Foreign, Comparative & International

The UC Berkeley Law Library is considered to be one of the finest collections of foreign and international legal materials in the country. This collection consists of approximately 40% of the overall collection of the Library and it supports research and scholarship in foreign, comparative and international law.

The Law Library has an excellent collection in most areas of public and private international law and places a strong emphasis on international economic law, human rights, transnational commercial and business law, international arbitration, intellectual property, comparative taxation and treaty law. Where possible, we collect primary legal instruments and documents as well as commentary and analysis. Many topics are covered in more than one language. The international collection also includes documentation and information from many international organizations, including the International Court of Justice, the United Nations, the European Union, and the Organization of American States. In fact, we are the only law library in the country with a specialized collection of UN legal documents and a dedicated UN legal specialist. This collection is reserved for legal research with documents and publications issued by the United Nations as well as secondary literature about the world body and its legally relevant activities.

In addition to these international materials, the Law Library collects primary and secondary sources for nearly 130 jurisdictions. While we collect in most major European languages, we also collect many English language translations as well as compilations of foreign laws on specific topics. We have a particularly strong collection of foreign legal periodical literature.

We also provide broad coverage of comparative law, both treatises and journal literature. This collection ranges from scholarly materials that compare different legal systems to treatises that focus on the comparison of specific areas of law.

The strength of our international, foreign and comparative law collection is a major attraction for researchers and scholars from around the world. Many LLM students are drawn here because of our collection and often comment that our collection of foreign law is superior to their home institutions.