A few words from DU Law’s International Law Librarian, Joan Policastri

DU Int'l Law Portfolio
DU Int'l Law Portfolio

I plan to provide blogs on the library’s foreign and international law resources, and keep readers up to date on the latest books in the relevant fields. And, since my personal area of interest is the world of Indigenous Peoples’ rights and issues, I plan to post on several ongoing situations involving international law and indigenous rights looking at topics such as the Belo Monte Dam project in Brazil, land rights in Rapa Nui (Chile), the Convention on Biodiversity, and the Convention on Traditional Knowledge, Genetic Resources, and Traditional Cultural Expressions/Folklore, among others.

Today I will introduce the Nanda Center’s own research portfolio. It is freely accessible from the View From Above website from the International Legal Resources icon or you can access it directly from this link (don’t forget to bookmark it!). The Nanda Center Portfolio is designed for students, but I am particularly hopeful that it will also be of use to our alumni.

The Portfolio gathers together the starting points for online research in all the areas of foreign and international law courses offered at the Sturm College of Law. The tabs across the top are organized by the general course areas and specific classes are listed on the tab and each tab provides a general introduction to the subject area and links to the specific resource.  Researchers will want to use both the topic-specific tab and the general international law tab to get a complete view of what is available.

While most of the resources are “free,” there are a couple significant exceptions. One needs to be a SCOL student or Faculty member in order to access the HeinOnline databases and the Foreign Law Guide database.

These resources are by no means the only ones that a researcher will want to use, and it is important to remember that only online resources are listed. The nature of both foreign and international law often requires that the researcher “resort” to print materials.

I welcome questions, comments, and suggestions from our Students and Faculty, but want to remind Alumni and the Denver legal community that they are also welcome to contact me with any questions they have. I can be reached at jpolicastri@law.du.edu or 303-871-6017.  I look forward to hearing from you. And, feel free to pass on the Nanda Center Portfolio link, if you like it!

Finally, a book you may want to take a peek at is International Law in the U.S. Supreme Court: Continuity and Change, ed. by David L. Sloss, Michael D. Ramsey, and William S. Dodge. Here is a link to a discussion of the boon on Opinio Juris.

 

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