Start your research by consulting some secondary sources, such as books or journal articles, to familiarize yourself with your topic and identify the relevant sources of international law, then use this research guide to assist you with finding the sources of law.
Use NUsearch to search for books available through the Northwestern Libraries system. Search by keyword (e.g., women's rights, international human rights) or use the advanced search if you have a specific title in mind.
Selected relevant subject headings:
For books not available at NU, use WorldCat and submit an interlibrary loan (ILL) request.
Women and International Human Rights Law by
This book presents the findings of the first comprehensive study on the most recent, and most unique and innovative method of monitoring international human rights law at the United Nations. Since its existence, there has yet to be a complete and comprehensive book solely dedicated to exploring the UPR process. Women and International Human Rights Law provides a much-needed insight to what the process is, how it operates in practice, and whether it meets its fundamental aim of promoting the universality of all human rights.
The Legal Protection of Women from Violence by
Violence against women remains one of the most pervasive human rights violations in the world today, and it permeates every society, at every level. Such violence is considered a systemic, widespread and pervasive human rights violation, experienced largely by women because they are women. Yet at the international level, there is a gap in the legal protection of women from violence. There is currently no binding international convention that explicitly prohibits such violence; or calls for its elimination; or, mandates the criminalisation of all forms of violence against women. This book critically analyses the treatment of violence against women in the United Nations system, and in three regional human rights systems. Each chapter explores the advantages and disadvantages coming from the legal instruments, the work of the monitoring systems, and the resulting findings and jurisprudence. The book proposes that the gap needs to be addressed through a new United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Violence against Women, or alternatively an Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women. A new Convention or Optional Protocol would be part of the transformative agenda that is needed to normatively address the promotion of a life free of violence for women, the responsibility of states to act with due diligence in the elimination of all forms of violence against all women, and the systemic challenges that are the causes and consequences of such violence.
Translating International Women's Rights by
This book looks at the centerpiece of the international women's rights discourse, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and asks to what extent it affects the lives of women worldwide. Rather than assuming a trickle-down effect, the author discusses specific methods which have made CEDAW resonate. These methods include attempts to influence the international level by clarifying the meaning of women's rights and strengthening the Convention's monitoring procedure, and building connections between international and domestic contexts that enable diverse actors to engage with CEDAW. This analysis shows that while the Convention has worldwide impact, this impact is fundamentally dependent on context-specific values and agency. Hence, rather than thinking of women's rights exclusively as normative content, Zwingel suggests to see them as in process. This book will especially appeal to students and scholars interested in transnational feminism and gender and global governance.
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.
NUsearch allows you to conduct keyword searches for articles similar to how you would search for books. An article search across NUsearch will retrieve results from databases from all disciplines (e.g., JSTOR, Academic Search Premier, Science Direct, etc.). In the basic search, select "Articles" in the dropdown next to the search bar. Alternatively, after running a search, select "Articles" as a filter under "Format." You can refine your results to only include peer-reviewed journals or by date, subject, or language.
Alternatively, you can run searches for articles using Google Scholar. If you choose this option, you may wish to install the Northwestern VPN to ensure easy access to articles that are behind a paywall and otherwise available through our subscription databases.
Encyclopedias provide a surface-level overview of a topic and usually are accompanied by a bibliography of additional primary and secondary sources.
Annotated bibliographies identify important books, articles, and other materials on specific topics or subject areas.
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 IGOs include the United Nations or the African Union. Examples of NGOs include Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
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.
Selected IGO and NGO Websites
Directories of International Organizations
News articles are great sources to keep up with timely and recent developments relating to an issue or topic. If you are working on a long-term research project on a topic, consider setting an alert to automatically run a search and notify you of any recent news articles on that topic.