An experienced researcher knows the value of a well prepared subject bibliography. An annotated subject bibliography is usually prepared by leading scholars or librarians to provide other researchers with a selected or comprehensive list of research materials related to that subject. Depending on the subject, bibliographies typically include books, peer review journal articles, and other publications such as websites and government documents. In other words, bibliographies are expert recommendations on the best works available in the discipline.

York University Libraries have recently subscribed to the Oxford Bibliographies Online (OBO), a database of bibliographies covering a wide range of subjects, including some law topics. The OBO combines the benefits of both bibliographies and encyclopedias and offers extensive annotations to the works included in the bibliographies. It’s both searchable and browsable. Each work listed in OBO includes links to locate it through Worldcat and/or Google books, making it easy to access the item. In the current subject list, “International Law”, "international relations" and criminology are directly related to law. There are nearly one hundred articles (i.e. topical bibliographies) under the subject “international law”, for example, human rights, natural law, use of force, feminist approaches to international law, international environmental law, international financial law, and so on. You can browse the full list of topics by choosing the subject “international law” when browsing the subject list.

For your next research project, please don’t forget to check out the Oxford Bibliographies Online. If you happen to find a bibliography relevant to your research topic, it will save you lots of time!