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International Customs Law Research Guide

Introduction

The increase in amount of goods and materials crossing national borders has prompted the need for research in the international aspects of customs requirements. The focus of this research guide is on both print and electronic sources for researching international customs law. This includes sources from international organizations, major trade agreements, as well as international law sources generally.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact the Wolff Library reference desk at 202-662-4195 or by email: intlref@law.georgetown.edu. You may also submit your question via this online form.

Background Sources

The law library has many materials on corruption law and the titles below are meant only as a starting point. To locate more resources, search the online catalog (or try our NEW catalog interface) using keywords to narrow your search results. For example, < customs international > or < trade customs >.

  • Basics of the International System of Customs and Tariffs INTL K4600.L475 2001
    This text outlines how national laws on customs and tariffs coordinate with international classification schemes.
  • Country Reports on Economic Policy and Trade Practices
    This is available online. These reports were submitted to various Senate and House committees in accord with Section 2202 of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of of 1988. These reports compare U.S. policies and trade regulations with those countries with which the U.S. had major economic or trade relationships. In fall 2002, Congress abolished the requirement of making these reports.
  • Customs Valuation and Transfer Pricing : Is It Possible to Harmonize Customs and Tax Rules? INTL K4640.A66 J68 2002
    How goods are valued is fundamental for both tax and customs liability in international transactions, but how values are calculated can vary greatly depending on the country. This book presents an overview of these problems, reviews current solutions, and purposes possible solutions to this problem.
  • EC Customs Law INTL KJE7312 .L96 2008
    This work presents an analysis of customs law in the EU, along with a review of major cases and legislation. This edition of the work includes an assessment of the changes stemming from the 2005 amendments to the Community Customs Code.
  • Guide to Community Customs Legislation INTL KJE7312.L89 2002
    Although a little dated, this book analyzes major laws and rulings of the European Court, along with summaries of major concepts. There is also a glossary of important custom terms.
  • Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System : Explanatory Notes INTL K4640.T48 C857 2007
    This five volume loose-leaf set is current to within the last year. In this loose-leaf are comments on the fourth edition of the International Convention on the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (usually referred to as the Harmonized System or HS). This set includes, the recent amendments to the Nomenclature established under HS.
  • Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States available in print (updated regularly) and online
    The USITC (Office of Tariff Affairs and Trade Agreements) publishes the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States Annotated (HTSA). This nomenclature is used to classify and describe most goods that enter the U.S.. To search for older editions, of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, search in the archived materials section.
  • International Trade and Economic Relations in a Nutshell INTL RESERVE K3943 .F64 2009
    This nutshell provides an accessible and quick overview of international trade. In addition, there is information on how customs fits within the context of international trade.
  • Tariff Negotiations and Renegotiations under the GATT and the WTO : Procedures and Practices INTL K4603.H74 2001
    Outlined in this text is the history of the procedures and practices used to implement the provisions relating to tariff negotiations and renegotiations. The appendices have reproduced a select collection of treaty negotiation materials.
  • Transfer pricing and customs valuation : two worlds to tax as one INTL K4640.A66 T73 2009
    The book reviews major international standards for transfer pricing and customs values, such as OECD Guidelines and the GATT/WTO Customs Valuation Agreement. In the Country Surveys chapter, there is commentary on relevant national legislation and case studies.
  • The WTO and reciprocal preferential trading agreements INTL HF1721 .W92 2007
    This is a collection of previously published papers. The topics covered in these papers range from theoretical analysis to empirical evaluations of regional trade agreements. There are also essays on the progression of customs unions.

International Customs

These web sites provide a good deal of the basic information for researching international customs, including relevant treaties and agreements, procedures, tariff information, etc.

National Customs

The sites listed below are all English-language and many include laws, regulations, procedures, taxation information, and other related information.

Foreign Laws

International Trade

Customs research involves international trade research. For more information on researching international trade generally, see our research guide on International Trade Law. There are many print sources for international trade; consult our library catalog to determine what is available in the Law Library.

Selected Trade Resources

Other Relevant Web Sites

International Trade Statistics

These statistical sources provide data on country and regional economic growth, imports and exports, commodities, country trade information, and other financial data.

  • Country Data (World Bank)
    Statistical information on poverty, structure of the economy, prices and government finance, trade, balance of payments, external debt, resource flows, and key economic indicators.
  • EUROSTAT (Statistical Office of European Communities)
    EUROSTAT is the European network for distributing official statistics, using uniform rules to harmonize statistical data on all European Union Member States. Economic indicators include national accounts, monetary and financial indicators, external trade numbers, prices and producer price indexes, industrial production, and unemployment.
  • Foreign Trade Statistics (U.S. Census Bureau)
    Provides links to data on imports and exports by related parties, profiles of U.S. exporting companies, commodity trade data, export classification assistance, and to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule.
  • Trade Statistics (ITA, U.S. Dept. of Commerce)
    Accesses information on U.S. industry and trade outlooks, U.S. foreign trade data, U.S. industry sector data, trade policy information, and state export data.
  • Statistics (UN/ECE Statistical Division)
    Contains statistical information on information technology, economic indicators, social and demographic indicators, the environment, transportation, and trade for Europe, Canada, the United States, and all member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States including some Asian republics.
  • Statistics (OECD)
    Provides statistics on main economic indicators, economies in transition, labor force, agriculture, national accounts, purchasing power parities, capital stocks, and international trade in goods and services of member countries.
  • Statistics Division (UN, Dept. of Economic and Social Affairs)
    This site is an extensive list of statistical compilations on economic, political, social, environmental, and developmental data.
  • STATLinks
    Links to statistical resources on the Internet (USDA & U.S. Census). This is the ultimate guide for anyone with an interest in statistics. This site provides links to guides to statisticians, government statistical agencies, universities with statistics programs, journals of statistics, and computer software to facilitate statistical work.
  • Trade Statistics (WTO)
    The WTO site provides access to data on world merchandise trade by region and selected economies, world trade of commercial services by region and selected economies, and selected tables from the WTO's Annual Report on International Trade Statistics.

Journal Articles

Journal articles are a quick and efficient way to obtain background information, locate the text of a foreign law or locate current information about a topic. Westlaw and Lexis provide excellent coverage of U.S. law reviews; however, by including foreign journals and indexes, your journal research will be more comprehensive and global in its coverage.

For best results, you may need to search both full text databases as well as periodical indexes. We have two additional research guides, Locating Journal Articles: Foreign & International and Using Articles for Legal & Non-Legal Research, that may be of interest to you.

If you already have a citation and would like to read the article, simply type the journal name as a title search in the library catalog. The results will tell you if we have print, electronic, or both. Be sure to check coverage dates or volume numbers to determine if your particular volume or issue is available. If the library does not have the journal article, you may request the article through interlibrary loan and we will ask another library to make a photocopy.

Below are listed a few of the most commonly used journal and index databases for international customs legal research.

  • Cambridge Journals Online (Georgetown Law only)
    This full-text database offers both legal and non-legal journals published by Cambridge University. We suggest using advanced searching.
  • Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (Georgetown Law only) Try-It
    English keyword searching of over 450 foreign law journals. There is no full-text, but you can email the citations to yourself and then search the library catalog for the journal title. This is the best resource to search for foreign language legal journal articles.
  • Kluwer Law International Journals (Georgetown Law only)
    Full-text journals (from the mid-1990s forward ) with a business and trade focus are available here. Older issues of these titles are available on HeinOnline. Click here for a complete list.
  • Legal Journals Index (Georgetown Law only)
    This indexes over 320 journal article from the United Kingdom and Europe. It is not full-text. LJI is also on Westlaw (LJI) which will provide links to the full text if that particular journal is available on Westlaw.
  • Legal Periodicals and Books (Georgetown Law only)
    Comprehensive citation (not full-text) coverage of nearly 1000 English language law reviews and books from 1982 to the present. This is not full-text, but more articles are indexed here than on Westlaw or Lexis. For older articles, try Legal Periodicals and Books Retrospective (1918-1981).
  • LegalTrac (Georgetown Law only)
    This is a similar index (also not full-text) to Legal Periodicals and Books. Coverage begins in 1981 and indexes articles from about 875 publications and law related articles from 1,000 business and general interest periodicals. Again, Westlaw and Lexis do not usually provide access to articles prior to the early 1990s.
  • Oxford Journals Online (Georgetown Law only)
    Full-text database of both legal and non-legal journals published by Oxford University. You can limit to a particular journal or to the subject law.

    *** journal indexes page and the A-Z List of Databases. These include PAIS International,Social Sciences Index***

Current Awareness

Besides newspapers and other news sources, these sources will help keep the researcher abreast of current issues.

  • International Trade Reporter: Current Reports
    Is available in print. It is also available online through Westlaw (BNA-ITR) (Georgetown Law Only) , Lexis (Georgetown Law Only) Legal > Area of Law - By Topic > International Law > Search Analysis & CLE Materials > BNA > BNA International Trade Reporter-Current Reports. It also available through online (Georgetown Law Only). To locate current information on customs in this resource, click on the "finding tools", then click on "Browse Indexes" and then click on "C". When you click on the "+" next to "Customs", the default for searches is to within the most recent year.
  • International trade reporter decisions
    This is available in print . In addition, it is available online (Georgetown Law Only) as part of International Trade Reporter. To access the decision of U.S. federal and state courts, as well as the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. International Trade Commission in the field of U.S. import law, click on "All Courts/Tribunals" located on the left of the page. There will be a list of available jurisdictions; the default for the search is within the six months.
  • International Trade Daily
    In this daily publication are analyses of the possible impacts from the activities of the International Trade Commission, World Trade Organization, and European Union on export incentives, limits on imports and import relief. You can search by "Law Firms", "Countries", "Agencies", "Courts/Tribunals", "Industries" and by "International Organizations".
  • World Trade Online
    This resource also incudes online access to Inside US Trade, which is also available in print. This daily-published resource has news from around the world with a focus on trade related issues, as well as the actions of national and international trade organizations. In the "Database" section, there are select policy papers, WTO decisions, draft and final regulations and court decisions.

Other Research Guides

Due to the broad scope of this topic, the researcher may have need for other sources. Consult these research guides for more help in researching a variety of topics.


Revised June 2006 (aeb)
Links revised August 2008 (RAS)

Page last saved 23-Sep-2011