In connection with a recent Law Library of Congress event which I hope to report on more fully soon, the Library has released an excellent new publication in PDF form, Translation of National Legislation into English (click on the title to download). This guide, prepared by the staff of the Law Library’s Global Legal Research Center, is a reference tool for locating translated materials from thirteen nations: Afghanistan, Argentina, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, and the Russian Federation; international organizations; and international courts and tribunals .

For each country, there are links to online resources or citations to the paper versions of the official publications, in addition to similar information about unofficial sources with translations.  The pages on international organizations cover sources for online versions of national legislation, some of which are in translation.  The section covering international courts and tribunals describes websites of major courts that provide databases of their case law and other information, much of which is in English.

In addition, the French legislation portal Legifrance has given its website a makeover – instead of the previous tree system that we knew and loved (loathed!) accessed through flags, all the codes are now presented together on single pages. Organizationally I still think the site leaves a lot to be desired, but it’s certainly an improvement. Click on your language in the left-hand column of this linked page to access a table of translated legislation. Some languages contain more resources than others. You can also browse the ‘Catalogue of translations’ which presents the information differently, but beware, a few of the links don’t work.

P.S. For fun, try clicking to enlarge the picture of the cupola and see which words appear… (but be patient if your Internet connection is as slow as mine ;-))

Credits: the Law Library of Congress information stream.