A guide to finding international laws and regulations
China
AsianLII - Laws of the People's Republic of ChinaThis database contains selected Chinese legislation and related documents that have been translated into English. It includes: laws, regulations, pronouncements, resolutions, notices, measures, rules, decisions, decrees, principles, provisions, announcements, procedures, official replies and circulars (in interim, current and/or planned versions). Some warning: All translations are unofficial and it says it was last updated in March 2008
China Law TranslateThis website was conceived by Jeremy Daum, a research fellow at the Yale-China Law Center and is a crowd-sourcing project to provide translations of Chinese legislation into English and vice versa. The site has yet to really get going but is an interesting concept. Naturally, as it is a wiki-style project, there is no note about the quality of the translation.
China Ministry of JusticeEnglish translation available. Links include major decisions and updates, notices, laws and regulations.
China The State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA)Cleaner Production has been adopted by the Government of the People's Republic of China as one of the prime tools in its fight against industrial pollution. This web site has been developed by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) which is the Commission responsible for the implementation of Cleaner Production. Prior to March 2003 this was the responsibility of the former State Economic and Trade Commission (SETC). Every effort has been made to make the information accurate but all information on the site or linked to by the site must be viewed in the context of the disclaimer.
The site is designed to provide information in English on Cleaner Production, on China's Cleaner Production policy and legislation, and on existing and planned activities to implement Cleaner Production in China. Information is included on other organizations in China responsible for various aspects of implementing cleaner production or combating pollution.
en.pkulaw.comThis website comes from Chinalawinfo Co, an provider of legal information, established by Peking University on the basis of its Legal Information Center. Access to English-language versions of "all the relevant documents for your legal needs in China". There are notes and links in the Chinese text, but only English translations are provided for the main contents, not the notes. Contains laws and regulations (all laws adopted by the National People's Congress from 1949 to present), case law database of typical judicial decisions approved and published by the Supreme People's Court or the Supreme People's Procuratorate, Tax treaties, Gazettes (title index only) and legal news. Subscription required for access to certain content.
Hong Kong Legal Information InstitueHKLII is a free, independent, non-profit internet facility providing access to legal information relating to Hong Kong, including cases and legislative materials.
Law Lib - in ChineseDonald Clarke of George Washington University Law School says "This is a quite comprehensive free database of Chinese laws and regulations. It includes a great deal of local legislation, departmental regulations, and Supreme People's Court interpretations. The main drawback is that it is not full-text-searchable; you can search by terms in the title or the issuing body. A nice feature is that you can separate central from local legislation in your results."
Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council P.R. ChinaThe official English page of the Legislative Affairs Office, but the translation quality is a bit suspect and more importantly the site has not been updated since 2007. The Chinese version (http://www.chinalaw.gov.cn/ ZH), however, is up-to-date.
Library of CongressThe Library of Congress has some helpful links, including:
o Donald Clarke's list of online resources, including LawInfoChina, Law-Lib.com, and other more general resources: http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/dclarke/public/Chinese_Law_Resources.html EN
o A very helpful bilingual guide to the government's departments, structure, and personnel. Maintained by the Chinese government: http://www.prcgov.org/ EN/ZH
European Union
EUR - Lex : Access to European Union LawEUR-Lex provides free access to European Union law and other documents considered to be public. The website is available in 23 official languages of the European Union.
The contents of the site amount to some 2 815 000 documents with texts dating back to 1951. The database is updated daily and every year around 12 000 documents are added.
N - Lex : A common gateway to National Law of the EU CountriesProvides search results directly from national databases. Description of database contents and search options for each country (search fields and different types of national law). Multilingual dictionary (EUROVOC) - to help you make text searches in foreign languages. Context-sensitive help - to give you more information on specific search fields or show you examples.
“Summaries of EU legislation”: everything you want to know about European legislation!The “Summaries of EU legislation” website presents the main aspects of European Union (EU) legislation in a concise, easy-to-read and unbiased way. It provides approximately 3 000 summaries of European legislation, divided into 32 subject areas corresponding to the activities of the European Union.
India
India CodeIndia Code the India Code Information System contains all Central Acts of Parliament right from 1836 onwards. Each Act includes: Short Title, Enactment Date, Sections, Schedule and also Foot notes. Statutes and links to additional databases
FindLawCases and Codes
FindLaw's Cases and Codes section contains resources and links for both state and federal laws. This includes resources pertaining to constitutions, statutes, cases and more. Run a search for case summaries or select a jurisdiction to browse applicable laws.
For historical documents and background information on the U.S. courts and government, view introductory material.
Congress.govCongress.gov is the official website for U.S. federal legislative information. The site provides access to accurate, timely, and complete legislative information for Members of Congress, legislative agencies, and the general public.
General Resources
AQUALEXAQUALEX is a thematic database of FAOLEX, one of the world's largest online repositories of national laws, regulations and policies on food, agriculture and natural resources management. AQUALEX provides free access to national and international legal instruments regarding water. In addition, for selected countries and transboundary waters, legal profiles summarizing the water regulatory framework are also available
Constitute ProjectConstitute offers access to the world’s constitutions so that users can systematically compare them across a broad set of topics — using an inviting, clean interface.
ECOLEX - Environmental LawECOLEX is an information service on environmental law, operated jointly by FAO, IUCN and UNEP.The ECOLEX database includes information on treaties, international soft-law and other non-binding policy and technical guidance documents, national legislation, judicial decisions, and law and policy literature. Users have direct access to the abstracts and indexing information about each document, as well as to the full text of most of the information provided.
Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW)The Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW) helps communities speak out for clean air, clean water, and a healthy planet. We are a global alliance of attorneys, scientists and other advocates collaborating across borders to promote grassroots efforts to build a sustainable, just future.
**Link to resources
EPLex - International Labour OrganizationEPLex database brings together, in a comparative manner, national provisions on employment protection. force. EPlex also deals only with employees in the private sector.
FAOLEX - Food and Agricutlure Organization of the UNFAOLEX is a comprehensive and up-to-date computerized legislative database, one of the world's largest electronic collection of national laws and regulations on food, agriculture and renewable natural resources.
Users of FAOLEX have direct access to the abstracts and indexing information about each text, as well as to the full text of most legislation contained in the database.
FISHLEXCoastal State Requirements for Foreign Fishing
GlobaLex - NYU LawGlobaLex is an electronic legal publication published by the Hauser Global Law School Program at NYU School of Law. The information and articles published by GlobaLex represent both research and teaching resources used by legal academics, practitioners and other specialists around the world who are active either in foreign, international, and comparative law research or those focusing on their own domestic law. The guides and articles published are written by scholars well known in their respective fields and are recommended as a legal resource by universities, library schools, and legal training courses. The tools available in GlobaLex will continue to expand to cover international law topics, countries and legal system.
InforMEA - Multilateral Environmental AgreementsUnited Nations Information Portal on Multilateral Environmental Agreements
InforMEA provides easy access to information on MEAs. You can consult treaty texts and provisions of decisions and resolutions adopted by the Governing Bodies of MEAs. You may browse Party information including contacts, national reports and national plans submitted under MEAs. Feel free to learn of terms and concepts as defined in the context of MEAs and consider taking one of over 20 free online courses introducing MEAs. Don’t forget to use the explorer field to search across all this information and further filter and refine results.
LexisNexisRestricted access - see your Librarian
NatLexWelcome to NATLEX, the database of national labour, social security and related human rights legislation maintained by the International Labour Organization's International Labour Standards Department. Records in NATLEX provide abstracts of legislation and relevant citation information, and they are indexed by keywords and by subject classifications. Each record in NATLEX appears in only one of the three ILO official languages (English/French/Spanish). Where possible, the full text of the law or a relevant electronic source is linked to the record.
NORMLEX - Information System on International Labour StandardsNORMLEX is a new information system which brings together information on International Labour Standards (such as ratification information, reporting requirements, comments of the ILO's supervisory bodies, etc.) as well as national labour and social security laws.
Refworld - UN refugee law and policy databaseRefworld is the leading source of information necessary for taking quality decisions on refugee status. Refworld contains a vast collection of reports relating to situations in countries of origin, policy documents and positions, and documents relating to international and national legal frameworks. The information has been carefully selected and compiled from UNHCR's global network of field offices, Governments, international, regional and non-governmental organizations, academic institutions and judicial bodies.
**More than legal information
TRAVAIL - Database of Conditions of Work and Employment LawsThe TRAVAIL Database of Conditions of Work and Employment Laws provides a picture of the regulatory environment of working time, minimum wages and maternity protection in more than 100 countries around the world. It contains comprehensive legal information, which allows you to conduct customized research on a specific country, to compare the legislation of several countries or regions on a particular subject or to perform searches by text. For selected issues, a historical comparison is possible.
WorldLII - World Legal Information InstituteFree, independent and non-profit access to worldwide law.
Categories include: Environment, treaties, foreign investment and many more.
ECOLEX Environmental Treaty SearchECOLEX is an information service on environmental law, operated jointly by FAO, IUCN and UNEP. Treaties and treaty decisions can be filtered by subject, keyword, country, geographical area, and year.
FLARE Index to Treaties SearchA free treaty index database that contains information on over 2,000 multilateral treaties concluded from the 1600s onwards and a number of bilateral treaties signed between 1353 and 1815, with links to the full text, where available.
