Library Research for Pol3 325: International Environmental Law

These are only some of the sources that may be useful to you. Please contact me for help with any of your research, Betty Febo x3426. To clarify or interpret the information you have found, or for next steps, please consult your professor.

^WC= Wellesley College community only

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 Environmental Law Training Manual. Clapp Docs UN Sales IIID 1998 95
   Covers topics in environmental law as well as discussion of specific agreements.

UNEP Handbook of Environmental Law. Clapp Docs UN Sales IIID 1998 96
   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

Also try "global environmental accord" as a title.

WorldCat ^WC- 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

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 from each citation to search one or more electronic journal sources through 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.

Suggested databases for this class:

• LexisNexis Academic Legal Research ^WC - full text of law review articles. 1980s-. LexisNexis Academic Legal Research also contains federal and state codes (latest only). Law review articles on environmental treaties may be found more easily in LexisNexis Academic Legal Research due to better searching options. There is also a section on European Union law.

Tips for searching LexisNexis Academic Legal Research:

• To search law reviews most effectively, use the "Guided Search" feature. Use the "At Least 3" option or the "Title" option from the drop down box on the right.
• Use a wildcard to expand your search. The wildcard character in LexisNexis is !. For example; negotiat! searches negotiate, negotiated, negotiation, etc.
• 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.
• For country news, use the Guided News Search, and choose World News as a news category.


• LexisNexis Environmental ^WC- Abstracts of environmental journal articles and conference papers. Also environmental news and commentary, codes and regulations (latest only), and environmental case law and law reviews.You can search the code for multiple U.S. states at once. Look for environmental law reviews under "environmental news".

  Tips for searching LexisNexis Environmental:

  • To search for law reviews, choose the news and commentary option and choose "law reviews" as the news source.
  • You can only search by author, or in title or full text.
  • In the codes section, you search multiple states at once for sections of the codes relating to environmental topics, unlike LexisNexis Academic, where you must search each state's code individually.
  • Note: when searching the Environmental Abstracts part of the database, we may have some of the journals, but we do not have the Environmental Abstracts microfiche collection. Request what you need through Interlibrary Loan.

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 live 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 try the New York Times Index or use the New York Times online. ^WC

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

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

Academic Search Premier ^WC - largest academic multi-disciplinary database, updated on a daily basis.

Index to Legal Periodicals Full Text [via WilsonWeb] ^WC - Note: you must select the "OmniFile Full Text Mega" box and then choose "Legal" under "Subject Area". Full text articles from select sources back to 1994; also provides indexing for all years of these select sources.

Expanded Academic ASAP ^WC- starting point for scholarly & popular articles in every discipline from 1990+.

Environmental News

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

News from Lexis/Nexis Environmental ^WC. Choose "News Journals and Commentary".

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

Internet Links

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

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. Wellesley has a complete set of UN documents on microfiche.

Negotiation

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. Use the latest year.

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.

Earth Negotiations Bulletin (1993+) - "independent reporting service that provides daily coverage of negotiations on environment and development at the United Nations". Published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).

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 LexisNexis Environmental Law Reviews]
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

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 legislation from UNEP.

Compliance and enforcement from UNEP.

Energy and Environment from the UNDP.

Also try the following:
Look in law review articles [LexisNexis Academic Legal Research OR LexisNexis Environmental 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

Environmental statistics

Environmental Country Reviews [OECD]

Global Environment Outlook 3 Data Compendium. Clapp Docs UNSales IIID 2003 1 and online (by country or region). 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.

Try our main statistical databases for country data: World Development Indicators ^WC, UN Common Database ^WC, Source OECD Statistics ^WC, and our Research Resources for Statistics.

Other Resources

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

Tips

• 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.
• 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.
• Is the United States a party to this treaty? Perhaps there was a Congressional hearing on the treaty. Try searching Congressional Index ^WC.

Citing Your Sources

There is an assortment of citation style manuals at the Clapp Reference Desk, including how to cite government documents. Many Wellesley databases also have information within the database on how to cite what you find. 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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• Betty Febo
• Wellesley College Library
• Date created:August 23, 2001
• Date Modified: February 12, 2007
• Expires: September 1, 2007