Introduction
This guide describes how to find the laws of foreign countries using resources at the University of Minnesota, on Westlaw and Lexis, and on the internet. The emphasis is on codes and statutes rather than cases. The guide will also help you find secondary materials that describe other countries' laws. It includes links to websites and to other guides. This is a generic guide; if the Library has a more specific guide for the jurisdiction you want (France, Germany, Great Britain, Canada, Sweden, or the Netherlands), use that guide instead of this one.
Although the U of M has a large collection of foreign law, and the internet provides additional resources, it is sometimes impossible to find current foreign law on a topic, particularly in translation. Very few foreign laws, and even fewer cases, are translated into English. Section VII suggests a few methods of last resort.
Citation: The best guide to foreign legal citation is probably New York University's Guide to Foreign and International Legal Citations. See also Table 2 of The Bluebook (18th ed., 2005).
Starting Points
- Find out whether the country has a current, published set of laws. The usual starting point is Thomas H. Reynolds & Arturo A. Flores, Foreign Law: Current Sources of Codes and Basic Legislation in Jurisdictions of the World. This database is arranged by country, and provides a brief introduction to the legal system in addition to listing current codes and laws. Also, it identifies available English translations. Available from the Law Library's Law-Related Databases page at http://www.law.umn.edu/library/ERDirectory.html, or at http://foreignlawguide.com/ip/ for U of M community members.
- If your question is fairly simple, try Martindale-Hubbell International Law Digest, K 68 .M38x (on Reserve, in the Reference Office, and on Lexis). This volume, updated yearly, provides short summaries of countries' laws under standard topics (e.g., Wills), including the names of some statutes and codes.
- Two websites have excellent collections of country guides to foreign legal materials; LLRX at http://www.llrx.com/category/1050, and GlobaLex at http://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/index.html. Some of the guides include print as well as electronic sources. These guides cover fewer countries than the two sources above.
- The library has research guides for some countries on its web page, under Research Guides and Pathfinders. These guides are tailored for the U of M's collection, but include web links.
- The library also has many guides to various countries' legal systems in its print collection. Many of these are located in the reference office. You can search for them in MNCAT using a subject search; e.g., legal research Belgium.
- Modern Legal Systems Cyclopedia (Kenneth Robert Redden ed., 1984- ). Buffalo, N.Y.: Hein, Reference K 530 .M62 1984. Provides general information about countries' legal systems, but not details.
- Guide to International Legal research, KZ1234 .G85x latest edition on reserve). This guide includes information on foreign legal research.
- For Chinese law, the Law Library offers access to the isinolaw database (available to users in the Law Library or via Law IP addresses).
- The Law Library of Congress's Multinational Collections Database helps identify publications that cover foreign law on particular subjects or for particular countries. Use the search mechanism to get a list of titles, then search for the titles in MNCAT to see whether the Law Library owns them.
- International encyclopedia of comparative law (R. David et al. ed., 1973- ) New York, Oceana, K530 .I57 1973. v. 1. Includes national reports and comparative law descriptions of family law, property and trust, contracts, torts, business, copyright and industrial property, labor law, and civil procedure. Much of the information is outdated, unfortunately.
Wilson Library's Business Reference Department also has several good regional guides focused on doing business in foreign countries: http://www.lib.umn.edu/site/rqs.phtml?subject_id=134 (scroll down to "Doing Business in Another Country").
Searching MNCAT
You should try a few different strategies for searching the library catalog (MNCAT):
- If you get the name of a code from one of the sources above, try it as a title or keyword search. For example, you can find the German Civil Code through a title search: Burgerliches Gesetzbuch.
- If you're looking for materials on a relatively small country, you may want to use a simple keyword search with that country's name and the word law, e.g., Angola law. Be careful with countries that have changed their names (e.g., Myanmar/Burma, Burkina Faso/Upper Volta); you should search under both names.
- You may also want to try subject searches with the broad area of law followed by the country; e.g., criminal law china. Commonly-used subjects are administrative law, civil law, civil procedure, commercial law, contracts, criminal law, criminal procedure, labor laws and legislation, real property, securities, and taxation law and legislation. Some narrower topics are included; e.g., antitrust law France. (Not every country will have materials indexed under every subject heading.)
- If you need something not covered by the subject headings above, try a keyword search: e.g., Australia privacy. You may want to add a question mark at the end of the country name to capture its use as an adjective-e.g., Australia? or Japan? or repeat the keyword search with variants of the name-e.g., France securities, then French securities.
Subject Collections
One very useful source of information on current foreign law is the
subject collection. Most of these describe other countries' laws; a few provide
the texts. The U of M has several excellent collections on various subjects,
some of which are listed below. One way to find a subject collection that covers
the country of your interest is to use the Law Library of Congress's Multinational Collections Database.
Antitrust- Foreign Antitrust Laws, Chapter 16, in Wilbur L. Fugate,
Foreign Commerce and the Antitrust Laws. 5th ed. (1996-). 2 vol. with annual
supplement. Covers EU and member countries, United Kingdom, Canada, and Japan.
KF1976.F8 1996.
Antitrust- Competition Law in Western Europe and the USA (1976- ).
K3856.C65.
Antitrust- World Antitrust Law and Practice: A Comprehensive Manual for
Lawyers and Businesses (1995- ). K3850.W67.
Business organizations- Corporations and Partnerships (1991- ).
(International Encyclopaedia of Laws Series; Koen Geens ed.) K1315.4.C675x.
Business organizations- Company Law in Europe. (Richard Thomas ed.
1990- ). Looseleaf; country-by-country approach. For each country, covers
acquisitions, joint ventures, and investment law and investment regulation. A
chapter on European Communities law on harmonization of company law in the
member states is included. KJC2448.C66x. See also Guide to European
Company Laws (Julian Maitland-Walker ed. 1997). KJC2432.G84 1997.
Commercial law- Digest of Commercial Laws of the World.(1966-1998.) 10
v. Loose-leaf. Country-by-country arrangement of commercial laws. Also includes
two volumes of forms and texts of some international documents. K1005.4.D54
1966.
Commercial law- Digest of Commercial Laws of the World (1998- ). Rev.
ed. Revised edition of the set above. K1005.4.D54.
Commercial law- The subscription database RIA Checkpoint contains
Commercial Laws of the World, English translations of foreign laws
relating to contracts, leasing, business organizations, and other
commercial topics. The earlier print version, Commercial Laws of the
World (1976-2006), is at K1004.15 1976.
Constitutions--Constitutions
of the Countries of the World: A Series of Updated Texts, Constitutional
Chronologies and Annotated Bibliographies (A. P. Blaustein and G. H.
Flanz, 1971- ). K3157.A2B58. (Philip Raworth ed., 1998- ) K3157.E5C653. Constitutions
of Dependencies and Special Sovereignties (Albert P. Blaustein &
Phyllis M. Blaustein eds., 1975-1997). K3157.E5C65.
The Law Library now subscribes to the titles above electronically as
well as in print. U of M community and in-library use only.
Copyright- Copyright and Related Rights Laws and Treaties (1987- ),
K1419.2 .C67x. World intellectual property rights and remedies (1999- )
K1401.W67x; Digest of intellectual property laws of the world (1990-1998)
K1401.A49 D54x 1990.
Family law- International Encyclopaedia of Laws -Family and Succession Law
(1997- ), K670.F35x; The International Survey of Family Law (1994- ),
K670.A13 I58x; Internal and Intercountry Adoption Laws (1996- )
K7187.I58x .
Health law- International Digest of Health Legislation (1948-1999) Per
.I553. After 1999, available on the web at http://www.who.int/idhl-rils/frame.cfm?language=english
Health/population law- Annual Review of
Population Law (1976-1997). Print version has ceased publication. K
2000.A53 A5. For an updated version, see http://annualreview.law.harvard.edu/annual_review.htm.
Intellectual property- World Intellectual Property Rights and
Remedies(1999- ) K1401 .W67x. (Formerly part of Commercial Laws of the
World; 1990-1998 volumes are at K1401.A49 D54x 1990.)
Investment law- Investment Promotion and Protection Treaties (1983- ).
K1112.A35I58 1983.
Investment law- Investment Laws of the World. (1973- ). 10 v.
Country-by-country arrangement. K1112.A48 1973.
Labor law- International Encyclopaedia for Labour Law and Industrial
Relations (1977- ) K1705 .I57.
Mergers and acquisitions- Corporate Acquisitions and Mergers (Peter F.
C. Begg ed. 1999- ). K1362.C67x.
Patent- Industrial Property Laws and Treaties (1998- ) K1401.A13I56x.
Securities regulation- International Capital Markets and Securities
Regulation (1982- ). K1331.I57 1982.
Taxation- The subscription database RIA Checkpoint contains Tax Laws
of the World, English translations of foreign laws relating to taxation.
The earlier print version is Tax Laws of the World [Country name]. Call
number depends on country.
Periodicals
Sometimes periodicals are the only source for the text of foreign
legislation, and they are often a good source for descriptions of foreign law.
Indexes
The two Anglo-American periodical indexes Index to Legal Periodicals
(ILP) Reference K33.I54x, and LegalTrac are worth checking, because articles
sometimes provide comparisons with foreign legal systems. Both indexes can be
accessed electronically by U of M students, staff and faculty. Other patrons can
get electronic access by asking in the Reference Office.
Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (IFLP), Reference K33.I55x, can be
accessed electronically by U of M students, staff and faculty at the law
school. Other patrons can get electronic access by asking in the Reference
Office.
Individual Titles
Inter-American Trade Report Per .I5293. This newsletter
contains summaries of various Latin American and South American countries' legal
rules on various commercial topics, including electronic commerce.
International Digest of Health Legislation (1948-1999) Per
.I553. After 1999, it's only available on the web, at http://www.who.int/idhl-rils/frame.cfm?language=english.
LexisNexis & Westlaw
Note: LexisNexis and Westlaw are available to U of M Law School
students, faculty and staff.
Both LexisNexis and Westlaw provide European
Union cases and legislation. For both services, currentness is sometimes a
problem; pay attention to clues about when the database was last updated. (On
Westlaw, check the green lowercase "i." On Lexis, click on the lowercase
"i." )
Databases come and go from LexisNexis and Westlaw. It's always worth
checking whether these companies have added new databases. The following
information was correct as of September 2007, and language of materials is
English unless otherwise noted:
LexisNexis provides databases for several countries, including the following:
Argentina (codes and laws, in Spanish, but only through 1997), Australia
(cases), Brunei (cases), Canada (cases, laws, regulations), England and Wales
(cases, laws, regulations), EU (cases, laws, regulations, and other materials,
mostly in English), France (some laws, in French), Hong Kong (cases, laws,
regulations), Hungary (laws, 1990-2002), India (cases, ending in 2004), Ireland
(cases), Italy (selected laws, 1991-, some cases; all in Italian), Malaysia
(cases, laws), Mexico (cases; Diario Oficial from Oct. 2005; civil, commercial,
and penal codes and laws; some states' laws and regulations; all in Spanish),
New Zealand (cases), Northern Ireland (cases), Russia (selected business laws,
older laws), Scotland (cases, regulations), Singapore (cases), South Africa
(cases, laws), UK (cases, laws, regulations).
Westlaw provides databases for fewer countries, including the
following: Australia (cases), Hong Kong (cases, laws), Bermuda and the
Cayman Islands (insurance statutes and regulations), Canada (cases, laws,
regulations; Quebec statutes in French and English), EU (cases, laws, and other
materials, mostly in English), Mexico (some laws, in Spanish), UK (cases,
laws, regulations).
Westlaw also has English-language environmental laws and arbitration laws for
some countries.
The Internet
The internet has become an increasingly important source for foreign law. The amount of information available varies widely among jurisdictions, however, and the quality and currentness of information also varies widely.
This section lists several key sources, but many of these sources link to additional sites.
General law:
World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII) (http://www.worldlii.org). WorldLII provides a single search facility for databases located on the following Legal Information Institutes: AustLII; BAILII; CanLII; HKLII; LII (Cornell); and PacLII. This site is a good first stop in a search for law online. The "Catalog" page is arranged by country (http://www.worldlii.org/catalog/215.html).
LLRX (Law Librarians' Resource Exchange), Comparative & Foreign Law Guides http://www.llrx.com/category/1050. Collection of guides written by legal research experts. Doesn't contain actual text of laws, but will point to good online sources where available. Many of the guides also refer to print sources, especially for English-language versions.
WashLaw Web-Foreign and International Law: http://www.washlaw.edu/forint/forintmain.html Searchable index of foreign and international law resources. Each country for which any information is available is indexed, with a list of available resources under the country name. Most links have at least a brief annotation and tell whether the site's information is in English.
FindLaw-International Law -Countries: http://www.findlaw.com/12international/index.html List of links by country, similar to the WashLaw Web, above.
The Guide to Law Online (http://www.loc.gov/law/guide) prepared by the U.S. Law Library of Congress for the Global Legal Information Network (GLIN), is an annotated guide to sources of information worldwide on government and law available online without charge.
Louisiana State University Law Library, Civil Codes on the Web, http://www.law.lsu.edu/globals/pdfs/Library/pathfinders/Civil_Codes.pdf. Great collection of links to civil codes around the world, updated Jan. 2007.
Harvard Law Library, Guide to Researching Foreign Law on the Internet, (http://www.law.harvard.edu/library/services/research/guides/international/web_resources/internet_foreign_law.php), from Harvard Law School Library. The “Foreign Law” link under “Getting Started” leads to an alphabetically-arranged list of resources by country.
Swiss Institute of Comparative Law http://isdc.ch Click on “droit en ligne.” Select a country for links to legislation and case law. Particularly useful when searching for foreign cases online.
New York University's Guide to Foreign and International Legal Databases- Foreign Databases- By Jurisdiction: http://www.law.nyu.edu/library/foreign_intl/country.html The law librarian responsible for this site, Mirela Roznovschi, has written the leading guide to evaluating the reliability of foreign legal databases on the web. Thus, you can rely on the sources to which this guide links, but there are fewer than in other guides. (Note: Some listed resources are open only to NYU students; some are fee-based.)
GLIN (Global Legal Information Network): http://www.glin.gov GLIN is a project to put reliable versions of member countries' laws on the web. Most member nations are smaller or less-wealthy countries, but the US, UK and Spain are represented. The goal is to provide English abstracts along with original-language text. Currently, the original-language texts are not available to non-GLIN members; however, anyone can access the abstracts. An online thesaurus lets you find likely terms before starting your search, thereby increasing your chance of finding the right material. (Many of the citations in GLIN are to official government gazettes; see Government Gazettes Online, next entry.)
Government Gazettes Online, http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/gazettes/index.htm. This site, which made its debut in 2003, attempts to link to all online government gazettes and to describe their characteristics. A description of the contents and coverage are included for each gazette.
World Law Guide, http://www.lexadin.nl/wlg. Click on “Legislation.” Links to a variety of national laws, arranged by country.
Civil Codes, Civil Procedure and Jurisprudence (http://www.law.nyu.edu/library/foreign_intl/civilproc.html#Internet%20Databases ). From the experts at NYU; links to sources of civil codes, cases, etc. on the web.
tralac [Trade Law Centre for Southern Africa] Legislation from Africa, https://www.givengain.com/cgi-bin/giga.cgi?c=1694 Contains selected laws from various countries in southern Africa, along with documents (agreements, etc.) from COMESA, SACU, SADC, and other regional organizations.
Specific subjects:
Agriculture: FAOLEX http://faolex.fao.org/faolex/, the UN’s collection of national laws on food, agriculture, energy, and renewable natural resources.
Antitrust/Competition law: International Bar Association, Global Competition Forum, http://www.globalcompetitionforum.org. Laws in English or the vernacular.
Banking:
Center for the Study of Central Banks, http://www.law.nyu.edu/centralbankscenter/texts/order.html; banking laws from various countries, either in English or the vernacular.
Bankruptcy: The World Bank's Global Insolvency Law Database, available from http://go.worldbank.org/XM8XQMX2U0
Citizenship/Nationality: The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees' REFWORLD website has a database of laws on citizenship and nationality. To access the database go to the "Browse By Topics" page on the REFWORLD web site and select Citizenship Laws.
The Federal Personnel Manual's short summaries of foreign citizenship and nationality laws are available at http://www.opm.gov/extra/investigate/IS-01.pdf.
Commercial/business law:
Transnational Law Database (Center for Transnational Law (CENTRAL), Westfaelische Wilhelms-Universitaet, Muenster, Germany; sponsored by the Ministry of Schools, Science and Research of North Rhine-Westphalia) http://www.tldb.net/ Covers international contract law and international commercial arbitration.
Country Commercial Guides (Commerce Department): (http://www.export.gov/mrktresearch/exp_download_mr.asp) Business climate information along with skeletal information about relevant legal constraints. Click on the "Market Research Library" link to get to the search screen and then select "Country Commercial Guides" under the "Report Type" field.
International Centre for Not-for-Profit Law Online Library: Laws are arranged by country and include tax laws, laws of association, procurement, employment and other topics. http://www.icnl.org/knowledge/library/index.php
The National Law Center for Inter-American Free Trade (http://www.natlaw.com). Site owners also publish the Inter-American Trade Report (see under "Periodicals," above). Contains English translations of trade and business laws of Latin American countries; however, most of the content is fee-based.
Global Banking Law Database (http://www.gbld.org). Provided by the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund. Contains full texts of laws in English translation on banking and many related financial and corporate law topics. Has at least some materials for the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, European Union, France, Germany, Indonesia, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovak Republic, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, and the U.S.
Law Reform in Transition States, http://www.cis-legal-reform.org/#legal-database-lexinfosys-eng. English translations or vernacular versions of selected business and commercial laws, not updated after August 2004; covers Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Some civil codes. Some Russian and German translations.
Constitutions:
International Constitutional Law (ICL) (http://www.servat.unibe.ch/law/icl/index.html)(in most cases, provides English translations).Constitution Finder (http://confinder.richmond.edu) (provides links; constitutions may be in vernacular).
Criminal law:
Criminal Law Resources on the Internet (http://wings.buffalo.edu/law/bclc/resource.htm) From the Buffalo Criminal Law Center.
U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime - Legal Library (UNODC) (http://www.unodc.org/enl/index.html). Provides narcotics laws, in English, French or Spanish, for many countries.
Criminal procedure:
M.E.I. Brienen & E.H. Hoegen, Victims of Crime in 22 European Criminal Justice Systems (2000), http://rechten.uvt.nl/victimology/Brienenhoegen/BH.html. Goes beyond the role of victims presents a detailed account of criminal prosecution in each country covered.
Cyberlaw/privacy:
Privacy and Human Rights (http://www.privacyinternational.org/survey/_index.html). Sponsored by Privacy International. Country reports contain information on national laws, cases and issues.
Environmental protection:
Ecolex: A Gateway to Environmental Law (http://www.ecolex.org/start.php). Select "Legislation" to search for national or provincial legislation.
European Environmental Laws, T.M.C. Asser Institute, http://www.eel.nl. Laws in English or the vernacular. Mostly Western Europe; some Eastern European country materials.
Family law:
State Department's Private International Law page on Family Law: http://www.state.gov/s/l/fam_law.
Human rights/humanitarian law:
International Humanitarian Law(IHL) database (http://www.icrc.org/ihl-nat.nsf). From the International Committee of the Red Cross. Contains national laws implementing humanitarian law; also includes some national cases.
MINELRES (http://www.minelres.lv/NationalLegislation/natleg.htm). Directory of resources on minority human rights and related problems of the transition period in Eastern and Central Europe; includes some national laws in English and original languages. Topics include Citizenship, Education, Media/Telecommunications, Elections/Political Parties, Labor, Penal/Criminal Law, Cultural Autonomy, Language, Minorities/Ethnic Groups, Constitution, and Aliens.
Intellectual property:
National Copyright Legislation
(http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=14076&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html).
This UNESCO site provides full-text laws from some member states.
Collection of Laws for Electronic Access (CLEA) http://www.wipo.int/clea/en/. Provided by WIPO, this site provides text of IP laws from various countries.
Labor:
NATLEX http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex_browse.home?p_lang=en Provided by the International Labour Organization (ILO), this site has labor laws, or summaries of laws, from a large collection of countries. Some are in English.
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