Transcript II. An Introduction to U.S. Practice in International Law

International
Human Rights Research
Margaret Clark, Reference Librarian
Law Research Center
February, 2009
What we’ll cover…
United Nations
 Treaties
 Judicial decisions
 Country reports
 Non-governmental organizations
 Search engines
 Research guides
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First place to begin research
http://www.un.org/rights/
CHARTER DOCUMENTS DATABASE
Searching by
committee
Searching by
country
Searching by
country and subject
TREATY BODY DATABASE
When researching the U.N.:
Documents may be more political than legal
 Speeches
 Statements
 Letters by gov’t representatives
 Most important for legal research
 Studies and reports
 Treaties, resolutions, judgments
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U.N. Research Strategies
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Get overview of U.N.’s involvement with your
topic during the last few years.
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What bodies are involved?
What documents produced?
What are the document symbols?
Become familiar with bodies dealing with your
topic.
Find and study any resolutions
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1st pars. cite to earlier resolutions
Final pars. announce a plan
Are there any studies or reports cited?
Treaties
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United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights (UNHCHR)
U.N. Treaty Collection
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U.N. Treaty Series
Texts of Recently Deposited Multilateral Treaties
Status of Multilateral Treaties
Univ of Minn. Human Rights Library
EISIL
Good bookmarks for Human Rights treaty research!
For recent treaty sources:
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International Legal Materials
 Lexis ILMTY
 Westlaw ILM
 HeinOnline
Judicial Decisions
International bodies
 UN bodies (ICJ, Treaty bodies)
 Tribunals and international courts
 Regional bodies (ECHR, IACHR, ACHPR)
 National courts
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Tools for locating judicial decisions
 Secondary sources
 “Defining civil and political rights : the
jurisprudence of the United Nations Human
Rights Committee”
 Judicial Process and Human Rights: Texts
and summaries of international case-law
 Selected Decisions of the Human Rights
Committee
Tools for locating judicial decisions
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Internet sites - Individual tribunals and courts
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Case reporters - Print
International Human Rights Reporter
 Human Rights Law Journal
 International Legal Materials
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Case reporters – Online
International Legal Materials
 Human Rights Cases (Lexis)
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Tools for locating judicial decisions
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Digests
Oxford Reports on International Law
 HUDOC
 International Law Reports
 World Court Digests
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Tools for locating judicial decisions
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International Law Reports (ILR)
In print only !!
 Good source for full text opinions in English
 Best source for finding recent decisions
 ICJ
 International courts and tribunals
 Administrative Tribunal ILO
 National Courts
 Best source for older decisions (1919 to present)
 KZ 199.I58 (1st floor of Library)
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Tools for locating judicial decisions
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ILR– Index Volumes
 Treaty Index (treaties referred to in decisions
reported in ILR)
By date
 By subject
 By title
 Case Index (includes decisions of national court
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decisions and international tribunals)
Alphabetically
 Jurisdiction

International Law Reports
Treaty Index
Case Digests
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World Court Digest (for ICJ cases)
Tools for locating judicial decisions
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UN treaty body tools
 Treaty Body Database
 Bayefsky.com
 U. Minnesota’s Human Rights Library
Judicial Decisions – Treaty body database
Judicial Decisions – Bayefsky.com
Judicial decisions – Treaty bodies
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Jurisprudence of the treaty bodies :
 “Views” (admissibility and on merits)
 “Decisions” (determinations of inadmissibility)
 “Opinions” (on the merits)
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Annual compilation of all decisions in:
 Annual report “Report of the Committee…
Country Reports
Independent Experts
 Country Reports by NGOs, Govts
Treaty-based Bodies
 State Reports
 Concluding Observations / Comments
Charter-based Bodies
 Special Procedures – 8 Country Mandates
 Universal Periodic Reviews
Country Reports
by Independent Experts
Specific Web sites
 NGO’s -- HRW; AI
 Government – US State Dept; UK Home Ofc
 Collection of Country Reports Online
 REFWORLD – Country Information
 ASIL Guide – Country Reports
 U. Minn Human Rights Library
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Country Reports
by Treaty Based Bodies
State Reports
Concluding Observations / Comments
Treaty Body web site
 U.N. Treaty Body Database
 Bayefsky.com
 Universal Human Rights Index
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Country Reports– Bayefsky.com
Country Reports
by Charter Based Bodies
Special Procedures
 OHCHR web site
 Country mandates
 Thematic mandates
 Charter-based Bodies Database
 Universal Human Rights Index
Country Reports
by Charter Based Bodies
Special Procedures
 OHCHR web site (Countries), recent
 Charter-based Bodies Database
 Universal Human Rights Index
Universal Periodic Reviews
 UNHCHR web site
 UPR.org web site
Universal Periodic Review
UPR-Info.org
Nongovernmental Organizations
A good place to start research (directories)
 U of Minnesota’s list
 Bayefsky’s list
 “Human Rights Documents”
 Hurisearch
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http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/collection/HumanRights/index.html
Search Engine HURISEARCH
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Only search engine for human rights
Searches 3000 web sites
Can search by language, organization,
country
Use this search engine to:
 investigate human rights situation in
countries
 search information on an issue
 search content of a human rights web
site
Search Engine
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International Human Rights and
Humanitarian Law Search Engine
Research Guides
Research Guides
Databases
OHCHR Library
 UN BISnet
 UN Official Document System (ODS)
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Subject Listings
OHCHR List of Issues
 Issues on UN Agenda
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