International Law Resources - Freedom of Expression and Opinion - International and Comparative Legal Research - LibGuides at Florida International University College of Law

Selected Instruments and Resources by Jurisdiction

UN documents, treaties and Conventions

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) - Article 19
The UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration in 1948. It is an aspirational document. It is not technically binding and provides no formal enforcement mechanism.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR), Article 19
The Covenant is a treaty, binding the signatories.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

The Special Rapporteur & selected Issues:

Special Rapporteur for the promotion and protection of freedom of opinion and expression
"The mandate of the Special Rapporteur was created by the Human Rights Council to protect and promote freedom of opinion and expression, offline and online, in light of international human rights law and standards."

Issue: Freedom of Opinion and Expression

Issue: Plan of Action to combat Incitement to Hatred

Rabat Plan of Action
Employs a threshhold test... "for defining restrictions on freedom of expression, incitement to hatred, and for the application of article 20 of the ICCPR"

UN and OHCHR Database links

OHCHR Jurisprudence Database
All OHCHR Databases
United Nations Digital Library
UNESCO
Check out the buttons to the right of the page, the Resources link in the top navigation bar, and the publications in the Press Freedom on All Platforms page.

Global Freedom of Expression Initiative Columbia University
Contains links to regional Law & Standards information, so-called 'Soft Law' guidelines, and other FoE resources.

Oxford Reports on International Law (ORIL)
ORIL has coverage of public international case law, reporting on international courts, domestic courts and ad hoc tribunals. Case reports contain the full text of each decision, headnote, as well as analytical commentary and English translations of a number of key non-English decisions. ORIL also includes ICSID investment arbitration decisions.
Access restricted to FIU Law.

Access restricted to FIU Law.
vLex
vLex Justis is a global legal database that contains foreign and international case law. It includes constitutions, cases, statutes, codes, law journal articles, books, and legal news in multiple languages for 134 countries including Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Portugal, Italy, the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, and the United States. Search terms and full text results can be translated into 13 languages.
Access restricted to FIU Law.

Access restricted to FIU Law.

Dialnet Plus
An online index that contains full-text scholarly articles and documents from Spain and Latin America.
United Nations Treaty Collection
The United Nations Treaty Collection includes the texts of treaties from the U.N. Treaty Series and the League of Nations Treaty Series.

more... less...

This online database provides information on the status of over 550 major multilateral instruments deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations (as of 1 June 2013) and covers a range of subject matter such as Human Rights, Disarmament, Commodities, Refugees, the Environment and the Law of the Sea.
Foreign & International Law Resources Database (FILRD)
Search by keyword, title or using the tabs. FILRD includes the publications of the American Society of International Law along with prominent Yearbooks from around the world, including the Hague Permanent Court of International Justice series.It also includes U.S. Law Digests, International Tribunals/Judicial Decisions and more.
World Constitutions Illustrated
HeinOnline resource, "...contains thousands of contemporary and historical documents, as well as many features to enable one to browse and search across constitutional law of more than 190 countries...."

Scholarly articles on foreign and international law can be retrieved in the following databases:

Westlaw, you can search all secondary sources content or restrict your search to international law materials

Lexis, in Content > Secondary materials, or using Practice Area > International Law or selecting a listed country from the International link in the 'Explore' selection tab or the View all Jurisdictions link.

HeinOnline, you can perform searches in several libraries:

Oxford Journals GL