Oxford Reports on International Law

Today I learnt about the Oxford Reports on International Law, also known as ORIL. It is an Oxford University Press subscription database, which “brings together decisions on public international law from international law courts, domestic courts and ad-hoc tribunals”. New cases are added daily, and it claims to be the most up-to-date source of international case law available.

As well as providing the full-text decisions, each case report also includes expert analysis and a summary of the key facts. English translations of the key passages of non-English decisions are also provided.

ORIL consists of five modules:

• International Courts of General Jurisdiction
• International Criminal Law
• International Human Rights Law
• International Investment Claims
• International Law in Domestic Courts

You can browse or run a simple or advanced search. Subject headings and keywords are provided in the thesaurus. Entries are also linked directly to the Oxford Law Citator, allowing researchers to find other relevant cases and primary materials.

http://www.oxfordlawreports.com/ 

Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law

Today I learnt about the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law. There's a definite foreign and international law slant to my posts since I started work at IALS Global Law Library...

Edited by Rüdiger Wolfrum, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, the encyclopaedia is an extremely comprehensive, peer-reviewed online encyclopaedia. You can browse by title, subject or author or run a search across the content.

 http://www.mpepil.com/home

Guide to foreign and international legal citation

Today I learnt about the Guide to Foreign and International Legal Citation.

It's produced by the good people at NYU. Not only does it cover legal citations in various jurisdictions worldwide, it also includes citation guides for international organisations, tribunals, treaties and law.

The first edition (2006) is available online to download at: 

www.law.nyu.edu/ecm_dlv1/groups/public/@nyu_law_website__library/documents/documents/ecm_dlv_006388.pdf

The second edition (2009) is published by Aspen Publishers.

The Mysteries of Lexadin

Today I learnt about Lexadin. It is a website that provides links to over 70,000 legal sites in 180 countries. You can search across it, or browse by country, organisation, journal, etc.

But there is so much more still to learn. Who maintains Lexadin site and why? The domain name suggests it originates in the Netherlands. The copyright statement suggests the site is up-to-date to 2011. The rest remains a mystery...

http://www.lexadin.nl/

Treaty Definitions - The Difference Between Signature, Ratification and Accession

Today I learnt how it is possible for a State to "sign up" to a treaty without actually signing it. The answer: Accession! Apologies if this is common knowledge, but today I've learnt that Signature usually means that a State agrees to the text of a treaty, Ratification means a State consents to be bound by a treaty following Signature, and Accession means a State agrees to be bound by a treaty without going through the process of Signature and Ratification (e.g. if a State was not involved in the original treaty negotiations). This is something I have often wondered about and was forced to find out today when answering an enquiry from a lawyer. Of course I have oversimplified the definitions for the sake of this blog. In the future I will refer to the helpful glossary on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website (link below) and when a lawyer next asks if a State has "signed up" to a particular treaty, I will be better equipped to answer.

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/publications-and-documents/treaties/practice-procedures/glossary-treaty-terms