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International and Foreign Law

Secondary Sources

To find additional sources through the ASU Library catalog, try using a subject heading such as: War (International Law) and Humanitarian Law.

Oslo Manual on Select Topics of the Law of Armed Conflict Rules and Commentary (2020)
This online manual restates the law of armed conflict. Each black letter rule is followed by commentary.

The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law of War 2nd ed. (2022)
This second edition is available in print in the law library. The 1st edition (2010) is available as an ebook.

Expert Laws of War: Restating and Making Law in Expert Processes (2020)
This book, available in print in the library, discusses how international humanitarian law has been shaped by rules and commentaries produced by private expert groups.

Wars of Law: Unintended Consequences in the Regulation of Armed Conflict (2018)
This online book assesses the unintended consequences of the laws of war over the past 150 years.

Weapons and the Law of Armed Conflict 2nd ed. (2016)
This online treatise discusses the rules governing the use of weapons and the future development of weapons law.

The Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law  (access restricted to Law affiliates)
The Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law is an Oxford Public International Law publication. It has detailed descriptions of hundreds of public international law topics.

HeinOnline’s History of International Law, War & Peace Collection
This collection has documents and monographs dating back to the 1800s on the history of the international law of war and peace.

Web Resources

Avalon Project
This Yale Law School website contains the text of numerous treaties regarding the laws of war. 

Geneva Conventions Materials
The Library of Congress has created this online collection of documents relating to the Geneva Conventions.

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Customary International Humanitarian Law database
This website contains ICRC’s analysis of existing rules of customary international humanitarian law and a database of state practice organized topically and by country.

ICRC Treaty Database  
This ICRC website has the full text of many humanitarian law treaties, as well as lists of state parties.

ICRC National Implementation Database
This is a database of national statutes and cases regarding state implementation of international humanitarian law. Texts are in their original language. Statutes and cases are accessible by state and by topic.

Armenian National Institute
The Armenian National Institute is a non-profit organization dedicated to the study, research, and affirmation of the Armenian Genocide. The Institute’s website includes photo collections, a detailed chronology, archival documents, the text of international conventions, and a survey of press coverage.

Donovan Nuremberg Trials Collection
Cornell University Law Library. This collection has Nuremberg trial transcripts and other documents from the personal archives of General William J. Donovan, special assistant to U.S. Chief of Counsel Robert H. Jackson.

Genocide Archive Rwanda
This site has videos of testimony, photographs, and other information regarding the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Hong Kong’s War Crimes Trials Collection
This website provides information about 46 war crimes trials involving 123 people for crimes committed during World War II.

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)
Recognizing that serious violations of humanitarian law were committed in Rwanda, UN Security Council Resolution 955 established the ICTR to prosecute serious violations of international humanitarian law committed between 1 January 1994 and 31 December 1994.

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda - Westlaw (login required)
This Westlaw database contains all documents (judgments, decisions, orders, and indictments) issued by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda during the years 1995-2007.

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia - Westlaw (login required)
This Westlaw database contains judgments, decisions, orders, indictments, transcripts and press releases issued by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Coverage is 1995 to the present.

Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals
1947-1949. Published by the United Nations War Crimes Commission. HeinOnline.

Nuremberg Trials Collection. Part of Avalon Project at Yale Law Library
Contents of the Nuremberg Trials Collection from the Avalon Project at Yale Law School. The Avalon Project has digitized many important documents related to the Nuremberg Trials, including motions, orders of the tribunal, presentation of cases, testimony of witnesses, and other key documents.

Nuremberg Trials Project
The Nuremberg Trials Project is an endeavor of the Harvard Law School Library to digitize the approximately one million pages of documents the Law Library has relating to the trial of military and political leaders of Nazi Germany before the International Military Tribunal. The documents include transcripts, briefs, document books, evidence files, and other papers. The online database of the Project provides a description of each document and allows searching for documents by title, author, defendant, evidence code number, exhibit number, date, transcript page numbers, and other fields.

Special Court for Sierra Leone
Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1315 (2000), the Special Court for Sierra Leone was set up jointly by the Government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations. It is mandated to try those who bear the greatest responsibility for serious violations of international humanitarian law and Sierra Leonean law committed in the territory of Sierra Leone since 30 November 1996.

War Crimes Research Office
The War Crimes Research Office (WCRO) at the American University Washington College of Law promotes the development and enforcement of international criminal and humanitarian law by providing specialized legal research to international courts and tribunals. The WCRO website offers access to a number of primary documents from international courts and tribunals in its Jurisprudence Collections and International Criminal Law Project database, as well as access to analytical reports on actions of the International Criminal Court through its ICC Legal Analysis and Education Project.

War Crimes Research Portal
This research portal is maintained by the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. The website contains links to websites with information on international humanitarian law and research on issues before International Criminal Tribunals.

International Courts and Tribunals Library
This is part of the World Legal Information Institute. It has a searchable database of decisions of international courts and tribunals. 

International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is the first ever permanent, treaty based, international criminal court established to promote the rule of law and ensure that the gravest international crimes do not go unpunished. The ICCs website provides information about the ICC, access to cases and situations before it, reports on activities, and offers legal tools and texts.

Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect advocates and works towards creating practical guides for global action in the face of mass atrocities. The Centre’s website gives information about populations around the world which are at risk of mass atrocities, details the organization’s events and activities, and provides online access to its archive of resources including UN reports and resolutions, government statements, NGO reports, academic articles, and news articles that reference the responsibility to protect.

Peace Palace Library
The Peace Palace Library is a preeminent library of international law at The Hague and supports legal institutions including the International Court of Justice. Content on the website includes bibliographies on topics such as International Humanitarian Law; Terrorism and International Law; and International Criminal Law.

ReliefWeb
ReliefWeb is administered by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The website was developed in order to provide a reliable source of information during humanitarian emergencies and is endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly. Information provided on ReliefWeb includes news, reports, press releases, appeals, policy documents, analysis and maps related to humanitarian emergencies worldwide.

Rule of Law in Armed Conflicts Project, Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights
This website contains reports on state implementation of the international law of armed conflict, organized by country, as well as links to national constitutions and relevant legislation.

United Nations Refugee Agency
Information regarding United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UNHCR publications and reports, access to UNHCR Statistical Online Population Database and access to Refworld online, including country reports, national legislation and case law, and UNCHR protection policies and guidelines.

Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) (available on campus or remotely with ASURITE) 
This resources provides the full text of working papers, journal articles, policy briefs, and country data from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, and proceedings from conferences.

Global Conflict Tracker, Council on Foreign Relations
The Council of Foreign Relations hosts an interactive map of current global conflicts.  Selecting a conflict will take the user to an article that provides details and explains the potential impact on US interests.

National Security Archive  
George Washington University - Gelman Library in Washington, D.C. houses the National Security Archive, a repository for declassified documents obtained from the U.S. government through Freedom of Information Act requests.

Torture Database
An ACLU database of more than 100,000 Bush-era documents.