PAIL Guide to Procedural International Law

I.  Sources

Essential to understanding international law is knowing the sources of international law rules. How do international law norms get created? Where does one, quite literally, look for the law?

Research Guide to Int'l Law on the Internet — University of Bologna
Very helpful site, organized by subject matter (i.e., int'l trade, human rights, etc.). Within each category are links to pertinent treaties and documents, as well as hyperlinks to relevant websites.

International and Foreign Legal Research — Suffolk Law School
This site lists various print sources of int'l law with a few hyperlinks to other helpful sites, such as the UN and EU pages.

Avalon Project
The Avalon Project is a searchable database of historical legal documents. Links to supporting documentation is also provided. Listings of documents can be viewed, either by century, alphabetically, or through a listing of the sites major collections. Contains the text of many international agreements and treaties.

WashLaw Web
Links to primary and secondary foreign and international law sources. Organized alphabetically by subject, author, country and title. Site also provides a search engine for more complex searches.

Comparative and International Law Sources — Duke University School of Law
A good place to begin general research online for international law and, in particular, offers links to international organizations and treaty collections.

Resources for International Law — University of Kent at Canterbury
Offers extensive links from research guides and general resources on international law to a plethora of international courts, international organizations, and treaties, as well as miscellaneous international law, including such things as "Chemical and Biological Warfare Project" and "International Boundaries Research Unit."

Private International Law — US Department of State
As noted by the State Department, the "purpose of this web site is to provide a convenient location to find treaties in force for the United States, other international instruments, and information on current negotiations and projects covering the private international law of such areas as trade and commerce, finance and banking, trusts and estates, family and children matters, and international judicial assistance."

Hague Conference on Private International Law
"The Hague Conference is an intergovernmental organization, the purpose of which is 'to work for the progressive unification of the rules of private international law' . . .. The principal method used to achieve this purpose consists in the negotiation and drafting of multilateral treaties (conventions) in the different fields of private international law . . .."

American Society of International Law Electronic Resource Guide
The ASIL guide lists electronic resources maintained by international organizations, governments, universities and scholarly groups, trade organizations, and commercial information services.

Organization of American States — Office of International Law
This resource provides information on Instruments adopted by CIDIP Conferences, as well as news and information on the Department's activities.

International law research guide — University of California, Hastings
General research guide to sources on-line and off.

WorldLII
Legal directory and search engine; private international law-related links.

United Nations Studies
The United Nations Studies website of Yale University provides information on the United Nations by research topic.

Guide to Foreign and International Legal Databases Ð NYU Law Library
This is a comprehensive collection of links to research engines and various areas of international law such as foreign constitutions, taxation of international businesses, and copyrights, patents, and trademarks. This site also includes very useful links entitled "Evaluating Foreign Legal Databases" and "Foreign Databases by Jurisdiction."

J. Reuben Clark Law School International Law Database Ð BYU Law School
Contains thousands of links to online legal resources from every country in the world. The link takes you to an advanced search page. You can select a region or a country. Then below that you may select a topic.

International Law Materials Available on Westlaw Ð George Washington Law Library
This is a guide to international law resources available on Westlaw. The links provide information on what resources and databases are available, what each database contains (ex: cases, government docs, legislative history, law review articles, etc..), how to find the database on Westlaw, and the period that each database covers (ex: "Coverage begins with August 1992"). Also, the links provide search tips and search abbreviations that would be helpful when researching a particular field.

Electronic Information System for International Law (EISIL)
Comprehensive collection of international law research materials available on the web.

A.  Custom

Custom refers to customary international law, the unwritten and uncodified practices of States and other international actors that can constitute a relevant and useful source of international legal obligation.

International Law Commission
The ILC's homepage provides the texts to most ILC conventions and other texts, which aim to codify the customary int'l law.

United Nations Office of Legal Affairs Codification Division
Site to various sources of customary law, including the UN General Assembly's Sixth Committee and other UN Committees.

Customary International Law and Generally Recognized Principals
A bibliography of customary international law. Although the site primarily refers users to print resources, some hyperlinks are provided.

ICRC Customary International Humanitarian Law
The International Committee of the Red Cross' Guide to the basics of customary international law and state practice.

IFLR Ð Researching Customary International Law and Generally Recognized Principles Ð University of California at Berkeley
This link provides a detailed definition of Customary International Law along with research guides & bibliographies, state practices, general principles, and judicial decisions & writings of publicists.

Books and Articles on International Customary Law Ð Peace Palace Library (Bibliotheque du Palais de la Paix)
This link provides over 500 book and article titles (with links) involving international customary law.

B.  Treaties

Treaties are the actual written and formal international agreements entered into by States.

Multilaterals Project — Tufts University
Multilateral treaties organized by subject and by chronology. Also provides a search engine.

Senate, House and Treaty Documents — U.S. Congress Search treaty documents of the 104th, 105th, 106th, and 107th Congresses.

United Nations Treaty Collection
Official UN site. Paid subscription required.

Research Guide: Treaties — Duke Law School
Explains what treaties are and provides titles to sources in print and hyperlinks to search engines, but is not a search engine itself.

Government & Social Science Information — Treaties & International Agreements
A guide to treaty research. Includes links to full text resources.

Treaties — US Senate
The site is arranged according to "treaties received from the President, treaties on the Executive Calendar, treaties approved by the Senate, and listings of other recent treaty status actions, including treaties that were rejected by the Senate or withdrawn by the President, during the current Congress."

Treaties in Force — US Department of State
A comprehensive list of treaties and other international agreements of the US in force as of January 1, 2006. Documents are in Adobe format thereby allowing text searches and printing of individual pages or the entire work.

Treaty Actions — US Department of State
"This site contains a record of actions taken by states in regard to international agreements." Includes treaty actions beginning in 1997 and continues to the present.

Treaties — American Society of International Law
This site offers "guidance as to how to go about treaty research, with a particular emphasis on electronic resources." Under "Treaties on the Internet," select "Governments" and scroll down to "Non-US" for links to official government sites with national treaties listed on the internet.

Human rights treaties — Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
The OHCHR's list of primary international human rights instruments.

International treaties — New York University
The NYU Law Library site contains an extensive list of treaty collections and related sites.

Bilateral investment treaties — World Bank
The International Centre for Investment Disputes maintains chronological and country data on bilateral investment treaties adopted around thw world.

Guide to treaties — Law Library of Congress
The Law Library of Congress maintains a page of links to major online treaty depositories and treaty research guides.

WorldLII — legal directory and search engine — treaties and international agreements
The Law Library of Congress maintains a page of links to major online treaty depositories and treaty research guides.

International Treaties - LawResearch
This link provides a list of international treaties with links to each. Subscription/authorization is required to view the links.

Treaties and International Agreements — Stanford University
This link provides full text treaty sources on the internet, a list of treaties to which the US is a party, a list of treaties to which the US is not a party, a list of indexes and finding aids, and a list of useful abbreviations.