The country-specific research guides will identify relevant websites or resources where you can find sources of law for that country. Many foreign countries have made their laws and judicial decisions available online through their legislature and judiciary websites.
Consult the resources suggested by the country-specific research guides first, then if you still have not found what you are looking for, consider using one of the resources below. Foreign legal research often requires using a mix of free resources and subscription resources.
Constitutions are one of the most important texts to consult when conducting foreign legal research because they set out the fundamental principles and laws of a nation.
In addition to checking country-specific databases and websites to find the foreign legal materials you need, subject-specific collections of laws, which collect laws from various countries pertaining to a particular subject, can be useful resources to incorporate into your research process. These resources often have better search capabilities than foreign government websites.
For a much more comprehensive guide to subject law collections than the selected databases listed below, see the GlobaLex Foreign Law - Subject Law Collections on the Web research guide.
These resources provide access to legal materials from selected countries. Note that there is not one resource that you can search across that captures all laws and cases from every country in the world. These resources also vary in how frequently they are updated, so always check to see how current the resource is to assess whether you need to update your research using another resource.
One of the most challenging aspects of foreign law research is ensuring you have found the document you need when you do not read the language of that jurisdiction. It is not uncommon for legal materials in other countries to be unavailable in English where the country's official language is not English. Although English translations of some foreign laws and cases are available, you must check the authoritativeness of the translation (e.g., was it translated by a human or by a machine?) as well as how current the translated version is (e.g., does the translated version of a code incorporate an important recent amendment to a law?).
Resources such as the Foreign Law Guide will identify available English translations of laws from other countries. Additionally, the Basic Guide to Researching Foreign Law on GlobaLex also provides useful starting points for finding foreign laws in English.
Many websites, particularly government websites or intergovernmental organization websites, provide an option to translate the website into English. For websites that do not provide this option, a Google Translate browser extension can at least help you navigate the website in machine-translated English. Unfortunately, Google cannot translate all languages and some webpages or PDF documents will not be automatically translated, though you can copy and paste words from that document into an online translator.
Keep in mind that Google and other online translators offer machine-generated translations. Translation tools like these are useful for getting the basic gist of the text, but do not constitute official translations and should never be relied on for making legal arguments.
Full-text English translations of codes, statutes, or cases from foreign countries may not exist, so you may have to rely on summaries in practice notes and practical guidance or journal articles. Footnotes in journal articles may provide translations of relevant code provisions or translated excerpts from a case.
