LIBRARY SOURCES FOR RESEARCHING
OCEAN AND COASTAL LAW AND POLICY
Prepared by Andrea G. Coffman, Librarian
Ocean and Coastal Law Center Collection
John E. Jaqua Law Library
University of Oregon
Eugene, OR
For a Marine Resource Management (MRM) Orientation Seminar
held at the University of Oregon
October 26, 1999
Contents
The Law of the Sea: A Bibliography on the Law of the Sea, 1968-1988
Compiled by the UN Office (now Division) for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea. Books and articles are listed for all the major law of the sea topics.
The Law of the Sea: A Select Bibliography
Issued annually (beginning in 1985) by the UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea.
Marine Affairs Bibliography: A Comprehensive Index to Marine Law and Policy Literature (published by University of Virginia Law Library)
Journal articles, conference papers, books, technical reports, and government documents are arranged under subject categories and subarranged by geographic area. Author and geographic indexes. Quarterly issues with annual cumulations. This extremely useful source is not currently being published (the latest issue, 1992 no. 3/4, was released in early 1996). A cumulated volume covering 1980-85 facilitates searching for older references.
Song, Yann-Huei. "A Pathfinder on the Law of the Sea and Marine Policy." Ocean Development and International Law 24 (1993): 205-235
Good overview of the major publications. The author includes descriptions for most works, explaining what they cover and why they are useful. Does not include journal articles but lists some important journals and indexes.
Black's Law Dictionary
Helpful when you want to know what a legal term means in English! There are also various foreign language legal dictionaries.
Maritime Affairs: A World Handbook. 2d ed. Detroit: Gale Research, 1991
A handy guide to information on all kinds of topics (law of the sea, maritime organizations, treaties, marine resources, coastal management, maritime boundaries, etc.). Includes definitions of law of the sea terms; a list of maritime periodicals; a selected bibliography; acronyms; and statistics of various sorts.
Atlas of Oceans. N.p.: Rand McNally, 1996
The Times Atlas and Encyclopaedia of the Sea. 2d ed. London: Times Books, 1989
Journals specializing in ocean and coastal law and policy
- Coastal Management
- International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law (formerly International Journal of Estuarine and Coastal Law)
- Marine Policy
- Ocean and Coastal Law Journal (formerly Territorial Sea Journal)
- Ocean and Shoreline Management
- Ocean Development & International Law
Journals specializing in admiralty (shipping and navigation law)
- International Journal of Shipping Law
- Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce
- Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
- Tulane Maritime Law Journal
- University of San Francisco Maritime Law Journal
Newsletters
- Coastal Society Bulletin
- Intercoast Network (URI Coastal Resources Center)
- Law of the Sea Bulletin (UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea)
- Legal Tides (UNC Sea Grant College Program)
- Marine Conservation News (Center for Marine Conservation)
- National Wetlands Newsletter (Environmental Law Institute)
- Ocean and Coastal Law Memo (UO Ocean and Coastal Law Center)
- Water Log (Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Legal Program)
Law reviews (Legal journals published by law schools)
Many publish ocean and coastal law articles from time to time. Examples of law reviews that do so on a fairly regular basis are
- Ecology Law Quarterly
- Environmental Law
- Journal of Land Use and Environmental Law
- Natural Resources Journal
CD-ROM
The University of Oregon law library has a CD-ROM product called LegalTrac that anyone is welcome to use. Search either by subject or key words. Contains articles published from 1980 onward. It is updated monthly with a cumulative disc.
Legal indexes (print versions) available in the UO law library
- Current Law Index
- European Legal Journals Index
- Index to Canadian Legal Periodicals Literature
- Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals
- Index to Legal Periodicals
- Index to Periodical Articles Relating to Law
- Legal Journals Index
Nonlegal indexes
Certain law journals are also covered in nonlegal indexes. For example, Ocean Development & International Law is indexed in Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts, Environmental Periodicals Bibliography, and Oceanic Abstracts; Marine Policy is indexed in Environment Abstracts and PAIS Bulletin. The UO Knight Library has a web page that describes the many print and on-line indexes available.
Current awareness
Recent Articles in Marine Legal Affairs (issued quarterly by UO Ocean and Coastal Law Center Library). Back issues that are not on the web are available in hard copy.
Note about Westlaw and Lexis searching at the UO law library
The UO law library's contracts for Westlaw and Lexis service prohibit on-line searching by persons who are not Law School students or faculty. While Westlaw and Lexis are two of the easiest and most thorough avenues of legal research, some of the material accessible in those databases can also now be found through the internet on various gopher and World Wide Web (WWW) sites. See the section below on Internet Resources.
West Publishing Company's "Nutshell Series"
- Christie, Donna R., and Richard G. Hildreth. 1999. Coastal and Ocean Management Law in a Nutshell. 2nd ed.
- Maraist, Frank L. 1996. Admiralty in a Nutshell. 3rd ed.
- Sohn, Louis, and Kristen Gustafson. 1984. The Law of the Sea in a Nutshell
Casebooks and Readers
These are typically used as textbooks in law school courses. They contain citations to and excerpts from key journal articles, books, judicial opinions, laws, and treaties. Some sample titles are
- Burke, William T. 1995. International Law of the Sea: Documents and Notes
- Kalo, Joseph, et al. 1999. Coastal and Ocean Law: Cases and Materials. 3rd ed.
- Schoenbaum, Thomas J. 1994. Admiralty and Maritime Law. 2nd ed.
Coastal Society
The Coastal Society sponsors a conference every other year. The proceedings contain papers on coastal and estuarine management, primarily in the United States.
Coastal Zone '99
The most recent in a series of biennial conferences sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers and other organizations since 1978. Conference participants discuss coastal science, policy, and management in the United States and many other countries. Beginning with the 1997 conference, only abstracts (instead of full papers) are published.
Law of the Sea Institute
The Law of the Sea Institute has sponsored annual international conferences on the law of sea since 1966. The published proceedings include papers by many of the world's foremost experts in the field. Proceedings of the 31st conference, held in 1998, were published in the University of Miami Inter-American Law Review, v. 30, no. 1 (1998).
New Directions in the Law of the Sea
Published by Oceana from 1983 to 1995, this especially useful looseleaf service contains national legislation from countries all over the world, as well as treaties and international agreements. Oceana now reproduces global documents separately from regional and national documents in the two services below.
New Directions in the Law of the Sea. Global Developments
New Directions in the Law of the Sea. Regional & National Developments
The Marine Mammal Commission Compendium of Selected Treaties, International Agreements, and Other Relevant Documents on Marine Resources, Wildlife,and the Environment
Very comprehensive, three-volume work compiled by Richard L. Wallace and published in 1994. Multilateral treaties are listed by subject; bilateral treaties with the United States are listed by the other country. Particularly helpful to the legal researcher are the primary source citations given for each document.
Publications of the UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea
The Division has published many books that include the texts of treaties and national legislation on various maritime law subjects, including marine environmental protection, ocean boundaries and maritime zones, etc. (see separate handout).
Law of the Sea Bulletin
The Bulletin (currently issued three times a year by the UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea) is a very useful source of global, regional, and bilateral treaties as well as national legislation. It often includes documents that are otherwise difficult to locate or have not yet been officially published. It also includes information on the current status of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the related agreements on Part XI of the Convention and straddling and highly migratory fish stocks.
International Legal Materials
Reprints all major (and many minor) treaties and international agreements. Has subject index. Issued quarterly. Shelved with the legal journals in the UO law library.
Moore, John Norton, ed. International and United States Documents on Oceans Law and Policy. Buffalo, NY: William S. Hein & Co., 1986. 5 vols.
Contains all major treaties arranged by subject (fisheries, deep seabed mining, pollution, etc.); various law of the sea declarations; and U.S. laws relating to marine resources and coastal zone management enacted through 1984.
Oceana Publications
Oceana has published several multivolume works that bring together a large number of documents that relate to the law of the sea. These works include: Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea: Documents 1973-1982 (18 vols.); and The Law of the Sea: Documents 1983-1992 (15 vols.).
International Organizations and the Law of the Sea: Documentary Yearbook
Published by Graham & Trotman/Martinus Nijhoff. Began with vol. 1 (1985).
The Law of the Sea: Annual Review of Ocean Affairs: Law and Policy, Main
Documents
Compiled by the UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea. Began with the 1985-87 volume, which was entitled Annual Review of Ocean Affairs.
Ocean Yearbook
The University of Chicago Press published the first yearbook in 1978. Each volume includes articles on specific topics (living resources, nonliving resources, coastal management, law of the sea); reports from various organizations; and selected documents (international agreements, resolutions, etc.).
International Law Yearbooks
Australian Yearbook of International Law, Canadian Yearbook of International Law, and similarly titled works published in other countries occasionally have articles on international oceans law.
Statutes
- U.S. Code Congressional and Administrative News: Public laws, House and Senate reports, presidential proclamations, executive orders
- Statutes at Large: Bound volumes of public laws (in order by public law number). Public laws appear here much later than in the publication above
- U.S. Code: Public laws are "codified" here by subject. The Popular Name Table lists laws by their popular names and for each law gives its public law number and U.S. Code citation, followed by a list of laws that amended the original law
Administrative Agency Regulations and Decisions
- Federal Register: Issued every weekday. Contains federal agency rules and notices; presidential orders and proclamations. Arranged by agency (e.g., National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA). Has monthly indexes.
- Code of Federal Regulations: Agency rules, etc. which first appeared in the Federal Register are "codified" here; arranged by broad subject area. Has index.
Judicial Opinions
- Federal Practice Digest: Lists opinions by subject and gives a citation for each. Using the citation you can locate the text of the opinion in one of several case reporters, such as United States Reports and Supreme Court Reporter.
- Suggestion: At the UO law library, only law students and faculty are authorized to search the Westlaw and Lexis on-line databases. An alternative way to obtain citations to judicial opinions that might be of interest to you is to find one or more key law review articles in your area of interest; law review articles always give citations for any cases that are discussed. Additionally, certain newsletters (for example, the National Wetlands Newsletter), list recent opinions.
- Oregon Revised Statutes (has subject index)
- Oregon Administrative Rules
- Oregon Digest (for locating citations to judicial opinions). Once you have the citation, you can find the text of the opinion in Oregon Reports or Pacific Reporter.
Note: There are similar sources for the law of other states.
Treaties Which the United States Has Signed
- United States Treaties and Other International Agreements: This is one of several official U.S. sources for treaties to which the United States is a party. Individual treaties are first issued separately in the Treaties and Other International Acts Series (T.I.A.S.). About two to three years after signing, a treaty will be published in a bound volume of United States Treaties and Other International Agreements.
- Senate Treaty Documents and the earlier Senate Executive Documents: These are additional official sources of U.S. treaties.
- United Nations Treaty Series
- Suggestion: Look also for treaties in International Legal Materials and the Law of the Sea Bulletin, both of which reprint selected treaties--and much sooner than treaties appear in United States Treaties above.
Treaties Which the United States Has NOT Signed
Other Sources of Treaties
- There are many collections of treaties relating specifically to ocean law. See the listing above of Collections of Documents.
International Law Cases
- The International Court of Justice (ICJ) publishes its decisions in Report of Judgments, Advisory Opinions and Orders. Some of these ICJ decisions (including those that relate to maritime law) are also reprinted in International Legal Materials.
University of Oregon Law Library Home Page
The law library's web page includes a section on Subject Indexes, which lists World Wide Web and gopher sites under a wide variety of legal topics. Several of these web sites provide access to the full texts of federal government materials (current bills, selected statutes, the U.S. Code, the Federal Register, agency documents, and so forth) and state government documents. Other web sites provide international materials, including treaties, UN documents, and foreign legislation.
Also available through the law library's web page is a listing of Search Engines. These enable you to enter a search request and retrieve a list of web sites that address your request (some more relevantly than others). These can be especially useful for finding material that is too current to have yet been published in an official source, and for obtaining the most current news about your area of interest.
Other Web Sites
By "surfing" the web or by using one of the search engines or finders tools, you can identify many, many sites that have information about ocean and coastal law and policy. Just a few examples are
The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation
This is the most commonly used style manual for students, practitioners, and scholars in the field of law. It stipulates how books, articles, legislative materials, cases, treaties, etc. are to be cited in court documents and law review articles. It can be very helpful to the nonlaw student who is delving into the legal literature. For example, it gives full titles for the many abbreviations used in legal citations (Stat. stands for Statutes at Large), and it will help you "interpret" legal citations (e.g., 42 U.S.C. § 1710 means Title 42, section 1710 of the U.S. Code). Such information will help you locate materials in the law library.
The Chicago Manual of Style
This well-known style manual includes a section on legal citation. It shows how legal materials can be cited in general, nonlegal works. It is, however, not very helpful for interpreting the citations you will see in legal writings.
University of Chicago Manual of Legal Citation
This style manual presents many of the rules given in The Bluebook, but in less detail. It is simpler to use but, on the other hand, is not as comprehensive.
Return to Ocean and Coastal Law Collection