Research Guides: Legal Research Basics for Summer Clerkships: Foreign Law Resources

Background information about a country

When beginning to research the laws of a given country, it is often useful to start by doing some general research regarding the country. Obtaining Information regarding issues such as demographics, major economic issues and industries, foreign relations issues, and sources for statistical information often help augment legal research. Listed here are a variety of resources that can be consulted for such information.

BBC News Country Profiles
Full profiles provide an instant guide to history, politics and economic background of countries and territories, and background on key institutions.
CIA World Factbook
The World Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, energy, geography, environment, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for hundreds of world entities. Information is provided by numerous U.S. government sources.
EBSCO Business Source Complete
Business Source Complete offers indexing and abstracts for the most important scholarly business journals back to 1886. It also includes Country Reports, which provide in-depth background information on economic competitiveness for a given country, as well as background notes on the country, detailing area studies and topics related to public administration. To quickly find country reports, limit your search to "country reports" located under "publication type."
GlobalEDGE
"globalEDGE™ is a knowledge web-portal that connects international business professionals worldwide to a wealth of information, insights, and learning resources on global business activities... globalEDGE™ is your source for global business knowledge."
Library of Congress Country Studies
Contains the electronic versions of 80 books previously published in hard copy as part of the Country Studies Series by the Federal Research Division. Intended for a general audience, books in the series present a description and analysis of the historical setting and the social, economic, political, and national security systems and institutions of select countries throughout the world. Most books in the series deal with a single foreign country, but a few cover several countries or a geographic region. The series includes several books on countries that no longer exist in their original configuration—such as Czechoslovakia, East Germany, the Soviet Union, Sudan, and Yugoslavia. These books remain in the series because they continue to offer valuable historical information and perspective. In some cases, studies on successor states are also part of the series. Each book was written by a multidisciplinary team of social scientists, who sought to adhere to accepted standards of scholarly objectivity. The books represent the analysis of the authors and should not be construed as an expression of an official U.S. government position, policy, or decision.
NationMaster.com
"Compare Countries on Just about Anything!" NationMaster is a vast compilation of data from hundreds of sources. Using the search interface, you can get maps and graphs on all kinds of statistics. Statistics are also searchable by a number of broad categories such as "crime," "economy," "government," "health," and many more.
U.S. Department of State: U.S. Bilateral Relations Fact Sheets

Type of Legal System

There are a number of useful resources for determining the type of legal system for a given country. Furthermore, many works provide in-depth analysis of the features of legal systems.

CIA World Fact Book: Field Listing Legal System
This resource provides a brief description of the type of legal system for every country in the World.
University of Ottawa's JuriGlobe World Legal Systems
This resource provides a clickable global map that provides a graphical depiction of legal systems in place a given country.

There are many in-depth treatises that examine different types of legal systems in general as well as the given type of legal system in place in specific countries. Several of the major treatises in this area are listed below. Consult the "World Legal Systems Web Site: General Bibliography" for an extensive listing of articles and books addressing this topic.

World Legal Systems Web Site: General Bibliography

The Civil Law Tradition by John Henry Merryman; Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo
ISBN: 9781503606814
Publication Date: 2018-12-11
This book does not describe any specific national legal system. Instead, it offers a general overview of the legal systems of Western Europe and Latin America
An Introduction to Foreign Legal Systems by Richard Allen Danner, Marie-Louise H. Bernal, American Association of Law Libraries
ISBN: 0379213508
Publication Date: 1994
Includes chapters on a variety of legal systems including French, Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, and African. Also includes a number of helpful bibliographies and research guides.
Legal Systems of the World: a Political, Social, and Cultural Encyclopedia by edited by Herbert M. Kritzer
ISBN: 1576072312
Publication Date: 2002
This four-volume set “covers more than 400 legal systems and key concepts. Each country profile includes general information about the country, its history, information on the court structure, the evolution of its legal framework, the impact that the legal system has had on the country, and more. Includes references and a bibliography.”
Legal Traditions of the World: Sustainable Diversity in Law by H. Patrick Glenn
ISBN: 0199205418
Publication Date: 2010
Major Legal Systems in the World Today by R. David; J. E. C. Brierley
ISBN: 0420473505
Publication Date: 1985-01-01
This classic work on comparative law divides legal systems into “families of laws.” Some of those families include: Romano-Germanic, Socialist laws, Common law, and Religious and Traditional laws.

Finding the sources of law for a given country

To locate the specific sources of law (i.e. primary legal material) for a given country and analytical secondary material, there are many different tools and resources that you might need to consult. Listed here are four "Best Bets" that will often lead you to primary legal material and many useful secondary resources.

Foreign Law Guide This link opens in a new window
The Foreign Law Guide is a database offering relevant information on sources of foreign law, including complete bibliographic citations to legislation, the existence of English translations and selected references to secondary sources in one virtual destination. Approximately 190 jurisdictions are systemically covered and updated by a global team of experts.

GlobaLex - Foreign Law Research
This website provides in-depth research guides for most countries.
Library of Congress Guide to Law Online: Nations of the World
The Guide to Law Online is an annotated guide to sources of information on government and law. It includes links to useful and reliable sites for legal information from international, multinational, foreign, federal, state, territorial, and tribal jurisdictions. The Guide focuses on sites offering the full texts of laws, regulations, and court decisions, along with commentary from lawyers writing primarily for other lawyers.

Guide to International Legal Research
This extensive research guide covers the full range of international legal research as well as foreign law research. The guide includes research direction for most countries.

In addition to the four "Best Bets," numerous treatises cover the laws of multiple countries related to a given legal topic. These resources are especially useful when researching the laws of a country with a language you do not read. Use the following resources to locate these multi-national treatises:

Legal Research Basics for Summer Clerkships: Foreign Law Resources

What is "foreign law" and how do you research it?

Background information about a country

Type of Legal System

Finding the sources of law for a given country