Foreign, Comparative and International Law (FCIL)

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Advanced Legal Research

• Foreign, Comparative and International Law (FCIL)

http//www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/shepherd
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International Law

• Classical and Modern Definitions
• Public and Private Distinction
• Modern Public International Law is composed of
• international conventions, international
  customs, general principles, judicial decisions,
  and the teachings of highly qualified publicists.
  

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What is Public International Law

• International Conventions Treaties An
  agreement between two or more nations.
• Multilateral and Bilateral Distinction
• US and Non-US Distinction
• Member of IGO or NGO
• Indexes, Finding Aids and Collections

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What is Public International Law

• International Custom A general and uniform
  state practice accompanied by a sense of legal
  obligation. May be codified into treaties. An
  example is Pacta Sunt Servanda, or promises
  should be kept.
• Pre-Defined Sources
• Search for it yourself

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What is Public International Law

• General Principles General principles of law
  recognized by civilized nations. Can be found in
  municipal law and codified in treaties. An
  example is res judicata.
• Pre-Defined Sources
• Search for it yourself

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What is Public International Law

• Judicial Decisions Decisions of international
  tribunals and national courts when addressing
  questions of international law. Arbitration
  decisions also relevant.
• Decisions published by international tribunals
• Digests and yearbooks of international case law
• Reporters and digests that focus on national law

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International Court of Justice (ICJ) (the Hague,
NL)
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More Images of the ICJ
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International Criminal Court (the Hague, NL)
European Court of Human Rights (Strasbourg, FR)
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What is Public International Law

• Teachings of Highly Qualified Publicists
  Scholarly writing of acknowledged authorities on
  international law.
• Accepted Classics
• Modern Classics Brownlie, Shaw, Schwarzenberger,
  Janis, Oppenheim
• Dispute over who is highly qualified will be
  decided by customary international law

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Comparative Law

• Involves comparing entire legal systems or
  aspects of legal systems of two or more
  jurisdictions
• Usually involves forming and testing hypothesis
• Must compare aspects that serve the same function
  
• In addition to law must study society, economics
  and history to understand

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Foreign Law

• Law of Other Countries

http//www.droitcivil.uottawa.ca/world-legal-syste
ms/eng-monde.html
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Research Methods in FCILHow do you begin
learning about an area of law that is new to you?
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Research Methods in FCIL

• Hornbook or Nutshell Equivalent in FCIL?
• Research Guides and Bibliographies
• Germains Transnational Law Research
• GWUs Guide to International Legal Research
• Accidental Tourist
• LLRX Guides
• ASIL Pages
• Guides to documentation systems

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Research Methods in FCIL

• Reference Sources
• Encyclopedia of Public International Law
• Dictionary of International and Comparative Law
• Parry and Grant Encyclopaedic Dictionary of
  International Law
• Martindale Hubble International Law Digest
• Reynolds and Flores Foreign Law Sources ..
• International Encyclopedia of Comparative Law
• Various Foreign Law Dictionaries

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Research Methods in FCIL

• Secondary Authority, What is it?
• Treatises
• Loose Leaf Services
• Law Review Articles
• Restatement of Foreign Relations

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Research Methods in FCIL

• Secondary Authority, Why is it important?
• Can be binding in the case of public
  international law and civil law jurisdictions
• Why reinvent the wheel when doing legal research
• Serendipity
• Analyze and explain the law
• Provide references to primary sources
• Explain terms of art
• Help develop a research strategy

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Research Methods in FCIL

• Finding Secondary Authority
• Treatises and Loose Leafs
• Search the catalog (brief introduction to using)
• Browse shelves
• Law Review Articles
• What does it search full text or just a
  citation
• Years of coverage
• Lexis (INTLR, full text, lt 20 years)
• Westlaw (INT-TP, full text, lt 20 years)
• Legal Trac (International Law and Comparative
  Law, full text, lt 20 years)
• Hein Online (full text and coverage from
  inception)
• Wilsons Index to Legal Periodicals
  (International Law, citations only, lt 20 years)
• Paper Indexes (citations only but extensive
  coverage)

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Research Methods Paper Indexes

• Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (indexes by
  title, author and subject) (1960 present) This
  index contains references to books and articles
  about international law and comparative law and
  the laws of countries other than the United
  States, the British Isles and the British
  Commonwealth, whose systems have a common law
  basis. (1960 present).
• Current Law Index (indexes by title, author, and
  subject) (1980 present) Originally introduced
  because ILP was not covering all periodicals and
  practice resources. It is similar to ILP but it
  includes separate subject and author/title
  indexes.
• Index to Legal Periodicals (one index combining
  title, author and subject) (1886 present) and
  online from 1981 present. Also accessible from
  the Lexis library (LAWREVILP) and the Westlaw
  database (ILP).

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Research Methods in FCIL

• Citation Guides
• Biebers Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations
• The Bluebook
• Rule 20 Foreign sources (p. 151)
• Rule 21 International Materials (p.157)
• T.2 Foreign Jurisdictions
• T.3 Intergovernmental Organizations
• T.4 Treaty Sources
• T.5 Arbitral Reports

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Research Methods in FCIL

• Unique Aspects of FCIL Research
• Jargon Use a dictionary or glossary
• NGO and IGO Documentation Systems Use a guide
• Foreign Languages Find a translation

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http//babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/
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Babelfish In Action

• Official Version of Article 1901 (1) in English
• Each Party reserves the right to apply its
  antidumping law and countervailing duty law to
  goods imported from the territory of any other
  Party. Article 1902 (1)
• Babel Fish Translation from Spanish to English
• Each one of the Parts reserves the right to
  apply to its legal dispositions in the matter of
  quotas antidumping and compensatorias to the
  goods that are concerned of territory of anyone
  of the other Parts.

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Classification Issues in FCIL
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http//www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/lcco.html
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KD
661
.P37
2003
Cutter Partington P a 3 r 7
Main Class K Law Subclass KD United Kingdom
Classification Number Law of England and
Wales General and Comprehensive
Works Collections Compends (compendiums)
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FCIL Classification

• Keep in mind that JX (International Law) is
  obsolete and has been replaced with JZ
  (International Relations) and KZ (Law of
  Nations).
• OCU (and many other law libraries) has not
  entirely converted our collection over to KZ yet
• Further complicating the picture the new JZ and
  KZ classifications allow for discretionary
  placement in either class depending upon the
  individual librarys emphasis.
• Jolande E. Goldberg, Library of Congress Classes
  JZ and KZ Historical Notes and Introduction to
  Application (Washington D.C. Library of
  Congress, 1997).

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