CJS 331 Olivas (Hamilton): Finding Legal Research Sources
Before you begin!
Legal research involves finding case law, statutes, state & federal regulations, secondary sources (law review journal articles), and more. This page of the research guide is meant only to get you started with Westlaw, our major legal research tool. Legal research can be complicated! Entire semesters are dedicated to it in law school. Please reach out to me at shoresmL@miamioh.edu if you want to do in-depth legal research!
Westlaw
Westlaw - Provides full-text access to cases from the courts of all 50 states and federal courts, statutes from all 50 states and federal statutes published in the United States Code Annotated, American Jurisprudence 2d legal encyclopedia, federal regulations, law reviews and legal periodicals. You can search by specific legal citations or case found in other sources (ex. 266 F.Supp.3d 360
Once you have run a search, use the menu options on the left to narrow down by a particular kind of source.
Other Legal Research Tools
- 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.
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Source 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.