Research Guides: Law: Getting Started

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Law is a broad field, and doing legal research can mean a lot of different things. This guide directs you to some of the most useful tools for doing different kinds of legal research, but you may need more specific help. Please contact a librarian to get additional assistance or suggestions for your research.

West's Encyclopedia of American Law by Jeffrey Lehman; Shirelle Phelps
Provides information on more than 5,000 legal topics, including articles covering important issues, biographies, definitions of legal terms and more.

Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Nexis Uni includes full text newspapers, company news and financial information, as well as federal, state, and international legal materials. Also contains some medical and reference sources.

Congress.gov
The official source for federal legislative information from 1995 to current day. It includes legislation, The Congressional Record (verbatim account of remarks made in congress), committee information, and committee reports.

ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
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Comprehensive online collection of primary source congressional publications and legislative research materials covering all topics, including government, current events, politics, economics, business, science and technology, international relations, social issues, finance, insurance, and medicine. Finding aid for congressional hearings, committee prints, committee reports and documents from 1970-2010, and the daily Congressional Record from 1985-present. Compiled legislative histories from 1969-present.

Brainstorming about legal issues

CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
The CQ Researcher, published by CQ (Congressional Quarterly) Press, reports a current social issue each week. Reports are approximately 20 pages long and provide background information, important points to consider, charts and graphs, and a source list for further reading. Database access limited to 10 simultaneous users.

ProCon.org
Pros and cons of controversial issues.
Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports Reports to Congress on current and contemporary national social, economic, scientific, international, issues, as well as policy options.

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Brainstorming about legal issues