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Foreign Law Research: Primary Sources

Primary Sources

Always start with a country-specific legal research guide to identify primary sources of legal information for the selected country.

Other place you might foreign primary sources include:

  • Lexis & Westlaw: Coverage is quite limited but both have some foreign law.
    • Lexis - Click the "International" content tab to browse resources by country name & content type
    • Westlaw - From "Home," select "Content Types," then "International Materials" to browse resources by country name & content type
  • It is possibly reprinted in a secondary source related to your country & topic
  • Library catalog - coverage is limited but it can never hurt to check
  • WorldLII - Free Access to Law Movement, an international association that provides & supports free access to legal information
  • General search engines (e.g. Google, Bing) - Source evaluation is very important:
    • Who compiled this information?
    • When was it last updated?
    • If translated, who translated it?