Friday, January 9, 2009

Encyclopedia of Public International Law Online

For more than two decades, legal scholars have turned to the Encyclopedia of Public International Law for its comprehensive analysis of international law topics; it is highly regarded as an excellent starting place for research. Each EPIL article is written by an expert in the particular field, and includes an extensive bibliography for further reading.

As authors and editors prepare the next print edition (due in 2010), publisher Oxford University Press has taken the unusual step of publishing the completely revised articles online first. The Duke Law community may now access the posted articles from the upcoming Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law at http://library.duke.edu/metasearch/db/id/DUK03322.

The online MPEPIL already contains more than 500 of the planned 1700 articles, and additional articles are uploaded quarterly. (Note that even after the new print edition of MPEPIL is published in 2010, some of the online articles will remain web-only exclusives.) Upcoming articles will include “Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments” by Duke Law’s own Professor Ralf Michaels.

Book lovers, don’t worry! The print versions aren’t going anywhere. The Goodson Law Library maintains the latest print edition of the EPIL (published from 1992-2003) in the Reserves collection. (The previous, but still frequently-cited, edition is available in the Reference collection at Ref KZ1160 .E53.) And of course, we will receive a copy of the completely revised MPEPIL upon its publication in 2010.