1. Public International Law
Library Search Strategies
Dennis Warren

2. Primary Sources
 United Nations Documents
 Treaties
 International Court of Justice decisions

3. UN Documents
 A/RES/52/91
 E/CN.4/1992/26
 A/55/1

4. Report of the UN Special Rapporteur of
the Commission on Human Rights 16.1.92
(E/CN.4/1992/26).

5. Report of the UN Special Rapporteur of
the Commission on Human Rights 16.1.92
(E/CN.4/1992/26).

6. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2003/38/Rev.2
Document no. 38, revision no. 2
Year
Subcommission on the Promotion
and Protection of Human Rights
Commission on Human Rights
Economic and Social Council

8. Treaties - Convention on the Rights of the Child,
opened for signature 20 November 1989,
1577 UNTS 3 (entered into force 2
September 1990).
 United Nations Treaty Series
 AustLII

9. Primary Sources
 United Nations Documents
 Treaties
 International Court of Justice decisions
 PCIJ: Publications of the Permanent Court of
International Justice (1922-1946)
 ICJ

10. Secondary Sources
 Journal articles
 Books
 Other Sources
 Newspaper articles
 Encyclopaedias
 Yearbooks

11. Journal Indexes
 Index to Legal Periodicals
 Legal Resource Index
 AGIS
 APAIS
 Google Scholar

12. Journal Indexes – 2 step process
 Step 1: Search
 Step 2: Check catalogue to see IF the library
has that journal.

13. Lexis.com v/s Westlaw

14. Newspaper articles
 Factiva

15. Coverage
Index to Legal Periodicals
Lexis.com: US & Canada
Legal Journals Index
Lexis.com: UK
AGIS and
APAIS

16. AGIS, APAIS
 Enter two words -> search for phrase
 Need connectors between search terms
 Example:
 International law and sovereignty
 Truncation character is *

17. Finding a specific article/author in
Lexis.com:
 title(new players on the international stage)
 author(spiro)

18. Advanced search techniques in Lexis.com
 criminal responsibility w/5 state!
Truncation character is !

19. Practice question: How would you find
this article on Lexis.com?
Shabtai Rosenne, State Responsibility and
International Crimes: Further Reflections on
Article 19 of the Draft Articles on State
Responsibility, 30 N.Y.U. J. INT'L L. & POL.
145 (1998)

20. One of the best search strategies
 Reformulating a query based on documents
identified as relevant
Example:
Find a key paper and look at how it has been
indexed…then use those terms as search
terms

21. Google v/s Library Databases
 http://scholar.google.com/

22. Library databases
state responsibility and internationally
wrongful acts