanating from UN system human rights
mechanisms.
2.
Legislationline is a database of
national human rights norms; search or browse by topic or jurisdiction.
3.
University of Minnesota Human Rights
Library Resources for Researching Country Conditions is a database or
primary materials related to human rights, organized alphabetically by
jurisdiction.
4.
The
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)'s databases on international
humanitarian law include several national legislation resources related to
human rights, such as the National
Implementation of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Database which is
browseable by topic.
5.
Georgetown University's O'Neill
Institute for National and Global Health Law's Global Health and Human Rights
Database includes national legislation and case law on several topics
related to health and human rights.
6.
Bayefsky.com includes a
directory of human rights treaties organized by jurisdiction.
There are also regional resources
for general human rights law, such as Interights
Commonwealth and International Human Rights Case Law Database, which
provides summaries of significant human rights decisions from domestic
Commonwealth courts and courts/tribunals applying international human rights
law.
There are several online resources
dedicated to specific human rights topics, including the following:
1. Prevent Genocide International's
Domestic Laws and Penal Codes Database provides access to national laws
related to genocide prevention, organized by jurisdiction.
2. For national legal mechanisms for
addressing human trafficking, forced labor, and slavery, see the Labour Exploitation
Accountability Database. National laws related to human trafficking are
also included in the UN
Office on Drugs and Crime Human Trafficking Knowledge Portal.
3. The
Inter-American Development Bank's Indigenous Legislation DataBank includes
national legislation by country for Latin American jurisdictions.
4. UNESCO's Database of National
Cultural Heritage Laws includes legislation related to cultural immovable
and movable heritage, cultural diversity, and other topics.
For child law, the Child Rights
International Network Legal Database includes laws and standards
significant for children's rights around the world, including summaries of
court cases. There is also a
comprehensive online resource from the Law Library of
Congress, Children's Rights: International and National Laws and Practices,
although this source covers a very limited number of jurisdictions.
There are also a few regional internet
resources for child law, including the Organization of American States'
Family and Child Law website and the African Committee on Experts on the
Rights and Welfare of the Child African Child Rights Cases.
The
Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund's (DREDF) Directory of
International Disability Laws is a list of national legislation related to
protecting the rights of people with disabilities, some of which are citations
only and others of which are hyperlinked to a full-text version. Another
resource for national laws related disability rights (as well as those related
mental health, substance abuse, children, and older persons) is the World Health Organization's MiNDbank.
For family law, Marylin J. Raisch,
Transnational
and Comparative Family Law – Harmonization and Implementation,
GlobaLex, has links to family law-related primary sources for several
jurisdictions.
For women's rights, the UN's Global Database on
Violence against Women covers national laws related to intimate partner
violence. The Cornell
Law School Avon Global Center for Women and Justice Domestic Jurisprudence
Database provides English-language summaries of seminal women's rights
cases from jurisdictions around the world.
There are two online databases
that specifically address women's rights to land ownership: Landwise and the FAO Gender and Land
Rights Database.
For LGBT law, the International
Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA)'s State-Sponsored Homophobia Report is a
yearly survey of anti-LGBT laws around the world. The Sexual Rights Initiative's
Sexual Rights Database is browseable by country and includes national laws
related to LGBT and other sexual rights.
A good source for national laws
related to the rights of refugees, asylum seekers, and stateless people is the UN OHCHR's Refworld database. In addition,
the University of Michigan Law School's RefLAW
site provides analysis of refugee law cases, legislation, and emerging
issues from around the world.
Intellectual
Property Law
WIPO Lex is the World Intellectual Property
Organization's internet database of national IP laws and treaties; it includes
WIPO, WTO, and UN member nations.
UNESCO's
Collection of National Copyright Laws provides national copyright
legislation for UNESCO member states.
Kluwer
IP Law is a subscription database of primary and secondary legal materials
related to intellectual property that can be browsed by jurisdiction.
The Darts-IP subscription database includes
patent, trademark, and domain name decisions from national courts around the
world.
Labor/Employment
Law (including occupational health / safety and social security)
The International Labour
Organization (ILO) maintains several national labor and employment law online
databases, including the following:
1. NATLEX is a
database of national labor, social security, and human rights legislation,
browseable by jurisdiction or by subject.
2. There is a "user-friendly"
NATLEX interface called ILO NORMLEX
that also contains information from several of the ILO's "legacy"
databases, including APPLIS, ILOLEX, and Libsynd.
3. EPLex is a database of
national employment termination legislation.
4. ILO
Global Database on Occupational Safety and Health Legislation compiles
national legislation on this topic.
For national legal mechanisms for
addressing human trafficking, forced labor, and slavery, see the Labour Exploitation
Accountability Database.
Legal
Profession and Practice
The
International Bar Association's Documents on the Regulation of the Legal
Profession is a database of laws and regulations governing the practice of
law and the legal profession in selected jurisdictions.
Maritime and Air and Space Law
The
UN Office of Legal Affairs Division of Ocean Affairs' Maritime Space: Maritime
Zones and Maritime Delimitation Database includes national legislation and
other information about state practice related to the implementation of the UN
Convention on the Law of the Sea, organized regionally.
The
UN Office for Outer Space Affairs National Space Law Collection has national
law related to the exploration and use of outer space.
Military/Armed Conflict/Terrorism Law
The
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)'s databases on international
humanitarian law include several national legislation resources related to
armed conflict, such as the National
Implementation of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Database which is
browseable by topic.
There are several resources that
provide information about national laws related to weapons that are used in
wars and armed conflicts:
1. The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency
(NEA) Nuclear Legislation Database includes regulatory and institutional
framework governing nuclear activities in OECD and NEA member countries.
2. The UN Office of
Disarmament Affairs National Legislation on Transfer of Arms, Military
Equipment, and Dual-Use Goods and Technology Database includes national legislation on this topic
provided by member states to the UN.
3. The
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Legislation
Database provides examples of legislation enacted by States Parties to
implement the Chemical Weapons convention.
4. The
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540 Committee National
Implementation Legislative Database includes primary legal materials, organized
by country, related to the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution
1540 on the non-proliferation of nuclear and chemical weapons.
Property Law
UNESCO's Database of National
Cultural Heritage Laws includes legislation related to cultural immovable
and movable heritage, cultural diversity, and other topics.
UN Habitat's UrbanLex Urban Law Database
includes selected national laws governing the management and development of the
urban environment.
There are two online databases
that specifically address women's rights to land ownership: Landwise and the FAO Gender and Land
Rights Database.
Regional resources include the European
Associaiton of Real Estate Professions' Immolex Database, which features laws
related to property sales and ownership, primarily in European jurisdictions.
Public Administration
Law
Freedominfo.org's Freedom of
Information Database includes national freedom of information laws and
other materials, organized regionally and then by country.
The
World Bank Public-Private Partnership in Infrastructure Resource Center
includes a database of national laws governing public-private partnerships in
infrastructure projects.
UN Habitat's UrbanLex Urban Law Database
includes selected national laws governing the management and development of the
urban environment.
Georgetown University's O'Neill
Institute for National and Global Health Law's Global Health and Human Rights
Database includes national legislation and case law on several topics
related to the provision of health care and the maintenance of healthy
communities.
Religion and Law
The
International Center for Law and Religion Studies' Religlaw database
includes law and religion frameworks for selected jurisdictions (secondary
sources citing primary materials, including statutes and constitutional
provisions).
Marylin J. Raisch, UPDATE:
Religious Legal Systems in Comparative Law – A Guide to Introductory
Research, GlobaLex, includes links to many online resources for comparative
law and religion research.
Technology/Data Law
The Asian School of Cyber Laws' Global
Cyber Law Database includes national technology laws from around the world.
There are a few resources for
national data protection and privacy legislation, including the DLA Piper Data Protection Laws
of the World Handbook and the World LII International
Privacy Law Library.
The
International Technology Union's (ITU) National Cybersecurity Strategies
Repository includes a collection of documents outlining strategies for
selected ITU member states.
Tort Law
The Kelly/Warner
International Defamation Law Database
includes descriptive
information about the defamation laws for selected jurisdictions; it also
includes information about relevant speech and journalism laws.