This Google Notebook covers basic tools for research in public international law. It is intended for USF law school students writing papers for classes or participating in international law moot court competitions. See the final section for more advice on international law research.

For human rights issues, see also the Human Rights Research Google Notebook.

Encyclopedia of Public International Law (1992- ), from the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law. Gives a thorough, scholarly introduction to major concepts, cases, and agreements, with citations for further research. (Zief Law Library call number: JX 1226 .E5 1992 Law Reference.)

[An online Encyclopedia of Public International Law is in the works. Currently about 850 of the projected 1700 articles in this new, online version of the Encyclopedia of Public International Law are available. USF's subscription is for on-campus access only.]

Print —

Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition (Buffalo: W.S. Hein, 1981-)
(Zief Law Library call number: JX 1293 .U6 P48 Law Stacks.) Covers 1960 to the present.

Particularly useful online sources include the following.

Ignacio and WorldCat search descriptive information about books. Google Book Search searches within books.

• Ignacio - for finding books at USF. Try an "Encore" key word search.
  
• WorldCat - for finding books at other libraries. WorldCat's Advanced Search lets you search by keyword, title, and author, and it lets you restrict by date.
• Google Book Search - for searching the full text of books. With Advanced Search, you can search by author and title, and limit by publication date.

International Legal Materials (ILM) reprints selected important treaties, decisions, and other documents. In certain circumstances the Bluebook allows citations to ILM.

The Zief Library's Find Articles (Legal & Other) page has links to all the article-finding tools available to USF law students.

Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals is especially useful for finding citations to articles from non-US legal journals, and covers from 1985 to the present. The link here is for USF subscribers only, and will only work in Kendrick Hall and the Zief Law Library.

Advice on all aspects of finding law journal articles is available in the Zief Library's Tools for Finding Law Review Articles research guide and the "Cheat Sheets" it links to.

Many digests of United States practice in international law [select "Part II U.S. Law Digests"]  are available in HeinOnline's Foreign & International Law Resources Database. (Off-campus remote access to HeinOnline is available for USF law students. For remote access, give your name and your 8-digit student ID number.)

The American Journal of International Law (available in HeinOnline's Law Journal Library) publishes a section on the "Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law" in each issue.

Selected portions of Foreign Relations of the United States are on the State Department web site. The Univ. of Wisconsin has a digital version of Foreign Relations of the United States from 1861 - 1960.

If you are looking for domestic/municipal law of other nations, the Zief Law Library guide Researching Foreign Legal Systems can help you get a start.

HeinOnline has International Yearbooks and Periodicals (including the Yearbook of the International Law Commission via HOL) in its Foreign & International Law Resources Database. (Off-campus remote access to HeinOnline is available for USF law students. For remote access, give your name and your 8-digit student ID number.)

The Yearbook of the International Law Commission is also available directly from the ILC's web site.

The Lauterpacht Centre for International Law links to sites that may document state practice (mostly foreign ministries and intergovernmental organizations)

To find useful United Nations web sites, see —

• Locator for UN System web sites. An alphabetical list of sites for almost every UN body/organization.
• International Law Commission. A good way to find documents on the major projects undertaken by the ILC is to consult the Analytical Guide to the Work of the International Law Commission.
  
• UN human rights bodies.

For guides to United Nations research, try —

• United Nations Documentation: Research Guide, United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library.
• Selected U.N. Resources and Research Tools: Overview and Search Tips for Legal Research, by Wiltrud Harms (For ease of use, most researchers will prefer to use Selected U.N. Resources in PDF format.)

The Jessup Competition research guides suggest using as research tools the memorials states have submitted to the International Court of Justice. There are a couple of ways to find memorials.

• In print — Search Ignacio (using the Encore box, or searching by Keyword) using the phrase "Pleadings, oral arguments, documents." Be sure to include the quotation marks.
  
  
• From the ICJ's web site — When you select a specific case from the Cases section of the site, memorials (if any are available) will be listed under the "Written Proceedings" tab for that case. Other submissions by the parties will be under the "Other Documents" tab. [As examples, see Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States of America) or Avena and Other Mexican Nationals (Mexico v. United States of America).]