Note that many other countries do not have a common law system in which case law is precedential, like in the U.S. Most countries in continental Europe and Latin America have a civil law system. In civil law systems, court decisions are not primary authority and are generally not published. The text of a decision also tends to be briefer without as much analysis as a U.S. case. Increasingly, however, it is possible to find abstracts or summaries of cases from foreign jurisdictions online. A GlobaLex guide can also lead to court and other websites that may provide full-text access to such cases in the language of that country. Depending on one's language skills, it may be necessary to resort to Google Translate to translate a foreign court case into English, but only to obtain a general idea of its content.
UIC Law School International Human Rights Clinic & Santa Clara University International Human Rights Clinic, Escazú Toolkit: Using the Escazú Agreement in Cases Before the Inter-American System (Nov. 2022, updated Mar. 2023), https://repository.law.uic.edu/whitepapers/25/.
Digest of Latin American Jurisprudence on Indigenous Rights (Spanish Only): Indexes and organizes high court decisions related to indigenous rights in nine Latin American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, and Peru.
Digest of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on its Admissibility and Competence Criteria: The Digest is a compendium of the decisions of the IACHR on the admissibility and competence requirements that appear mainly in their admissibility reports. Published March 4, 2020.
IACHR Project at Loyola Marymount University
Inter-American Court of Human Rights Jurisprudence Finder
SUMMA: Inter-American Case Law Database: SUMMA is an online database that offers access to cases heard by the Inter-American Commission (ICHR) and Court of Human Rights (IACtHR). It was developed by the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) with support from HURIDOCS.
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Case Reports
Some Latin American countries have created environmental courts, some of which are listed below, and others have created separate court chambers to hear controversies involving environmental matters. The Dominican Republic has a Special Prosecutor for the Defense of the Environment and Natural Resources (Procuraduría Especializada para la Defensa del Medio Ambiente y los Recursos Naturales). There is also a Latin American Water Court (Tribunal Latinoamericano del Agua), which sits in San José, Costa Rica.
Bolivia Tribunal Agroambiental
Case Law related to the Aarhus Convention
ECOLEX: Use the "Jurisprudence" section of the database.
World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII): See the databases for "International Courts and Tribunals" and for individual countries.
