This page provides monthly updates highlighting varied legal research resources.
Policy Archive is a digital library containing more than 12,000 policy documents, videos and materials in other formats produced or funded by various universities, think tanks, governments, and foundations. The main page has a section on featured content and links to new material. At the bottom of the main page are topic quick links (e.g., agriculture, forestry and fishing; energy; and international relations), and links to browse materials by topic, author, publisher, or funder. Registered users can load their documents onto the website and can subscribe to newsletters.
The website is a joint project of the Center for Government Studies and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Library.
Glossary of Legal Research Terms
This glossary is produced by the Southern Illinois University School of Law Library. Entries include basic civics terms (e.g., checks and balances), terms that should be covered in a first-year legal research course (e.g., annotated code), and more advanced concepts (e.g., legislative history). The bottom of this glossary contains references to similar resources.
The Virtual Chase
The Virtual Chase contains legal research articles and guides aimed at legal professionals. The main page has research-related news, while the left frame has links to information quality evaluation, research articles, answers to questions submitted by readers, and presentations slides. The research articles and presentation slides cover topics including public records searching, fact investigation, background checks, news alerts, and technology.
This site is owned by the law firm Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP and is managed by a former law librarian.
Empirical Legal Studies Bibliography Database
This database is an ongoing collaboration between Cornell and UCLA law schools and currently contains citations to empirical legal scholarship published between 2003 and July 2007.
There are four ways to search for citations: by year, by author, by title, and by subject. There are more than 300 subjects; they can be selected from a drop-down menu. The database is a work in progress. The creators intend to add hyperlinks to the full text of the articles in the summer of 2008 and eventually to add citations back to 2000. Background information on the project and criteria for inclusion in the database are available here.
Foreign Relations of the United States: (1861-1960) and (1945-1976).
In print at Mullins Library (call number JX223 .A3).
From the University of Wisconsin's website: "The Foreign Relations of the United States series is the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions that have been declassified and edited for publication." The series, from the U.S. State Department's Office of the Historian, began in 1861 (the Lincoln administration). The Office is currently working on the documents of the Nixon administration.
The 1861-1960 volumes (Lincoln through Eisenhower administrations) have been digitized (i.e., are in PDF format) by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries in cooperation with the University of Illinois at Chicago Libraries. The series is not complete, but missing volumes are added on as they are acquired for digitization. Researchers can browse by volume or search the full text.
The 1945-1976 volumes (Truman through portions of the Nixon and Ford administrations) are available in HTML format at the U.S. Department of State website. Researchers can search the full text or browse by administration. Click on the Status of the Series link to see what has yet to be published.
Index of Presidential Signing Statements: 2001-2007
This index accompanies the issue brief Signing Statements and the President's Authority to Refuse to Enforce the Law, written by Georgia State University College of Law associate professor Neil Kinkopf.
The index is in the form of a table and provides the provision objected to, the reason for the objection, and a link to the text of the signing statement posted on the Government Printing Office web site. The 1,047 signing statements are listed in chronological order.
Federal Legislative History: A Guide to Resources
The guide features a comprehensive list of federal legislative history resources available at the University of Arkansas and for free online. It is a research publication by Sally Kelley of the National Agricultural Law Center.
The guide is composed of seven sections: an introduction, the definition of "legislative history," parts of a legislative history, compiled legislative histories, public laws, additional information, and a web bibliography. It cites materials available at the University of Arkansas' Young Law Library and/or Mullins Library; commercial electronic services including Westlaw, Lexis, LexisNexis Congressional, and HeinOnline; and free Internet resources.
The introduction recommends that researchers start with section IV, compiled legislative histories, to see if a history of a particular law already exists.
The parts of a legislative history covered in the guide are the bill text, congressional committee reports, congressional debates, congressional committee hearings, and other documents relevant to determining the law's intent (congressional committee prints, house and senate documents, and presidential signing statements).
The section on compiled legislative histories lists several publications that already done the work, including: CIS Annual, Thomas (a free web site through the Library of Congress), United States Code Congressional and Administrative News, the Congressional Record Index, and bibliographies of legislative histories.
The section on additional information has citations to books and articles on legislative history and the federal law-making process. The web bibliography lists all of the free Internet and commercial electronic resources cited throughout the guide.
Lastly, there is a location guide that provides the floor numbers and areas where various materials are located in Young Law Library and Mullins Library.
Animal Legal and Historical Web Center
This web site is maintained by the Michigan State University College of Law. It has the full text of more than 700 cases (U.S., U.K., and historical), U.S. statutes, treaties, laws of several countries, and information on 38 animal law topics. Other features include examples of court documents, articles, historical overviews of American and British animal law, and frequently asked questions on dog issues.
Drop-down menus on the left side of each page enable viewing of U.S. cases and statutes by state, subject, or species. The many subjects include anti-cruelty, disability and pets, vet malpractice, and wills and trusts. Species include domestic pets, exotic pets, livestock, and wild animals.
Another drop-down menu has a selection of topics pages. Topics include animal rights, humane slaughter, endangered species, and zoos. The topics pages contain general introductions, overviews of the law, links to available cases and/or statutes, and external links (e.g., government agency websites).
The last drop-down menu has world law sources. The United Kingdom information is the most comprehensive, but there is information available from 12 countries representing all the continents (except Antarctica). Texts of current and proposed treaties are also available.
Funding for the web site and many of the posted court documents were provided by the Animal Legal Defense Fund.
beSpacific
"beSpacific provides: Daily law and technology news with links to reliable primary and secondary sources on topics including: e-government, privacy, government documents, cybercrime and ID theft, the Patriot Act, freedom of information, federal legislation, legal research, KM [knowledge management], blogs, RSS and wikis." It is useful in two ways: 1) as a current-awareness source and 2) as a source of articles, studies, bill texts, government agency reports, and other documents (often in PDF). As a current-awareness tool readers can also subscribe for free e-mail updates, here: subscribe.
Material is archived back to 2002. BeSpacific is edited by Sabrina I. Pacifici, a law firm librarian.
GlobaLex
GlobaLex is a website containing articles on and guides to researching international, foreign, and comparative law. The international and comparative law research guides are mostly written by U.S. law librarians, while the foreign law research guides are mostly written by librarians, professors, or practitioners in those (or neighboring) countries covered in the guide. This website is published by the Hauser Global Law School Program at NYU School of Law.
The International Law Research section has guides to international research in several subjects, including environmental, health, trade, sustainable development, terrorism, and human rights. Other guides cover individual agreements (such as NAFTA and the Kyoto Protocol) and international organizations (including the United Nations, Economic Community of West African States, and the European Union).
The Foreign Law Research section has articles and guides to nearly 80 individual countries, plus guides encompassing countries in the Caribbean and South Pacific. In general, the guides provide a brief introduction to that country's legal documents, court system, and government, as well as information on print and electronic resources. Some guides include information on the country's law schools and law firms. Sources cited in the guides may or may not be available in English. The Comparative Law Research section has the Basic Guide to Researching Foreign Law, and also has guides on the comparative aspects of immigration law, religious legal systems, and family law.
