FCIL - SIS Foreign and International Law Librarians

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This is the page of the Foreign, Comparative and International Law Special Interest Section (FCIL-SIS) of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL)

06/17/2026

From the Reference Desk: What Is Comparative International Law, and How Is It Researched?

By Jonathan Pratter When I first encountered the phrase “comparative international law” (it was not that long ago – I was not al tanto in this case), it had a distinctly unsettling effect on me. What have I been missing, I thought. Is there more than one entity known as public international law; could there even be several? If not, then the use of the word “comparative” in this context is utterly devoid of meaning....

By Jonathan Pratter When I first encountered the phrase “comparative international law” (it was not that long ago – I was not al tanto in this…

05/27/2026

From the Reference Desk: Researching International Soft Law

By Jonathan Pratter The title of this post is disingenuous. It is impossible to research international soft law qua international soft law. There is no database of international soft law, no collection. International soft law is found in disparate sources; it has disparate origins. The saving grace is that sometimes specific instruments of international soft law have a good presence online....

By Jonathan Pratter The title of this post is disingenuous. It is impossible to research international soft law qua international soft law. There is no database of international soft law,…

05/20/2026

From Wakanda to Zootopia: Using Pop Culture to Teach Foreign, Comparative & International Legal Research

By Kristen Kellems, FCIL Librarian, BYU Law Library What do Ariel, Judy Hopps, and Wonder Woman have in common? In my recent research sessions with law students, they all needed help navigating foreign, comparative, and international legal research tools. This was my approach to solving a common problem faced by those who teach FCIL research: tools are powerful but unfamiliar. Students are asked to jump into databases like WorldLII, the UN Treaty Collection, or foreign legal portals without a clear sense of how everything fits together....

By Kristen Kellems, FCIL Librarian, BYU Law Library What do Ariel, Judy Hopps, and Wonder Woman have in common? In my recent research sessions with law students, they all needed help navigating for…

05/06/2026

GlobaLex January/February 2026 Issue is Live

By Lucie Olejnikova The January/February 2026 issue of GlobaLex is live, featuring one new article and six updates: Benin (English and French), Japan, New Zealand, Introduction to Sources of Treaty Research, International Trademark Law, and Introduction to Public International Law Research. I am happy to highlight that Benin now marks the third article, along with Togo and the Ivory Coast, available in both English and French....

By Lucie Olejnikova The January/February 2026 issue of GlobaLex is live, featuring one new article and six updates: Benin (English and French), Japan, New Zealand, Introduction to Sources of Treaty…

05/01/2026

Introducing…Amy Atchison as the May 2026 FCIL-SIS Member of the Month

"Don't Stop Working," by one of Amy's daughters circa 2007 in response to overhearing Amy complaining about juggling parenthood and work. 1. Where did you grow up? I was born in Michigan and then moved to Arizona at age 6. I mostly lived in Phoenix until I went to college at UCLA. 2. Why did you select law librarianship as a career?...

“Don’t Stop Working,” by one of Amy’s daughters circa 2007 in response to overhearing Amy complaining about juggling parenthood and work. 1. Where did you grow up? I was bor…

04/27/2026

From the Reference Desk: The FCIL Librarian Is a Fox, Not a Hedgehog

By Jonathan Pratter The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. –Archilochus, c. 7th C. BCE What does Simone Weil, the French philosopher and mystic who joined the anarchist Durruti Column in the Spanish Civil War and was with the Free French during World War II, have to do with the law? Perhaps nothing, or maybe quite a lot....

By Jonathan Pratter The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. –Archilochus, c. 7th C. BCE What does Simone Weil, the French philosopher and mystic who joined the an…

04/22/2026

Introducing Irina Smirnov, from the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals Indexer Profile

Meet the people who produce the Index Foreign Legal Periodicals (IFLP), the preeminent multilingual tool for discovering legal literature from around the world. Today we are pleased to introduce IFLP indexer Irina Smirnov. How long have you been an indexer for IFLP? I have been indexing for the IFLP for nearly 25 years. I also have over 25 years of experience working as a cataloger at Berkeley Law library....

Meet the people who produce the Index Foreign Legal Periodicals (IFLP), the preeminent multilingual tool for discovering legal literature from around the world. Today we are pleased to introd…

04/06/2026

From the Reference Desk: The FCIL Librarian Is an International Newshound

By Jonathan Pratter FCIL librarians know that legal questions, in fact, the legal system as a whole, are deeply embedded in the social, cultural, political, historical and economic context. And major legal developments both internationally and in other jurisdictions are often first reported in the news. This has consequences for the competencies of FCIL librarians: in addition to knowing how to find the law, FCIL librarians should be comfortable knowing the broader context....

By Jonathan Pratter FCIL librarians know that legal questions, in fact, the legal system as a whole, are deeply embedded in the social, cultur…

04/01/2026

Introducing…Aaron HC Black as the April 2026 FCIL-SIS Member of the Month

1. Where did you grow up? This is a complicated question because I’ve moved 35 times across 9 U.S. states and 6 foreign countries. I was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and spent most of my childhood split between Arizona, Southern California, and Dallas, Texas, with extended stints in Mexico and Japan along the way. 2. Why did you select law librarianship as a career?...

1. Where did you grow up? This is a complicated question because I’ve moved 35 times across 9 U.S. states and 6 foreign countries. I was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and spent most of my childhood spl…

03/24/2026

Meet the Index To Foreign Legal Periodicals

By Aamir Abdullah No AI, but still a cool tool. In 1960, the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) created the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (IFLP) to meet the growing demand for locating legal scholarship and practitioner insights published in law journals outside the U.S. The IFLP's transition from print to digital began in the late 1990s when AALL released the first electronic version of the Index....

By Aamir Abdullah No AI, but still a cool tool. In 1960, the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) created the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (IFLP) to meet the growing demand for locati…

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