Florida State University College of Law Research Center Researching Constitutions: Comparative Constitutional Law Robin R. Gault Associate Director October

Florida State University College of Law Research Center

Researching Constitutions:Comparative Constitutional Law

Robin R. GaultAssociate Director

October 2008


The idea of a constitution.

What is it? Why is it? Why compare?

U.S. Constitution as model for others.



Researching the Constitution

Congressional Research Service Annotated Constitution:http://www.law.cornell.edu/anncon/ PDF of print version from GPO:http://www.gpoaccess.gov/constitution/index.html

Annotated Constitutions in print and online: U.S. Code Annotated (KF 62 W4, also in Westlaw) and U.S. Code Service (KF 62 1972 L38, also in Lexis.)



Court Decisions


The U.S. Supreme Court

Supreme Court Official Page:

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/

Cornell LII Supreme Court Collection:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/index.html



Researching Foreign Constitution Texts

Subscription database:

Oceana Publications, [Constitutions of the] Countries of the World & [Constitutions of] Dependencies and Territories: In paper at K 3157 E5 B6. Connect online through Research Center webpage:

http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/lawdatabases.html





Foreign Constitutions on the Web

University of Richmond Constitution Finder:

http://confinder.richmond.edu/



Washburn Law School WashLaw:

http://www.washlaw.edu/

http://www.washlaw.edu/forint/alpha/c/constitutionallaw.html




World Legal Information Institute:

http://www.worldlii.org/



Foreign Law inWestlaw and Lexis

Lexis > Legal > Find Laws by Country or Region

Lexis > Legal > Area of Law – By Topic > International Law

Westlaw > Directory > International/Worldwide Materials




ResearchingAnalytical Sources

Limited utility of constitutional texts.

Need for background, history, analysis.


Locating Treatisesand Essay Collections

FSU Library Catalog:

Click on link on Research Center home page.

Use keywords “comparative” and “constitutional” to begin search.




Locating Articles

Index to Legal Periodicals and Books (Full Text and Retrospective):

Click link on Research Center page:

http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/legalresearch.html#mostusedlegal

Use keywords “comparative” and “constitutions” to start.





Articles Online

Note that you can link to full text of many articles from the ILP cite.

You can also use the E-Journals search feature to locate specific journals online at FSU. Click link on Research Center page or go to http://www.lib.fsu.edu/find/journals



Online Research Guides on Comparative Constitutional Law

Georgetown Law Library:

http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/guides/ComparativeConstitutionalLaw.cfm

Cleveland-Marshall Law Library:

http://www.law.csuohio.edu/lawlibrary/resources/lawpubs/ComparativeConstitutionalLawGuide.html


A Few Recent Books

Choudry, The Migration of Constitutional Ideas (Law K 3165 M54 2006)

Goldsworthy, Interpreting Constitutions: A Comparative Study (Law K 3165 I584 2006)

Maddex, Constitutions of the World (Law K 3157 E5 M33 2001)

McHugh, Comparative Constitutional Traditions (Law K 3165 M39 2002)

Venter, Constitutional Comparison (Law K 3165 V46 2000)

Documents

Florida State University College of Law Research Center Researching Constitutions: Comparative Constitutional Law Robin R. Gault Associate Director October