Human Rights Law Research Guide

Excellent introduction in a small paperback book. Includes a table of cases with full citations.

Comprehensive background including theory, history, and human rights treaty interpretation. Each chapter is authored by an expert in the field.
Also available in print, Call Number K3240 .O96 2013

This book provides detailed descriptions of the functions of the UN human rights bodies (e.g. Human Rights Council, Special Procedures, Economic and Social Council, treaty bodies) and regional human rights bodies (focusing on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, European Court of Human Rights, African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child).

Comprehensive overview of current human rights systems and debates surrounding them. Each chapter is written by an expert in the subject.

Professor Robertson describes his book as “a series of small essays,” each one covering a major concept, legal instrument, or organization related to human rights. The book includes a handy appendix that reprints some fundamental human rights texts, including international treaties and national laws from France, Germany, Canada, Hungary, the former Czechoslovakia, Israel, and South Africa.

This book provides one-paragraph definitions of concepts, legal instruments, and organizations related to human rights. The appendix is a list of 259 human rights treaties and other international and national legal instruments; each one has a short description, citation, and URL.

This book is primarily intended for students who are new to the study of human rights. The dictionary section contains brief explanations of human rights-related concepts, legal instruments, and organizations. Comprehensive appendixes include an appendix on "Official Citations for Human Rights and Related Instruments."

Provides brief descriptions of major organizations (private, governmental, national, and international), people, concepts, treaties, and other legal instruments related to human rights and humanitarian law. Includes a chronology of events and an extensive subject bibliography.

In most human rights dictionaries, each entry is a definition written by the author(s). However, in this book, each entry is a compilation of direct quotations from treaties and other human rights instruments. Another unique feature of this book is that it provides the same text twice: the first half in English, the second half in French.

This 1,715-page single-volume compendium covers the years between 1945 and 1996. Published with the cooperation of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights / Centre for Human Rights, this encyclopedia relies primarily on the reports of UN institutions such as Special Rapporteurs and human rights treaty-monitoring bodies. It includes entries on people (in particular, Nobel Peace Prize winners), concepts, international organizations (governmental and non-governmental), treaties, and other human rights instruments (with citations to the official sources). Unlike most other dictionaries and encyclopedias, this book also includes entries on the state of human rights in 186 countries and territories. The appendixes contain a chronological list of documents included in this work. A glossary and a subject index are also available.

This 5-volume encyclopedia focuses on 1945 to the present (2009), with some coverage of prior developments. It covers concepts, organizations (governmental and non-governmental, global, regional, and national), people, and situations related to human rights. It includes entries on the human rights situation in contemporary as well as historical countries and regions; for example, there are entries on both the Democratic Republic of Congo and on the Belgian Congo. The entries are written by scholars and practitioners from various countries. The last volume includes an extensive index.

Two-volume set of books focusing on international human rights as they relate to the United States, from the founding to the present. The table of contents is available on Pegasus. The first part, Terms (270 pages), is an alphabetical dictionary of human rights concepts and organizations. The second part, Primary Documents, reprints 106 treaties, speeches, UN documents, and other materials. The third part, Appendixes, includes various charts, chronologies, and lists of US legislation and cases related to human rights law, among other reference materials. This encyclopedia is intended for the general public, not just lawyers or law students.

A useful source for beginner researchers looking for brief explanations of key concepts, organizations, international agreements, and other documents significant to the historical development of human rights. Short biographies of major figures are also included.

Online edition of the Encyclopedia of Public International Law previously published in print. This comprehensive reference work contains articles written by scholars and practitioners dealing with all aspects of public international law, including basic principles, rules, and summaries of important decisions. A useful source for a description and an evaluation of public international law subjects with the relevant legal situations, including many human rights-related topics. Each article is marked with the date it was last updated.