International Collections of Links to Legal Resources Worldwide

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Note that the resources listed here are mainly world-wide collections prepared by governmental, academic and other bodies. Resources relating to particular areas of the world may be covered in other parts of this site, e.g. Ireland, Europe generally, Middle East, USA, Canada, South America, Australia and new Zealand, Asia, and the Pacific, Africa, South America.

Last updated on December 26th.

Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is the world organization of parliaments of sovereign States. It was established in 1889 and is based in Geneva. The Union is the focal point for world-wide parliamentary dialogue and works for the firm establishment of representative democracy. The site provides a useful reference point for Parliaments of all nations. Over a hundred national parliaments are currently members of the IPU.

CIA World Fact Book provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 266 world entities. There are maps of the major world regions, as well as Flags of the World, a Physical Map of the World, a Political Map of the World, and a Standard Time Zones of the World map. This site is not specifically legal, but it is an astounding resource.

World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII) is the umbrella organisation for the worldwide "family" of Legal Information Institutes. There is a single search facility across all these and in addition, a searchable collection of its own databases not found on the individual LIIs. These include databases of decisions of International Courts and Tribunals, databases from a number of Asian countries, databases from South Africa (provided by Wits Law School), and some law journals. Over 270 databases from 48 jurisdictions in 20 countries are included. A special feature on the site is the The WorldLII Catalog which provides links to over 15,000 law-related web sites in every country in the world. Other LII's, for direct access, include these:

  • AustLII (the Australasian Legal Information Institute)
  • CanLII (the Canadian Legal Information Institute)
  • CommonLII (Commonwealth Legal Information Institute)
  • PacLII (the Pacific Islands Legal Information Institute)
  • HKLII (the Hong Kong Legal Information Institute)
  • SafLII (South Africa materials)
A full list of LIIs can be found here.

The Global Legal Information Network (GLIN) is a public database of laws, regulations, judicial decisions, and other complementary legal sources contributed by governmental agencies and international organizations. These GLIN members contribute the official full texts of published documents to the database in their original language. Each document is accompanied by a summary in English and subject terms selected from the multilingual index to GLIN. All summaries are available to the public, and public access to full texts is also available in participating jurisdictions. About half of the abstracts in GLIN provide links to the full texts of the legislation, court decisions and other documents that are abstracted. GLIN is now included in the World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII) structure, as above.

Electronic Information System for International Law (EISIL) has been developed by the American Society of International Law, a scholarly association that has been a leader in the analysis, dissemination and development of international law since 1906. The aim of the site is to help web searchers locate the highest quality primary materials, authoritative web sites and helpful research guides to international law on the Internet. To this end, EISIL has been designed as an open database of authenticated primary and other materials across the breadth of international law, which until now have been scattered in libraries, archives and specialized web sites. Areas covered include Environmental Law, Economic Law, Human Rights, Criminal Law, Communications, Disputes and the Use of Force and Private International Law. As well as a direct link to the resources described, there is a 'More Information' button on each record, providing legal citations, entry into force and signature dates, amendments and brief descriptions.

FLAG (Foreign Law Guide) is a free database covering international legal resources held by UK law librariaes in Universites and research institutes including the British Library, the Advocates Library and the National Library of Wales. There are 10,000 records relating to the resources held - many often previously not widely known about. Note that this is a guide to where the printed - often historic - collections are held, not a guide to internet resources (many of these historic resources will never be available on the internet). The database has been compiled by a partnership of libraries led by the Institute of Advanced Legal studies at the University of London and has been financed by UK higher education funding bodies. The study has taken two years and has involved a shelf by shelf study of each library's contents carried out by Dr Peter Clinch. It will be kept up to date by an annual review of changes to the stock of all contributing libraries. It is possible to select not only the country, the type of legal material and the area of law, but also the region in which a collection is held (so you can find the nearest source of the material).

Intute is a free online service that helps users find the best web resources for their studies and research with an international approach. Subject specialists (there is a major law section) review and evaluate thousands of resources for this site. Intute is created by a consortium of seven UK universities. 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. The jurisdictional coverage is wide, covering over 200 countries as well as international law.

FLARE (Foreign Law Research) is a collaboration between the major libraries collecting law in the United Kingdom: Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Bodleian Law Library, Squire Law Library, British Library, and School of Oriental and African Studies. It is working to improve the coverage and accessibility of foreign legal materials at the national level and to raise expertise in their use. The work is currently focused on improving national coverage of the law of the transition states of central and Eastern Europe and building a distributed national collection of official gazettes.

The United Nations provides an International Law collection of sources, treaties, courts, tribunals and links. As it says: International law is a primary concern of the United Nations. The mandate for the activities in this field emanates from the Charter of the United Nations which, in its Preamble, sets the goal "to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained".

International Court of Justice at the Hague, with full text judgments since 1996 and other material. As it says about itself: The International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court, is located in the Hague (Netherlands). It is the principal judicial body of the United Nations. The Court was founded in 1946 to replace the Permanent Court of International Justice.

The Findlaw searching process can also be used to find international resources at www.findlaw.com/12international/countries/index.html. You can choose a country and also the type of resource you want to find.

A selection of International Legal Resources, subdivided by country, has been created by the Yahoo search tool. There is a parallel collection of Governmental resources.

Global Competition Forum is a new site set up by the International Bar Association. You can click on a region in the world map and be linked directly to the most current versions of the world's competition laws, national competition authorities and international organisations. There are also articles, speeches, and commentary. This site facilitates the IBA's work with the International Competition Network (ICN). The site provides coverage of the competition laws and practice of 126 countries: 24 African jurisdictions, 29 Mid-East and Eastern regimes, 43 European systems, 14 in North and Central America, 12 in Southern America and 4 in Oceana. In each case, the most up-to-date text of the country's governing legislation is displayed, together with all relevant forms, regulations, interpretative guidelines, annual reports, co-operation agreements and press releases. There are over 600 links to all of the world's known competition agency sites, as well as to those maintained by international organisations such as the World Bank, World Trade Organisation (WTO), OECD and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) as well as multiple academic institutions.

International Rule of Law Directory is a new initiative from the International Bar Association (IBA). It will be a worldwide directory of organisations offering assistance to the rule of law. Viewers will be able to access each organisation's website, identify its area of focus, geographical reach and contact details. There is no information in the register yet - just a series of categories under which appropirate organisations can register with the site, for eventual inclusion. Thre are 10 categories, e.g. category 1 is "Organisations monitoring, advising and assisting lawyers and human rights defenders" and Category 2 is "Organisations offering assistance in the administration of justice".

The Commonwealth and International Human Rights Case Law Database provides summaries of recent human rights decisions from national courts in Commonwealth jurisdictions free of charge through a browse facility and a search engine. Many of the cases summarised are unpublished decisions which are not readily available in other jurisdictions. The database holds over 2,000 summaries dating back to the mid 1990s. The database is hosted by Interights, the International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights.

"Lex Mercatoria" is an collection of resources for international commercial law and e-commerce provided by The University of Troms, Norway and three other collaborating universities. It provides access to a large collection of treaties, conventions, model laws and documents.

The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (referred to as UNCITRAL) is the core legal body of the United Nations in the field of International Trade Law.

International Correspondence Lawyers is a directory provided by a German publisher Daten Info Service Eibl GmbH. The directory provides lawyers worldwide with an opportunity to present their company details, correspondence languages and fields of expertise. There is also an associated directory of financial advisors and tax consultants. The site also provides general information on tax rates, legal forms of companies and requirements for setting up a company in more than 70 countries. There is also a section called Law National Organizations which lists significant organisations (Bar Associations, Law Societies, Courts, Parliament, legislation) for all these countries which would be a good starting point for any search relating to legal information. There is a similar listing of International Law Organizations.

Tax Planet is a global network of legal and accounting professionals focusing on tax (domestic and international). International tax work without a global team of professionals is virtually impossible, even for SMEs and individuals. Tax Planet strives to achieve a global presence in numerous countries with the size of the team in proportion to a country's size, complexity and international impact. The site has a research section containing mainly tax and tax-related links and information on countries, international organisations and global issues. There are many deep-links to selected pages with useful contents to facilitate research work.



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