Research Guides: Canadian Legal Research Manual: Foreign Legal Research Guides

Foreign & Comparative Law Research Guides

Since many countries around the world employ different legal systems and research tools, both the legal research process and where to find legal information may vary depending on your jurisdiction of focus. For that reason, it is difficult to provide a complete or even near complete list of guides for researching law in foreign jurisdictions.

Researchers are encouraged to seek out research guides about their jurisdiction of choice. The GlobaLex Foreign Law research guides are great resources because they explain how to research the domestic law of over 100 countries. These guides may be useful starting points for understanding the country's legal system and legal resources.

Note: For in-depth guidance on researching English or American law, see the chapters on Researching English Law and Researching American Law.

The following is a non-comprehensive list resources that introduce foreign and comparative legal research. These resources may be useful for deepening your understanding of foreign and comparative legal research.

International and Foreign Legal Research by Marci Hoffman & Mary Rumsey
Call Number: ebook
Publication Date: 2012
International and Foreign Legal Research: A Coursebook, second edition by Hoffman and Rumsey, now in a second edition, is designed for classes in foreign and international legal research. Topics covered in the book range from treaty research to chapters on particular subjects of international law. Coverage also includes chapters on researching foreign and comparative law as well as major international organizations, including the UN and the EU.
Comparing Law by Bert Demarsin et al
Call Number: K559 .P54 2023
Publication Date: 2023
Comparing Law offers you an introduction to comparative law. What is comparative law? Why do we compare law and, above all, what methodology does the discipline adopt? These and many other questions are discussed in Part 1 on law comparison as methodology and science. Further parts introduce you to the law of some key jurisdictions. A selection of European countries, such as the UK, France and Germany are covered along with Belgium and the Netherlands. Not only global players, such as the United States, Russia, China, Japan, India and Brazil, are highlighted, but the law of Israel, Islamic law and African legal systems are presented as well. Last but not least, comparative law in practice is also illustrated by approaching a number of topics - both of public law and private law - in a comparative way.

Resources

GlobaLex Basic Guide to Researching Foreign Law
This guide describes basic strategies for finding the laws of countries primarily in English. The guide will also help you find secondary materials that describe other countries' laws. It includes links to websites and to other guides.
GlobaLex Foreign Law Research Guides by Country
A collection of free online guides that explain how to research the domestic laws of over 100 countries. The guides have been prepared by legal scholars well known in their respective fields.
GlobaLex Comparative Law Research Guides
A collection of free online guides that explain how to conduct comparative law research on a variety of legal topics such as family law, criminal procedure, immigration law, and more. The guides have been prepared by legal scholars well known in their respective fields.
Law Library of Congress Research Guides
A collection of free online guides that point to legal information resources for the domestic laws of countries around the world.