Legal Research

U.N. LEX Databases

By Simon Fodden

[Image via Wikipedia] The United Nations is a huge source of legal information, much of which is available in searchable databases. (I’ve not found any single entry point into all of the U.N.’s legal and law-related material.) A number of these sources are marked by the “LEX” in the URLs or titles. To wit:

• ILOLEX
  ILO database on international labour standards. A list of the database contents is available.
• NATLEX
  Another ILO database, this one containing national labour, social security and related human rights legislation. The database offers 65,000 records covering over 190 countries and over 160 territories and subdivisions.
• FAOLEX
  A Food and Agriculture Organization database. The site claims it is “one of the world’s largest electronic collection[s] of national laws and regulations on food, agriculture and renewable natural resources.”
• FISHLEX
  FAO’s database on coastal states’ requirements for foreign fishing. The database “consists of a series of tables summarizing the provisions of national legislation and of bilateral and multilateral agreements governing foreign fishing in waters under national jurisdiction.”
• WATERLEX
  FAO’s database on international agreements concerning international water sources. The database “carries the full text of treaties and agreements, bi-lateral and multi-lateral, concluded by sovereign countries in regard to the development and management of rivers and lakes, and/or of groundwater resources, which form an international boundary line or which are bisected by such boundary line.”
• ECOLEX
  Database on environmental laws, operated jointly by FAO, IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme). Advanced searching lets you search in one or more of the database subsets — e.g. treaties, court decisions.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on August 12, 2008 (boomark / email).