Latin American Law and Legal Systems
| Civil Law ABC news clip: Duff beer Guide by Amy Flick, last updated 8/22/2011 |
Civil Law
- Most Latin American legal systems are based on civil law
- Civil codes, based on Spanish or Portuguese civil law
- In theory, court decisions apply only to the parties to the case, only to interpret statutes
- No stare decisis, no fact pattern analysis
- Few case reporters
- Official Gazettes include new laws, regulations, legislative background, important cases
- Caselaw is becoming more important in many civil law countries, citations may appear in secondary works
- Treatises and law reviews important: citations to authoritative legal scholars
- Compare with the U.S.
- Common law
- Judicial decisions form precedents, cases analyzed based on fact patterns
- Statutory law is only part of the law
Print Resources
- Search EUCLID to find treatises and monographs on the law of particular countries, comparative and topical works, online resources, and books in other campus libraries
- Use Interlibrary Loan to get materials from other libraries:
- Use Worldcat to find book titles
- Use interlibrary loan to get statutes and other primary materials after using other sources for citations
Guides
Use as a starting point to find resources, usually with links
- NYU GlobaLex Research Guides
- Detailed guides to legal research for several Latin American countries
- 2011 guide to Current Constitutional Developments in Latin America
- LLRX
- Guides include Brazil, Mexico, Argentina
- Columbia Law Library
- List of Guides to Foreign Legal Research, by region and country
- Cornell Law Library Foreign & International Law Guide
- Foreign law sites: by country, includes Lexis and Westlaw databases, guides, publications (at Cornell)
- Topical guide: links to databases, guides, websites, organizations
- Transnational organizations: including regional organizations like Mercosur, NAFTA, OAS
- US government sources for foreign and international law
- Law Library of Congress Guide to Law Online
- Guides by country
- Links to documents, government sites, law sites, and guides
- Foreign Law Guide in Law Library Electronic Resources
- Online version of Reynolds & Flores, Foreign Law: Current Sources of Codes and Basic Legislation in Jurisdictions of the World
- Lists most countries, describes legal system and history, primary sources, topical sources, English translations, citations to major statutes
- Find titles for codes, official gazettes, case reporters
- Links to internet resources
- Subject area sections include statute citations, sometimes list translations or online sources
- Emory University Library: Latin American Politics
- Campus political science and Latin America databases
- Select web resources and reference books
Constitutions
- Most national constitutions are available translated into English
- Constitution Finder
- University of Richmond
- Official languages and English translations
- Georgetown Political Database of the Americas
- Constitutions in original languages, plus comparative articles
- Descriptions of legal and government institutions
- Consitutions of the Countries of the World
- Oceana multi-volume looseleaf, K3157 .E5 B56
- English translations and some original texts, with history and background
- Constitutions of the Countries of the World database
- Law Library Electronic Resources
- Full-text of constitutions with background and history
- Searchable
- Hein World Constitutions
- Current and historical constitutions, in English and official languages
- Commentaries and selected law review articles
- Bibliography of books on the country's constitutional law
- News feed of articles related to the country's constitution and government
Codes & Statutes
- Legislation of many countries is not officially codified
- Uncodified statutes are often published on official gazettes
- Library of Congress GLIN (Global Legal Information Network)
- Summaries of statutes of participating countries, in English with dates and citations, some in full-text
- Worldlii includes statutes and a few cases from GLIN for most Latin American countries, arranged by year or alphabetically by title
- Worldlii also has links to legislative bodies and agencies
- Cornell LII Global
- Links to codes and legislatures
- Foreign Law Guide database
- Names, descriptions, and sometimes links to codes and statutes
- Subject sections include citations to individual laws, sometimes with links
- IPU National Parliaments
- Links to legislative bodies
- Parline database includes information and data on legislatures and elections
- Georgetown Political Database of the Americas
- Links to Latin American legislative bodies
- vLex Global
- Subscription Database
- Civil law collections, primarily statutes, for Spain, Latin America, and EU countries
- Includes codes and legislation, including official gazettes
- Automated translation (but not official or very reliable, use only to get a general idea of the text)
Caselaw
- Less likely to published in civil law countries and for courts other than the court of last resort
- Major cases sometimes published in official gazettes
- Lexadin World Law Guide
- Lists courts with links where available for most Latin American countries
- GlobalCourts
- Links to Supreme Courts, some with decisions available on the web
- Cornell LII Global
- Links including to courts and caselaw
- Law Library of Congress Guide to Law Online
- Links to courts, usually the court of last resort or to the judicial administrative organization
- Worldlii
- Includes links to courts and collections of caselaw, and to administrative agencies by topic
- Foreign Law Guide
- Lists and sometimes links court reporters
- Inter-American Court of Human Rights
- Organization of American States
- Commission and other Inter-American human rights agencies
- Court decisions and other documents
Official Gazettes
- Official daily or weekly publications; usually include statutes, sometimes regulations, judicial decisions, treaties
- Directory of Online Government Gazettes
- Includes links, descriptions and contents, languages, format
- Some free, some fee-based
- Links to free access for Official Gazettes of Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela; free summaries for Chile, El Salvador
- Not recently updated, so many links no longer work
- Law Library of Congress Guide to Law Online
- Official names of official gazettes, with link if on the web
- GLIN includes summaries and citations of laws in official gazettes
- vLex Global
- Subscription database
- Includes searchable official gazettes for many Latin American countries, including Mexico's Diaro Oficial de la Federación
- Automated translation into English available (use only to get a general idea of the translated text)
- Also includes other primary materials: legislation, case reporters, some secondary materials
- Search provides suggestions for related materials
- InterAm (National Law Center for Inter-American Free Trade)
- Latin American primary materials: caselaw, legislation, regulations, decrees, treaties
- In the vernacular: Spanish or Portuguese, a few materials in English translation
- Browse available materials or search by fields including country, subject, type (legislation, decrees), keywords
- Official Gazettes (Diario Oficial de la Federación) for Mexico and Peru, by date and index
- For other countries, find selected legislation by subject area
Westlaw & Lexis
- Westlaw: See Directory for International/Worldwide Materials
- Includes law reviews, news, ENFLEX environmental regulations for Mexico and Brazil
- Mexican Civil Code Annotated with English translation
- Mexican Commercial Code Annotated with English translation
- Lexis: See Laws by Country or Region
- Martindale-Hubbell International Law Digest
- Mexico:
- Federal and state legislation, Codigo de Comercio de Mexico and Codigo Penal de Mexico, Supreme Court caselaw, Diario Oficial, subject law collections
- Brazil: Brazilian Civil Code in English
- For most Latin American countries: secondary sources including tax, copyright
- Lex Mundi international multi-jurisdictional surveys: PDF documents on law by topic, include comparisons of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay
Political Science Databases
- World Political Science Abstracts
- Index and abstracts of political science journals
- Can limit search to English language articles only
- SFX links to full-text
- Political Database of the Americas
- Political data, including elections, parties, institutions
- Languages include English
- Text of constitutions with comparative analysis
- Citations and links to reference materials on governments, parties, analysis
Latin America Databases
- See Databases @ Emory: Find journals by subject including Latin American and Caribbean Studies
- HAPI (Hispanic American Periodicals Index)
- U.S. and foreign journal articles on Latin America and Hispanics in the U.S.
- Includes politics, governmetn, history
- Some in English
- Citations, some with full-text links
- 1970-present
- Clase Periodica
- Index of Latin American journals, mostly in Spanish and Portuguese
- SFX links to full-text
- 1975-present
- Handbook of Latin American Studies
- Library of Congress searchable bibliography of selected books and reports on social sciences and the humanities
- Some titles in English
- 1935-present
- Informe!
- 46 current full-text Spanish language and bilingual magazines on social issues, politics, current events
- Gale World Scholar: Latin America and Caribbean Archive
- Documents from the 16th century to recent
- Primary documents, including State Department reports.
- Historical books, manuscripts, and newspaper articles
- Academic journal articles
- Statistics
- Search or browse a long list of topics
- Sabin Americana
- Books and pamphlets about the Americas from 1500 to 1926
International Journal Databases
International Journal Databases
- JSTOR
- Full-text image journal database
- Disciplines include Latin American Studies (14 journals, going back as far as 1917), History, Political Science, Public Policy
- Browse or search
- CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online)
- Journals, working papers, policy briefs, books, reports
- Mostly U.S. papers in English and full-text
- Subjects to search include Latin America
- Papers and reports from institutes, think tanks, political study centers
- PAISInternational (Public Affairs Information Service)
- Abstracts and citations of articles, government documents, books, reports on government and public affairs
- Most have links to articles, or SFX links to full-text articles and EUCLID records
- Most articles in English
discoverE
- http://discovere.emory.edu
- Search the library catalog with new search features
- Search articles by categories of databases
- Suggestions to refine search results by topic, author, library, date, language, LC classification
- Notes for results if full-text is available, with SFX link
- Try an article search for your country and topic in Business Information, History, or Social Sciences
International News
- Global Legal Monitor
- Law Library of Congress
- Review of major legal news stories, search archives or browse by country or topic
- Get updates by e-mail or RSS Feed
- Latin American Newsstand
- Full-text database of 35 newspapers from Latin America, with regional magazines
- Searchable, includes abstracts
- Some results in English
- 2005 up to today's news
- EIU Viewswire
- The Economist Intelligence Unit
- Business intelligence and news, plus country briefings, includes political news
- World News Connection
- English language and translated news from other countries
- Simple search or by city, region (the Americas), or by topic
- ISI Emerging Markets
- News in language published, including some in English, on business and economics
- Includes economic and financial reports
- News from some Latin American countries
- LATNEWS (Westlaw)
- Latin America and Caribbean news from newswires and newspapers
- Lexis: News by Region (Americas, excluding U.S.)
- Includes Global News Wire, English and Spanish language news & business publications
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