The Law Library’s collection of materials in foreign, comparative, and international law (FCIL) is exceptionally strong. The Law Library currently receives over 1,500 FCIL-related serials and subscriptions, and has a print collection of approximately 280,000 volumes covering comparative, foreign, and international law. The Law Library also provides access to a wide range of databases containing FCIL-related resources. A complete list of Electronic Resources is available here.
Foreign Law
The Law Library’s collection of legal materials of Great Britain and the present and former British Commonwealth nations, especially Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Ireland is excellent, one of the best in the nation. There is also a very strong Indian collection and a substantial South African and Nigerian collection. Primary legal materials are collected for almost every major jurisdiction within the present and former British Commonwealth. In addition, the Law Library has collected many treatises and documents from these jurisdictions. Special efforts are being made to maintain and expand the very strong collection of European Union materials and the Library’s historically strong collections of French and German legal materials, both in the vernacular and in English. The Law Library also has substantial collections, in both the vernacular and in English, of Mexican and Argentinian law and, to a lesser extent, a collection of Brazilian law. Because of budgetary limitations, the Law Library does not usually acquire material written in foreign languages from other jurisdictions, other than those noted above, unless they are part of multi-jurisdictional databases on foreign law. However, an effort is made to purchase legal materials in English from representative or important jurisdictions on every continent and in every region of the world. A special effort is made to collect, in English, all primary and secondary legal materials about China produced by legal academic publishers.
Comparative Law
The Law Library’s collection of comparative law materials covers many legal topics, including all major areas of the law. Some examples include comparative constitutional law, comparative criminal law, comparative tort law, comparative contract law, comparative law of succession and inheritance, comparative energy law, and comparative healthcare law. The Law Library collects codes, case law, and religious documents, according to the Law Library’s collection policies for foreign law and religious law. The Law Library comprehensively subscribes to journals devoted entirely or partially to topics of comparative law. Most subscriptions are to English language journals but the Law Library also subscribes to selected foreign language journals dealing with comparative law. The Law Library collects treatises and monographs on comparative law and comprehensively purchases in-depth English language comparative law titles, published by academic or leading legal publishers. These titles include, but are not limited to, comparisons of specific areas of law, such as torts, gender rights, marriage, etc. The Law Library also purchases comparative law titles in other languages that are deemed to be especially important, that deal with unique items unlikely to be translated or that deal with unique topics with a paucity of English language coverage, and Festschriften for major scholars of comparative law.
International Law
The Law Library’s collection of international legal materials is extensive and includes an ongoing, comprehensive U.N. documents collection on microfiche. There are complete collections of all decisions of the International Court of Justice, available in print and electronically. The Law Library comprehensively collects primary and secondary resources on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, including decisions of the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea, as well as commentaries on the Convention. The collection dealing with the World Trade Organization (WTO) has grown exponentially during the period 2000-2010. The Law Library comprehensively collects all series of the European Union’s Official Journals, which include the E.U.’s legislation and treaties. In addition, the Law Library collects all decisions of the E.U.’s European Court of Justice. The decisions of the Council of Europe’s European Court of Human Rights are also comprehensively collected. The Law Library also has a very strong collection of international (as well as domestic) human rights law.
The Law Library comprehensively subscribes to journals devoted entirely or partially to topics of public and private international law. The Law Library purchases almost all public and private international law treatises and monographs published by outstanding scholars and commentators working with international law. With regard to treaties, the Law Library maintains complete treaty series including, but not limited to, the following: Canadian Treaties; Consolidated Treaty Series; Council of Europe Treaty Series; Hague Conventions on Private International Law; International Legal Materials (I.L.M.); League of Nations Treaty Series; United States Treaties; United Nations Treaty Series. The Law Library purchases almost all English language academic press or legal publisher monographs relating to treaties. The Law Library is particularly committed to collecting all English language travaux préparatoires (preparatory works relating to treaties) for international treaties, conventions, protocols, and agreements.