Foreign and Comparative Law Basics

To find foreign law, you might search by jurisdiction. You can find specific statutes and cases, particularly if you have a citation already, or titles of statutes or names of cases. This approach allows you to find primary law and official sources. You might also find new laws too recent to appear in secondary sources. Unique search terms, dates or date ranges, and specific topic areas make searching in primary databases more feasible.

However, the best approach to foreign and comparative law research might be to find sources on the legal subject area rather than starting with the particular country you’re researching.  Many comparative law databases and websites are arranged by legal subject area.  There are  publications and databases that compile the laws of other countries on particular subjects.  These may include summaries of the law of that country in English, citations to primary law, excerpts or full-text of statutes, or links to statutes and codes of other countries.  These are all good choices for your research before you focus on primary sources.

Subject compilations may be treatises with chapters on particular jurisdictions, subject journals with issues on different countries, website lists with topical headings, or databases with country fields or filters. There are multiple subject resources with statutes listed by country. Subject resources may provide full-text of or links to statutes, or they may include summaries, question & answer format reports, excerpts, or citations to primary law.

 

Lexology Panoramic: Reports by jurisdiction and practice area on issues in tax, data protection, banking, commercial law, trade, and intellectual property, with summaries of the law and citations to laws, regulations, and cases, and a jurisdiction comparison feature. Also available on Lexis and Bloomberg Law. 

Practical Law on Westlaw): The Global section includes resources for select countries, including topical information in arbitration, commercial law, data privacy, financial regulation, intellectual property, litigation, and insolvency.  Q&A guides include some statute citations and have a country comparison tool. Resource types include practice notes, toolkits, and legal updates.

Foreign Law Guide (subscription database):  The Foreign Law Guide has entries for most countries of the world, with descriptions of their legal systems and history and references to primary sources, topical sources, and English translations. The Subject Headings for each country cite (and sometimes link) major statutes and publications for that subject area.

Global Legal Monitor (Law Library of Congress): The Global Legal Monitor has both jurisdictional and topical headings to browse.  Articles on legal developments are in English and include citations or links to primary documents or news articles.

Multinational Sources Compared: A Subject and Jurisdiction Index (Hein Online): A finding aid designed to direct researchers to sources that compare multiple jurisdictions on focused subjects. Browse by title, subject, or jurisdiction to find comparative law titles.

Emory Library Search: Search the catalog with terms including "international," "world," and "global" and legal subjects to find titles.

Some multinational treatises and guides on Westlaw and Lexis have chapters by individual country.

Alternative Dispute Resolution

• ICCA Handbook on Commercial Arbitration: Available in the Kluwer Arbitration database and as looseleaf volumes at K2400 .I594 1984. Chapters by jurisdiction provide information on the arbitration law and practice of that country. Kluwer Arbitration also has the ICCA Yearbook Commercial Arbitration (1976-date), with national reports on arbitration law. 
• Transnational Dispute Management : Commercial arbitration laws by country, as well as awards, cases, and news articles
• International Commercial Arbitration Practice: 21st Century Perspectives (on Lexis): Chapters on international commercial arbitration practice in select jurisdictions (regions and some individual countries) in Part II. 

Animal Law

• Global Animal Law: Animal welfare legislation, some in English translation

Antitrust and Competition

• Global Competition Review: Annual regional reviews cover national developments in competition law, with citations to competition laws
• SICE National Legislation on Competition Policy: Competition law for member states of the Organization of American States. 

Bankruptcy and Insolvency

• Global Insolvency: News and overview articles, and some translated bankruptcy and banking codes and acts.
• Global Restructuring Review: Annual regional reviews cover national developments in insolvency and restructuring law, with some citations to statutes and cases

Business and Commercial Law

• Digest of Commercial Laws of the World (K 1005.4 .D54): Commentary and forms on business and commercial treaties and on laws by country, including banking, bankruptcy, antitrust, foreign judgments, and e-commerce.
• ICLG (International Comparative Legal Guides): Summaries of the law in a Q&A format in commercial areas including corporate governance, corporate recovery and insolvency, mergers and acquisitions, and patents.  Select chapters are available free. Chapters include a few citations or statutes by name but no links.
• Global Legal Insights Guides by practice area and jurisdiction chapters. Guides include Enforcement of Judgments and Awards, International Arbitration, Interim Relief, and Mediation and ADR. Subscription resources with free access to jurisdiction chapters.
• Doing Business In guides (Lexis): Lex Mundi guides to doing business in select jurisdictions.
• Doing Business In guides (Baker & McKenzie): Guides to doing business in select jurisdictions, with information on tax, employment law, mining, and energy. Search in Insight guides for "doing business in." 

Civil and Human Rights

• ILGA (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association): The ILGA World Database includes jurisdictional data reports and a compare tool, or review the table of Legal Frameworks by jurisdiction. The ILGA World Monitor collects news content on LGBTI rights. 
• UN Women Global Gender Equality Constitutional Database: A repository of gender equality related provisions in constitutions from around the world.
• Legislationline.org: OSCE database with European legislation and documents on human rights topics including gender, citizenship, elections, and freedom of religion. Documents, in English translation or official languages, include legislation, case law, and constitutional articles.

Criminal Law

• UN Office on Drugs and Crime: The SHERLOC database includes national penal codes and statutes related to terrorism, money laundering, trafficking, and drug crimes, and a database of case law on organized crime and terrorism.
• ICC Legal Tools database (International Criminal Court): Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes, and other legislation and resources for criminal law cases under National Criminal Jurisdictions
• Legislationline (OSCE): Includes criminal codes and legislation for European countries
• International Press Institute Media Laws Database: Criminal Defamation Laws by country

Environmental Law

• ECOLEX: Environmental law database of treaties, plus national court decisions and legislation, with some full-text links.
• FAOLEX (UN Food and Agriculture Organization): Laws and regulations on food and agriculture, including environmental laws on energy, water, and oceans, and animal laws on livestock, wild species, and ecosystems.

Family Law

• UN Women's Family Law Database:  Laws that regulate a woman’s role in the family and society, currently accessible as a Google document.
• State Department: Intercountry Adoption: Information by country on Hague Adoption Convention status and laws on adopting children from that country

Health Law

• Global Health and Human Rights Database: Judgments of national courts and international bodies on health and human rights topics, and national constitutions with provisions on health and human rights.  Find by country, topic, or international or regional body.

Immigration and Refugees

• UNHCR Refworld: Includes national legislation and case law related to refugees, immigration, asylum, civil and human rights, and extradition.

Intellectual Property and Artificial Intelligence

• WIPO Lex: National laws, treaties, and judgments on intellectual property, with related information.  Some laws available in English translation, others in the official languages.
• Trademarks Throughout the World (Westlaw): Treatise arranged by jurisdiction, with information on trademark law.
• Copyright Throughout the World (Westlaw): Treatise arranged by jurisdiction, with information on copyright law. 
• Law Library of Congress: Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Around the World. Citations to laws and regulations for multiple jurisdictions, plus multiple international organizations.

Labor Law

• ILO NATLEX: National legislation on labor and employment law by subject, with citations and some links.  The ILO EPLEX database covers employment discrimination, with English language summaries for select countries.

Practice and Judicial Assistance Abroad

• Travel.State.gov: Legal information for Americans traveling or living abroad, including on citizenship laws, international judicial assistance (jurisdiction, service of process, civil procedure), private international treaties, and international child support enforcement.
• European e-Justice Portal (European Judicial Network in Civil and Judicial Matters): Information on the law and legal systems of member states, with links, and information on civil procedure, jurisdiction, enforcement of judgments, and service of process in European Union countries.
• International Bar Association: Practice rules and guidance on the regulation of the legal profession. 

Privacy and Data Security

• Information Security & Privacy: A Guide to International Law & Compliance.  (Westlaw). Entries by country with summaries and citations of privacy laws.
• Data Protection Laws of the World (DLA Piper)

Tax Law

• European Union Tax Information: Tax information for EU member states.
• Bloomberg International Tax databases (subscription): Find information by country including BNA portfolios, country guides, VAT information,  tax treaties, and tax news. The database also includes US and international tax treaties. 
  • Foreign Income Country Portfolios include overviews of foreign tax laws, double taxation avoidance, and information on operating a business, forms of doing business, foreign investment, and banking
  • Country Guide Chart Builders for comparing jurisdictions by topics including tax rates, personal taxes, transfer pricing policies, and anti-avoidance provisions
• Thomson Reuters Checkpoint Edge: International tax materials with analysis by country, including tax treaties

Trade Law

• Bloomberg International Trade Practice Center: Export guides by country, import requirements chart builder by country, BNA portfolios, and specific information on the USMCA and on US-China trade.
• SICE Foreign Trade Information System: National antidumping legislation for member states of the Organization of American States.