International Law Legal Research

Book excerpt: This concise yet comprehensive book is designed to be accessible for the beginner as well as useful for those with more experience. For students, the book can serve as enrichment for a doctrinal course in international law or as the basis for a stand-alone course in international law research. To allow for self-evaluation, the book includes frequent review questions to help assure retention. For practitioners new to the international area, each type of search tool and search strategy is covered in detail with explanations to provide background comprehension. This book is part of the International Legal Research Series, edited by Mark E. Wojcik, The John Marshall Law School. "[T]his new text is essential even if it cannot record every new database development. In fact, the best format for a text such as this one is indeed print. This title is not a brief "one off" taste of the subject but rather a comprehensive, detailed treatment. The quality of the content will stand the test of time. ...The text provides an excellent framework for new students to learn international legal research and for more seasoned legal researchers to hone their skills or fill gaps where necessary. ...The reader will want to pay special attention to Lyonette Louis-Jacques' Additional Resources and General Bibliographic References at the conclusion of each chapter. Her concise lists of sources should be part of every international legal researcher's toolkit. ...Most valuable of all, this text will give students the necessary context to understand what they are researching and why. This context is all too often lost in today's world of instant information." -- Anne Abramson, International Law Prof Blog "Given the increasing importance of public international law to U.S. legal practice, I also believe this book to be of great value to all law librarians (and at $35 I recommend every law librarian purchase a desk copy), especially the new breed of entry-level FCIL librarians who yearn for a training manual. No doubt I will read and reread this text until its dog-eared pages fall apart in my hands...I am now also indebted to Winer, Archer, and Louis-Jacques for helping me contextualize my growing knowledge of research sources and methods by connecting them to the historical evolution of international law. International Law Legal Research is particularly good at explaining treaties and customary international law and the related research processes in a useful and memorable way...The purpose of this book is to support those who need to complete public international law research for moot court, for scholarly research, or to handle a client's legal problem, and it is an excellent resource for those situations. As the first volume in the Carolina Academic Press International Legal Research Series, it sets a high bar for clarity, brevity, and utility. I am excited to see what other offerings may follow." --Catherine A. Deane, Foreign and International Law Librarian and Lecturer in Law, Vanderbilt Law School