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Essential Indexes and Finding Aids for Treaty Research
Essential Indexes and Finding Aids for Treaty Research
There are numerous treaty indexes for historical U.S. treaties, as well as world treaty series for international environmental legal research. In some instances, these treaty indexes are available in print and online. For international environmental law, it is most helpful to consult indexes containing world treaties, such as the United Nations Treaty Series, European Treaty Series, or EUR-Lex, and other unique online collections of world treaties like WorldLII. In the United States and depending on other jurisdictions for research, a researcher would also need to consult Treaties in Force, Treaty Actions/TIAS, and the Department of State’s Treaty Affairs website for international agreements reported under the Case-Zablocki Act. The following list of indexes and helpful online collections is not exhaustive, but the list includes comprehensive portals for international environmental legal research:
ECOLEX: This website created by the United Nations Environmental Programme and the World Conservation Union provides a wonderful portal to searching for bibliographic information of treaties, as well as national legislation and court decisions. Researchers may also use this portal to search for legal literature, such as monographs or articles.
EUR-Lex: This is the comprehensive website of the European Union and official documents. Through simple search or an advanced search, researchers can locate the main European legal provisions for international law.
European Treaty Series (Council of Europe): This digitized collection provided by the Council of Europe includes links to full-text agreements for international law, as well as charts of ratification and signature and lists of reservations, understandings, and declarations.
SICE – Trade Agreements: This site includes a nice compendium of links to full-text trade agreements by nation and by topical disciplines. The collection includes references to international environmental trade agreements, such as the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation.
UN Digital Library: The United Nations Digital Information System is essential for locating UN documentation by keyword or subject search. In most cases, the system also links to full-text documents in a variety of languages and provides essential bibliographic information for research.
UN Official Document System (“ODS”): The United Nations search of official documents is helpful to search for ready-reference to documents in international law and bibliographic information. However, full-text links are often not provided, and this system is not meant to be a substitute for research in the UN Digital Library (above).
United Nations Law Collection (HeinOnline): Search for international environmental law documentation (including treaties) in the United Nations collection archive. Subscription required.
United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP): Through a link to the “Publications & Data” on the homepage of this site of the United Nations, users can locate the full-text of environmental conventions, protocols, and agreements by sub-topic. In addition, the portals provide helpful background information about the negotiation of the treaties and related reports and manuals, if applicable.
United Nations Treaty Series (Recueil des traités) and Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General: Available through the United Nations website, this collection has all multilateral treaties deposited with the Secretary-General and is searchable by topic or title of the treaty. The treaties are presented in .PDF format, so it is especially helpful for facsimiles of the original treaty documents.
WorldLII: Through this initiative to digitize legal materials of nations of the countries of the world, researchers can locate applicable treaties, especially for Australia, Asia, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, and the South Pacific.
WTO Legal Texts: This portal includes the 1986-94 Uruguay Round negotiations by the World Trade Organization, which includes a decision pertaining to trade and international law.
Finding the National Laws of Foreign Nations
Finding the National Laws of Foreign Nations
In addition to locating the appropriate treaties and agreements for research in international environmental law, a researcher then needs to uncover any national laws of the foreign nations involved in a research question. Therefore, the following sources can help provide background information about the legal systems of countries of the world or links to the national laws of foreign nations. One basic online foreign law database for overviews of foreign laws on particular subjects, which might be available through a subscription at a local academic law library, is Foreign Law Guide: Current Sources of Codes and Basic Legislation in Jurisdictions of the World by Reynolds & Flores. The following list provides essential resources for uncovering national laws, more specifically, for international law:
Cornell’s Legal Information Institute: WorldLaw: An excellent portal for locating available codes and legislation of nations or regions of the World. This site also provides links to general international legal materials.
ECOLEX: This website developed by the United Nations Environmental Programme and the World Conservation Union provides a wonderful portal to searching for bibliographic information of treaties by sub-topic of international law, as well as national legislation, court decisions, and literature.
European Commission: Legislation Reports for Energy: Search for key legislation by country or keyword and links to Green Papers, White Papers, Legislation and Policies, and Case Studies for this subject.
FAOLEX: Focusing on food, agriculture, and renewable natural resources, this collection of laws provides excellent bibliographic information about the national laws of countries of the world as well as the full-text of most legislation included in the database. The FAO Governing Bodies page provides access to basic texts, the Fishlex database, FAO treaties, and other publications.
Foreign and Country Information (Northwestern University School of Law – Pritzker Legal Research Center): An excellent portal for accessing available research guides for countries of the world and laws by country or region or subject of research.
Foreign Law Guide: Current Sources of Codes and Basic Legislation of the World: This substantial work and research guide for locating the codes and legislation of nations of the world by Reynolds and Flores is a crucial resource to consult when researching the international environmental laws of individual countries and understanding their legal systems. Subscription required.
GlobaLex: supplements the Foreign Law Guide database of Thomas Reynolds and Arturo Flores. The foreign law section has more than 150 guides on a wide range of foreign jurisdictions.
GlobeLaw: This portal provides a comprehensive index with links to full-text documentation for treaties and national laws for international law.
Government Gazettes Online (University of Michigan): Through an A-Z list of governments of the world, researchers can locate the laws released in the official gazettes of nations of the world by title or those published online through direct links to official gazette websites.
Library of Congress: Guide to Law Online: This comprehensive portal of the available laws of the nations of the world includes sources for national legislation. Researchers would then need to search for the pertinent codes and legislation within each nation.
Martindale-Hubbell International Law Digest (LexisNexis): A nice summary of the laws on various topics, available sources, and description of the legal system for many nations of the world. A researcher can search by country and topic (environment) to retrieve the relevant national laws. Subscription required.
Sustainable Development and International Law (University of Denver Sturm College of Law Library): This site provides comprehensive links to legislation and legal databases for international sustainable development research.
WorldLII: Through the advanced search feature, researchers can locate all legislation contained in the database pertaining to the environment or a sub-topic for research by entering relevant search terms. In addition, researchers can locate codes and legislation by topic through the subject categories.
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