International and Foreign Legal Research:

A Coursebook

Marci Hoffman & Mary Rumsey

Chapter 9: Exercise

Part 1—Human Rights

1.  Using Morris, the online catalog for Yale Law Library, http://ringding.law.yale.edu, start with a keyword search for female genital cutting, FGM, or female genital mutilation. What is the Library of Congress subject heading assigned to this topic?

2.  Using the HUDOC search engine, do you need to use diacritical (accent) marks in your searches? For example, do you need to enter “société” to retrieve “société” or can you use “societe”?

3.  Locate an up-to-date copy of the rules of procedure and evidence for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. What is the date of the latest amendment to these rules?

4.  What is the date on which the United States ratified the Convention against Torture? (Not the date on which the US signed it!)

5.  Suppose you represent an asylum claimant from Myanmar (Burma). Your client has been a leader in the National League for Democracy. Find a recent government or NGO “country report” that could be used to support your client’s claim that she has a well-founded fear of persecution.

6.  In 1998, the United Kingdom lost a case before the ECHR in which the Court found that the UK’s law did not provide adequate protection to the applicant, a child, against treatment or punishment contrary to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Article 3 provides: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” Find this case and give its name (you can use LexisNexis, Westlaw, or HUDOC):

7.  Using any source you like, determine whether the Convention on the Rights of the Child gives individuals the power to file complaints with the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Give your answer and the source you used:

8.  Some Chinese asylum applicants in the US have obtained asylee status based on fear of sterilization under China’s “one-child” policy. Find an English-language translation of China’s 2001 Law on Population and Birth Planning.

9.  Using the legal periodicals index ILP, either on Westlaw, LexisNexis, or through a separate subscription, find an article analyzing the Inter-American Court of Human Rights advisory opinion on migrant workers’ rights. Give its title and author:

10.  The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has a webpage devoted to the case of Omar Khadr, who has been detained at Guantanomo since he was 15. Give the URL for this main page (not just for any HRW story about Khadr):