Finding the Law of Latin America
Introduction
Approaching Latin American legal research is similar to approaching legal research of any country, including the United States.
- Know the country's legal system, i.e. review a research guide
- Examine relevant and authoritative secondary sources, i.e. legal encyclopedias, law journal articles, and books (which will cite to primary sources)
- Locate primary sources: constitution, legislation/laws/codes (with commentary), judicial opinions
This research guide focuses on electronic resources to help you find the law in Latin America and the Caribbean. For researching the law of a particular country in Latin America, please see our Country-by-Country Guide to Foreign Law Research to help you get started. Also, do not forget that we have current and extensive collections of many nations of the Americas on the Lower East Side.
Foreign & Transnational Law
Latin America Primary Sources
Constituciones Hispanoamericanas
Current and historical Latin American constitutions.
Constitutions of the World
This website presents the results and progress of the international research project The Rise of Modern Constitutionalism, 1776 - 1849 by making available to the public all constitutional documents from that era.
Country-by-Country Guide to Foreign Law Research
Portal to research guides and major databases for every country; these research guides vary from explanatory legal system guides to lists of legal resource links; includes links to the Foreign Law Guide, the World Legal Information Institute, and other portals and foreign legal research guides.
Documentos Digitalizados del Archivo Histórico de la Policía Nacional de Guatemala
Digitized documents from the Guatemalan National Police Historical Archive (AHPN), discovered in 2005. Timely resource for the study of Guatemalan history and human rights in the region. Topics include Guatemala's armed conflict between 1960 and 1996 and the sexually transmitted disease experiments performed at the behest of the United States government in the 1940s. Includes over 10 million scanned images of documents from the National Police Historical Archive.
Enrique Bolaños Presidential Virtual Library
The first virtual library of its kind in Nicaragua and Central America. Features the most complete collection of primary sources pertaining to the period of Nicaraguan history in the mid-19th century known as The National War (La Guerra Nacional); a collection of documents on the Spanish conquest of Nicaragua, focusing specifically on the period between 1503 and 1550; copies of the 100 magazines of the Revista Conservadora, published in the 1960's; and the collection of the Law Codes of Nicaragua beginning in 1821 (Independence) through 1888.
HeinOnline World Constitutions Illustrated: Contemporary & Historical Documents & Resources
The collection brings together constitutional documents, books, articles, bibliographic references, and web sites all into one database.
Information Exchange Network for Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matter and Extradition
A virtual library which provides legal information related to mutual assistance and extradition for the 34 OAS member states
International Law Reports
Via the Justis database, click on "cases" and uncheck all other boxes to search just ILR; find important cases and documents in international law from 1919 to the present (Yale access only).
Organization of American States
Official site - contains official documents, treaties, legal opinions, resolutions, declarations, news, etc. English, Spanish, Portugese, French.
Oxford Constitutional Law
The portal contains fully-translated English-language versions of world's constitutions (both national and sub-national), with jurisdictional commentaries, and supplementary materials, including foundation documents, historical versions of constitutions, and amendment Acts/Laws.
Political Database of the Americas
Georgetown Center for Latin America Studies - links to government information in countries in the Americas.
Latin America Research Guides
Comparative and Foreign Law Guides
L.L.R.X. is a depository of research guides for topics such as immigration law, Islamic law, refugee law, parliamentary procedure, and cultural property.
Country-by-Country Guide to Foreign Law Research
Portal to research guides and major databases for every country; these research guides vary from explanatory legal system guides to lists of legal resource links; includes links to the Foreign Law Guide, the World Legal Information Institute, and other portals and foreign legal research guides.
Globalex Guides
Research guides on a variety of countries and international topics.
Guide to Foreign and Comparative Law Research at Yale
This document outlines the best approach to starting your foreign law research at Yale; it provides links to the most commonly used and best resources available, many of which are listed elsewhere on this web page.
Latin American Resources at Yale Library
The Latin American Resources at Yale University Library offers access to a number of specialized reference pages (i.e. Ibero-American Archives at Yale; Digital Archvies; Cuban Revolution; etc.)
Latin America Research Tools
Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations
Search by abbreviation or keyword to find legal titles worldwide (online resource).
UN Research Guide - Terminology databases
Includes guides to subject-based databases and multilingual thesaurus.
World Legal Systems
Determine the legal system of the country your are researching: Civil law, Common law, Customary law, Muslim law, Talmudic law, and Mixed law systems, the latter referring not to a single system but to a combination of systems.
Latin America Secondary Sources
Access to Justice Information in Latin America
This study on access to judicial information in 10 Latin American countries, carried out by the Due Process of Law Foundation, assesses the principal laws and regulations on access to judicial information in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, Panama, and Uruguay.
Biblioteca Jurídica Virtual
Created by the Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), this virtual library contains over 35 online, full-text foreign and international journals, including several indexed in IFLP.
Dialnet
Search social science journals, collected works, theses, and books from Spain to Latin America.
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports, 1941 - 1996
English-language translations of broadcast transcripts, news agency transmissions, newspaper and periodical articles, and government statements from countries around the world (Yale access only).
Handbook of Latin American Stuides
An annotated bibliography of works on Latin America covering various fields in both the humanities and social sciences. Volumes have been published annually since 1936, by Harvard University Press, the University of Florida Press, and the University of Texas Press. HLAS is edited by the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress. The printed version and the online database cover from 1936 to the present.
HAPI Online
Citations to articles on Latin America, Brazil, the Caribbean, the US-Mexico border region, and Latinos in the U.S.; excellent resource for human rights research (some full-text links otherwise check Orbis and Morris for journal titles) - English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, German (Yale access only)
Information Exchange Network for Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matter and Extradition
A virtual library which provides legal information related to mutual assistance and extradition for the 34 OAS member states
LANIC
Latin American Network Information Center - a multidisciplinary portal to websites and resources all over Latin America, including a category for legal resources with regional and country-specific links.
Latin American Journals and Serials
This is a work-in-progress website that currently contains all the holdings at Yale Law Library and will soon contain the holdings of other law libraries with Latin American collections; this is not a searchable database but merely a list of titles linked to the catalog.
Latin American Newsstand
Full-text information in Spanish and Portuguese from 41 newspapers from Puerto Rico and Latin America.
Latin American Public Opinion Project
The open-access Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) surveys and analyzes citizen views on system support, political tolerance, citizen participation, local government, corruption, and views on authoritarianism have been conducted and are now being archived for many Latin American countries plus Albania, Israel, Madagascar, Canada and the United States; datasets are available for Yale affiliates (Yale access only)
Latinobarómetro
An annual public opinion survey that involves some 19,000 interviews in 18 Latin American countries, representing more than 400 million inhabitants, focusing on the development of democracy, economies, and societies (Yale access only).
Organization of American States
Official site - contains official documents, treaties, legal opinions, resolutions, declarations, news, etc. English, Spanish, Portugese, French.
Scientific Electronic Library Online
Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO): Mostly scientific journals with a few but growing number of legal titles; consolidates Iberian and Latin American journals in an open-access, full-text database; searchable in English, Spanish and Portugese, by subject, author, keyword, or browse each journal.
International Law
Courts and Tribunals
Inter-American Court of Human Rights
Decisions, provisional measures, compliance reports, and advisory opinions of the Court, the autonomous judicial body of the OAS, established in 1979 and headquartered in San José, Costa Rica; great collection of human rights instruments- English and Spanish
International Law Reports
Via the Justis database, click on "cases" and uncheck all other boxes to search just ILR; find important cases and documents in international law from 1919 to the present (Yale access only).
World Court Digest
Max Plank Institute's reproduction of judgments, advisory opinions, and orders of the ICJ and individual judges
Human Rights
Comisión Andina de Juristas
CAJ promotes human rights and democracy in the Andean region. Find relevant legislation and jurisprudence from Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.
Derechos Human Rights en America Latina
Derechos Human Rights works for the respect and promotion of human rights all over the world, with special projects in Latin America
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
Cases and reports of the Commission, headquartered in Washington DC, created in 1959 as an autonomous body of the OAS that provides recourse to individuals who have suffered human rights violations - English, Spanish, French and Portuguese
Latin America Business
Andean Community
An organization that promotes development and cooperation between Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
Caribbean Community
An organization that aims for economic and social development of the Commonwealth Caribbean
Doing business in Latin America and the Caribbean : including Mexico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico, Central America, South America
Provides tips and information on doing business in 41 countries in this region. In addition to identifying product demand, market trends, demographics, and resource availability, the author explores investment opportunities, trade incentives and barriers, and political climates that can foster or inhibit success.
Doing Business Law Library
The World Bank's open-access law library to business laws and regulations around the world.
Free Trade Area of the Americas
An organization of 34 democracies in the region that aim for political and cultural co-operation
Inter-American Specialized Conferences
This resource is maintained by the legal department of the Organization of American States. It provides access to the international private law instruments adopted at the Inter-American Specialized Conferences on Private International Law as well as the Organization's recent activities in that area
Kluwer Law International Journals
A variety of business, arbitration, environmental, tax, and trade law titles (Yale access only).
Latin American Integration Association
The Latin American Integration Association is a Latin American organization dedicated to integration between its 12 Latin American member states
LexisNexis "Doing Business in" Series
The Doing Business in Series covers the law of Spain, Chile, El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Peru in English (Yale access only).
Mercosur Trade Center
Mercosur is a regional trade agreement between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay
Summit of the Americas Information Network
"The Summit of the Americas brings together the Heads of State and Government of the Western Hemisphere to discuss common concerns, seek solutions and develop a shared vision for their future development of the region, be it economic, social or political in nature."In English and Spanish
Latin America Research Guides
American Society of International Law Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law
Includes guides for Human Rights, International Commercial Arbitration, International Criminal Law, International Economic Law, International Environmental Law, International Intellectual Property Law, International Organizations, Private International Law, Treaties, and United Nations.
Globalex Guides
Research guides on a variety of countries and international topics.
International Affairs Resources
Elizabethtown - Internet directory of international affairs, relations, studies, news, etc.
International and Foreign Law Research Guides (L.L.R.X.)
Research guides on a variety of countries and international topics.
Latin America Treaties
American Society of International Law's Electronic Information System for International Law
American Society of International Law's (ASIL) Electronic Information System for International Law is a comprehensive database for primary documents, websites, and research guides - a great first-stop for finding international agreements; search by title, subject, keyword // has a human rights section
Organization of American States
Official site - contains official documents, treaties, legal opinions, resolutions, declarations, news, etc. English, Spanish, Portugese, French.
United Nations Treaties Collection
Includes databases for United Nations Treaty Series (UNTS), Multilateral treaties deposited with the UN, Status of Treaties (MTDSG), Certified True Copies (CTCs) of treaties, Depositary Notifications (CNs), and more