Foreign Law Research

This guide explains how to find the laws of foreign countries using resources available through UC Law SF Library. These resources include print materials available in the library, online materials available through Lexis, Westlaw, and other databases acc

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Guide Outline

This guide is about foreign law research in general but it links to guides for some specific jurisdictions including:

Introduction to Foreign Law Research

What is Foreign Law?

Foreign law and international law are not the same subjects. Foreign law, from the U.S. perspective, is the national (also referred to as domestic or internal) law of any country other than the United States; foreign law may also refer to the law of identifiable groups of foreign countries which share common legal systems or rules in a particular field of law. International law is the law that governs the relationships between different countries (e.g. treaties), international organizations and private parties (both natural and corporate). For a concise analysis of foreign law versus international law see

Language and Translations of Primary Law

Non-English speaking foreign countries may not have official translations of primary sources of law. However for some foreign jurisdictions, you may be able to find—in print—unofficial English translations of a constitution, codes of civil and criminal procedure, laws of environment, health, family, banking, taxation, social security, intellectual property, bankruptcy (insolvency), commerce, labor, etc. For some countries, comparable electronic resources may exist online.

When using English translations, keep in mind that they must be used with caution as the English-language translations usually are not authoritative, the quality of the translations may vary, and the translations may not be up-to-date. Also remember that different systems may refer to familiar legal subjects with different names. Example (UK):

Bankruptcy—Insolvency
Torts—Obligations
British English spelling used for legal systems outside the United States. (eg. US Spelling = labor; UK spelling = labour)

 

You can use legal dictionaries from other countries to determine what specific words mean as the same word may mean something different in a different country, even if the language is the same.

Although there are many English language compilations of foreign legislation—especially in the areas of taxation, trade, commercial and business law—the overall English language resources may be limited. It may be particularly difficult to locate local regulations, municipal codes and administrative court rulings. When possible, look for sources in the original language.

Non-English jurisdictions are usually not common law jurisdictions. Civil law jurisdictions rely heavily on Codes and it is important to make sure that you are using the most up-to-date version of the code. To find the most up to date Codes for a particular country, use the:

Foreign Law Citation 

Foreign Law Research Strategy

If you are looking for a guide on legal research in a particular country, try a subject search like: Legal research -- Canada.

Search Strategies

Search Strategies 

Step 1. Determine and Understand the structure of the foreign legal system

Step 2. Determine Relevant Country Background Information

Step 3. Determine what information is needed and how to find it

Step 1. Determine and understand the structure of the foreign legal system

a. Determine the type of legal system.

Step 2. Determine Relevant Country Background Information

Often you will need other information about a country, such as its GDP, its political leaders, literacy rates, etc. There are many electronic and print sources for this information.

Step 3. Determine what information is needed and how to find it

  • What information is needed?
    • Constitution, Statutes, Case Law, Journal article, etc.
    • Do you need an English translation?
    • Electronic or Print?
  • Now that you know what you need, how will you find it?
    • What information do you have that will enable you to find what you need within the   available sources?
    • You need to identify available secondary sources as well as primary ones. Do you have a   citation to the law, article, etc.? What are the dates?
    • Once you have identified the source, to determine if the item is available, consult these two sources:

Search UC Law SF Catalog

You should try a few different strategies for searching the library catalog:

  1. If you need a code and you have the name of the code, try using part, or all of the name in a keyword search and a title search.
  1. For research on smaller and more obscure countries, or for a region, try a keyword search and a title search with the name of the country or region and the word "law" will bring up secondary materials analyzing the relevant law. e.g. Latin American Law. Be aware that some countries have changed their names; you should search under both names.
  1. You can also try a subject search using the broad area of law followed by the country name e.g., criminal law Canada. Available subject headings include 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 Middle East. (Not every country will have materials indexed under every subject heading.)
  1. If you need something not covered by the subject headings above, try a keyword search: e.g., Australia privacy. You may want to repeat the keyword search with variants of the name-e.g., copyright law China, Chinese copyright law.
  1. If you are looking for a print guide on legal research in a particular country, try a subject search like:

Research guides and bibliographies may be contained in journal articles or in a chapter of a more general book.

 This guide includes information on foreign legal research.

UC Law SF Foreign Law Subscription Databases

Multijurisdictional Sources

Online Resources with Primary Law from Multiple Countries

The resources on this page provide a starting place from which to find the primary law from a non-US country. 

Find Articles

Preemption Check or Thorough Research

Find Articles and Book Chapters

To do a preemption check to ensure that no one else has written on the topic that you have in mind, you will want to do some thorough research. A logical way to do this is to start with the easiest full-text databases to search across many law journal articles at once. Each of these databases has a different collection of law journals, and sometimes there will be overlap. After running searches in full-text databases, you will want to search some free databases where people publish articles before they are officially published. Then you will want to search the Indexes, these databases cover a wider variety of journals, some of which will be outside of the scope of the full-text databases. Indexes largely provide you with information about the article, and usually have an abstract that will let you know whether or not the article is on your topic. If you want to see the full text of these articles, you may need to place an interlibrary loan if they are not available in the UC Law SF full-text databases.

Journals in Print

Full-Text Databases

Multidisciplinary Databases

These resources may be useful to ensure that your topic has not been written in a non-law journal, but these databases may also be useful later when you are doing research for your paper, because you may want to use knowledge (including statistics) from other disciplines to support your arguments.

Databases containing prepublication drafts of forthcoming articles

Search Indexes

If you want to be thorough in your searching, or if you are having difficulty finding relevant articles, you can try searching a journal index. Index searches are only search the title or abstract of the article, (NOT a full-text search).  

Advantages and Disadvantages to using an Index
Advantages to Index Searching Disadvantages to Index Searching
Legal periodical indexes allow you to search nearly all U.S. law review articles from 1918 to present. Therefore, searching these indexes allows you to search more journal articles than you can search in Lexis or Westlaw. After you find the citation, you still need to find the full-text.
Good for historical research. Your search is limited to title and abstract.
Index searching can help you eliminate many irrelevant articles from your full-text search results. But after you find the citation, you then need to find the full-text.  

Once you find a citation to an article, search for the full-text in the UC law SF Law Library's e-Journals List.

Citations and Abbreviations

If you have a citation and you cannot decipher what the abbreviation means, you can use:

To determine if UC Law SF has online access to a journal.

Search for the by journal title in:

You can also search for the journal title in:

Find articles in collections at other libraries

You can search for articles that may not be in the UC Law SF collections, using:

Obtain the full-text to articles that you have identified in Indexes, WorldCat or Google Scholar that are not in the UC Law SF Collection

If an article you have found is not in:

Books

Find Books on your Topic at UC Law SF

UC Law SF Library offers extensive resources for Chinese law research, including print & e-books. If you do not see the books that you need, you can borrow books from other institutions via interlibrary loans.

Searching UC Law SF Catalog

You should try a few different strategies for searching the library catalog:

  1. If you need a code and you have the name of the code, try using part, or all of the name in a keyword search and a title search.
  1. For research on smaller and more obscure countries, or for a region, try a keyword search and a title search with the name of the country or region and the word "law" will bring up secondary materials analyzing the relevant law. e.g. Latin American Law. Be aware that some countries have changed their names; you should search under both names.
  1. You can also try a subject search using the broad area of law followed by the country name e.g., criminal law Canada. Available subject headings include 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 Middle East. (Not every country will have materials indexed under every subject heading.)
  1. If you need something not covered by the subject headings above, try a keyword search: e.g., Australia privacy. You may want to repeat the keyword search with variants of the name-e.g., copyright law China, Chinese copyright law.
  1. If you are looking for a print guide on legal research in a particular country, try a subject search like:
  1. Research guides and bibliographies may be contained in journal articles or in a chapter of a more general book.

You can use these same search techniques to search for books in:

Or run key word searches in the full text of books in:

Google Book Search

If you find a book that you want to read, but it is not in our library, you can place an Interlibrary Loan. See:

Berkeley Law Library allows visitors to use their resources in the library

Other Foreign Law Research Guides

Foreign Law Guides

Foreign Law Research By Country

UC Law SF Foreign Law Research Guides

Canada

Canadian Law Research

Primary Law

Secondary Sources

Research Guides