FCIL Research Tips for Biddle Librarians

Foreign law is the domestic law of any country but the U.S., and it's a big, complicated world out there. Since I can't anticipate every question you might get, I'll just offer some resources for getting the patron or you (if it's a faculty question) going on foreign law research, beyond the earlier suggested starting points.

For further, individualized help, refer the patron or the faculty question to me, and I'll get back to them as soon as I can.

A few things to keep in mind:

1. The research process will be dictated by the legal system of the country in question. Case law, while it's very important in common law countries, is relatively unimportant to completely irrelevant in civil law countries, i.e. most of the world. Students wanting cases for France should be gently steered away from wasting too much of their time, particularly since translations are close to nonexistent. This is why the best thing you can do first is read a research guide or manual, to get an idea of what you're supposed to be doing.
2. Speaking of translations... They are never going to be a given. You may get lucky, but more likely any translation you can find will be out of date, and will rarely be government-sanctioned, let alone "official". Be realistic about whether a recent summary from a treatise, news source or blog will be "good enough". If it absolutely, positively has to be an up-to-date translation of current law, the only option may be for the patron to hire a legal translation service, which will be time-consuming and expensive. 
3. The resources available for a given jurisdiction may be anywhere from exhaustive to sporadic. Prepare to be unexpectedly frustrated, especially for much of the developing world and anywhere with a history of political or economic upheaval.

The Foreign Law Guide (see below) is the best tool for quickly finding country- and subject-specific information, so you can't go wrong starting there.  These are a few additional places I go or steer patrons toward for national law help:

We have a variety of databases for specific jurisdictions and subject areas. Below are a few that get the most use, but there are more in the e-resources list.

For a guide to the best databases for a given country, consult the NYU list and see if we have it.  if we don't and a patron has a clear need, let me know and I can request a trial for Biddle or arrange for the patron to visit to a library within our cooperative consortium (NEFLLCG) that does, if they can go up to New York or down to DC.

Finding a relatively recent, reliable translation of a foreign law is going to be a challenge in most cases. Some types of law are more likely to be available than others (constitutions are most likely, business statutes are the next most likely), and some countries are better than others (Germany's Ministry of Justice is a good citizen).  

Start with the Foreign Law Guide, and also check the Law Library of Congress's helpful guide to translations for certain jurisdictions.  Beyond that, here are a few places that may prove most fruitful: