Your first step in the research process is to consult a few secondary sources that provide an overview of your topic. Secondary sources are books or articles written by legal scholars and experts. 

Secondary sources will describe the lay of the land and point you to relevant sources of international law. Additionally, secondary sources will help you understand the correct terminology for your legal issue or concept, which will allow you to run better searches for the primary law. Always start your research with secondary sources because they will save you a lot of time and effort: someone else has already done much of the work in identifying and describing relevant materials!