Law & Legal Studies: Background and Secondary Research

General

West's Encyclopedia of American Law
Short 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 Law
Major cases and laws may be mentioned in relevant subject entries.

Westlaw
Includes American Jurisprudence, Ohio Jurisprudence, and Corpus Juris Secundum, as well as a large collection of legal and news databases, including federal and state law, statutes and cases, transcripts of news programs and local sources.

Laws

CQ Almanac
In print and online. In-depth annual review of Congress' activities, including overview and background on major laws.
CQ Weekly
Call Number: SW DEPOSITORY JK1 .C15 v.37-62
Weekly coverage of congressional activities.
Major Acts of Congress
Call Number: KING REF KF154 .M35 v.1-3
ISBN/ISSN: 0028657497

ProQuest Congressional
U.S. Congress documents including hearings, legislation, and regulations. Provides bill tracking and legislative histories. ProQuest Congressional offers information and primary-source documents by and about the United States Congress. Indexes some social media from various government bodies. 1789-present.

Full-text is available for many publications including testimony from congressional hearings (1824-Present); committee reports (1817-Present); bill texts and status (1989-); Statutes at Large/U.S. Code (1789-); Congressional Serial Set (1789-2003); Federal Register (1980-); and the Congressional Record, including the Annals of Congress (1789-1997). It also provides information about members and committees.
Westlaw
Includes American Jurisprudence, Ohio Jurisprudence, and Corpus Juris Secundum, as well as a large collection of legal and news databases, including federal and state law, statutes and cases, transcripts of news programs and local sources.

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

Legal Collection
Database for law publications. Most titles are full-text. 1965-present, although the bulk of the collection is 1990s- present.
Academic Search Complete
A 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.

Academic Search Complete provides abstracts for more than 9,300 scholarly and popular periodicals, with full-text for more than 5,300 of these.
Political Science Complete
Subjects covered include comparative politics, humanitarian issues, international relations, law and legislation, non-governmental organizations and political theory.

PSC provides a subject-specific thesaurus with over 17,500 terms to provide subject searching guidance to researchers. Subjects covered include comparative politics, humanitarian issues, international relations, law and legislation, non-governmental organizations and political theory.
Westlaw
Includes American Jurisprudence, Ohio Jurisprudence, and Corpus Juris Secundum, as well as a large collection of legal and news databases, including federal and state law, statutes and cases, transcripts of news programs and local sources.
Washington Post Historical
Full-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.

Last Updated: Aug 27, 2025 2:46 PM
URL: https://libguides.lib.miamioh.edu/law
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Subjects: Government and Law, Political Science