Law & Legal Studies: Background and Secondary Research
General
West's Encyclopedia of American LawCall Number: GOV'T & LAW REF KF154 .W47 2005 v.1-12ISBN: 0787663670Short articles on legal topics and major laws and court decisions. Use index volume to find specific topics and laws. Index also includes a Table of Cases Cited section to find mentions of specific court cases.
Oxford Companion to American LawCall Number: KING REF KF154 .O94 2002ISBN: 0195088786Major cases and laws may be mentioned in relevant subject entries.
Laws
- CQ AlmanacCall Number: KING REF JK1 .C66
GOV'T & LAW REF also has 1966 forward, same call number.
In-depth annual review of Congress' activities, including overview and background on major laws. - CQ WeeklyCall Number: SW DEPOSITORY JK1 .C15 v.37-62
Weekly coverage of congressional activities. - Major Acts of CongressCall Number: KING REF KF154 .M35 v.1-3
ISBN/ISSN: 0028657497 - LexisNexis Congressional"Legislative Histories" menu options in the Laws category identifies congressional committee hearings, reports, and debate for individual laws since 1970.
Finding Books
Search the Library Catalog for the following:
- The name of the case
- The subject of the case or the point of law -- segregation--law and legislation (united states or a state or history, etc.)
- The branch of law, such as business law.
Finding Journal and Law Review Articles
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new windowSource for researching news, business, and legal topics. It contains full-text of sources from all over the world, drawn from print, broadcast, and online media.
- HeinOnline This link opens in a new windowFull-text of the entire historical runs many law journals with more being added regularly. Also included: the Federal Register (1936-1981), U.S. Reports (Supreme Court opinions), United States Treaties sets, international treaties, and many more.
- Legal Collection This link opens in a new windowDatabase for law publications. Most titles are full-text. 1965-present, although the bulk of the collection is 1990s- present. See also: Nexis Uni and Hein Online which have more publications and search through the full-text of the articles.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowA broad index to periodicals, Academic Search Complete covers most academic areas of study, including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, language and linguistics, arts and literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies.
- Political Science Complete This link opens in a new windowSubjects covered include comparative politics, humanitarian issues, international relations, law and legislation, non-governmental organizations and political theory.
- Washington Post Historical This link opens in a new windowFull-text image and indexing of the Washington Post from its beginning in 1877 through 17 years ago. Includes full-page and article images of all articles and display and classified ads, comics and cartoons, photos, maps, graphics, etc., editorials and commentary, literary criticism as well as articles.
