Please see IALS Library's individual research guides for Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Jamaica, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago and the United States.
We also have a general guide to researching the law of Commonwealth countries.
We'd love to hear your comments about this Research Guide.
Email ials@sas.ac.uk
IALS Library has large collections of US, Canadian and Commonwealth Caribbean legal material. As well as recent publications, our holdings include a unique collection of historical legislation transferred to IALS from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Library.
Our collections for Central and South America are strongest for Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Chile; for most other jurisdictions in the region, holdings are generally small.
Canada
IALS Library has a very large collection of primary and secondary material for Canada as a whole, and significant holdings for the Canadian provinces and territories. Print material is located on floor L2, at classmark GC. A detailed guide to researching Canadian law is available.
Canada is also covered by the Commonwealth Law Bulletin and the Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal.
Mexico
We hold both primary and secondary legal material for Mexico, mostly in Spanish. A detailed research guide for Mexico is available.
United States
IALS has US federal and state legislation, US federal and state cases, and large numbers of books and journals. For further information, see our United States research guide.
We have small collections of regional material at the following classmarks:
GQ1 - Latin America as a whole (and Western Hemisphere generally)
GR1 - Central America (and non-Commonwealth Caribbean) generally
GS1 - South America generally
Some relevant publications are at classmark SB (Comparative Law).
Online resources do not have classmarks, but will come up in keyword searches on the Catalogue.
Our strongest collections are for Argentina and Brazil: see jurisdictional research guides for full details.
Legislation
Both fairly recent and historical codes are held for Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Peru and Venezuela, some in English translation. For other jurisdictions in the region the library only has historical codes.
IALS Library has Digesto juridíco argentino: normas vigentes (La Ley / Thomson Reuters, 2014), a six-volume compilation of Argentinian laws in force.
Chronological sets of legislation ('session laws') are held for a few jurisdictions, such as Argentina and Brazil, but holdings are not current.
Law reports
IALS has current subscriptions to law reports for Argentina and Brazil and historical holdings for several other jurisdictions.
To find law reports for a particular jurisdiction on the Catalogue, look up its classmark here, add .g, then search the Catalogue by classmark (for example gs4.g to find Brazilian law reports).
Books
The largest collections of books are for Argentina and Brazil, but we also have books on the law of other jurisdictions in the region: see Catalogue. Some titles are in English, but many are in Spanish or Portuguese.
Journals
Numerous journals are available, including a few fairly current titles, notably Revista Juridica Argentina "La Ley" (print) and Mexican Law Review (online); see Catalogue for other titles.
IALS Library has a good collection of books on the law of the Caribbean generally: search Catalogue for classmark GN1 or keywords Caribbean law.
Regional law reports and journals are also held, including the Caribbean Law Review, West Indian Law Journal and West Indian Reports.
The Commonwealth Caribbean is covered by titles such as Law Reports of the Commonwealth, Commonwealth Law Bulletin and Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal.
IALS Library collects legal material for English-speaking Caribbean jurisdictions; we have very limited holdings for other parts of the region.
To find print material for a particular jurisdiction, look up its classmark, then search the Catalogue by classmark. To find both print and online material, search the Catalogue by the name of the jurisdiction.
We have written detailed research guides for Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.
Cases: the main source for Caribbean cases is the vLex database. We also hold historical law reports in hard copy.
Legislation: IALS has large holdings of legislation from Commonwealth Caribbean jurisdictions, including both recent and historical material. We also have consolidated indexes of statutes and subsidiary legislation for each jurisdiction (compiled by the University of the West Indies, Faculty of Law).
For Caribbean jurisdictions that are not members of the Commonwealth, only a small amount of primary material is held.
We have a small number of books about the law of individual Caribbean jurisdictions: see Catalogue.
The IALS Databases Guide has detailed information about e-resources.
Canada
Westlaw International Materials has a large collection of Canadian federal and provincial primary material, journals and books.
Lexis+ also has Canadian primary material (federal and provincial) and journals.
HeinOnline has more than 130 Canadian journals, Supreme Court cases and historical legislation.
Caribbean
vLex Justis has a collection of cases covering eighteen individual Caribbean jurisdictions, the Caribbean Court of Justice and the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court.
Lexis+ has the West Indian Reports.
Westlaw International Materials has primary and secondary legislation from Barbados and the Cayman Islands.
Central and South America
HeinOnline's Law Journal Library includes about fifty journals from Central and South America.
Mexico
Hein Online has a few Mexican journals and Lexis+ has Supreme Court cases up about 2004.
United States
Lexis+, Westlaw International Materials and HeinOnline all have vast online collections of US primary and secondary material.
IALS also subscribes to Index to Legal Periodicals, a US journal index, and many other databases have substantial US content (see Databases Guide).