Oxford LibGuides: Indigenous Peoples: legal resources: Constitutions

Constitutions: finding the texts on line

The official text of a country's constitution is self-evidently in the official language(s) of that nation. To find these it is probably best to go to the official government website of the country you are interested in.

However, there are various ways to access English versions of national constitutions electonically:

Oxford Constitutions of the World This link opens in a new window

Alternative names: OCW ; Constitutions of the countries of the world, Constitutions of dependencies & territories

English translations of the constitutions and constitutional documents of the world’s nations and sub-national jurisdictions.
HeinOnline This link opens in a new window

Alternative names: Hein Online ; HOL

HeinOnline includes five major collections:
The Law Journal Library includes over 500 U.S., U.K., Australian and International Law Journals. For most journals the date coverage starts very early (in many cases at the first issue). However the most recent editions (within the last calendar year) are sometime unavailable due to licensing restrictions. HeinOnline makes these journals available on a rolling yearly basis.
The Treaties and Agreements Library includes all U.S. treaties and agreements including those in force, expired or yet to be published.
The U.S. Supreme Court Library includes all U.S. Supreme Court opinions as published in the U.S. Reports
The Federal Register 1936-1995, and indexes to the register.
Legal Classics Library. Full text of over 100 legal texts including Blackstone's Commentaries (1803), Cardozo's Growth of the Law (1924), and Story's first edition of Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1833). Provincial Statutes of Canada includes Provincial Statutes for ten of the Canadian provinces. Contains public and private acts passed by Canadian provincial governments. Current, revised, and historical content is now available for Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Ontario. Historical and revised content only is available for Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan.
All content consists of scanned images of the original printed editions. This allows you to view the content as it originally appeared in print complete with page numbers and pictures.
To save or print articles from HeinOnline choose PRINT OPTIONS followed by DOWNLOAD AS PDF. You will then be able to print out and/or save articles using Adobe Acrobat Reader.

ICL: International Constitutional Law/Verfassungsvergleich
Free resource. Portal to sources of constitutional law by country. May need to check how uptodate.

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"This project provides English translations of and other textual material related to constitutional documents. It cross-references those documents for quick comparison of constitutional provisions. These are the rules we try to rely on:
All translations and ICL-Editions of publicly available translations are in American English to simplify comparative research. However, British English is used for documents officially published in that language"
Constitute: the world’s constitutions to read, search, and compare
Free resource. Comparative Constitutions Project. Constitute allows you to interact with the world’s constitutions in a few different ways. See more

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Quickly find relevant passages. The Comparative Constitutions Project has tagged passages of each constitution with a topic — e.g., “right to privacy” or “equality regardless of gender” — so you can quickly find relevant excerpts on a particular subject, no matter how they are worded. You can browse the 300+ topics in the expandable drawer on the left of the page, or see suggested topics while typing in the search bar (which also lets you perform free-text queries).
•Filter searches. Want to view results for a specific region or time period? You can limit your search by country or by date using the buttons under the search bar.
•Save for further analysis. To download or print excerpts from multiple constitutions, click the “pin” button next to each expanded passage you want to save. You can then view and downlo
Constitutional Provisions on Women's Equality
Free resource. Law Library of Congress worldwide report (2011) "In many countries of the world, the national constitution includes language that proclaims women's equality, states anti-discrimination policies, or both. The following report, presented in list format, offers the jurisdictions that include such language in their constitution, as well as direct citations to where it can be found."
Comparative Constitutions Project
After free registration you can download data collected by the project. "The intent of the project is to investigate the sources and consequences of constitutional choices. Towards this end, the investigators are collecting data on the formal characteristics of written constitutions, both current and historical, for most independent states since 1789. "
IACL-AIDC Blog
The overriding objective of the International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL) is to provide a forum in which constitutionalists from all parts of the world can begin to understand each other’s systems, explain and reflect on their own, and engage in fruitful comparison, for a variety of purposes.

Historic constitutions: finding the texts in print

LLMC-digital This link opens in a new window

Alternative names: LLMC ; Law Library Microfilm Consortium’s Online Service ; LLMC Digital

LLMC-digital is a collection of English language legal titles and government documents divided into ten major jurisdictional or subject areas:
US Federal Government; US States and Territories; Canada; United Kingdom; Germany federal; Germany state, kingdoms and free cities; Other Countries (Afghanistan to Zimbabwe); International Law and Organizations; Indigenous Law covering materials from various regions of the United States, Canada and Indonesia; and Special Focus Collections which includes British Empire Studies, Canon Law, Islamic Law, Military Law, Native American Collection, Roman law, etc.

Finding the text in print

In the collection with shelf mark General you can find Constitutions of the countries of the world General 510 C759 & Constitutions of dependencies and territories General 510 C760. The physical volumes ceased to be updated in 2020, as it is now available online. The Law Library has kept the previously superseded pages: should you wish to see these, please email law.library@bodleian.ox.ac.uk in advance of your visit.

Commentary

Tribal Constitutionalism: States, Tribes, and the Governance of Membership by Kirsty Gover
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this book online via title link
ISBN: 9780199587094
Publication Date: 2011
"This book presents findings from a comparative study of nearly eight hundred current and historic tribal constitutions, most of which are not in thepublic domain."
A first nations voice in the Australian constitution by Shireen Morris.
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this book online via title link
ISBN: 1509928936
Publication Date: 2020

For more about books on constitutionalism generally, please visit our separate guide

Constitutions, constitutional & administrative law
by Elizabeth Wells Last Updated Aug 12, 2022 2772 views this year

For more on the constitution of a particular country, our jurisdiction guide may be useful

Jurisdictions considered in Indigenous Peoples' guide