Sources of International Law

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Sources of International Law
STATUTE OF THE ICJ, Article
38(1) The Court, whose function is to decide in
accordance with international law such disputes
as are submitted to it, shall apply a.
international conventions, whether general or
particular, establishing rules
expressly recognized by the contesting states
b. international custom, as evidence of a
general practice accepted as law
c. the general principles of law recognized by
civilized nations d. subject to the
provisions of Article 59, judicial decisions
and the teachings of the most highly
qualified publicists of the various
nations, as subsidiary means for the
determination of rules of law.
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START WITH SECONDARY SOURCES RESEARCH GUIDES

• Secondary sources will explain and analyze the
  law, provide references to the primary sources,
  and familiarize you with terms of art.
• Research guides will help you develop a research
  strategy and find the most important sources.

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How to Find Law Review Articles

• Indexes
• LegalTrac
• Index to Legal Periodicals Books
• Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals
• Lexis Westlaw
• Abstracts
• LegalTrac
• Full-text
• Index to Legal Periodicals Books
• Lexis Westlaw
• Hein-Online

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FULL TEXT DATABASES
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Evaluating a Web Site

• who is in charge of the site?
• when is the last time it was updated?
• are the documents on this site the official
  version? the latest version?
• if documents are translations, who translated
  them?
• how complete is the site?

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Using the Internet for Legal Research

• Web sites may not have any documents that
  pre-date the creation of the web site.
• Some web sites promise more than they deliver.

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Using the Internet for Legal Research

• The Internet is most useful for finding recent
  documents and information thats likely to be on
  a specific site, but its not an effective way to
  find all documents on a subject.
• The Internet may be less expensive than Lexis
  Westlaw

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Using the Internet for Legal Research

• No search engine has indexed all the information
  on the web, and sophisticated search queries are
  not possible.
• Lexis Westlaw can be more efficient--they
  permit more sophisticated searching and may give
  you more comprehensive results.

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STATE PRACTICE OF OTHER COUNTRIES

• Yearbooks of international law (e.g. British
  Yearbook of International Law)
• Sources of State Practice in International Law
• Government websites (e.g. ministry of foreign
  affairs)