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Foreign law

foreign law image

Learning objectives

This module focuses on finding the material on foreign legal systems. By the end of this module you will be able to:

  • explain the concept of foreign law
  • locate online guides to the law of individual nations.

What is foreign law?

Foreign law is the national or domestic law of any country other than Australia. The study of foreign law is a separate discipline to comparative law or international law, although there are areas of overlap.

Because of their importance as a source of persuasive precedents, the laws of Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States are treated in separate modules.

Getting Started

The first step is to identify exactly what you need. Do you require case law, legislation or general information? If you are looking for a case or a piece of legislation, do you require the complete text, a summary or an English translation? Do you require information relating to current law or law at some time in the past. Once you have determined what your requirements, look for a research guide which will tell you about the sources of law which are available. In general, Web sites are the best sources for more recent legal materials. Printed works may be your first choice if you are looking at past law.

English language sources

If you are monolingual and you are investigating the law of a non-English speaking country, two sites will be particularly useful. These are:

Electronic sources of foreign law

The following Web sites offer English-language introductions to finding information on the laws of the relevant countries:

Portal sites

Most Australian law students will have heard of AustLII, the Web portal to Australian law provided by the Australian Legal Information Institute. AustLII, however, is only part of an international network of portal sites providing free access to legislation and superior court decisions for different common law countries. Other portals include BAILII (Great Britain and Ireland), CanLII (Canada), CyLaw (Cyprus), HKLII (Hong Kong), IrLII (Eire), NZLII (New Zeland), PacLII (Pacific Island states including Papua New Guinea) and CommonLII. The last provides access to the laws of dozens of Commonwealth countries. LII offers free electronic access to US legal resources.

In addition, there are portals which extend beyond the limits of common law jurisdictions. SAFLII provides access to court decisions from Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth countries in southern Africa. There are are also portals for AsianLII (Asia), Droit Francophone (Francophone jurisdictions) and WorldLII (world law).

GlobaLex

GlobaLex at the NY University School of Law is an indispensible resource for anyone interested in foreign law. Its resources include a Guide to Foreign and International Legal Databases and a Collection of Foreign Databases by Jurisdiction.

The GlobaLex site is a product of the The Hauser Global Law School Program.

Other portal sites for foreign jurisdictions

These include the following:

Summary

This module examined the following:

  • the concept of foreign law
  • locating online guides to the laws of individual nations.