Foreign & Comparative Law Research University of Washington School of Law Gallagher Law Library April 11, 2005

2 Terminology Types of Legal Systems: Common Law Civil Code Combination of both Religious Law Customary Law See world-legal-systems/eng- monde.html world-legal-systems/eng- monde.html Types of Law: International Law –Public –Private (conflicts of law) Foreign Law Comparative Law Transnational Law

3 Some Considerations for Foreign Law Research Conceptual Difficulties Language Barrier English Translations –Official? –Authoritative? Current? –Free translation tools on the Web Caveat!

4 Abbreviations & Acronyms –Look in the source where you found the abbreviation –Bieber’s Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations –Index to Legal Citations and Abbreviations –World Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations –Law Reports Searchable by Abbreviation or Title –Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations Dictionaries –Search Marian (ex: french and dictionaries and english) –Fox, Dictionary of International and Comparative Law –European Commission

5 Multi-Jurisdictional Sets Reynolds & Flores, Foreign Law: Current Sources of Codes and Basic Legislation in Jurisdictions of the World Constitutions of the Countries of the World Martindale-Hubbell International Law Digest

6 Germain’s Transnational Law Research Modern Legal Systems Cyclopedia International Encyclopedia of Comparative Law Szladits, A Bibliography on Foreign and Comparative Law: Books and Articles in English Civil Law Tradition: Europe, Latin America & East Asia Introduction to Foreign Legal Systems Accidental Tourist on the New Frontier: An Introductory Guide to Global Legal Research Comparative Legal Traditions in a Nutshell

7 General Foreign Law Web Sites Law Library Resource Exchange Foreign and International Law Sources on the Internet: Annotated World Legal Information Institute Separate sites for Australasia, UK & Ireland, Canada, Hong Kong, Pacific Islands, Southern Africa, USA, and France at (see box at lower right corner of the screen)

8 Law Library of Congress “Guide to Law Online: Nations of the World” World Legal Systems monde.html FindLaw

9 Columbia University Law Library _law/foreignguide _law/forlawresources NYU Law Library Social Science Information Gateway Government Gazettes Online

10 Gallagher Law Library’s Research Guides –Chinese Law –Taiwan Law –Japanese Law –Korean Law –Foreign & Comparative Law Research –Legal and Judicial Systems in Countries Around the World

11 Foreign Law Research – General Approach 1.Begin with Secondary Sources - Understand the legal system of the country - Is there a research guide for the country? - Read analysis or commentary of your topic that puts the issues into context - Identify the sources of law

12 2.Find Primary Laws –Get primary law source names from secondary sources –English translation? –Check various library catalogs –See if laws are posted on the Web and linked from research guides on the Web –Reprinted in secondary sources? –Summary or abstract in English? –Interlibrary loan requests

13 Online Library Catalogs Marian, Gallagher Law Library’s Catalog –Golden’s Federal Statutes –Inland Revenue Board Web Site –Malaysian Master Tax Guide –Taxes and Investment in Asia and the Pacific UW Libraries’ Catalog Summit and OCLC WorldCat

14 Library of Congress Subject Heading Searches Law – (country or region) Comparative law Justice, administration of – (country or region) Legal research – (country) Courts – (country or region) ex: law – malaysia ex: justice administration of – malaysia

15 Journal Articles Periodical Indexes Full Text Databases

16 Periodical Indexes Legal Trac ( ) journals from U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand Westlaw: Legal Resource Index (LRI) Lexis: Legal Resource Index (LGLIND) Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (IFLP) ( ) legal journals published worldwide

17 Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (IFLP) cont. –Basic Search –Advanced Search “Subject words” –Legal Research AND country name –Legal System? AND country name Keywords –Legal AND country name Don’t forget to look at all the subject headings assigned to a particular article.

18 Periodical Indexes for Other Disciplines that Are Law-Related: EconLit – journals on economics PAIS International – journals on international relations, political science, and social sciences Many more discipline-specific indexes at

19 Full Text Databases Hein Online –PDF –Begins with vol. 1 –Do “Full Text Word and Phrase Search” Enter the country and keywords describing your topic Choose “all words” radio button Consider limiting by date of publication Sort by date

20 Westlaw JLR – full text (coverage begins from mid-1990s for many journals) Lexis ALLREV – full text (coverage can begin as early as mid 1980s depending on the journal)

21 Country-specific Databases Westlaw Directory > International/World Materials > Databases Listed Alphabetically by Country or Region Lexis Legal > Legal (excluding U.S.) > Country

22 UW Libraries’ Full Text Databases: JSTOR – full text of many scholarly journals Social Science Research Network (SSRN) – journal abstracts and full text of working papers for law & social sciences Project Muse – 100+ scholarly full text journals in the humanities and social sciences More full text databases at

23 Connecting from Off-Campus You can connect to online databases licensed by the Gallagher Law Library or the UW Libraries using your UW NetID. See

24 Conclusion Questions? Reference Office: –Stop by in person –Send to –