Law Library Research Guides
Most law libraries provide online access to their research guides. Although they may contain information specific to the library's collections, these guides provide references to treatises, Web sources, major case law, legislation, and other relevant sources that can aid in one's research.
If your research is state-specific, you may want to browse the Web sites of a handful of major law libraries in that state.
Another option is to use Cornell's Legal Research Engine which searches only the top legal research Web sites and where you may limit your search to find legal research guides only.
The following are just three examples of law library research guides.
- UCLA Law Library's Research Guides If you are reading this, you have already found our research guides. Browse all of our guides by title or by subject.
- Cornell Law Library's Research Guides Cornell's Research Guides covers Legal Research Fundamentals, U.S. Research Guides by Topic, and Foreign and Int'l Research Guides. As mentioned above, Cornell also has a Legal Research Engine.
- Georgetown Law Library's Research Guides Browse guides by topic or use the search feature. Guides are also listed by jurisdiction and law course.
- Georgetown's Free & Low Cost Research Guide Gives overview and links to sites that provide free access to federal case law, statutes & codes, legislative history sources, and administrative law materials. The second part summarizes the features and costs of less expensive legal databases.
Legislative History Research Guides
State Legislative Histories Research Guides on the Web
Compiling a legislative history can be a daunting task, especially if you are unfamiliar with this type of legal research. In fact, once you know the steps involved, legislative history research can be straightforward. Complied by Jennifer Bryan Morgan, Documents Librarian, Indiana University School of Law Library--Bloomington, this page provides researchers with an alphabetical list (by state) of all the legislative history guides available online.
LLSDC's Legislative Source Book
The Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C. (LLSDC)'s Legislative Source Book is compiled by members of the Legislative Research Special Interest Section. Some of this material has been published in print for many years, and is now also available on this Web site. Resources include Federal Legislative History Research: A Practitioner's Guide to Compiling the Documents and Sifting for Legislative Intent, A Research Guide to the Federal Register and the Code of Federal REgulations, and Selected Congressional Research Service Reports on Congress and Its Procedures. Also note the page to Legislative Histories of Selected U.S. Laws on the Internet, which is arranged by popular name and public law number.
HeinOnline's U.S. Federal Legislative History Library
This Library contains Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories Database (derived from the loose-leaf publication by Nancy P. Johnson) and U.S. Federal Legislative History Title Collection (full-text legislative histories on some of the most important and historically significant legislation of our time.
Other Research Guides
LLRX.com's Legal Research Articles
Established in 1996 by Sabrina I. Pacifici, LLRX.com is a free, independent Web journal. The link provided above takes you to the Legal Research articles archive page. You may browse the articles listed, click on one of the links to the subcategories of Legal Research (i.e. Comparative/Foreign Law, FOIA Facts, Legislative, ResearchRoundup, ResearchWire, and United States law), or click on one of the links on the right-hand tool bar (under "Legal Research").
This guide is an online legal encyclopedia for legal researchers. It provides concise explanations to commonly encountered research questions. For example, if you search "military records" you will find an entry on how to verify whether a person is a current member of the U.S. military. The entry provides links to Web sites as well as phone numbers. There are also references to Westlaw and Lexis databases.
Nolo publishes legal guides (written in plain English) to help answer common legal questions and to provide information useful for those representing themselves in legal proceedings. Although the aim of the Web site is to sell its (very popular) self-help books, Nolo's site also contains articles on a myriad of legal subjects. The articles are brief, are geared for the non-attorney, and are organized by topic. Most articles include links to related subjects and other online tools.
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