LibGuides: Rule of Law Research: Secondary Sources

Beginning Your Research

Your research into rule of law topics should begin with a clear research strategy, and an examination of relevant secondary sources for a grounding in the issues, an introduction to the key players and initiatives, and citations to primary materials. Below are some, but not all, of the tools available to Penn Law students for finding useful secondary sources.

Library Catalogs

Search Center
Biddle's online catalog contains information on books, journals and other print and electronic materials related to law in the Biddle collection. Search Center records often contain table of contents information, accessible through a Keyword or Title search. Biddle also offers lists of E-Resources, with databases and websites arranged alphabetically and by subject.

Franklin
The online catalog of the University of Pennsylvania Library System contains information on books, journals and other materials held in the 13 other campus libraries. Please note that Franklin does not include materials held at Biddle, so these resources must be searched separately through Catalog Search.

Even more sources held by non-Penn libraries can be identified via Biddle's online catalog and borrowed through the interlibrary loan process.

Academic Databases

Please Note: While they are excellent resources for American law research, Westlaw and LexisNexis are not always the best starting point for research in foreign and international law, or for interdisciplinary research.

Other databases may provide better coverage of the material you seek, such as those listed below. More can be found via Biddle Law Library’s E-Resources List, or Penn Libraries' Subject-Specific E-Resources lists of electronic resources according to area of study, including International Relations, Political Science and Area Studies.

Index to Legal Periodicals & Books This link opens in a new window
An index of more than 1,025 legal journals, law reviews, yearbooks, institutes, statutes, bar association publications, university publications, and government publications.
Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals 1985- HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
Provides access to legal literature worldwide, covering all forms of foreign (non-Anglo-American) law. This includes comparative law and legal systems, such as Islamic law; socialist law; public and private international law; and transnational commercial law. Documents include articles, reports, essays, yearbooks, and book reviews. The database encompasses all languages.
Hein Online This link opens in a new window
HeinOnline contains full-text documents (PDF) organized into subject-specific collections. International law and human rights journals, digests and yearbooks are accessible in the Law Journal and Foreign & International Law Resources libraries. Treaties and international agreements can be located in the Treaties and Agreements Library (U.S. treaties) and United Nations Law Collection (multinational treaties). The Foreign and International Law Resources and United Nations libraries also contain decisions of selected international tribunals.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR specializes in making available the back issues of journals in a wide variety of humanities and social science disciplines. Issues are available both as images and as text, making searching possible both within each title and across the whole database.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Google Scholar is a search engine for case law and scholarly articles. Add Penn as a Library Link in Google Scholar Settings to retrieve full-text publications and legal materials

Social Science Research Network (SSRN)
SSRN provides free access to abstracts and full-text scholarly research papers in a diverse and expanding array of subjects (e.g., law, economics, philosophy, psychology, public health, sociology, management, and environmental science).

News and Current Awareness

Coverage of rule of law issues in major world newspapers and media outlets can be located through the news portals on Westlaw and LexisNexis, and digital news archives such as Factiva and ProQuest, accessible via Penn Libraries’ Reference and News Sources page.

Blogs are another excellent source for keeping up to date on recent developments. Law blogs are organized by topic at the ABA’s Blawg Directory.