HRGJ

Legal Research Mini-Playbook

General research tools

LexisWestlaw & HeinOnline law journal databases

SSRN (for not yet published scholarship)

Non-Legal Databases

Google Scholar

News (Westlaw)

Foreign Law Research

       Foreign Law Guide

New York State Issues

NY State Human Rights Law (Westlaw Annotated)

NY CPL 440.10 (Annotated Westlaw),  NY CPL 440.10 (Annotated Lexis)

NY Legislative History (generally)

Legislative history of START Act 2021 (bill jacket)

Legislative history 2010 Act (bill jacket)

440 Motions (Jailhouse Lawyers Manual)

NY FOIL & Federal FOIA page (generally)

NY FOIL is Article 6—Freedom of Information Law  McKinney's has an annotated version that has the same research tools as are available for other statutes.  Regulations are found at 21 NYCRR §§ 1401.1-1401.10.  Dep't of State Comm. on Open Government, FOIL Advisory Opinions & FOIL Case Summaries (2010-2013)

Article 78 (Westlaw Annotated)

Other States / 50 State Surveys

If you need to compare/contrast different states on a particular issue start with sources like law review articles about the issue that might look at national trends and use different states as examples.

If you need to research a specific state's laws in a state you may be less familiar with, google State Name + Legal Research Guide to get background. Do this again/ repeatedly if you are researching specific types of issues (e.g., Legal research guide on Legislative History Research in Colorado).

If you need to compare all 50 states, know in advance that they are labor intensive and difficult. Some things to do to try to help out.  Check out 50 State Surveys on Westlaw in case there is one on your topic, or a related topic, check out American Law Reports to see if there are any on your (or a related topic), search law review articles to see if there is an article on the issue that might compare state laws (even if just in a footnote), check out National Conference of State Legislatures to see whether they have relevant resources or reports, and also look for (and Google) to see whether there are any organization working in this area that might be tracking such laws across all states (for example, see this page on death penalty laws from the Death Penalty Information Center.

International & Human Rights Research

International Law page (see also Foreign law page)

International Law tutorial (joint Duke and Berkeley)

Human Rights Law Research Guide (Georgetown)

Other Research Guides

 Globalex

Google area of law + Legal Research Guide (quite effective)

Finding Secondary Sources 

CUNY OneSearch 

WorldCat

Law Reviews also search HeinOnline

Google Scholar

Non-Legal Databases

Fourth Restatement of the Law of Foreign Relations (Westlaw) 

Litigating International Disputes in U.S. Courts (Westlaw)

"I found an article citation, do we have the journal?" Check Electronic Journal Finder.  Try Googling and sites like ResearchGate and Academia. Check author home page, check institutional repository at author school. Free trial at journal? Check with library.  As last result, consider a respectful, friendly email to author expressing interest in their research.

WHEN you think you have exhausted available secondary sources, go back again and look for some more.

Working with Primary Sources

TREATIES

Georgetown Law, Treaty Research

HeinOnline, Treaties and Ageements Library

Status of Partes, Reservations, etc.

United Nations Treaty Collection

 U.S. Department of State, Treaties in Force

DRAFTING HISTORY - TRAVAUX PREPARATOIRES

Yale Law School, Collected Travaux Préparatoires

Jonathan Pratter, À la Recherche des Travaux Préparatoires: An Approach to Researching the Drafting History of International Agreements

CUSTOMARY INTERNATIONAL LAW / STATE PRACTICE / GENERAL PRINCIPLES

NYU, Researching Customary International Law, State Practice

Consolidated Search Sources

 ICC Legal Tools (not just for ICC)

UNITED NATIONS MATERIAL

Research Guides

UN Research Guides

United Nations (CUNY Law)

United Nations Research Guide (Georgetown Law)

United Nations (American Society of International Law)

Consolidated UN Databases

OHCHR, Treaty Body Jurisprudence 

UN Treaty Body Database

Universal Human Rights Index

 ODS - Official Document System

Other UN Resources

United Nations Law Collection (Hein subscription)

Human Rights Bodies

University of Minnesota, Human Rights Library

Bayefsky.com

COUNTRY REPORTS AND RESEARCH



Country Reports (Amnesty International)

Countries (Human Rights Watch)

World Report 2023 (Human Rights Watch)

Nations (Law Library of Congress)
 

News
 

Ethnic NewsWatch (Proquest)

PressReader (via NYPL)

INTER-AMERICAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS // INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Jurisprudence Finder (search)


Inter-American SIMORE (recommendations from IACHR)

CEJIL SUMMA (overviews of IA Commission and Court cases)

INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

International Criminal Law (Vanderbilt) (Research Guide example)

Court Resources

Core texts & Resources (Rome Statute, Rules of Procedure & Evidence, Elements of Crimes, Regulations of the Court, etc.)

Situations Under Investigation

Example of Case page 

ICC Legal Tools (not just for ICC)

 
EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS

ECHR Materials

Factsheets (see, e.g., Gender Identity)

Human Rights Handbooks (see, e.g., Handbook on the Right to Respect for Private and Family Life)

Case Law Analysis

Rules of Court

Case Law Research

HUDOC - Official Source of ECHR Opinions, but despite millions of dollars of development can be very frustrating to use, so consult Help and this Guide on basic questions about the ECHR, and also use . . .

European Union Cases: European Human Rights Reports (Westlaw)