See our detailed research guides for Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the Nordic countries, Spain and Switzerland.
We also have research guides for European Union law and the Council of Europe (the latter covers the European Court of Human Rights).
We'd love to hear your comments about this Research Guide.
Email ials@sas.ac.uk
IALS Library collects the law of individual European jurisdictions as well as works covering law in Europe generally and European Union law material.
The library has books, journals, law reports and other material covering Europe generally, including collections relating to the EU, the Council of Europe and other regional organisations. For full details of our EU and Council of Europe holdings (including European Court of Human Rights material), see the dedicated IALS research guides.
The fourth floor is the main location for general European print material, but heavily-used titles are in the Short Loan Collection (behind the Enquiry Desk), and older material is kept in the basement Reserve (indicated by 'RES' or 'Depository' on the Catalogue).
IALS Library's holdings for individual Western European jurisdictions are strongest for Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland; other jurisdictions, including Nordic countries, are also covered in some depth. All these collections are on the fourth floor, though one or two titles are in Short Loan and older material is in the basement Reserve (marked 'RES' or 'Depository' on the Catalogue).
Holdings for each jurisdiction consist of legislation, law reports, books, journals and other publications. They are mostly in the language of the jurisdiction concerned, but English-language books and codes are held. We have produced detailed collection descriptions for Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the Nordic countries, Spain and Switzerland: see jurisdictional research guides.
To find hard copy material for a particular jurisdiction, look up its classmark on the Classmarks guide, then search the Catalogue by classmark.
To find both hard copy and online resources, include the name of the jurisdiction in a keyword search: for example, norway land.
General works
IALS has a current subscription to the looseleaf title Central and Eastern European Legal Materials, which publishes translated business and investment laws of about fifteen different jurisdictions, including Poland (but not Russia).
The East European Case Reporter of Constitutional Law, also held at IALS, has translated decisions of constitutional courts from across Eastern Europe.
IALS holds a number of books on the law of Central/Eastern Europe generally, most of which are at SB or GO45. We also have several journals, including:
Individual jurisdictions
The law of individual Eastern European jurisdictions is collected in far less depth than that of Western European jurisdictions. Russian law and Polish law are the strongest collections.
To see what is available in hard copy for a specific jurisdiction, look it up on the Classmarks guide, then use the Classmark search option on the Catalogue: enter go32 to find Polish material, for example. Alternatively, include the name of the jurisdiction in a keyword search, for example civil procedure poland.
We have two French law databases, Lexis 360 and Le Doctrinal, and nine modules of the German law database Beck-online.
Some Irish material is available on HeinOnline, Lexis+ and Westlaw.
Certain databases cover many different jurisdictions, notably Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals, IBFD Online, World Constitutions Illustrated and HeinOnline's Law Journal Library.
EU material is available on Westlaw UK, Lexis+, the free EUR-Lex website and elsewhere. Many of our journal databases and e-book collections cover EU law.
For full details of IALS online resources, see the Databases guide. Access to databases is via the Law Databases page (but for individual e-journals and e-books use the Library Catalogue).