LAW 843 - International Environmental Law (Prof. Samandari, Spring 2023)

These sources can be used to find environmental law conventions and agreements.

• UNEP (UN Environment Programme) Links to MEA Secretariats. Monitoring bodies for multilateral environmental agreements, with agreement text, parties, and background.
• Ecolex: An environmental law information service from UNEP, FAO, and IUCN. Includes environmental law treaties (multilateral and bilateral) and treaty decisions from UNEP.
• Hein UN Law Collection Treaty Search. Search the UNTS by UNTS citation, title, parties, keywords, or date, or find by citation. Hein Online has the UN Treaty Series in PDF.
• Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General. Find UN treaties by subject area, including Environment (Chapter XXVII), with status, citation in UNTS, and participants. 
• United Nations Treaty Series Online. Search for treaties by date, party, subject, title. Includes multilateral and bilateral treaties. Links to pdf of UNTS volumes.
• UN Audiovisual Library of International Law: Historic Archives. Procedural history, preparatory documents, photos, video, and UN meetings on major treaties. Arranged by subject, including Environmental Law.
• Oxford International Organizations: Subjects include International Environmental Law. The database includes major treaties with UN resolutions and reports
• International Freshwater Treaties Database: Searchable database of summaries or full-text of more than 600 international freshwater agreements from 1820 to 2007, but with an ongoing update to 2019. Find by basin, countries, date signed, and treaty topic.

Find environmental legislation and caselaw from other countries:

• Foreign Law Guide Database: Entries by jurisdiction include legal history and descriptions of the country’s government and legal institutions, as well as sources for legal research. Find statutes listed by subject with citations, sometimes with links or with English translation sources. Subject headings include Environment & Natural Resources.
• Bluebook Rules 20 and 21 and T2 are on citations to foreign and international law. The T2 tables on foreign jurisdictions are available free on the Electronic Bluebook. Entries for each country include links to internet sources for official legal publications.
• ECOLEX:  Searchable environmental legislation from FAOLEX, with title, country, keywords, abstract, and links to full-text. Under jurisprudence, find decisions from national and international courts, with citation, abstract, and some links to full-text.
• FAOLEX (UN Food and Agriculture Organization): National laws and regulations on food and agriculture, including laws on environmental protection, water use, land use, and waste management. Browse by country profile, with legislation subheadings and international agreements.
• Land Portal: Find legislation, jurisprudence, and treaties from open access sources on land use and property rights. Also includes data sets, reports, and periodicals. For legal materials, find using the Library Search function.
• vLex: Primary resources, including Official Gazettes and jurisprudence, for countries in Latin America and Europe. Includes secondary sources such as law journals and newspapers for some countries. Includes a machine translation feature. Set up an individual account, and go to All Jurisdictions to find the global resources.
• World Constitutions Illustrated (Hein Online): Focusing on the study of world constitutions both historic and current, individual governments, and the history of each nation, this source allows you to research constitutional and political developments, bringing together constitutional documents, books, articles, and web sites in a single database
• Oxford Reports on International Law: Decisions on international law, including international environmental law, from international and domestic courts

• Country profile databases for the law firm market: Q&A articles on commercial subjects of international law, including environmental regulation. May include citations to statutes and regulations. 

  • Practical Law on Westlaw: Country Q&A Overviews include Environmental Law & Practice
  • Getting the Deal Through: Comparative analysis of environmental law and policy for select countries as Q&A articles. Work areas include Energy & Natural Resources. 
  • ICLG Comparative Law Guides: Q&A articles on topics including Environment and Climate Change Law
• Comparative Environmental Law and Regulation (Westlaw) by Lye Lin-Heng, Elizabeth Burleson, Kirk W. Junker, and Nicholas A. Robinson Comparative Environmental Law and Regulation provides expert analysis and commentary on the environmental regulatory regimes of over 60 jurisdictions worldwide, both national and regional.