Secondary sources provide background information on a topic and contain citations to relevant cases and legal materials. 

Start your search for books by using NUsearch, the library catalog for Northwestern University, to see what books we have available in the campus library system. Most books pertaining to African countries will be located at the Africana Library (Main) in Evanston. You can log into the catalog ("Sign in") to request it to be transferred for pick-up at the law library. 

If you need additional books or if you are looking for a particular title that we don't own, you can search for the item in WorldCat and submit an interlibrary loan request for it. 

For international law e-books, see the Oxford Scholarly Authorities on International Law. This resource provides electronic access to commentaries, scholarly works, and books on international law topics, including human rights law, environmental law, criminal law, use of force/humanitarian law, and more. A full list of the titles included in this collection is available here. 

Journal articles can be found through various subscription databases or in print. Articles on international law topics may be published in law or law-related journals as well as in multidisciplinary journals. 

You can search for the title of the publication in NUsearch to see whether you can access it through an electronic database or can find it in print at one of our campus libraries. 

Publications and reports from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), and state governments are useful sources to help you understand international law topics and situations in specific countries. Examples of NGOs include Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Examples of IGOs include the United Nations or the African Union. 

Google Advanced allows you to run targeted searches across regular Google and limit your results to certain file types (e.g., .pdf) and/or search across a particular website (e.g., https://www.hrw.org) or domain (e.g., .edu, .org, .gov). The .int domain is reserved for international treaty-based organizations, UN agencies, and organizations or entities with observer status at the UN. The .org domain is often used by non-profit organizations, but can now be used by anyone. Using Google Advanced is particularly helpful when searching across government or NGO websites because these type of websites often lack great search functions.

News articles are a good way to identify recent laws or cases pertaining to freedom of information in Ethiopia. To keep apprised of recent developments, consider setting alerts to receive notifications of when your search terms appear in news databases.