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About Oxford Reports on International Law

Oxford Reports on International Law (ORIL) brings together decisions on public international law from international courts and tribunals, domestic courts and ad hoc tribunals.
Integrating the full scope of international case law for the first time in an easily navigable online environment, ORIL draws upon the expertise of leading scholars and local experts to provide high-quality, timely reports and analysis.
Key features of the service include:

• Case reports and analysis
• Original language full text judgments/decisions
• Translation of key passages of decision text into English
• Authoritative information on citation
• All subscriptions include access to a set of ICJ and PCIJ decisions
• Links through to the Oxford Law Citator
• Authoritative citations

How to subscribe

Logging in

To log into Oxford Reports on International Law type your username and password, or your library card details into the form. If your institution subscribes to Oxford Reports on International Law and has registered the IP addresses of the computers on your institutional network, you will not need to enter a username and password and you will be taken straight to the Oxford Reports on International Law subscription service.

Reports

Case reports comprise a headnote authored by one of our expert contributors alongside the full text of the decision. Decision full text appears in the original language, alongside an English translation of key sections. Paragraph numbering has been retained, where it appeared in the original, or otherwise has been added by OUP for ease of reference.

Finding a report

To find a report published on Oxford Reports on International Law, you can view any one of these lists:

• Decisions by Module
• Decisions by Date
• Decisions by Subject

Select one of the options on the navigation menu to view that list.

View Decisions by Module

Modules are presented in alphabetical order. If you are subscribed to a module, there will be an active link to it in the list. Click on a module to view an alphabetical list of categories within that module. To view a list of all decisions within a module, select 'all jurisdictions'.

View Decisions by Date

Decisions are presented in reverse chronological order. Click on a year to view a list of modules that have reports pertaining to that particular year. If you are subscribed to a module, there will be an active link to it in the list.
Alternatively, select 'all modules' to view all available decisions.

View Decisions by Subject

Click on a letter to view a list of subjects beginning with that letter. Click on a subject to view a list of modules that have decisions pertaining to that subject. If you are subscribed to a module, there will be an active link to it in the list. Click on a module to see an alphabetical list of categories within that particular module.
Alternatively, select 'all modules' to view all available subjects.

Navigating reports and decisions

To quickly jump to the sections of a report, click on the links in Table of Contents in the left-hand panel.

To return to the top of the report at any time, click on the link.

Translations of decisions

Some decisions in Oxford Reports on International Law are translated in full. In others, key passages are translated into English.

Full translations

Where a decision has been translated in full from its original language into English, you can quickly switch between the two languages by using the links in the left-hand panel. The complete documents will be displayed one after the other, with the English translation appearing before the original language.

Partial translations

Where key passages are translated, the passages in their original language and in English are displayed with the English paragraph(s) following the paragraph(s) in the original language.

To restrict the view to just the translated passages, click on the View translated passages only link in the Table of Contents.

Headnote only

From time-to-time we publish the full text of important decisions in advance of a full case report/analysis becoming available.

Emailing decisions

To email yourself or another subscriber a link to a decision, click on the Email link at the top right-hand of the report and fill in the form. Enter your first and last names and the email address of the recipient.

Printing case reports

In the print options toolbar at the top of the document, select the option you wish to print, then click the print button. This will open a new window or tab (depending on your browser settings) displaying a PDF of your selection which can be printed or saved.

Searching

The site features several ways to search its content, from the Quick Search box to the Advanced Search form. The Quick Search box is at the top right of every page of the site. You can access the Advanced Search form via the Advanced Search link under the Quick Search box.

General rules

The following rules apply to all of the searches on the site.

Different word forms

Search will sometimes expand your search term to look for alternate forms of the word. For example, a search for 'agree' will also return results for 'agree', 'agreed', and 'agreeing'. If you want a specific word form (i.e. 'agree' but not 'agreed'), use double quotes: "agree".

Search will find the alternate form of a word where there is different spelling in British and American English. For example, a search for 'most favoured nation' will find both 'most favoured nation' and 'most favored nation'.

Combining words (Boolean operators)

Search supports the boolean operators AND, OR and NOT.

Unless you tell it otherwise, Search assumes that you only want results in which ALL of your search terms appear. This means that there is an implicit 'AND' between all your search terms. So entering:

conciliation arbitration proceedings

will return the same results as if you had entered:

conciliation AND arbitration AND proceedings

You can use the OR operator to tell Search to return results in which either search term exists. For instance, if you enter:

zaire OR congo

your results will include any article in which either 'Zaire' or 'Congo' exist.

The NOT operator excludes documents that contain the term after NOT. For example,

congo NOT "democratic republic"

will return all results for 'Congo' which do not include the phrase 'democratic republic'.

Wildcards

You can use the * and ? wildcards when searching. The question mark or ? character represents any single character.

he?d

will return results for 'head' and 'heed'.

The asterisk or * character represents any number of characters. Entering

he*d

will return results for 'head' and 'heed', as well as 'helped', 'heard', 'headquartered', etc.

Case sensitivity and punctuation

Search terms entered in all in lower case will return results in both upper and lower cases. A search for

methanex

will return results that match 'methanex', 'Methanex', and 'METHANEX'. If you use capitals, however, Search will look for the format you entered:

Methanex

will only return results for 'Methanex' not 'methanex' or 'METHANEX'. Similarly, a search for

METHANEX

will only return results for 'METHANEX' not 'methanex' or 'Methanex'.

The search is only on characters; it does not search for punctuation. To search using initials, put a space between each initial:

w e b du bois will return results for 'W.E.B. Du Bois'.

Accented characters

If you are searching on word which includes an accented character you can enter the search terms with or without the accented character. For example a search for 'travaux preparatoires' will find 'travaux préparatoires' and 'travaux preparatoires'.

Note: Searching with the accented form will find only that form and not the form without the accent, so a search on 'travaux préparatoires' will find only 'travaux préparatoires' and not 'travaux preparatoires' (without an é).

Other special characters

There are a small number of characters which do not have an equivalent character on a standard US/UK English keyboard. To search on these characters, you will need to enter them into the search form. These include:

Œ œ
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Æ æ
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Ð ð
ß

If these characters are on your keyboard, you can enter them directly into a search form. If they are not, Windows users can use the Character Map to add them to the search form. In Windows XP to open the Character Map click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Character Map. You can copy and paste the characters you need from Character Map into the search form.

Words omitted from search (stop words)

By default, Search ignores certain common words in English. A search for

the uncitral arbitration

will look for any use of the words 'UNCITRAL' and 'arbitration'. To look for words that might be ignored by Search, use double quotes:

"the uncitral arbitration"

The stop words we use on the site are: a, an, and, are, as, at, be, but, by, for, if, in, into, is, it, no, not, of, on, or, such, that, the, their, then, there, these, they, this, to, was, will, with.

Quick Search

To search Oxford Reports on International Law, simply type one or more words into the Quick Search box and click the Search button.

Advanced Search

The Advanced Search form allows you to search by:

• OUP reference
• Search term
• Location of search term in document
• Subject
• Keywords
• Jurisdiction
• Parties/case name
• Date

You may use any of the features on the Advanced Search form alone or in combination.

OUP reference

Module

To search for reports within a particular module, select a module from the drop-down list.

Number

To search for a report by case number, enter the number in the number box, e.g. to find ICGJ 28 (ICJ 2000), just type in 28.

Search term

Enter a search term in the Search box. Leave the locations unchecked to search for the term across all locations.

Search location

Restrict your search term to a single location or any number of locations by checking the location checkboxes as required. You can also choose whether to search full documents or limit your search to headnotes and decisions only.

Subject

To search for reports within a particular subject, select a subject from the drop-down list.

Keyword

To search for reports which have been assigned a particular keyword or keywords, click the 'Select Keywords from List' link. This will take you to an A-Z list of all keywords applied to OUP's case reports. Select the keyword(s) you wish to search on.

Each keyword you select is added to the list on the left. You may select as many keywords as you wish. To remove a keyword from your list, click the keyword name in the list on the left; to remove all the keywords you have already selected, click the 'Remove All' link.

When you have finished adding keywords to your search, click the 'Back to advanced search' link to continue building your search, or click the 'Search on these keywords' link to perform the Advanced Search.

Jurisdiction

To search for reports from a particular justification, court, tribunal or arbitral institution, click the 'Select Jurisdictions from List' link. This will take you to an A-Z list of all the jurisdictions. Select the jurisdiction(s) you wish to search on.

Each jurisdiction you select is added to the list on the left. You may select as many jurisdictions as you wish. To remove a jurisdiction from your list, click the name of the jurisdiction in the list on the left; to remove all the selected jurisdictions, click the 'Remove All' link.

When you have finished adding jurisdictions to your search, click the 'Back to advanced search' link to continue building your search, or click the 'Search on these jurisdictions' link to perform the Advanced Search.

Parties/case name

To search for reports with specific party or case names, type the party or case names in the 'Parties/case name' box.

Date

To search for reports within a particular date range, enter the date or a range of dates across which you wish to search.

Modifying a search

The words you entered in your previous search will remain in the Advanced Search form during the current session, making it easy to return to your search and modify it. A session runs from when you log in to the time you log out. Once you log out, your terms from your previous search will not remain in the search box.

Resetting the Advanced Search form

To remove all the words you entered in your previous search, click the 'clear form' button at the top right of the Advanced Search form.

Search results

A Quick Search or Advanced Search will take you to the Search Results page.

Please note: all search results will include results found in modules you are not subscribed to. These are displayed clearly at the top of the results list and are also displayed in grey as inactive results in the results list.

The Search Results page lists the reports where your search term is found. The checkboxes in the left-hand panels allow you to filter your search by Module and Subject.

Where a search term returns a large number of results the list will be split into pages showing 10 results (the default option) at a time. You can choose to display 10, 25, 50, 75, or 100 results per page, and you can move through the results pages by using the previous and next links and page number links.

When you click on a search result, you will be taken to a report which contains your search terms. The search terms will be highlighted.

You can move through the search terms in a document by using the Prev Hit, Top, and Next Hit links in the Search Term Hits box that appears at the bottom right of each document displayed from a results list. This box remains in the same place as you scroll up and down the page.

Navigating search results

You can move through the search results by clicking on the Next result and Previous result links on the left of the page. Or you can return to the search results list by clicking on Results List.

Search results ordering

Search results are displayed in order of relevance, the most relevant results being those where your search terms are found the most times. A weighting is also given to results where your search terms occur in the headnote as opposed to the judgment text.

If you have entered more than one word in your search, the results where both your search terms are found will appear higher in the list than those where only one of your search terms is found.

Refining search results

If your search term occurs in more than one module or subject, you can filter your search by module or subject using the filtering options in the panel on the left-hand side of the Search results page. Clicking the checkboxes will filter the search results so that only results in the checked module(s) or subject(s) appear on the search results page.

Emailing search results

You can email yourself or a colleague a link to any set of search results. Simply click the Email results link at the top right of the results list to call up the email form.

Fill in the form with your first and last names and enter the email address of the recipient. There is also a box in which to type a message. Click Send and a link to the search results will be emailed to the designated recipient.

Links to the Oxford Law Citator

Each link within the text of a case report published on ORIL takes you through to the Oxford Law Citator.

Each decision, instrument (treaty, piece of legislation, set of rules), or commentary (whether a journal article, chapter of a book or other commentary) published on an OUP online legal service, is loaded to that service at the same time as its own unique Citator record. This page is where users can find citation details and other useful information about the published document.

From the Oxford Law Citator page, you can:

• access the report of the decision if it is available in an OUP online service to which you subscribe
or
• continue your research by following links to other records in the Citator which map relationships between decisions, instruments and commentary.

OpenURL

OpenURL links allow you to check whether a book or journal cited in Oxford Reports on International Law is referenced in the collection within your library. To enable this, your library will need to have an OpenURL resolver. Click on the link, which will appear as an icon to the left of a bibliographic reference, as shown in the illustration below, and a query will be sent to your library's OpenURL resolver. The results will show in a new window.

The OpenURL resolver will be set up by your library administrator to search for the resource in your library's holdings. For a book or a journal, you may have the option to send a query to your library's online catalogue. Also for online journals, you may have the option to check whether the abstract and/or full text of the article is available to you via your library's subscription.

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