Peace Palace Library, International law library in The Hague, Netherlands.
The Peace Palace Library is a law library inside the Peace Palace in The Hague, holding one of the largest collections on international law in the world. It provides books, journals, electronic resources, and diplomatic records used by researchers, judges, and legal professionals.
The library opened in 1913 alongside the Peace Palace and was created from the start to support the work of the international legal institutions housed there. Over the following decades, its collection grew alongside the development of international law itself, becoming a key reference for the International Court of Justice.
The library is one of the few places in the world dedicated entirely to international law, drawing researchers from many different countries and legal traditions. Walking through its reading rooms, visitors get a sense of how legal knowledge from very different parts of the world is gathered in one place.
Access is limited to accredited researchers and legal professionals, so it is worth registering online before your visit and bringing a valid photo ID. The library sits within the Peace Palace grounds, which require passing a security check at the entrance gate.
The library assembled a dedicated bibliography on climate change to support international legal proceedings involving many countries at once. This kind of focused legal compilation is rarely done at this scale and shows how the library adapts its work to questions that do not yet have settled answers.
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