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Locating Journal Articles: Foreign & International

Introduction

Locating journal articles is an important part of international and foreign legal research. Many international and foreign law topics are cross-disciplinary in nature and require researching in law-related fields, such as social policy, international relations, economics, etc. The prudent researcher should not rely solely on full-text law reviews on Lexis and Westlaw. Thorough research demands using journal indexes to locate relevant literature. Keep in mind that you may find articles on your topic in both law and law-related journal indexes.

For an even broader range of resources, please see the Georgetown research guide Articles for Legal & Non-Legal Research. 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.

If you are a current Georgetown Law staff, student or faculty, most of the online resources listed below can be accessed remotely. If you have problems accessing a database please contact a librarian through live chat or send an email to intlref@law.georgetown.edu.

Law Library's Web Resources

From the Law Library's homepage go to the tab Databases and then scroll to Journal Database. This link will take you to an annotated list of many of the indexes highlighted in this guide, along with tutorials on how to create effective searches. Another place to look is Our Online Collection, which groups indexes and databases by legal and non-legal subject.

Legal Journal Indexes

• Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (IFLP) (Georgetown Law Only).
  This is a multilingual index of articles and book reviews appearing in approximately 490 legal journals published worldwide. Online coverage begins in 1985. The print coverage begins in 1960.
• Legal Periodicals and Books (formerly Index to Legal Periodical and Books) (ILP) (Georgetown Law Only).
  A database of article listings from nearly 1,000 English language legal periodicals and law books published from 1982 to the present. Publications include law reviews, bar association journals, university publications, yearbooks, and government publications. Through ILP, you can search Index to Legal Periodicals Retrospective with coverage from 1908 to 1981. To change the default search to include both databases, mark the box next to Legal Periodicals Retro. This index is also available on Westlaw (ILP database), coverage begins in 1981, and in Lexis(Legal> Secondary Legal> Annotations & Indexes> Index to Legal Periodicals), coverage begins in 1978.
• LegalTrac (Georgetown Law Only).
  This database indexes approximately 875 legal publications from the United States, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia. It also covers law-related articles from more than 1,000 additional business and general interest periodicals. Coverage begins in 1980. In Westlaw and Lexis the resources is renamed Legal Resources Index and the coverage is the same. On Westlaw it is the on the LRI database and on Lexis it is Legal > Secondary Legal > Annotations & Indexes > Legal Resource Index.
• Legal Journals Index (LJI) (Georgetown Law Only).
  Note: This database requires a separate password. Current students, faculty, or staff, click here for that information. The electronic version of LJI is the only current version of this publication. The print publications of this index (which were Legal Journals Index and European Legal Journals Index) discontinued in 1999. LJI provides citations and brief abstracts to over 320 periodicals published in the UK, coverage begins in 1986, and Europe, coverage begins in 1993. Our link will take you to the main Current Legal Information page; choose Legal Journals Index from the menu. It is also available on Westlaw (LJI) with coverage beginning in 1986.
• Current Index to Legal Periodicals (CILP) (Georgetown Law Only).
  This weekly topical index to articles published during that week in approximately 475 law school reviews and other selected legal journals. It also provides full table of contents of all journals indexed. The Law Library provides access to the most recent 5 issues. CILP is available 4-6 weeks before commercial legal periodicals indexes such as LegalTrac and Legal Periodicals and Books.

Law-Related Journal Indexes

These and other databases are listed alphabetically on our Research Databases page. You can find additional multi-disciplinary databases listed on Lauinger Library's Resources by Subject page or if you already know the name of the database, you can search in Articles, Databases & Journals.

• Academic Search Premier (Georgetown Only).
  This is a good all-purpose interdisciplinary database. Most of the articles have full-text access.
• EconLit (Georgetown Only).
  This covers of over 400 major economic journals as well books, book reviews, dissertations, and working papers.
• PAIS International (Georgetown Only).
  This covers international relations, political science and social science.
• Social Sciences Index (Georgetown Only).
  This covers social sciences, including political science, economics, ethnic studies, public administration and other areas.

Full-Text Journal Articles

The library subscribes to many resources that provide the complete text of journal articles for a variety of research areas. All of these databases can be accessed from the Research Databases page. A good way to check if the Library has full-text electronic access to a journal is by using the E-Journal Finder--see on the homepage on the right under the heading Databases.

• HeinOnline (Georgetown Only).
  This is a legal database that contains the full text of legal documents in PDF format, in several collections. The Law Journal Library contains articles from most major law reviews and law journals. Approximately 650 law journals and reviews are included, beginning with the inception date of each publication.
• JSTOR (Georgetown Only).
  This database includes the full text of the articles, in PDF format, from 340 scholarly paper journals, most beginning with the first volume. Coverage excludes articles from the most recent 3 to 5 years. Searching is available across all bibliographic fields and in the full text.
• Kluwer Law International (Georgetown Law Only).
  This is a broad collection of international journals, especially useful for European Union research.
• Oxford University Press (Georgetown only).
  This provides online access to many of the frequently-cited Oxford journals.
• Cambridge University Press Journals (Georgetown Only).
  This provides online access to many of the frequently-cited Cambridge journals.
• Project Muse (Georgetown only).
  This provides online access to over 40+ scholarly full-text journals in the humanities and social sciences.
• Genderwatch (Georgetown Only).
  This database focuses on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas.
• Ethnic News Watch (Georgetown Only).
  This is a collection of newspapers and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press.
• Contemporary Women's Issues (Georgetown Only).
  This provides information on women's issues from organizations around the world, journal articles, and non-periodical sources.
• SSRN's Legal Scholarship Network (Georgetown Law Only)
  This database includes papers that have been accepted, but not yet published in journals. This resource can be particularly useful for finding current or developing scholarly legal and interdisciplinary discussions.
  

Lexis & Westlaw

Some of these journals and indexes are available on Lexis or Westlaw. See the directories for Lexis and Westlaw for more information. Many journals are available full-text from Lexis and Westlaw, but keep in mind that the coverage is usually limited. Periodical indexes provide much broader depth of coverage. Please see the Legal Journal Indexes heading above for more complete information on the content of the databases listed below.

Legal Periodicals and Books (formerly ILP) (Georgetown Law Only).
This is available on Lexis Legal> Secondary Legal> Annotations & Indexes> Index to Legal Periodicals and coverage begins in 1978. It also available on Westlaw (ILP) and coverage begins in 1981.

Legal Resource Index (Georgetown Law Only).
This is available on Lexis Legal > Secondary Legal > Annotations & Indexes > Legal Resource Index and on Westlaw (LRI) and coverage for both begins in 1980.

Legal Journals Index (Georgetown Law Only)
This is available on Westlaw (LJI) and coverage beings in 1986.

Other Web Resources

There are some free indexes on the Internet as well. Here are two of the more useful ones:

• ASILEX
  This is a searchable database of publications prepared by the American Society of International Law (ASIL).
• Contents Pages from Law Reviews and Other Scholarly Journals
  This is a searchable database of tables of contents from more than 750 law reviews and other scholarly publications related to the law published in the United States and abroad.

Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

In the event that we do not own or do not have electronic access to a journal you need, you may request the article through ILL. See the ILL page for more details.

Updated February 2011 (ras)
Updated August 2009 (ras)
Links August 2008 (ras)
Revised April 2007 (aeb)

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