Skip to Main Content

LAW International Law

This guide is intended to provide resources to help with your international legal research, not for foreign jurisdictions.

Research Process

It is highly recommended that you begin your legal research by looking at materials that describe or explain the law. These materials will explain legal principles, and identify legal terms and keywords you could use in your further research. You are likely to find citations to related cases and statutes in the footnotes as well. These materials include encyclopedias, books, and articles.

Books

Books provide a deeper discussion of the legal topics than encyclopedias. Most legal books discussion a broad area of law, such as criminal law or employment law. Scholarly books often focus on a narrower topic and provide a deeper analysis of the legal issues.

Use the library search box to find print or electronic books in our collection. Note the call number and the location (e.g., Law-1st floor) of each print book. You will need to sign-on to access electronic books.

Selected books and looseleaf sets (books that are produced in binders for easy updating) that are published by Carswell and Canada Law Book are available electronically on Westlaw Canada. Click on Texts and Annotations for the titles that are in our subscription plan.

Selected books and looseleaf sets that are published by LexisNexis or Butterworths are available electronically on Lexis+ and Lexis Advance Quicklaw.  Click on Commentary & Textbooks.

Selected Textbooks

Here's a link to a search for international Law Books in our collection published in the past 10 years.

 

Articles

Journal articles provide in-depth information on narrow legal topics and, often, more current information than books provide. There are several ways of search for legal articles.  The library search box and Google Scholar can both be used to find some articles.  We subscribe to several databases that contain the full-text of law review articles from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and other countries

See our research guide for links to open access and database sources for legal articles. 

There are also general full text sources that may provide legal articles.

Some sources may be restricted to University of Calgary users or to Faculty of Law users.

International Organization Databases

The United Nations (UN) is likely the most commonly known and used international organization for legal research. Here are selected links to help you find books and documents produced by the UN.

Here are links to specific databases to find books and documents produced by international organizations other than the UN.

Legal Databases

Databases may be restricted to University of Calgary users or to Faculty of Law users. Should you need any further assistance with your research, please call 403-220-7274 or e-mail.

HeinOnline, best known for the Law Journals Library, has several international law and treaty databases. These include:

Interdisciplinary Databases

For a list of interdisciplinary databases, please visit the Subject Guides page. These databases are good places to start for your secondary research.

Subject Headings & Keywords

International law textbooks can be found throughout the Bennett Jones Law Library. 

You may wish to search by subject in the library catalogue and databases include:

General Topics
  • International law
  • Treaties
  • International relations
  • Government liability (international law)
More Specific Topics
  • Arbitration: public international law
  • Boundaries (international law)
  • Environmental protection: international law
  • International adjudication
  • International administrative law 
  • International agencies
  • International courts and tribunals
  • International criminal law
  • International disputes
  • International environmental law
  • International human rights
  • International labor law
  • International organization
  • International trade
  • International waterways
  • Sanctions (international law)
  • Sovereignty
  • Succession of states