LexisNexis Legal Editor/Site Coordinator LexisNexis International & Foreign Law Center

It has often been said that one is never too old to learn and that you can always learn something new.  In view of this sound thinking, the LN International & Foreign Law Team would like to offer you, whether you are a law student, a practitioner just facing your first international matter, or a seasoned international practitioner who is reexamining an issue of law, a concise look at our Bookstore offerings relevant to our subject matter.  If your quest involves a question of foreign law, you may also wish to browse in our Civil Law and Mixed Jurisdictions Toolbox.

Cornelius van Bynkershoek

Welcome to the International &Foreign  Law Center's Student’s Toolbox!   Whether you’re an actual law student or a practitioner encountering or learning about this practice area for the first time, Lexis Nexis offers a top-notch "Guide to Internatioanl Legal Research" and several textbooks to help the beginner in the field. 

 

Francisco de Vitoria

International Practice Notes:  Not sure what are the distinctions among International Law, public intenrational law, private international law, conflict of laws, foreign law and comparative law?  A concise discussion is found in the opening chapter of our Guide to International Legal Research section entitled "What is International Law?".  In short, it can be said that "international law" is often loosely used to encompass several distinct but inter-related areas of law.  "Public international law" regulates relations among nation-states and the international or regional organizations of nation-states which have been formed over the last 150 years, whereas "private international law" pertains to the relations of individuals or private entities with foreign states or foreign individuals and/or foreign private entities.  For instance, "international business law" or "international commerical transactions law,  "international arbitration" or "international family law" would all be deemed subsets of private international law. The legal rules that constitute the field of "Conflict of Laws" aid in the determination of which nation's laws may apply in a situation where the parties to a dispute have not or could not have agreed previously as to which law would govern their relations.  "Foreign law" refers to the law(s) of any nation(s) that is/are not one's one; foreign law is the subject-matter of "comparative law", which encompasses the study  of the similarities and differences of the laws of two or more nations.  "Foreign relations law" is the term often used to refer to the laws governing the practice of public and private international law by a nation - it is popularly used in the Untied States to describe the legal activities conducted primarily by the State Department on behalf of the US.

 As an American lawyer, if your client is a foreign company investing or starting operations in the US, you are not really engaged in an international commercial transaction from a legal nuts and bolts perspective – the US domestic law (federal, state, local) that you ordinarily practice is what your client is looking to you for in such an in-bound transaction, and the resources of our other US practice areas will serve you well. You may need to answer your foreign client’s concerns about OFAC or FCPA regulations as they affect them, and you will find help with those issues on our International Law Practice Center page.

For those of you who have an American, or perhaps a third-country, -based client seeking to do business in another country, this site will provide you with a wealth of assistance from the start to the finish of your transaction. From finding correspondent local counsel and learning about the local legal system and its laws, to crafting agreements, making an agreeable choice of law and dispute resolution mechanisms, and organizing on-going compliance locally and for the home country as needed, you will find on the I&FLC and our International & Foreign Law Practice Center the resources that you need. Our Bookstore offerings below will help you get oriented, so you can take advantage of all that LexisNexis offers to help you succeed.

Guide to International Legal Research 
Author:  The George Washington University Law School International Law Review 

Understanding International Law 2006
Author: Stephen C. McCaffrey, Distinguished Professor and Scholar, University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law

Understanding International Business and Financial Transactions, Second Edition, 2005
Author: Jerold A. Friedland, Professor of Law, DePaul University College of Law

Dictionary of International Trade Law 2008
Author: Raj Bhala, Rice Distinguished Professor, University of Kansas, School of Law

International Business and Economics: Law and Policy, Third Edition, 2004
Author: Paul B. Stephan, Lewis F. Powell, Jr. Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law;  Julie A. Roin, Seymour Logan Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School;  Don Wallace Jr., Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center

European Union Law Anthology
Author: Karen V. Kole, Visiting Professor of Law, Valparaiso University School of Law;  Anthony D'Amato, Leighton Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law

International Civil Litigation: Cases And Materials on the Rise of Intermestic Law, 2002 
Author:  Ralph G Steinhardt, Professor of Law and International Affairs & Arthur Selwyn Miller Research Professor of Law, The George Washington University Law School 

International Environmental Law: Cases, Materials, and Problems 2007 
Author:  Donald K. Anton, Senior Lecturer in Law, The Australian National University College of Law, University of Michigan Law School;  The late Jonathan I. Charney; Phillippe Sands, Professor of Law, University College London
Thomas J. Schoenbaum, Visiting Research Professor of Law, The George Washington University Law School / Professor of International Studies, International Christian University, Tokyo; Michael K. Young, President, University of Utah  

International Intellectual Property Law and Policy, Second Edition, 2008 
Author:  Graeme B. Dinwoodie, Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology;  William O. Hennessey, Professors of Law, Franklin Pierce Law Center; Shira Perlmutter, Vice President and Associate General Counsel, Intellectual Property Policy, AOL Time Warner, Inc. 

International Law Anthology, 1994  
Author:  Anthony D'Amato, Leighton Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law 

International Taxation: Cases, Materials, and Problems, 1999 
Author:  Philip F. Postlewaite, Harry B. Reese Research Professor of Law and Director, Graduate Tax Program, Northwestern University School of Law 

International Trade Law: Interdisciplinary Theory and Practice, Third Edition, 2008 
Author:  Raj Bhala, Rice Distinguished Professor, University of Kansas, School of Law 

International and Comparative Patent Law, 2002 
Author:  Graeme Dinwoodie, Professor of Law and Director of the Program in Intellectual Property Law, Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology; William O. Hennessey, Professor of Law and Director of Graduate Programs, Franklin Pierce Law Center; Shira Perlmutter, Vice President and Associate General Counsel, Intellectual Property Policy, AOL Time Warner, Inc. 

Law and Economics of the European Union 
Author:  Paul B. Stephan, Lewis F. Powell, Jr. Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law; Francesco Parisi, Professor of Law, George Mason University School of Law; Ben Depoorter, Center for Advanced Studies in Law and Economics, Ghent University, Belgium 
 
Constitutional Law of the European Union, Second Edition 
Author:  James D. Dinnage, Solicitor (England), Attorney-at-Law (New York), and Special Legal Consultant (District of Columbia);  John F. Murphy, Professor of Law, Villanova University School of Law 

Conflict-of-Laws Anthology, A, 1997 
Author:  Gene R. Shreve, Richard S. Melvin Professor of Law, Indiana University School of Law, Bloomington