Foreign and International Law Databases in CALL Libraries

UNFlagsBesides rich print foreign, comparative, and international law collections, Chicago Association of Law Libraries (CALL) libraries also subscribe to a variety of key general and specialized FCIL databases. The focus of e-resource subscriptions differs from library to library depending on user interests and needs. You can find databases to which a CALL library subscribes by visiting their websites. For example: D’Angelo (University of Chicago); DePaul; Chicago-Kent; John Marshall; Loyola; Northern Illinois University (NIU); Valparaiso.

Below is a list of some of the FCIL-related specialty online databases, research platforms, and websites accessible to users in CALL libraries.

Note that, because of the vagaries of our times, this list might change next week! Budget cuts or changes in user interests may mean that a database might not be renewed or might be added.  Sometimes databases cease to exist. iSinoLaw became Westlaw China, for example. The Global Legal Information Network (GLIN) and the International Digest of Health Legislation (IDHL) are essentially gone.

CALL FCIL Databases List

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Access UN – Index to United Nations official records, resolutions, publications, treaties, and other documents from 1945 to the present.

Armed Conflict Database (includes refugee information).

Arbitration Law – includes arbitration law journal articles, ebooks, treatises, handbooks, yearbooks, and practice guides, as well as reports of arbitral awards and court decisions, arbitration rules, laws, and treaties. Provides access the full text online to the World Arbitration Reporter, the Encyclopedia of International Arbitration Law and Practice, titles in the ASA (Swiss Arbitration Association) and IAI (International Arbitration Institute) book series, and AAA/ICDR (American Arbitration Association/International Center for Dispute Resolution) handbooks and yearbooks.

Bloomberg BNA

  • International Business & Finance Daily (BNA)
  • International Environment Reporter–Current Reports (BNA)
  • International Labor and Employment Laws (BNA)
  • International Tax Monitor (BNA)
  • International Trade Daily (BNA)
  • International Trade Reporter (BNA)
  • Tax Management – Foreign Income Portfolios (BNA; see also Tax & Accounting Center – International)
  • Tax Planning International: Asia-Pacific Focus (BNA)
  • Tax Planning International: European Tax Service (BNA)
  • Tax Planning International: Indirect Taxes (BNA)
  • Tax Planning International: Review & Forum (BNA)
  • Transfer Pricing International Journal (BNA)
  • World Climate Change Report (now Energy and Climate Report) (BNA)
  • World Communications Regulation Report (BNA)
  • World Intellectual Property Report (BNA)
  • World Securities Law Report (BNA)
  • WTO Reporter (BNA)

Bloomberg Law (BLAW) – includes FCIL-related treatises and practice guides.

Chatham House Online Archive – provides a searchable, browsable research environment that enables users to explore approximately half a million pages and over ninety years of research, expert analysis, and commentary published in briefing papers, special reports, pamphlets, conference papers and books. Users also have access to the full text of Chatham House’s two flagship publications: the leading academic journal International Affairs and the magazine The World Today. Additionally, the archive offers unique access to thousands of hours of audio recordings of Chatham House lectures and their fully searchable transcripts.

ChinaLawInfo (Chinese law database – Chinese-language interface version; see also LawInfoChina – English-language interface).

ClasePeriodica – Provides citations and abstracts to articles in Latin American journals in the social sciences and humanities. Coverage is in Spanish. Portuguese, French, and English.

Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) – database of international relations books, conference proceedings, working papers, and journal articles.

Competition Policy International (“the global resource for antitrust and competition policy”; includes the CPI Journal, Antitrust Chronicle, and Hot Tub).

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Constitute: The World’s Constitutions to Read, Search, and Compare.

Constitutions of the Countries of the World – full text of foreign constitutions in English, English translation, with constitutional chronology, and bibliographies. Continued by Oxford Constitutions of the World.

Constitutions of Dependencies and Territories – full text of foreign constitutions in English, English translation, with chronologies, and bibliographies. Continued by Oxford Constitutions of the World.

CountryWatch – Provides news, statistics, maps, political information and other data for each of the recognized countries of the world.

Cross-National Time-Series Data Archive – More than 1.7 million data points.  Unique Domestic Conflict Event Data for every country include: Assassinations, General Strikes, Guerrilla Warfare, Major Government Crises ,Purges, Riots, Revolutions, Anti-government Demonstrations (Excel files/data).

Customary International Humanitarian Law Database (ICRC Customary IHL).

Early English Books Online (EEBO) (includes the Statutes at Large and law books).

Early European Books (printed sources to 1700).

Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO): Legal Documents – full text of books, pamphlets, and other documents printed in Great Britain and North America 1701-1800 tracing the development of law in the British Empire, Europe, and the Americas.

Electronic Information System for International Law (EISIL) – American Society of International Law (ASIL) tool provides primary source materials such as treaties and other international legal resources grouped by topic.

English Reports, Full Reprint (1220-1867) (via HeinOnline).

Export Reference Library (BNA).

FBIS Index 1975-1996 – Foreign Broadcast Information Service Electronic Index:  “An index to the FBIS Daily Reports issued by the U.S. Government covering political, economic, scientific, and
cultural issues and events throughout the world.  Translations of broadcasts, news agency transmissions, newspapers, periodicals, and government statements from nations around the world are the sources of this information.”

Foreign Law Guide (FLG) – Reynolds & Flores’ guide to legal systems and sources of major codes, court cases, and other primary and secondary law for jurisdictions of the world (including information on English translations, law by subject, and links to websites).

Getting the Deal Through (GtDT) – “provides international comparative guides to law and regulation in 46 practice areas and more than 100 jurisdictions, with concise explanations to the most important legal and regulatory matters that arise in deals and disputes worldwide,” including antitrust regulation and intellectual property. Also available through Bloomberg Law (under the “Legal Analysis & News” tab –> “Books & Treatises”).

Global Health and Human Rights Database – “fully searchable online database of more than 1000 judgments, constitutions and international instruments on the intersection between health and human rights.” Produced by the Lawyers Collective and the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown Law.

Global NewsBank.

GlobaLex – a free online legal publication comprising research guides, tools, and articles on foreign, comparative, and international law topics written by scholars, lawyers, and law librarians well known in their respective fields. GlobaLex has foreign legal research guides for over 100 countries, over 50 international legal research topics from the African Union to Human Trafficking to International Treaties to the United Nations, and guides to researching foreign law generally, African law, comparative family law, religious legal systems, and the law of Latin American countries. GlobaLex is published by the Hauser Global Law School Program at NYU School of Law.

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HeinOnline Law Journal Library:  International and Non-U.S. Law Journals.

HeinOnline:  English Reports.

HeinOnline:  European Center for Minority Issues.

HeinOnline:  Foreign & International Law Resources Database (FILRD) – includes international law yearbooks and periodicals, digests of U.S. practice in international law (Wharton, Moore, Hackworth, Whiteman),  Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ) decisions, and Moore’s History and Digest of the International Arbitrations to which the United States Has Been a Party.

HeinOnline:  Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS).

HeinOnline:  Hague Academy Collected Courses Online / Recueil des cours en ligne.

HeinOnline:  Harvard Research in International Law Collection.

HeinOnline:  History of International Law.

HeinOnline:  Immigration Law & Policy in the U.S.

HeinOnline:  Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (IFLP)

HeinOnline:  Israel Law Reports (and Israel Law Review)

HeinOnline:  Kluwer Law International Journal Library.

HeinOnline: Law in Eastern Europe – This collection of books, published by Brill, has been digitized for the first time and made available via HeinOnline. This series of more than 60 titles showcases the development, enactment, and impact of the rule of law in Eastern Europe.

HeinOnline:  Legal Classics (includes the Classics of International Law series).

HeinOnline:  Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law Publications – includes more than 50 publications from the prestigious Parker School of Foreign & Comparative Law at Columbia Law School, such as the 22-volume set Charles Szladits’s Bibliography on Foreign and Comparative Law and An Introduction to the Legal System of the United States by Allan Farnsworth.

HeinOnline:  Philip C. Jessup Library (International Law Moot Court).

HeinOnline:  Revised Statutes of Canada.

HeinOnline:  Scottish Legal History (Stair Society).

HeinOnline:  Selden Society Publications and the History of Early English Law.

HeinOnline:  Session Laws Library (Australia, Bahamas, Canada).

HeinOnline:  Statutes of the Realm

HeinOnline:  Treaties and Agreements Library – United States treaties and other international agreements as published in U.S.T., T.I.A.S., Bevans, International Legal Materials (I.L.M.), and related commentary, and other secondary resources.

HeinOnline:  U.S. International Trade Library.

HeinOnline:  United Nations Law Collection – includes PDF and GET BY CITE of the United Nations Treaty Series (U.N.T.S.), League of Nations Treaty Series (L.N.T.S.), Reports of  International Arbitral Awards (R.I.A.A.), ICJ Reports, International Law Commission (ILC) and UNCITRAL yearbooks, reports of proceedings of UN law conferences, and other UN law publications.

HeinOnline:  World Constitutions Illustrated –  WCI is a growing collection of current and historical constitutions for countries of the world in the vernacular and in English translation and in PDF format. The database also includes constitutional-related documents, journal articles, periodicals, and major treatises. It is intended to be a central resource for the complete constitutional history of every country.

HeinOnline: World Treaty Library – Covering 1648 to the present, the World Treaty Library provides full-text searching across PDFs of the major treaty sources, including United States Treaties and Other International Agreements (U.S.T.), Martens’ Nouveau recueil général de traités, United Nations Treaty Series (U.N.T.S.), and League of Nations Treaty Series (L.N.T.S.), as well as other related treaty publications, a bibliography, and law review articles.

HeinOnline:  World Trials Library – Includes American State Trials, Thomas Howell’s State Trials, trials of major war criminals, Nuremberg war crimes trials, Famous Cases, Sacco and Vanzetti, Leopold and Loeb, Causes Celèbres, remarkable trials of all countries.

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Human Rights Studies – a research and learning database providing comparative documentation, analysis, and interpretation of major human rights violations and atrocity crimes worldwide from 1900 to 2010. The collection includes primary and secondary materials across multiple media formats and content types for each selected event, including Armenia, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda, Darfur, and more than thirty additional subjects.

IFAR Art Law & Cultural Property Database (ALCP) – Produced by the International Foundation of Art Research (IFAR), this database utilizes two resources: the International Cultural Property Ownership and Export Legislation (ICPOEL) and Case Law and Statutes (CLS).

Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (IFLP)

Inter-American Court of Human Rights Database – produced by the editors and staff of the IACHR Project; allows users to search Inter-American Court decisions by case name, country, and topic.

International Comparative Legal Guides (ICLG, Global Legal Group) – “The ICLG series provides current and practical comparative legal information on a range of practice areas. [They] follow a question and answer format to ensure thorough coverage of each topic within different legal systems worldwide.” Updated annually. Free to access.

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International Encyclopaedia of Laws (IEL) (via Kluwer Law International, Kluwer Law Online)(encyclopedia sets on 25 subject areas of foreign and international law: 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 Organisations, Labour Law and Industrial Relations, Media Law, Medical Law, Migration Law, Private International Law, Property and Trust Law, Religion, Social Security Law, Sports Law, Tort Law, Transport Law.

International Studies Encyclopedia – Essays on international topics such as Art in International Relations and Foreign Intervention in Ethnic Conflicts.

Investment Arbitration Reporter (IAReporter) – a news & analysis service tracking international arbitrations between foreign investors and sovereign governments. IAReporter helps a broad range of readers – including lawyers, academics and government officials – stay abreast of the latest legal developments and policy trends in investment treaty arbitration.

Investor-State Law Guide (ISLG) – a research tool in the area of investment treaty arbitration. ISLG contains rules, conventions, bilateral investment treaties, free trade agreements (including NAFTA), and arbitration decisions, all of which are cross-referenced.

JustCite – Justis citator for UK Statutes and International Law Reports (I.L.R.).

Justis:  International Law Reports (ILR includes English translations of decisions of international tribunals and national courts concerning public international law topics).

Justis:  UK Statutes – includes every Act of Parliament from the 13th century to the present, with PDF images and noter-up.  Some similar content in Statutes of the Realm via HeinOnline and Statutes at Large via ECCO.

Kluwer Arbitration – international commercial arbitration database including major international arbitration journals, treaties, rules and decisions of arbitral tribunals, treatises, and other commentary.

Kluwer Law International Journal Library (via HeinOnline) – 12 e-journals including pre-2003 Common Market Law Review issues, Journal of International Arbitration, Journal of World Trade, and World Competition from the first volume to the last 4-5 years.

LawInfoChina – English-language interface version, Chinese law database; see also ChinaLawInfo, Chinese-language interface version.

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LexisNexis for Law Students – includes case-law for Australia, Canada, China (via the LNCHNL file), Commonwealth, England & Wales, Hong Kong, India (not updated), Ireland, Israel (Supreme Court), Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Singapore (but this may have been removed), South Africa (constitutional and tax cases), United Kingdom; U.S. treaties; International Legal Materials (ILM); EU law treatises, ECJ cases, EU treaties, regulations, directives; ICJ decisions; ECHR judgments and decisions;  international arbitration and internaitonal trade materials; Doing Business …/Business Transactions in…(Matthew Bender treatises).; Hungarian Rules of Law in Force (1990-2002); Economic Law of the Russian Federation (Garant); BNA Tax Management Foreign Income Portfolios; Martindale-Hubbell International Law Digests.; non-English news.

Lexis UK Library – Full text database of UK case law, legislation, and commentary, including Halsbury’s Laws, legal treatises, handbooks, and law journals. Lexis Library also has cases from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and from the Commonwealth Law Reports.

LLMC Digital – covers selected foreign jurisdictions.

The Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises, 1800-1926 (Gale/Cengage Learning)(includes historical UK law treatises).

Making of Modern Law: Foreign, Comparative and International Law (Gale/Cengage Learning).

Making of Modern Law: Foreign Primary Sources: 1600-1970 (Gale/Cengage Learning) – World civil law collection includes historical regulations, session laws, journals, codes and commentaries of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Great Britain, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and other African, Asian, European, and Latin American jurisdictions. Analogous materials from canon law and Roman law are also included.

Mango Languages – Mango is an online language-learning system that teaches conversation skills for several different languages.

Manupatra – Indian law database.

Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law Online (MPEPIL/EPIL).

OECDiLibrary (was SourceOECD).

Oxford Bibliographies Online – International Law is a research resource comprising encyclopedia-type articles and annotated bibliographies on international law topics compiled by experts in the field. The bibliographies are “recommendations on the best works…whether it be a chapter, a book, a journal article, a website, an archive, or data set.”

Oxford Constitutions of the World – contains fully-translated English-language versions of all the world’s constitutions (both national and sub-national), accompanied by individual commentaries, supplementary materials, including foundation documents, historical constitutions, and amendment Acts/laws.

Oxford Handbooks Online in Criminology – Oxford Handbooks in Criminology bring together the world’s leading scholars to discuss research and the latest thinking in a range of major topics in criminology. Containing specially-commissioned essays with extensive referencing to further reading, the handbooks offer both thorough introductions to topics in the discipline, and a useful reference resource for scholars and advanced students.

Oxford Handbooks Online in Law – Oxford Handbooks in Law bring together the world’s leading scholars to discuss research and the latest thinking in a range of major topics in law. Containing specially-commissioned essays with extensive referencing to further reading, the handbooks offer both thorough introductions to topics in the discipline, and a useful reference resource for scholars and advanced students.

Oxford Investment Claims – Investment Claims aims to publish all publicly available awards and decisions arising out of international investment arbitrations and related enforcement or review decisions from national courts. The collection includes over 300 arbitral awards, decisions, and determinations under the auspices of bodies such as the ICC International Court of Arbitration, International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), and others.

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Oxford Reports on International Law (ORIL). ORIL is a current awareness service for alerts about new international law cases, with full texts of case-law, English translations, and expert analyses. We subscribe to the following modules: 1) Oxford Reports on International Law in Domestic Courts (ILDC); 2) Oxford Reports on International Criminal Law; 3) Oxford Reports on International Human Rights Law; 4) Oxford Reports on International Courts of General Jurisdiction; 5) Oxford Reports on International Investment Claims.

Oxford Scholarly Authorities on International Law contains “full-text online editions of market-leading reference works and treatises published by Oxford University Press. Books such as Oppenheim, Satow’s Diplomatic Practice, the Oxford Handbooks in international law, and the Oxford Commentaries on International Law are made available online for the first time, fully searchable and linked by the Oxford Law Citator.”

PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) – foreign and international affairs/relations; foreign government policy, reports, and documents.

Parry & Grant Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law (3d ed, 2009; eBook).

Passport GMID – Euromonitor International’s Global Market Information Database provides comprehensive global business intelligence on industries, countries, and consumers.

Practical Law (PLC) Global (via Westlaw).

Practising Law Institute (PLI) Discover Plus – collection of e-books and other publications on a variety of legal topics written by general practitioners. Includes international law content.

Recueil des cours = Collected Courses (Hague Academy of International Law) – the Hague Academy Collected Courses Online (Martinus Nijhoff) – books, book chapters, mini-monographs on public international law topics.

SourceOECD (see OECD iLibrary) – includes economic surveys, labor and population statistics,  member-country competition policy information, and the OECD Journal of Competition Law and Policy.

TradeLawGuide:  Innovative Tools for Researching WTO Law (World Trade Organization; international trade/economic law; dispute settlement).

Transnational Dispute Management (TDM) – TDM focuses on recent developments in the area of arbitration and dispute management.

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UN Audiovisual Library of International Law (AVL) (includes full runs of the UN Yearbook, Reports of International Arbitral Awards (R.I.A.A.), historic archives, video lecture series, bibliographies).

UN Official Document System (ODS) –  United Nations reports, sessional GA, ECOSOC, SC, and Trusteeship Council documents mostly from 1993 to the present, but also including all UN resolutions and Security Council documents back to 1946.

UN Treaty Collection –  includes the United Nations Treaty Series (UNTS), the League of Nations Treaty Series (LNTS), Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General (index, status of treaties, declarations, reservations), and other treaty-related publications.

United Nations Yearbook – Provides an annual overview of UN activities, including all major General Assembly, Security Council and Economic and Social Council resolutions.

UNSTATS – Includes international demographic, economic, and social indicator statistics.

vLex – global foreign law database which contains cases, statutes, and other legal materials in 13 languages for 134 countries. It is strongest for the law of the following countries: Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Portugal, Italy, the UK, Belgium, France, and the U.S.

Wangfang Data: Policies and Laws of China (PLOC).

Westlaw – includes case-law for Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, and the UK; U.S. treaties, International Legal Materials (ILM), international commercial arbitration databases, investor-state materials, ICJ, ICTR, ICTY, Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal, WTO, GATT decisions; European Union legislation, treaties, cases, journals (European Competition Law Review, Common Market Law Reports); International Organization (INOG), Foreign Affairs (FORGNAFF), Foreign Policy (FORGNPLY), Global Governance (GLBLGOVERN).

Westlaw also has the Legal Journals Index (LJI), UK Journals and Law Reviews (UK-JLR), Index to Canadian Legal Literature (ICLL), CANADA-JLR, Texts & Periodicals – Canada (TP-CANADA), WORLD-JLR, International Law Texts & Periodicals (INT-TP).

Westlaw > All Content >International Materials (Australia, Canada, UK, EU, including law journals).

WIPOLex – World Intellectual Property Organization law database; includes English translations of foreign copyright, patent, and trademark laws, and IP-related laws including civil codes).

Women’s Studies International.

WorldLIIWorldLII (World Legal Information Institute) – includes international decisions, treaties, constitutions, foreign and international court cases, constitutional court cases in English translation, journal articles, and links to about 50 Free Access to Law Movement (FALM) websites, other LIIs such as AustLII, BIALL, CanLII, AfricanLII.

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts.

World Trademark Review.

WorldTradeLaw.net – World Trade Organization (WTO) law database, including statistical information.

What’s Missing?

If your library or institution subscribes to or has access to other useful free or fee-based FCIL databases, or there is new information to add about the platforms and websites on this present list, please let me know so I can update this article with the information. Foreign, comparative, and international legal research in Chicago is so much easier with access to these wonderful online resources!