This article written by Hester Swift is based on the online course entitled, ‘Customary International Law’, which was created by the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS) Library for the Postgraduate Online Research Training (PORT) platform and is available to all at <https://port.sas.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=120>. The PORT service is provided by the University of London's School of Advanced Study.

This paper by Ruth Frendo, which is based on her presentation given at the training day on ‘Socio-Legal Sources and Methods in International Law’ which was held at IALS on 25 November 2016, provides an overview of the history and development of the International Law Association and gives an account of the archives of the organisation that are held at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in London.

This article concerns the international law collections at the library of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS) in London. It is based on a talk given by Hester Swift at the training day entitled ‘Socio-Legal Sources and Methods in International Law’ which was held at IALS on 25 November 2016.

This paper was originally presented under the title ‘The Peace Palace Library. Its collections: historic and those serving the objective of contemporary arbitration and adjudication. Its users: courts, academics and the general public’. The paper was delivered by Jeroen Vervliet at the Socio-Legal Sources and Methods in International Law workshop, held at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in London on November 25th, 2016.

In this paper Lesley Dingle provides a detailed account of the historical development of the public international law collections at the Squire Law Library in Cambridge. She explains the close involvement of the academic lawyers and the librarians, past and present, in developing an important collection which reflects the significance of the subject at Cambridge's Faculty of Law. Finally, she brings things up-to-date by detailing the extent of the electronic provision which benefits the modern scholar in this discipline.

This report, compiled by Gerry Power, describes the process of updating the records of the FLAG (Foreign Law Guide) database. His article outlines the aims, method and the findings of the 2013 update.

Peter Clinch, retired Senior Subject Librarian for Law, Cardiff University and Steven Whittle, Information Systems Manager at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies describe the developments relating to the FLARE Index to Treaties.

This report by Peter Clinch describes the procedures followed and the results obtained through updating the FLAG (Foreign Law Guide) database1, which took place during the Spring and Autumn 2010.

The index has been a key feature of the International Law Reports (ILR) since their inception in 1919. Apart from the individual volume indexes there have been five consolidated versions, each helping, by bringing related material together, to cast the jurisprudence in a new light. A sixth consolidation is in progress, running from Volumes 1–150. Maureen McGlashan, the indexer, describes the principles underlying the ILR indexing process and asks whether, with the Reports now available online at Justis, the index is any longer necessary. She also considers the role of the ancillary apparatus such as the Tables of Cases and Treaties.

This paper by Lesley Dingle, Squire Law Library, University of Cambridge was presented at the BIALL Seminar held on 3 March 2009. It covers the major sources, both paper and electronic, of international law.

Hester Swift, Foreign and International Law Librarian, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, and Peter Clinch, Senior Subject Librarian for Law, Cardiff University delivered this paper at the recent BIALL Annual Conference.