International and Foreign Legal Research
International and Foreign Legal Research:
A Coursebook
Marci Hoffman & Mary Rumsey
Chapter 6, Part 3: Exercise –Customary International Law
1. A useful online guide to researching customary international law is Silke Sahl’s Researching Customary International Law, State Practice and the Pronouncements of States regarding International Law, http://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Customary_International_Law.htm. According to that guide, what is one online source for speeches giving U.S. views on international law? Give the URL for the website, and the producer of the site:
2. Using Westlaw or LexisNexis’s database of law review articles, search for information on whether the “sic utere” principle is a principle of customary international law. Revise your search until you retrieve at least one relevant document. Write your search here:
3. Use the Swiss database of diplomatic documents, http://www.dodis.ch/e/home.asp. Use the thematic index to find the most useful topic for researching customary law on asylum claims. Give the topic (e.g., Aid to refugees). You do not need to conduct a search.
4. Suppose you want to argue that applying the death penalty to juveniles or persons with mental retardation violates customary international law. Identify one specific example of an authority recognized under art. 38 of the ICJ statute that supports this claim.
5. Using the World Court Digest, (http://www.mpil.de/ww/en/pub/research/details/publications/institute/wcd.cfm?100000000006.cfm) table of contents, find a reference to a case that talks about the immunity of a head of state from the jurisdiction of other states.
6. Using Digest of United States Practice in International Law 2000 (http://www.state.gov/s/l/c8185.htm), find a document expressing the US practice relating to the role of US states in the treaty-making process. Who is the author of this document?
7. Using the ENTRI database, http://sedac.ciesin.org/entri, find an example of a treaty on environmental law that adopts the precautionary principle. Give its name and describe how you found it.
8. Find a UN General Assembly resolution published in 2007, regarding the elimination of nuclear weapons. What is the resolution’s title and number?
9. Using Worldcat, find a book that discusses human rights law as customary international law. Give the author and the title of the book you found:
10. If your law library has access to HeinOnline’s Foreign & International Law Resources Database, use the database to look in the Hackworth Digest of International Law for 1940. Find a reference to a case interpreting river boundaries as territorial limits. Give the name of the case: