Researching International Criminal Law

in

Researching International Criminal Law

by
Judy Gire, Library Director

Sources of International Law

International criminal law is part of public international law and focuses on issues relating to extradition, cybercrime, terrorism, organized crime and narcotics, and human rights and war crimes under international law. It is related to humanitarian law which addresses human rights in wartime as well as international human rights law which focuses on the protection of individuals and groups against violations of their rights under international law.

When researching international law issues, Article 38 of the International Court of Justice Statute http://www.icj-cij.org/documents/index.php?p1=4&p2=2&p3=0 lists the sources of international law in order of their weight as authority:

  1. International conventions and treaties
  2. International custom as evidence of a general practice accepted as law
  3. General principles of law recognized by civilized nations (doctrines of fairness and justice applied universally in legal systems throughout the world)
  4. Judicial decisions and teachings of the most highly qualified publicists

The first three sources are primary sources while judicial decisions and teachings of the most highly qualified publicists are treated as secondary sources. Only the first three sources apply to international criminal law since “teachings of the most highly qualified publicists, i.e. judges or jurists of international courts or tribunals, cannot create supra-national binding laws as local legislative and adjudicatory bodies do.” See M. Cherif Bassiouni, International Criminal Law 4-5 (2d ed. 1998).

Getting Started

Introductory Guides

ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law
http://www.asil.org/crim1.cfm

Excellent discussion on how to do international legal research on the Internet, highlighting important primary and secondary sources. The section on International Criminal Law provides a textual pathfinder to major electronic sources for researching international and transitional crime as well as current issues common to both categories.

Globalex
www.nyulawglobal.org/Globalex

Produced by Hauser Global Law School Program of New York University, Globalex offers high quality legal research guides on various international subjects as well as timely articles on international law topics and venues including international criminal law. Offers search function.

Law Library Resource Xchange – LLRX.com
www.llrx.com

The site includes a number of research guides on international law posted by law librarians and includes a search function. Specifically, Marilyn J. Raisch and Gail Partin’s International Criminal Law: A Selective Resource Guide http://www.llrx.com/features/int_crim.htm offers a selective guide to print and electronic sources for international criminal law.

Metapages

http://www.eisil.org/

American Society of International Law’s comprehensive site with links to law instruments, web sites and online research guides. Includes subsection on international criminal law.

http://www.loc.gov/law/guide/index.html

Law Library of Congress portal to Internet links for reference sources for nations and regions. Includes international sources.

http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/

Good place to access U.N. information and documents.

http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/links/links.htm

Comprehensive source of links to human rights documents and sources efficiently organized. One of best sites for human rights research which includes international criminal law topics.

http://wjin.net/

Global research forum for information relating to crime, justice and the rule of law. Supported and administered by the National Institute of Justice in cooperation with the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme Network (UNCJIN), this functions as a global virtual library and criminal justice news monitoring tool.

http://www.ncjrs.gov

Database of abstracts of books, articles and reports published by the U.S. Department of Justice, other state and federal agencies, international organizations and private sector. Areas of focus include: corrections, courts, crime prevention, criminal justice statistics, drugs, international information, juvenile justice, law enforcement, and victims.
Extensive global source of information on criminal justice.

http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/p/cjl-world.php

Created and maintained by Dr. Cecil E. Greek at School of Criminology & Criminal Justice, Florida State University. Comprehensive links to websites for criminal law, law enforcement and crime prevention with regional source lists for the United Kingdom, Europe, Canada, Australia, Africa, Asia and South America.

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/international/

U.S. Department of Justice’s research agency site with links to international criminal justice community. Includes full-text of articles in NIJ publications.

Treatises

Check for treatises on international criminal law and justice topics by leading authorities. Search by author and title if known or by subject heading or keyword in an online library catalog.

Useful subject headings include:

Criminal law -- International
Criminal jurisdiction
International offenses

You can also add a geographical limitation to subject headings to locate information in a particular country or region:

International offenses -- Angola

Additionally, you can search by more specific topics:

Extradition
Narcotics and crime
Terrorism
War crimes

Most international criminal law treatises at Pierce Law are classed under KZ.

http://cardcatalog.piercelaw.edu/

Online catalog of all Pierce Law Library treatise holdings.

http://www.nellco.org/index.cfm?pageld=523&parentID=474

Provides access to online catalogs of NELLCO member libraries including Harvard, Yale, Cornell, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia and NYU. Search individual library catalog or search combinations to identify relevant treatises.

See Reference Librarian Barry Shanks if you need to interlibrary loan treatises not available in the Pierce Law Library.

Periodical Articles

Many law reviews and journals include articles on international criminal law topics which are sources for current information and citations to relevant material.

http://0-infotrac.galegroup.com.cardcatalog.piercelaw.edu/itweb/nellco_main

Index of Anglo-American legal periodicals and law reviews. Search by author or title if known or by subject heading or keyword.

http://0-ovidsp.ovid.com.cardcatalog.piercelaw.edu/ovidweb.cgi?T=JS&MODE=ovid&PAGE=main&NEWS=n&DBC=y&D=iflp

Index to articles on foreign, comparative and international law published in legal periodicals and law reviews from around the world. Search by author, title, subject, keyword.

http://0-www.jstor.org.cardcatalog.piercelaw.edu/

Full-text database of leading interdisciplinary academic journals.

http://0-www.ciaonet.org.cardcatalog.piercelaw.edu/

Full-text collection of working papers, journal articles, books, policy briefs, research projects and conference proceedings discussing theory, policy and research of international affairs.

See Reference Librarian Barry Shanks if you need to interlibrary loan periodical articles.

Encyclopedias and Restatements

http://0-www.mpepil.com.cardcatalog.piercelaw.edu/

Authoritative encyclopedia on public international law topics written by scholars and practitioners from around the world.

Statistical Sources

http://www.uncjin.org/Statistics/statistics.html

Links to collections of global crime statistics and includes the UN Surveys of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems.

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/

Provides British and international criminal justice statistics.

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/ijs.htm

Complete resource for international criminal justice statistics with explanations and references to U.N. statistical sources, international web sites, and National Archive of Criminal Justice Data. Includes crime surveys and studies from individual countries and regions and Global Report on Crime and Justice as well as World Factbook of Criminal Justice Systems.

Treaty Souces

Treaty Collections

You can usually retrieve individual treaties by name through an Internet search. Lacking the treaty name, there are several collections of treaties to check to locate the text of a treaty.

http://www.eisil.org

American Society of International Law’s EISIL database links to selected treaties in the section devoted to international criminal law.

http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts

Links to important human rights treaties which may involve international criminal law issues. When possible links to authoritative ratification information.

http://fletcher.tufts.edu/multilaterals.html

Ongoing project of Fletcher School to make texts of international multilateral conventions and other instruments available. Focus is on texts from 1945.

http://treaties.un.org/Pages/Home.aspx?lang-eng

Collection includes the Leagues of Nations Treaty Series (L.N.T.S.), 1920-1944, and the United Nations Treaty Series (U.N.T.S.), 1944-. The latter collection includes full-text of all bilateral and multilateral treaties registered with the Secretariat. Most comprehensive treaty series, but there can be a time lag.

http://0-www.oceanalaw.com.cardcatalog.piercelaw.edu/gateway/main_account_ip.asp?ID=4&SessionID=%7BBD4DC93C-316D-4E5F-916D-4AF48035D600%7D

Full-text collection of all United States treaties and international agreements since 1773 that are in force.

  • Check Web Sites of Regional Organizations

Web sites for regional organizations like the Council of Europe, European Union or Organization of American States often provide text of treaties between member countries.

Treaty Status

Checking for signatories, status, ratification and reservation information on treaties is important. Options include:

http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ParticipationStatus.aspx

  • Web Sites of Regional Organizations

Regional human rights organizations’ Web sites often provide status information for treaties of their member countries.

http://www.asil.org/resource/treaty1.htm

ASIL Treaty Page, Section 5, links to status and ratification information for treaties. Also includes information on declarations and reservations.

  • Department of State Web Page

The Department of State Web page has links to Treaties in Forcehttp://www.state.gov/s/l/treaty/treaties/2009/index.htm and to Treaty Actionshttp://www.state.gov/s/l/treaty/c3428.htm to check status of U.S. treaties.

Case Law

Decisions of international and national tribunals can be used as persuasive authority. Check compilations of decisions for the international body or national tribunal entrusted with enforcing the treaty you are researching.

http://www.icj-cij.org/

International Court of Justice web site includes reports of this most significant adjudication in international law since 1947. Most judgments are summarized. Includes information on history of the Court, current docket, procedures, jurisdiction and rules. Westlaw also provides all ICJ decisions in the INT-ICJ database.

http://www.un.org/law/icc/index.html

http://www.icty.org/

http://69.94.11.53/

  • Decisions of Regional Courts

Check web sites for regional courts that may offer decisions relating to international criminal justice issues such as:

http://0-www.oxfordlawreports.com.cardcatalog.piercelaw.edu/

Features domestic law cases relating to international law from over 80 jurisdictions. Includes full text of judgments in original language with translations of key passages into English and detailed summaries.

 

Last revised: February 2010