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Law

International Law Commentary

Legal Journals

Journal articles provide analysis and opinion and can be useful for supporting your research of the primary materials.

They can also be a good source for up-to-date commentary on legal issues. Often relevant legislation and cases will also be cited. There may be cross over of jurisdictions, so the international databases may also contain relevant Australian issues. View the Law LibGuide for information about Australian legal journals.

Note: Use the International Law databases for more links to legal journal databases.

Finding articles on a topic

Tip: Always check the help section before using a new database to find out the correct way to enter your keywords.

Note: There are different ways to find journal articles in Westlaw. You can search for United States journals by selecting Secondary Sources>Law Reviews & Journals or for international jurisdictions by selecting International Materials>Journals. 

Q. Find articles dealing with conflict of laws in the area of construction contracts


Select International Materials>Journals. In the search box type "conflict of laws" /p "construction contract*" > select Search

Tip: Articles may or may not be available in full-text within Westlaw. Use MultiSearch to search for the full-text of articles (remember - search for the journal title, not the article title, in Multisearch).

Q. Find international legal articles discussing the 1958 High Seas Convention

Use the US Research option under the drop-down arrow on the top-left of the Lexis Advance Pacific screen. 

  1. In the Red search box type high seas w/5 convention then use the arrow next to Search: Everything to choose ways to narrow your search. 
  2. Under Jurisdiction choose International (at the bottom of the list of US jurisdictions);
  3. Under Category choose US Secondary Materials to narrow by journals and other material. 
  4. Click the search icon (magnifying glass). 
  5. Use the Full view option (top right side) to see how your keywords are placed in context.

Q. Find articles discussing the human rights aspects of religious discrimination

Note: This database searches full-text articles, so you may need to use the limits on the left-hand side of the page to refine your search. For example, you can limit by date or Country Published.

  1. Select Law Journal Library from the list of Collections.
  2. In the Search Query box type "human rights" and discriminat* and religion* > View results.
  3. Select All matching text pages for one of the articles to see where your search terms have been found.
  4. Select the title of an article to view the full-text & use the Printer icon to print or download a PDF copy of the article.

Note: The Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals is another journal article database available via HeinOnline. It contains abstracts of articles, not full-text.

Note: This database only contains abstracts of articles. Use Article Linker within the database or MultiSearch to find full-text copies of the articles.

Q. Find articles relating to women's rights under Islamic Law

  1. In the first search box type islamic law >
  2. from the 'Select a field' list choose SU Subject >
  3. in the second search box type women > 
  4. from the 'Select a field' list choose SU Subject >
  5. select Search and view results
  6. Select an article title to view more information.

Finding an article when you have a citation

You can also use MultiSearch to find the full-text of a journal if you already know the article you need. Before you can find a journal in the catalogue, you will need to work out its full title from the abbreviation using the abbreviation tools.

Q. Find a full-text copy of the article 'A public law perspective on intellectual property' (2014) J.W.I.P. 61

From the abbreviation tools list select Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations > Search by Abbreviation > type jwip > take note of the full title The Journal of World Intellectual Property.

In MultiSearch try searching for the title of the article "A public law perspective on intellectual property". If that doesn't work, try looking for the journal title "The Journal of World Intellectual Property" using Advanced Search instead.