Yale Law Library - Foreign and International Blog : legal research

Westlaw China Database Trial

Evelyn Ma — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:44:00 GMT

The Law Library is testing Westlaw China, a new database with primary and secondary sources on China laws:

http://www.westlawchina.com/login.php

The trial user ID and password can be found in YLS Inside Research Sites under Library Database Passwords.

China-Related Electronic Journals

Evelyn Ma — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 17:35:00 GMT

Legal periodicals are often a good starting point when you are researching a broad legal topic. The Law Library has access to three online legal journal databases in Chinese: Chinese Academic Journals (CAJ), Wan Fang's Chinese Online Journals (COJ) and ChinaLawInfo's journal collection. For those who are interested in researching China law but are not proficient in Chinese, HeinOnline (Law Journal Library and Foreign & International Law Resources Collection), JSTOR and SpringerLink's Frontiers of Law in China include a variety of China-related legal and inter-disciplinary journal titles published in English. The latter, a collaborative publication by publisher Springer with Renmin University in Beijing consists of English translation of selective law review articles originally published in the vernacular by universities in China. While the quality of the English translation varies, the selection of articles provide an overview of legal issues currently of interest to the Chinese legal community.

For better access, the China Law Research Resources page in Morris (under Research tab) now has a link to a union list of China-Related Electronic Serial Titles included in the three journal databases. The selective list includes the more commonly known journals currently accessible from three A to Z lists in the law library research website (Legal Databases, Yale University Library E-Journals & Newspapers and Other Databases). They are arranged alphabetically by their Pinyin or English titles in the union list. Information relating to the coverage of each journal title is available as well as direct links to the databases.

Lastly, a recent blog post in Law Librarian Blog includes a useful bibliography of China-related journal articles and treatises published in English and German in 2007compiled by Dr. Knut Benjamin Pissler of Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law. See here.

Indian Legal Research

Teresa Miguel — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:56:00 GMT

India is in the news a lot recently (see NYT: India Orders New Inquiry into 2002 Clashes) and is a very popular country for legal research, partially due to the fact that Indian legal materials are in English. To help you research Indian statutes, jurisprudence, and doctrine, we have a fabulous print collection on the Lower East Side (Call no. KNS), an electronic guide to Indian legal research guides, and a subscription to Manupatra, the most popular and comprehensive Indian legal database available. To access Manupatra, you must obtain the username/password from the old Blackboard site: Communities Tab -- Academic Community -- Library Databases -- enroll...then find the Manupatra folder. If you have any research questions or suggestions for Indian legal materials, please contact Teresa or the Reference team.

Foreign, Comparative, Transnational, and International Legal Research

Teresa Miguel — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:27:00 GMT

Don't know where to find the criminal code for the Ivory Coast? Or jurisprudence from the Constitutional Court of South Africa? Or a case decided by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights? Try the F/I Research Resources page. This page will link you to primary and secondary sources to help you get started on your research. The Country-by-Country Guide will point you to valuable legal research guides for each country in the world. You will also find annotated lists of foreign and international databases, both open-access and subscription-based. For specialized assistance with your research, please do not hesitate to contact Teresa Miguel or any of our reference librarians.