Spring 2007
Table of Contents
Introduction
Legal Journal Indexes
Law-Related Journal Indexes
LexisNexis and Westlaw
Full-Text Sources for Journal Articles
Other Web Resources
Electronic Journals
Working Papers
Access from Off-Campus
Inter-Library Borrowing Service
Locating journal articles is an important part of international and foreign legal research because:
Basically, two approaches to finding articles: searching full-text databases (such as those on LexisNexis and Westlaw) and searching or browsing a periodical index.
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 LexisNexis 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.
Keep in mind that each index operates in a slightly different manner. How to truncate words or the use of connectors (and, or, within, etc.) can vary from index to index. Be sure to consult the "help" screens for information on how to search properly.
The databases listed below may only be accessed by the UC Berkeley Community. Some of these databases are available through remote access. Be sure to set the proxy settings on your computer. Once the proxy settings have been set, you will be prompted for your CALNET user id and passphrase.
In order to locate the articles you find by searching the indexes below, first search LawCat (by the title of the journal) to determine if the Law Library owns the print and/or provides access to the electronic. If the Law Library does not provide access to the print or the electronic version of the journal, search Melvyl (by the title of the journal) since the journal may be located in another campus library or may be available electronically through a campus-wide database.
Index to Legal Periodicals and Books (ILP). Contains citations from more than 820 legal periodicals from 1981 and an index to law books published since 1993 from the United States, Canada, Ireland, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Updated monthly. The print edition covers 1908 on. Also available LexisNexis (LAWREV library, ILP file), Westlaw (ILP) (Boalt only), and on the Law Library's web site (UCB only). The Index to Legal Periodicals Retrospective (1918-1981) is only available on the web version.
Legal Resource Index (LRI). Indexes approximately 800 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 and is updated monthly. Available in print as Current Law Index. Also available on LexisNexis (LAWREV library, LGLIND file),Westlaw (LRI) (Boalt only) and on the Law Library's homepage as LegalTrac (UCB only).
Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (IFLP). A multilingual index to articles and book reviews appearing in approximately 492 legal journals published worldwide. Also available on the web (UCB only). The print edition covers 1960 on and the electronic version covers 1985 to present.
Legal Journals Index (LJI). Indexes approximately 485 journals from the UK & Europe. Coverage is from 1986 on. The print versions of this index (Legal Journals Index and European Legal Journals Index) discontinued in 1999. Legal Journals Index is available on Westlaw (LJI) (Boalt only).
Current Index to Legal Periodicals (CILP). Provides access to approximately 475 university legal publications and other law journals. Good way to update your research since it indexes journals 4-6 weeks before they are picked up by ILP and LRI. Available on LexisNexis, Westlaw, and via the Web (UCB only).
Public International Law: A Current Bibliography of Articles (Berlin; New York: Springer-Verlag, 1975-). The "online documentation of articles" is available on the Max Planck web site.
Szladits' Bibliography on Foreign and Comparative Law: Books and Articles in English (Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana, 1995-). An excellent source for locating English-language articles and books.
Other indexes that focus on law-related topics can also be of use when doing legal research. All of these indexes are available from the list of UCB Electronic Resources.
EconLit
The most comprehensive index to scholarly journal articles in economics. It also lists books and dissertations, and indexes articles within 'collective works' (books consisting of collections of essays or individual papers). Most citations include a searchable abstract.ArticleFirst
Over 11,000 popular magazines and scholarly journals in the areas of social sciences, humanities, engineering, technology, popular culture, and general interest.Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
Indexes books, journals, and dissertations within the field of political science and related to international relations, law and politics, political economy, public administration, and public policy.PAIS International
Indexes books, journals, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, conference reports, and web sources related to public policy, politics, economics, and social issues worldwide. Includes publications from over 120 countries.
Other databases are available for periodical literature in many different disciplines, see the following:
ABI/Inform Global
Indexes over 1,000 scholarly, popular, and trade periodicals related to business, management, finance, and economics. All citations include abstracts, and full text is available for 600 journals.Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI)
Indexes books, journals, conference proceedings, and official documents on Hispanic America (North, Central, and South), Mexico, the Caribbean basin, the United States-Mexico border region, and Hispanics in the United States.JSTOR
Over 200 scholarly journals, including more than 70,000 issues, on a wide range of subjects.Social Science Research Network
Electronic journal abstracts and working papers for law & social sciences.Project Muse
250 scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences. Topics include literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics and many others.Web of Science
Indexes over 8,000 of the leading journals in the arts, humanities, sciences and social sciences, providing searching of footnoted citations. Includes the Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index, and Social Sciences Citation Index.
There are many database available on campus. You can search by title, review a list of electronic journals from A-Z, and a list of subjects from A-Z.
Some of these journals and indexes are available on LexisNexis or Westlaw. See the directories for Lexis and Westlaw for more information. Many journals are available full-text from LexisNexis and Westlaw, but keep in mind that the coverage is usually limited. Periodical indexes provide much broader depth of coverage. LexisNexis provides access to Index to Legal Periodicals and Books and Legal Resource Index. Westlaw provides access to Index to Legal Periodicals and Books, Legal Resource Index, and Legal Journals Index. The Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals is available on Westlaw, but not with an academic password.
Full-Text Sources for Journal Articles
LexisNexis (LAWREV; ALLREV), Westlaw (JLR) and HeinOnline provide access to the full text of many law reviews and legal journals. None of these databases provide access to every article from every journal, not even US law reviews.
The Law Library and the Main Library subscribe to many resources that provide the complete text of journal articles for a variety of research areas. For a list of electronic journals available from the main library, see Electronic Journals A-Z.
Cambridge University Press
Full-text access to many journals published by Cambridge.Contemporary Women's Issues
Indexes a wide range of journals, hard-to-find newsletters, reports, pamphlets, fact sheets, and guides covering a broad array of gender-related issues such as violence, economic development, health, the military, education, human rights, and law. Covers sources published by organizations around the world.Ethnic NewsWatch
Indexes over 200 ethnic, minority, and native press publications. Contains news, culture, and history searchable in both English and Spanish.GenderWatch
Includes magazines, academic journals, newspapers, newsletters, books, pamphlets, conference proceedings, and government reports that focus on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas.HeinOnline
Provides the full-text to the early issues of many legal journals and is continually enhancing the database to include more recent volumes and more journals.JSTOR
Over 200 scholarly journals, including more than 70,000 issues, on a wide range of subjects.Project Muse
250 scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences. Topics include literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics and many others.Legal Scholarship Network (LSN)
Part of SSRN, working papers and articles accepted for publication in law, economics, and related topics.Oxford University Press
Full-text access to many journals published by Oxford.
There are some free indexes on the Web as well. Here are some of the more useful ones:
Contents Pages from Law Reviews and Other Scholarly Journals
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.Current Law Journal Centent
CLJC covers 1172 journals. Scanned copies of journal contents pages are supplied by the University of Texas Tarlton Law Library, Washington &Lee Law Library, other libraries, and additional contents pages are received electronically at W&L via e-mail, web-sites, or RSS feeds.University Law Review Project
Provides full text searching of online law journals.Legal Periodicals
" For those interested in legal periodical publishing, indexing, searching, ranking and use."
Some legal journals are now available electronically as well as in print and some are only available electronically. The list below is a sampling of what is available as well as some collections of electronic journals.
Selected E-journals
Working Papers, Reports, and Other Documents
Another rich source of commentary and scholarship is working papers. With the web, scholars are making more and more of these kinds of materials available for free. Some web sites are becoming repositories or provide links to individual working paper series. Working papers, reports, and other documents are available from academic institutions, think tanks, research centers, institutes, government agencies, and international organizations.
DocuTicker offers a selection of resources, reports and publications from government agencies, NGOs, think tanks and other public interest organizations.
Many of the databases listed above can be accessed from off-campus. Make sure the proxy settings on your browser are correct. Once the proxy settings are correct, you will be prompted to enter your CalNet Id and passphrase. Note that not all databases are available from off-campus.
Interlibrary Borrowing Service (IBS)
In the event we do not own or do not have electronic access to a journal you need, you may have to request an article through IBS.