FLARE Foreign Law Research

A collaboration between the major libraries collecting foreign law in the United Kingdom

FLARE is a collaboration between the major libraries collecting foreign law in the United Kingdom: Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (Chair), Bodleian Law Library, Squire Law Library, British Library, and SOAS, University of London It is working to improve the coverage and accessibility of foreign legal materials at the national level and to raise expertise in their use.

The Institute Library has been co-operating with the British Library for many years in the collaborative acquisitions of foreign legal materials, leading to a concordat between the two libraries. In collaboration with the Bodleian Law Library, the Squire Law Library and the SOAS, University of London, the libraries developed the FLAG Foreign Law Guide to help researchers locate primary foreign law print collections in UK libraries. The FLAG project highlighted the importance of continued co-operation among the major UK libraries with foreign law collections resulting in the formation of FLARE - the Foreign Law Research group of libraries.

Building on work from established relationships and earlier projects, FLARE aims to develop collaborative collection policies, improve access to foreign, comparative and international law and to increase the expertise of library staff by providing information and training courses in the collection, management and exploitation of these materials. The website includes the union list of European official gazettes, course materials and documents produced by the FLAG project and FLARE initiatives. FLARE has been particularly helpful in advising the IALS development of the Flare Index to Treaties.

FLAG Foreign Law Guide
Flare Index to Treaties
Flare Foreign Official Government Gazettes
Union List of Official Gazettes: Europe (PDF)

The following free web resources provide access to a wide range of foreign and international law materials:

Eagle-i Internet Portal for Law

Globalex Foreign and International Law Resource Guides

Justia BlawgSearch

Lawlinks

University of Michigan Directory of Online Government Gazettes

WorldLII World Law Catalog

FLARE research guides

FLAG Foreign Law Guide

FLAG Rebuild Project 2013: a major update of the FLAG Foreign Law Guide, which is freely available as a national resource for law on the web. The project involved re-assessing the collections of foreign primary law print materials in UK libraries and rebuilding the FLAG database. The project, overseen by David Gee, IALS Deputy Librarian, benefited from the expertise of Dr Peter Clinch, the original project manager and creator of FLAG; Gerry Power, FLAG rebuild project manager; Hester Swift - IALS Foreign and International Law Librarian; assisted by Lindsey Caffin and systems colleagues at IALS Global Law Library.

The FLAG Rebuild Project was supported by the Flare Foreign Law Research group of libraries, the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL), and the School of Advanced Study (SAS), University of London.

FLARE Index to Treaties

The Flare Index to Treaties has been made freely available on the IALS website. The Index is a searchable database of basic information on over 1,500 of the most significant multilateral treaties from 1856 to the present, with details of where the full text of each treaty may be obtained in paper and, if available, electronic form on the Internet. The Index includes only those treaties where there are three or more parties to the instrument.

The selection has been based on entries in Multilateral Treaties: index and current status, compiled and annotated within the University of Nottingham Treaty Centre by M.J. Bowman and D.J. Harris (London: Butterworths, 1984, ninth supplement, 1992) and International Legal Materials (Washington, D.C., American Society of International Law, 1962-).

The Index is freely available on the Web and was conceived and compiled by Dr Peter Clinch, Cardiff University. Both the MS Access database into which data have been keyboarded and the web-based search interface were devised by Steven Whittle, Information Systems Manager, IALS.

Funding for the project was made available through a successful bid to the University of London Vice Chancellor's Development Fund. Your reactions to and comments on the Index and suggestions for multilateral treaties which should be included are welcomed and should be sent to narayana.harave@sas.ac.uk

Read more about the Flare Index to Treaties.

FLARE Foreign Official Government Gazettes search | IALS (sas.ac.uk)

Recognition of the role of FLARE in the Research Information Network report, Uncovering Hidden Resources: Extending the coverage of online catalogues (November 2007).