Advanced Legal Research - Refugee LawLegal Research Skills Adviser

August 2013

Office of Teaching & Learning

Melbourne Law School

Where do I start?

Secondary sources!!!!!!!!

CatalogueUse the keywords to obtain an

understanding of the books in the area

Secondary sources

Text books – they are critical to obtain an understanding of the area of law

Secondary sources

Find articles, periodical and journals in area of law

Australia AGISText booksAustlii

Relevant journals – all in research guide

Refugee Survey Quarterly - a multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal.

Refugees Magazine - published by the UNHCR: the UN Refugee Agency.

International Journal of Refugee Law - a quarterly publication on refugee law from Oxford University Press.

Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies - a multidisciplinary quarterly journal.  

Journal of Refugee Studies - a multidisciplinary quarterly journal from Oxford University Press.

European Journal of Migration and Law -  a quarterly journal of migration and law.

Australian overview

Halsburys – LexisNexisAu ( search commentary headings)

Laws of Australia - WestlawAu

International law resources

Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Law The updated online edition of the reference work,

Encyclopedia of Public International Law.

International law resources

The Hague Academy Collected Courses Online The Collected Courses Online is an encyclopedic collection on international law - it covers more than 330 volumes, containing over 1200 lectures given by prominent legal specialists over a period of 85 years

Secondary sources

InternationalFull text databases, Lexis , Westlaw and

HeinOnline Indexes with some full text, LegalTrac

Obtain understanding of the local jurisdiction

Foreign Law Guide Selected primary and secondary sources of law for over 170 countries,

including short explanations of their legal systems. Browse by country or search using keywords.

Cases - Australian

Australian Year Book of International Law (annual summaries of refugee law cases in the HCA involving international issues (Hein Online up to 2007)

Use: CaseBase, Firstpoint, LawCite and AustliiRemember you need to find

The authorised versionThe cases it referred toThe cases that have subsequently referred to it

Legislation

TimeBaseFor example

Commonwealth Migration Act 1958, s 36

Migration Regulations 1994 (Cth)For more detail go to Capital

Monitor

UN Documents

UN websites

Hein Online UN documents and links to commentary Eg. 26 UNTS 299 

Finding refugee cases

Refugee Case Lawhttp://www.refugeecaselaw.org/National

Sites.aspx

Eg. False travel documents

Finding international cases

InternationalLexisWestlawLawCite (found through Austlii)Justis - UK

Canada

LegislationEg. Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, Lexis- Consolidated Statutes of Canada 

Cases Immigration Law Reporter (Westlaw - Directory) - contains the full text of

leading decisions of the Immigration Appeal Board since 1986

Canadian Immigration Case Law (Westlaw) Canadian federal and provincial court decisions relating to immigration, citizenship, and the status of aliens The earliest reported case is from 1840.

Secondary Westlaw – Canadian encyclopedic digest – Vol 15, Title 75 Immigration and

refugees – includes a table of statutes and regulations

Index to Canadian Legal Literature - Westlaw

Canada

http://www.irb-cisr.gc.ca (Immigration Review Board)Some decisionsPolicyProcess

United Kingdom

LegislationEg. Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 (UK)

Justis; Lexis; Westlaw

Cases Westlaw case locator BAILII – Immigration and Asylum case law

Secondary Westlaw – Legal Journal Index

United Kingdom

http://www.justice.gov.uk/tribunals/immigration-asylum (The Asylum Immigration Tribunal)CasesStatistics forms and legislationprocess

USA International comparative law

Restatement of Foreign Relations Law of the United States, Third; - the black letter law and then comments and reporters notes. The reporters notes are only opinion (Westlaw)

Cf. refugee vs aliens

USA

http://www.justice.gov/eoir/vll/intdec/lib_indecitnet.html (Board of Immigration Appeals)

http://www.usdoj.gov/eoir Can use DOJ search engine

Indonesia

HukumOnline - Website featuring news and articles about law in Indonesia

Law reform, policy etc

Check Law Reform Commission websites and LawCite (Austlii)

Capital MonitorNews

International law tools

http://untreaty.un.org – good place to start to see if a treaty on a subject or involving a state exists

http://www.eisil.org – created by the American law Society of International Law. It is an open database of authenticated international law materials

http://catalogue.ppl.nl/

http://untreaty.un.org

The United Nations Treaty Series (U.N.T.S) has more than 150,000 international agreements and related documents – use quick linksType in refugee

Status of Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General (need to use to check status of a treaty – only 522 available)

References

Next some useful sites are provided to assist in gathering material.

Eisil

EISIL has been designed as an open database of authenticated primary and other materials across the breadth of international law (www.eisil.org)

Good place to startRefugees, Asylum, Nationality, Displaced, &

Freedom of Movement Refugee Case Law Site

Peace Palace Library

The Peace Palace Library has been collecting books and materials in the field of international law since 1913. A large part of the collection is searchable through our online catalogue (http://catalogue.ppl.nl/)Eg. Refugee and women

Australia

Refugee Review Tribunalhttp://www.mrt-rrt.gov.au/ (decisions via

Austlii)Eg. Women and refugee

- Check CaseBase for Australian cases and subsequent history

References

Lib Guides for Refugee Law and Human Rights

GlobaLex - Researching the Legal Aspects of Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom http://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Legal_aspects_asylum_refugees_Australia_Canada_UK1.htm