If you are looking for quick and easy way to find foreign cases or statutes online, check out the World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII). The law library offers many access points for foreign and international legal information, but what makes WorldLII worth exploring as a starting point is its global reach, ease of use, and the fact that it is freely accessible to anyone.

WorldLII's emphasis is primarily on court decisions and legislation, drawing from more than 120 countries. Depending on the jurisdiction, you can find court decisions from all levels, including supreme courts, appeals courts, and trial courts, as well as legislation from national, state, and territorial governments.

There is a search feature that allows you to search for keyword, along with a help page and a chart on how to best construct your search. You can also browse cases by juridiction, court, and year.

For example, are you looking to see whether decisions are available online from the German Federal Labour Court? From the list of countries, select 'Germany', then browse to 'Courts & Case-law'.  Select "Courts on the Federal Level'. You can see that cases from the Federal Labour Court are freely avaiable from 2006 to the present.

Some countries have English translations available for certain courts or legislative bodies. In the case of the German Federal Labour Court above, while the actual decisions are in German, you can choose an English option for the Court's web page, which makes searching for the acutal cases easier.  

For more information on WorldLII and/or other foreign and international research resources, contact Sunil Rao, Foreign and International Law Librarian.

Submitted by Sunil Rao, on January 25, 2023

This article appears in the categories: Law Library