LibGuides: Global Indigenous Law Research: Finding 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.

Full-Text Databases

UC Law SF Catalog Sample Search Indigenous IP Law
You can use this resource to search for journals or individual articles in journals, conference proceedings, dissertations or chapters in books.
Double click on Simple Search to see the Advanced search and then add search terms to limit this search to a specific topic. You can also use the subject filters on the left.
Westlaw Sample Search in Law Reviews and Journals - Indigenous IP Law
Search: ("traditional knowledge" OR "cultural expression" OR biopiracy) AND "intellectual property" AND TI("traditional knowledge" OR "cultural expression" OR biopiracy OR indigenous OR Aboriginal OR "native american" OR Maori OR Trib!)
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Comprehensive legal research system for researching primary law (cases, statutes, administrative materials, etc.) and secondary sources (treatises, law reviews, etc.). Free to UC Law SF students, faculty and staff. Registration required.
Canada Journals Sample Search Indigenous IP Law
Search: ("traditional knowledge" OR "cultural expression" OR biopiracy) AND "intellectual property" AND TI("traditional knowledge" OR "cultural expression" OR biopiracy OR indigenous OR Aboriginal OR "native american" OR Maori OR Trib!)
Lexis+ Sample Search Law Reviews and Journals - Indigenous IP Law
Search: ("traditional knowledge" OR "cultural expression" OR biopiracy) AND "intellectual property" and title("traditional knowledge" OR "cultural expression" OR biopiracy OR indigenous OR Aboriginal OR "native american" OR Maori OR Trib!)
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Comprehensive legal research system for researching primary law (cases, statutes, administrative materials, etc.) and secondary sources (treatises, law reviews, etc.). Free to UC Law SF students, faculty and staff. Registration required; contact the library for registration information. Refresh the page if the link does not work.
Canada Law Reviews and Journals Sample Search Indigenous IP Law
Search: ("traditional knowledge" OR "cultural expression" OR biopiracy) AND "intellectual property"
Use the "Select sources to search" feature under the search bar, to limit your search to some but not all of these journals.
Law Journal Library (HeinOnline) Sample Search Indigenous IP Law
Search: ((("traditional knowledge" OR "cultural expression" OR biopiracy) AND ("intellectual property" )) AND title:("traditional knowledge" OR "cultural expression" OR biopiracy OR indigenous OR Aboriginal OR "native american" OR Maori OR Tribe OR Tribal))
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Contains more than 2,500 law and law-related periodicals. Coverage for all journals is from inception and goes through the most currently published issues allowed based on contracts with publishers. Search by article title, author, subject, state or country published, full text, and narrow by date.
A-Z Database List
You can access all of the subscription databases on campus. If you are not on campus, after you click the database link you will be directed to a sign-in page. To use the database off-campus, either enter your UC Law SF email username and password or enter your name (as shown on your UC Law SF ID) and your ID barcode number.

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.

Academic Search Complete
Full text coverage of a wide array of multidisciplinary academic journals.
Academic Search Complete Sample Search Indigenous IP Law
((("traditional knowledge" OR "cultural expression" OR biopiracy) AND ("intellectual property" )) AND title:("traditional knowledge" OR "cultural expression" OR biopiracy OR indigenous OR Aboriginal OR "native american" OR Maori OR Tribe OR Tribal))
Cambridge Core
Click "Only Search Content I Have Access To" to access full text multidisciplinary academic journals published by Cambridge University Press. You can also search the full Cambridge Core site for 1000's of Cambridge publications, although only abstracts are available for most Cambridge books and journals.
Cambridge Core Sample Search Indigenous IP Law
Search: "traditional knowledge" OR "cultural expression" OR biopiracy OR indigenous OR Tribal OR maori OR aboriginal) AND ("intellectual property" )
JSTOR
Articles and e-books covering general disciplines including Arts & Sciences; Business; Life Sciences.
JSTOR Sample Search Indigenous IP Law
((("traditional knowledge" OR "cultural expression" OR biopiracy) AND ("intellectual property" )) AND (ti:""traditional knowledge" OR "cultural expression" OR biopiracy OR indigenous OR Aboriginal OR "native american" OR Maori OR Tribe OR Tribal"))
Oxford Journals Online
Searchable online access to the full range of journals published by Oxford University. Search in individual or mulitple titles, or by subject areas: Humanities, Law, Life Sciences, Mathematics and Physical Science, Medicine and Social Sciences. 1996- current.
Oxford Journals Online Sample Search Indigenous IP Law
"traditional knowledge" OR "cultural expression" OR biopiracy AND "intellectual property" AND Indigenous
ProQuest Central
The largest aggregated full-text database of journal articles, magazines, newspapers and dissertations for information on a broad range of general reference subjects such as business, political science, art, literature and psychology. Search 24 databases at ProQuest central or choose a subject database.
ProQuest Central Sample Search Indigenous IP Law
summary("traditional knowledge" OR "cultural expression" OR biopiracy) AND summary("intellectual property") AND title("traditional knowledge" OR "cultural expression" OR biopiracy OR indigenous OR Aboriginal OR "native american" OR Maori OR Tribe OR Tribal)

Databases containing prepublication drafts of forthcoming articles

Legal Scholarship Network (LSN)
LSN is part of the the Social Science Research Network (SSRN). You can search LSN for early scholarly legal research (many papers are posted here prior to publication in academic journals). Or you can search the papers posted on LSN using the advanced search features available at SSRN.
SSRN Search Indigenous IP Law
("traditional knowledge" OR "cultural expression" OR biopiracy) AND ("intellectual property" ) AND indigenous site:ssrn.com
bepress Legal Repository
Free online access to working papers and pre-prints from scholars and professionals at top law schools around the world.
bepress Legal Repository Sample Search Indigenous IP Law
( "traditional knowledge" OR "cultural expression" OR biopiracy OR "cultural property" ) AND abstract:( "intellectual property" OR copyright OR patent OR trademark OR "trade secret" ) AND title:( "traditional knowledge" OR "cultural expression" OR biopiracy OR indigenous OR Aboriginal OR "native american" OR Maori OR Tribe OR Tribal )

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).

Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (IFLP)
A subject index to selected international and comparative law periodicals and collections of essays. Features in-depth English subject headings for searching foreign language articles. See below for sample search.
Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (IFLP) Sample Search Indigenous IP Law
Subject: Intellectual Property
Subject: Indigenous Peoples
Index to Legal Periodicals and Books
Full text and citations from legal periodicals and books. Periodical coverage includes law reviews, bar association journals, university publications, yearbooks, institutes, and government publications. Coverage: 1981 - present; Retrospective Coverage: 1908-1981. Links to full text for most citations. See below for sample search.
Index to Legal Periodicals and Books Sample Search Indigenous IP Law
( "traditional knowledge" OR "cultural expression" OR biopiracy ) AND intellectual property law AND TI ( "traditional knowledge" OR "cultural expression" OR biopiracy OR indigenous OR Aboriginal OR "native american" OR Maori OR Tribe OR Tribal )

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:

Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations

The Bluebook by Harvard Law Review Association (Compiled by); Columbia Law Review (Compiled by); University of Pennsylvania Law Review (Compiled by); The Yale Law Journal (Compiled by)
Call Number: Reference Desk ; KF245 .U5 2020
ISBN: 9780578666150
Publication Date: 2020-05-20
A how-to guide providing easy-to-comprehend instruction for the everyday citation needs of first-year law students, summer associates, law clerks, practicing lawyers, and other legal professionals. The examples used throughout the Bluepages employ simple typeface conventions common in the legal profession.
Prince's Bieber Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations by Mary Miles Prince
Call Number: Reference Desk ; KF246 .B46 2017
ISBN: 9780837740393
Publication Date: 2017-01-01

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

Search for the by journal title in:

UC Law SF Library e-Journals List
Search by Journal title, not article title.

You can also search for the journal title in:

UC Law SF Library Catalog Search
Lexis+ All Law Reviews & Journals
List of all Law Reviews & Journals. Search within sources for the title of the Journal of interest to you.
Westlaw Content Finder
Enter the title of the Journal.
HeinOnline
HeinOnline includes full-text access to more than 1,500 law journals, and current and classic legal sources. It provides exact page images of the documents in PDF format just as they appear in the original print.
Browse to see the available e-journals on SSRN

Journals in Print

UC Law SF Library Catalog Search