Reference Sources for Background Information

Environment and the Law: a dictionary. Clapp Ref KF 3775.A68 P38 1995

International Environmental Law [World Bank] - a general description of the various topics in environmental law; mentions the most relevant treaties.

International Environmental Law and Policy: A Comprehensive Reference Source - an e-book from the Washington College of Law at American University. Divided into chapters for easier access. Note also links to Treaties, Institutional Players and Recent Developments.

State of the World. Clapp Ref HC 59 S734 1984+. Has chapters on the environment.

UNEP Training Manual on International Environmental Law. Clapp Docs UN Sales IIID 2007 3
   Covers topics in environmental law as well as discussion of specific agreements.

Selected Texts of Legal Instruments in International Environmental Law. Clapp Docs UN Sales 2006 25
   A list of selected multilateral treaties and other agreements in environmental law as well as texts of selected treaties.

World Resources: A Guide to the Global Environment. Clapp Docs HC 10 W827 1986-. Each year has a different focus. Contains statistics.

Finding Books

Wellesley College Catalog - Use the Library catalog to find books and other materials (journal titles, NOT journal articles) we have here at Wellesley. Remember to start with "keyword" if you are beginning to research a topic, then when you find a relevant title, see what the subject headings are for that title. Click on these subject headings to find more about your topic.>
     Try the following subject headings and their subheadings:

• environmental law international
• environmental policy international
• try searching for the official name of the treaty

Also try "global environmental accord" as a title.

WorldCat - Use WorldCat to find books and other materials not at Wellesley. Use the suggestions listed above. If you find a book you want that Wellesley does not own, request through Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Use the Find It! @ Wellesley link.

Finding Articles/Law Reviews

LexisNexis Academic Legal Research - full text of law review articles. 1980s-. LexisNexis Academic Legal Research also contains federal and state codes (latest only). There is also a section on European Union law.

Tips for searching LexisNexis Academic Legal Research:

• Use w/s or w/p to search for your terms within the same sentence or within the same paragraph. Put quotes around phrases.
• Use a wildcard to expand your search. The wildcard character in LexisNexis is !. For example; negotiat! searches negotiate, negotiated, negotiation, etc.
• You can search for words in the title by using the segment searching option and choosing title
• If you retrive too many items, look at the article titles for some additional terms you can add to your search to narrow down your results.
• To narrow the results you already have, use the "Focus" button at the top of the results page.
• The number of words given in the citation gives you an idea of the length of the article.

Westlaw Campus Research - full text of law review articles. The journals included may be different from LexisNexis Academic.

• Choose the Law tab, then click the box for journals and law reviews. Use the drop-down box to select all journals and law reviews.
• Use /s or /p to search for your terms within the same sentence or within the same paragraph. Put quotes around phrases.
• You can search for words in the title by using TI and putting your search terms in parentheses; e.g., TI("kyoto protocol")
• Use the "Search in Rresults" tab to narrow your search

The following databases provide either full-text articles or citations (information about when and where the article was published). Once you have a citation for an article, use the Find It! @ Wellesleylink to connect to the full text of the article. Alternatively, search for the journal title in the Wellesley College Library Catalog. Use the name of the journal as the title and make sure you look at the dates covered carefully! If Wellesley does not own the article, you can request it via ILL. See our A-Z list for additional databases; think of which database will have the information for the approach you want.

For the following databases start with a keyword search and see what the subject or descriptor terms are for any relevant articles you find. Then either click on the subject or descriptor link or do another search using these new fields, changing "keyword" to "subject" or "descriptor". Look for an option to mark records, email records to yourself, or link to Interlibrary Loan from within the database. Look in the "Help" feature to see what the wildcard is for a particular database.

Watch the coverage dates of the database. If your treaty is prior to the start date of the database you may want to check the paper equivalent of the electronic database if you need more information. For information on a very early treaty use the New York Times online or the Washington Post.

Academic Search Complete and Expanded Academic ASAP - great starting points for scholarly & popular articles in every discipline from 1990+.

Science Direct has full-text articles from journals in the category "Environmental Science" from 1995+. You can either search or browse.

Web of Science (and Social Science) - 1965+. Interdisciplinary subject searching of scholarly articles in the social, physical, and life sciences. Search for articles that cite known journal articles or books.

Periodicals Index Online - Index to articles published in over 4500 journals in the humanities & social sciences in 40 languages, 1665 to 1995.

JSTOR - Collection of key scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences & natural sciences, starting from the first issue but not the latest 3-5 years

PAIS - articles about political, social & economic issues, public affairs from 1937+.

Environmental News

Environemental News Network - news, press releases, and in-depth reports, from Jan. 1, 1997.

PlanetArk from Reuters - Search the news archive by keyword or issue.

Key Scholarly Web Sites

NOTE: Use the following criteria to evaluate any websites:

• Who is the author of the information?
• Can you find information about the author? What are his/her credentials?
• How current is the information? Is there a "last updated" date?
• Who is the intended audience for the information?
• Is the content objective or is it coming from a certain viewpoint?
• Is the information advocating a cause?

For more information on how to evaluate web pages see our search the web page.

Please read any usage agreement associated with information contained within a database that you may find searching the internet. This does NOT apply to the databases on our A-Z list Wellesley subscribes to.

Conventions/Treaties

**International Environmental Agreements (IEA) Database Project - comprehensive database created by Ronald Mitchell, Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Oregon. Note link to Agreements by Lineage and Secretariats.

ECOLEX - A gateway to environmental law. Search multilateral treaties by title keyword to find your treaty. You can also search the Law and Policy Literature section for references to monographs and articles around environmental conservation. Note that the Law and Policy Literature section is index/abstracts only.

Environmental Treaty Texts from the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), a non-profit, non-governmental organization established in 1989. Choose "Country Profiles" to see what treaties a specific country has signed.

FAOLEX from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN. Contains treaties, laws, and regulations on food, agriculture, and renewable natural resources worldwide.

Multilaterals Project from Tufts University. Text of environmental treaties organized by topic, by date, and searchable by keyword. Also links to a guide which explains how international treaties come to be.

Supporting Information

Center for International Environmental Law - full-text publications on biodiversity and climate change as well as other topics.

Congressional Research Service Reports [National Library for the Environment]. Browse by subject or search by keyword. Full text publications that may have info on treaty developments or negotiations.

Environmental Law [Legal Information Institute]. A good alternative to LexisNexis Academic Legal Research for relevant chapters in the U.S. Code and state statutes dealing with the environment. Also links to international sites.

Environmental Law Programme from the World Conservation Union. Links to full text publications.

European Environmental Law home page

Interactive environmental maps from UNEP Arendal, Norway. Global and country maps showing the extent of environmental factors such as acid rain, carbon dioxide emissions, greenhouse gasses, etc.

Issue Briefs on the environment from Globalization101.org. [Center for Strategic and International Studies].

Nations of the World [Library of Congress]. Links to the constitutions, governmental bodies, and supporting departments of national governments.

OECD environmental publications

United Nations documents may have statements from countries around a particular treaty. Search for documents or search for speeches by using Access UN or UNBISNET. Older documents may not be available online, but Wellesley has a complete set of UN documents on microfiche.

Negotiation

Earth Negotiations Bulletin (1993+) - "independent reporting service that provides daily coverage of negotiations on environment and development at the United Nations". Note the link in the blue box on the left to Other Reporting Services. Published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). Also try the Linkages Journal.

Earth Negotiations: Analyzing Thirty Years of Environmental Diplomacy. Clapp Docs U.N. Sales IIIA 2001 3.
   General information around negotiating multilateral treaties as well as 11 case studies of individual treaties.

Multilteral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary General. Clapp Docs UN Sales V.
   Chapter XXVII contains a list of environmental treaties, protocols and amendments with a list of participants, ratification dates, and declarations and reservations by particular countries concerning the treaty. Environmental treaties are covered in vol. 2.

Also try the following:
Find the first official document or documents from the time of the negotiations posted on your Secretariat's Web site
Look in law review articles [LexisNexis Academic Legal Research or Westlaw Campus Research]
Find a newspaper article around the time your treaty was ratified
Try the Yearbook of the United Nations, Clapp Docs UN Sales I, for the year your treaty was ratified

Implementation

*Yearbook of International Cooperation and Development evaluation articles 1992-2004.

Agreements from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. These agreements may have come about as a result of the signing of an environmental treaty.

Reporting and Review Institutions in 10 Multilateral Environmental Agreements. Docs UN Sales IIID 2003 2

Links to national legislation from ECOLEX and links to environmental ministries and environmental assessment from UNEP.

Compliance and enforcement from UNEP.

Environment and Energy from the UNDP.

Also try the following:
Look for annual progress reports on your Treaty Secretariat's web site. There should be statements of progress on implementation. These may be buried in the official documents.
Look in law review articles [LexisNexis Academic Legal Research OR Westlaw Campus Researchl Law Reviews]
Look at the Web site of an intergovernmental organization or advocacy group that works with your treaty issue
Try environmental news sources

Data

**Performance Indicator Data - an extensive list of data sources for specific environmental treaties. Note citing information at bottom.

Environmental statistics

Environmental Country Reviews [OECD]

Global Environment Outlook 3 Data Compendium. To choose particular variables, access the data through the data portal (Use the advanced search).

World Resources: A Guide to the Global Environment. Clapp Docs HC 10 W827 1986-. Each year has a different focus. Contains statistics. You may find these online.

Try our main statistical databases for country data: World Development Indicators, UNData, Source OECD Statistics, and our Research Resources for Statistics.

Other Resources

• Try Google Scholar if your are not finding what you need through Wellesley's databases; links to full text at Wellesley.
• Electronic Resources for Researching Environmental Law [American Society of International Law]
• EnviroLink - non-profit organization providing access to thousands of online environmental resources.
• Resources by Subject: Environmental Studies
• World Legal Information Institute. Links to countries, regions, and subjects.
• Legal Information - see the Resources by Subject: Legal Studies

Tips

• Start early! Note any information you come across that applies to a later assignment. This will save you time!
• Make sure you search the Web site for your Treaty Secretariat thoroughly! Look for links to documents and official records of meetings.
• Try different combinations of search terms, including synonyms and abbreviations
• Don't forget to look at a source's bibliography and read footnotes!
• If you use the search button of a Web site, see if there is an advanced search option. This will be a more effective search.
• Note the publication dates of resources. If you are looking for negotiations, try a book with a publication date around the time the treaty was signed or went into effect. Try searching a newspaper around that date. If you want results or compliance, try a later publication date.
• Look for an IGO or NGO that works with the topic of your treaty. Search their website.
• Did you try searching for a law review? Try adding the word "review" or "history" or "compliance" or "negotiations" to your search terms or in the "Focus" feature when you have your list of results.
• Try searching in a database that covers the topic of your treaty. Use the e-Resources A-Z list for suggestions. For example, search AGRICOLA for a treaty focused on plants.
• Is the United States a party to this treaty? Perhaps there was a Congressional hearing on the treaty. Try searching LexisNexis Congressional.

Citing Your Sources

We have copies of various citation style guides on the Clapp reference desk or go to our online sources. Remember: if you find the full text online, whether an article in a database or info on the Web, you should cite the information from the online source. In a Wellesley database; look for a link within the database to how to cite. Traditional citation style manuals will also include how to cite information found electronically. Remember the following:

• be consistent!
• If you found it electronically, you must cite it electronically!
• Full-text databases usually have a "How to cite articles from this database" feature. Look for a direct link, or look in "Help"

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