RESEARCH GUIDE
The main purpose of this research guide and bibliography is to assist students who are doing research in the area of comparative commercial law. The bibliography includes treatises, periodicals, reporters, and other materials that can be found in the Sheely-Lee Law Library. Please note that there are many possible topics in this area. The bibliography is as inclusive as possible, but there may be relevant items (depending on the research topic) which are not listed.
The titles on the bibliography which are preceded by a classification number can be found with the treatises on the second floor of the library. Those without classification numbers are periodicals. Bound periodicals are on the second floor of the library; current issues of all law reviews and periodicals are in the Reserve Area on the first floor.
An excellent way to begin the research process is to consult a pathfinder or guide on the subject in question. Materials on relevant issues can be found in the most unlikely publications and places. The following items may offer some guidance:
Allen, Virginia. Doing business abroad, 1982: a bibliography selected from English language books and documents in the Underwood Law Library. Southern Methodist University, 1982. [K 1001 .A44]
Germain, ClaireM. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods: guide to research and literature. 24 International Journal of Legal Information 48 (1996).
Harvard University. Law School. Library. Doing business abroad, a selected and annotated bibliography of books and pamphlets in English, 1961. [KF 390 .B8]
Hoffman, Marci. Update to Guide to International Trade Law Sources on the Internet. LLRX.com (January 3, 2000).
Introduction to transnational legal transactions/sponsored by the American Association of Law Libraries. Edited by Marylin J. Raisch, Roberta I. Shaffer. New York: Oceana Publications, c1995. [K 7615.4 .I58 1995]
The two most widely used sources are Legal Resources Index and Index to Legal Periodicals and Books.
Index to Legal Periodicals and Books (ILP) is the traditional source for legal periodical indexing. This title and its previous editions cover a wide variety of publications back to the late eighteenth century. In our library, it can be found in paper (on the first floor of the library) and on LIAS (from 1981-present).
Legal Resources Index (LRI) is a computerized, cumulative index covering periodicals from 1980 to date. It indexes more periodical titles than Index to Legal Periodicals. However, since LRI only began in 1980, any search for law review articles before that year would be limited to the paper version of Index to Legal Periodicals. LRI is available in our library from three different sources - LegalTrac (on the DSL Library web page select Dickinson Legal Research Resources, select Reference Sources & Databases, then select LegalTrac), LEXIS, and WESTLAW. If you are unfamiliar with how to use LegalTrac please ask anyone on the library staff for assistance.
The most up-to-date periodical indexing can be found in the Current Index to Legal Periodicals (CILP), published weekly by the University of Washington Law Library. This publication is intended to keep the indexing up-to-date for current periodicals until the printed Index to Legal Periodicals volumes are available. It is available on WESTLAW.
Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals provides access to the major international and comparative law periodicals of those countries other than the U.S. and the U.K. If your research involves foreign jurisdictions this is a valuable resource. It is available in print format on the first floor of the library.
Obviously, electronic sources such as LEXIS, WESTLAW, Loislaw, and Findlaw, can make case research quicker, and sometimes more efficient. However if you are unable to sufficiently narrow your electronic research, you may find print resources helpful. All the traditional sources for finding cases are available to you. For general case research, the Tenth Decennial Digest, Part 2 is completed covering 1991 to 1996. For more recent West topics or topics not cumulated in the Tenth Decennial Digest, you will need to consult West's General Digests, 1997-. If you wish to focus on federal cases only, the Federal Practice Digest 4th and its predecessors provide the most comprehensive coverage. For state appellate cases, you can consult West's regional digests: Atlantic Digest, North Western Digest, Pacific Digest, and South Eastern Digest. However, the most in depth indexing of state case law is found in the individual digest for each state. The Library has state digests for the following states: Florida, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.
You should also consult the library online catalog to determine what materials we own for each country that interests you. The bibliography lists most of the relevant comparative law treatises and sets that we have, however, it does not list all of the case and statute materials that we own for each foreign country.
You are undoubtedly familiar with how to use KeyCite or Shepard's to update U.S. federal or state case law. However, if you will be dealing primarily with foreign cases, these systems will be of little help to you. Obviously each country will have its own unique method of "shepardizing" cases and statutes. Usually the prefatory remarks found in case or statute reporters for a specific country will give you some explanation of how their system works. If LEXIS or Westlaw covers the country in question, it may be more convenient to use them as a citator. By writing a search that retrieves any mention of a case citation, you can essentially "shepardize" a case or statute. If you are not sure how to formulate your search, you can find directions in their training manuals or you can ask a librarian for assistance.
To find which treatises the law library has in a specific subject area, you can conduct a subject or keyword search of the library's online catalog. The printed bibliography which follows lists items from a wide variety of subject headings such as:
Depending upon your paper topic, you may find it advantageous to consult library catalog under other relevant subject headings. For example, the bibliography lists only selected titles from subject headings such as: Business Enterprises; Corporations; Foreign Trade Regulation; International Business Enterprises; International Trade; etc. If you already know the name of the author or title of the book that you want, look up the name or with an author or title search section of the catalog and note the classification number.
To significantly expand your search for treatises, you can consult the LIAS system which provides access to the Penn State University Libraries online catalog, and access to the other "Big Ten" university library catalogs, as well. Although the primary focus of these library collections is nonlegal, it is likely that they would include some materials relevant to your research. You can access LIAS at the "LIAS workstations" situated throughout the law library, in the computer labs, or via the Internet at www.lias.psu.edu. If you are unsure how to use LIAS, one of the librarians will assist you.
ACLCP is a consortium of twenty Central Pennsylvania college and university libraries. A single database comprising all of their library catalogs is available for searching over the internet at http://aclcp.library.net. If your research encompasses political, social, economic, scientific, or nonlegal issues, this web site could be quite useful. A complete list of the member libraries can be found later in this Research Guide. Because some of the libraries are located nearby, you may find relevant items that you can obtain very quickly.
As a result of the U.S. government's involvement in broad spectrum of legal issues, these documents can be a rich source of information, for an historical perspective or for a modern viewpoint. The law school is a selective depository for U.S. federal government documents, which means that we get a small percentage of what the government publishes. We have documents in both bound form and on microfiche. In order to retrieve a document, it is almost always necessary to have a full government document number. If you cannot find what you are looking for, please ask one of the librarians because these documents can be tricky to locate.
Access to government documents is available in our library through various sources:
DSL Online Catalog: The Law Library catalogs many, but not all, of the government documents that we receive. You can search for them by author, title, subject, or keyword. Once a title is located you will need the government document number (sudoc. no.) or library call number to locate the item.
The Cat is the Penn State University Libraries online catalog, which can be accessed via LIAS (www.lias.psu.edu). The University Library is a full U.S. Government document depository and they have cataloged most of the titles they receive from GPO. Once a title is located you will need the government document number (sudoc. no.) or library call number to locate the item in the DSL library or in another location.
Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (Monthly Catalog) is an index which provides access by either, title, subject, or keyword to most government documents published since 1976. It is available in print, cd-rom, or on the Web with each providing different dates of coverage.
CIS Index provides subject access primarily to legislative documents such as bills, reports, hearings, etc. It is located on the second floor of the library. There is an electronic counterpart to CIS Index, entitled Congressional Universe, and it is available through LIAS (Choose Fast Track to All Resources, then click on Congressional/Legislative Resources.)
GPO Access provides online access to the Congressional Record, the Federal Register, the full text of bills introduced in Congress, the Congressional Record Index, the History of Bills, the U.S. Code, Public Laws of the Congress, and, through the Federal Bulletin Board, more than 6,000 other files from 25 Federal agencies. It is available via the Web at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs.
The Congressional Research Service conducts intensive research at the request of Congress. Their reports are published as CRS Major Studies and Issue Briefs and contain extremely valuable information due to the high quality expertise of the CRS researchers. The library regularly receives these reports as part of a microfiche collection of CRS documents. The reports are indexed by subject and author in pamphlets (shelved in the Microforms Room on the second floor) that accompany that set. In a recent move, the CRS has been authorized to place over 300 of their reports online (http://www.senate.gov/~dpc/crs). Selective reports have been added, dating back to 1994, and can be accessed by name, number, or subject.
Some of the most current, "cutting edge" information is available from specialized research centers, associations and organizations. Most of these groups publish newsletters, newspapers, journals or reports that can be quite valuable. Since the focus of these groups is concentrated in one narrow area, their members usually have a great deal of expertise in that subject. For a comprehensive listing, you can consult the Associations Unlimited (also known as Encyclopedia of Associations), an annual directory of organizations arranged by subject. Each entry provides the organization's name, address, phone, size of membership, activities of the group, and a list of publications. [Available in paper in the Reference collection, or electronically via LIAS or WESTLAW(EOA)]
The library has a sizable collection of United Nations documents, European Community documents, and internal documentation from many foreign countries.
The United Nations documents are arranged by document number. Depending upon the year(s) in which you are researching, we have U.N. documents in bound volumes or in microfiche. For the most current U.N. document indexing, we have Access UN, a continuously updated, web-based index of UN publications which will expedite your research. It is available through the DSL Legal Research Resources web page or through LIAS. We also have a CD-ROM counterpart to Access U.N., entitled Readex UN Index. It is located at the CD workstations near the circulation desk and is updated quarterly. The Web product is designed to be frequently updated but as it evolves it may not be as retrospectively complete as the Readex CD Index. It would be wise to determine the exact years of coverage for the Web and cd-rom versions each time they are consulted in order to obtain the most comprehensive indexing.
We have recently expanded our European Union collection to include the Official Journal, Commission Documents, Parliamentary Debates, Parliament Reports, and Economic & Social Committee Opinions. The Official Journal is paperbound and shelved on the second floor of the library. The other documents are on microfiche. We also have a considerable number of periodicals and treatises to maintain up-to-date information on the E.U. For example, an excellent looseleaf by CCH is the European Union Law Reporter, located in the RESERVE section (KJE 949 .C655 1962). You should consult the library catalog for other relevant titles. To gain access to individual E.U. documents, you can consult the Official Journal Index volumes. However, the European Union provides excellent electronic access to its documents and publications through a series of Internet Web sites (http://europa.eu.int). WESTLAW has recently emerged as an excellent online source for EU information. Their EU-ALL database contains comprehensive coverage of European Union legal materials, including legislation, case law, preparatory documents, parliamentary questions, treaties, and information and notices (OJ C Series). Also, LEXIS has created its own database of European Union documents in the EUROPE library, parts of which have not been recently updated.
The library tries to maintain current statute and case reporters for a selected number of foreign countries. You should consult the library catalog to determine what is available. If, like many researchers in foreign law, you know what country you are researching in but not what sources are available for that country or region, there are published materials that will solve your problem. One is entitled Foreign Law: Current Sources of Codes and Basic Legislation in Jurisdictions of the World, by Reynolds and Flores. (REF. K38 .R49 1989). This multi- volume looseleaf currently covers the Western Hemisphere (vol. I); Western and Eastern Europe and the EC (vol. II), and Africa, Asia and Australia (vol. III). There are very specific and comprehensive entries for all of the countries within the regions specified. The other publication is entitled Guide to Official Publications of Foreign Countries by Gloria Westfall. (REF. Z7164 .G7 G83 1990). It lists most of the principal publications published by foreign governments. These sets are kept in the library reference collection on the first floor.
The Modern Legal Systems Cyclopedia (REF. K559 .M62) is an excellent starting point for comparing lcommercial laws worldwide. This multi-volume set provides a detailed introduction to the legal systems of most countries in the world. Monographs for each country encompass a wide range of areas including commercial legal systems, governmental systems, as well as coverage of substantive and procedural law.
For a comprehensive guide to international research, you should consult Germain's Transnational Law Research (REF. K85 .G47 1991). This is a book of resources and research techniques in all aspects of international and foreign law. It includes chapters on procedural and practice issues, treaties, resources available in paper and electronic formats, US government sources, and subject specific sections on topics such as banking, business organizations, commercial law, the Council of Europe, and the EEC.
The International Encyclopedia of Laws: Commercial and Economic Law (REF K 48 .I57 1991 Comm) plans to contain separate monographs for over 60 countries and international organizations. Each monograph will discuss that country's specific commercial law traditions, background, current law and emerging policies. As of this writing, there are only three monographs (Australia, Belgium, and Ireland). However, new ones are being published throughout the year.
LEXIS and WESTLAW are emerging as excellent sources for foreign law. Both services provide access to European Union documents and selected international case law and treaty materials. Especially noteworthy are WESTLAW databases on the commercial laws of Eastern Europe, international economic law, Russian legislation, and laws and business of Poland. Worldwide coverage of business news is available in various WESTLAW (International/Worldwide Materials link) and LEXIS (Country & Region link) libraries. Both services also provide coverage of case law, legislative, and treaty materials for many foreign countries and supranational organizations. Some pertinent geographic areas include the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland, China, France, and the European Union.
Both of these online services (LEXIS and WESTLAW) are rapidly expanding to keep pace with events that are unfolding worldwide. They are adding newspapers and periodicals in full text too rapidly to supply you with an accurate listing here. Instead, both services provide an online guide to the titles that are in their databases. So, if we do not own the item that you need, check LEXIS and WESTLAW, too. Also, if your paper topic is in an area that is currently in transition, you should be able to track the latest developments on one of these online services.
The LIAS system also includes access to over 100 electronic databases and resources. Most of the databases are nonlegal, however, they may contain pertinent legal and nonlegal information valuable to your research. You can enhance your research by consulting the "Fast Track to All Resources" list found on the LIAS Web page. The list of databases does increase as new resources are acquired by the University Libraries. Some databases that might be of interest are:
The Internet is especially valuable for locating government information and documents. Many foreign jurisdictions and international governmental organizations have created user-friendly Web sites which contain abstracts, full text documentation, press releases, and other relevant information. Some of the most reliable Web sites and springboard sites are listed here:
The library staff is happy to obtain materials (that we don't own) from other libraries. If you find a citation to a book or periodical that we don't have, and that you need, fill out an interlibrary loan request form at the circulation desk. We will try to fill your request as quickly as possible, but if the item can only be borrowed from a distant library, it can sometimes take over two weeks to receive the item in the mail. For this reason, you would be well advised to begin your research early so we can guarantee that you will get the material you need in time to write your paper.
As a Penn State graduate student, you have library privileges at all university libraries. The policies may differ somewhat from library to library, however, at most campuses you should be given full borrowing privileges and access to the library collection and LIAS databases. If asked, you must present your law school ID to qualify for university library services.
You are permitted to use the Dickinson College library, the U.S. Army War College library, and any ACLCP member library as long as you are an enrolled student at Dickinson School of Law. In some cases this will include on-the-spot borrowing privileges. Please make sure you have your law school ID card when you arrive at either of these facilities, also.
The nearby Dickinson College library has numerous resources available including periodical indexes and treatises. While the emphasis of their collection would not be legal, they may have material that can help you. If you are working on a topic that has recently been in the news, the College library has back issues of the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, and Wall Street Journal on microfilm and has indexes for all three newspapers.
The U.S. Army War College library has a comprehensive collection of materials from foreign countries, including foreign newspapers and periodicals from selected areas. They also have back issues of the daily Foreign Broadcast Information Service Reports. Depending on your paper topic, this library could be a valuable repository for relevant materials.
The ACLCP member libraries are all located on college campuses within Central Pennsylvania. Members include: Alvernia College, Albright College, Bucknell University, Dickinson College, Dickinson School of Law, Elizabethtown College, Franklin & Marshall, Gettysburg College, Harrisburg Area Community College, Juniata College, Kutztown University, Lebanon Valley College, Lycoming College, Millersville University, Messiah College, Penn College of Technology, Penn State Harrisburg, Shippensburg University, State Library of Pennsylvania, Susquehanna University, U.S. Army War College, and York College. Our membership entitles DSL students to borrowing privileges and interlibrary loan services from all other members.
The H. Laddie Montague, Jr. Law Library is staffed with a professional librarian from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Thursday; 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday; and with virtual reference assistance available through the Common Plea Reference Service.
[Table of Contents]
[Table of Contents] [Research Guide] [General Treatises] [International Sale of Goods] [Specific Countries and Regions]
[European Union] [Periodicals] [General Reference & Research Materials]