Library

General Legal Sites

Cases, Statutes and Codes | Dictionaries and Encyclopedias | Lawyer Directories | Legal News | Research Guides | Search Tools 
 

Cases, Statutes & Codes

The following is a selection of general resources. For additional resources, select the navigation links to the right.

 

  • Altlaw AltLaw is an American academic project aimed at making federal appellate and Supreme Court case law publicly available, "to make the common law a bit more common." The project is a collaboration between Columbia Law School's Program on Law and Technology and University of Colorado School of Law's Silicon Flatirons program.
  • Avalon Project at Yale Law School Archive This site features full-text versions of selected legal and historical documents, including charters, treaties, presidential speeches, and executive orders.
  • Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations This online reference resource allows you to identify abbreviations for English language legal publications.  Use this resource if you encounter a legal citation in your research and can't identify the full name of the periodical or source from the citation.
  • Cornell Legal Information Institute Key resource for primary legal materials as well as for commentary and background material on a wide array of legal topics. 
  • Famous Trials Large collection of original essays, images, and primary documents from a selection of the most famous trials, from Socrates to O.J. Simpson.
  • FindLaw: Cases and Codes
    Provides free, searchable access to federal and state case law and statutes.
  • Global Legal Information Network (GLIN)
    Summaries of laws, regulations, and other legal sources from around the world. 
  • Jurist (Univ. of Pittsburgh)
    This Jurist page includes links to online copies of selected federal and state cases, statutes, and regulations.  Also includes links to oral arguments and briefs from selected federal and state courts.
  • LexisOne  
    This site furnishes free access to selected federal and state case law (registration required).
  • PreCYdent Another collection of free case law (alpha version).
  • Public Library of Law Cases from the U.S. Supreme Court and Courts of Appeals, all 50 states back to 1997, federal statutory law and codes from all 50 states, regulations, court rules, and constitutions.
  • Statutes & Cases - Nolo
    Links to free sources for federal and state statutes and cases, plus guides on legal research.

     

Dictionaries & Encyclopedias

  • 1L Dictionary (Harvard Law School)
    Brief definitions to common legal terms.
  • Everybody's Legal Glossary (Nolo Press)
    Plain-English definitions of thousands of legal terms.
  • FindLaw.com
    Use the drop-down menu to search FindLaw's legal dictionary.
  • Glossary of Conflict of Laws
    Definitions of words and phrases used in conflict of laws jurisprudence.
  • Jurist
    Browsable dictionary of basic U.S. legal terminology.
  • Law.com
    Searchable dictionary of legal words and phrases.
  • Trademark Glossary (International Trademark Association)
    Furnishes alphabetical listing of frequently-used trademark terms.
  • Zimmerman's Research Guide  
    An online encyclopedia for legal researchers, with plenty of useful links to Internet resources organized by legal topic.  

     

Lawyer and Law Firm Directories

Legal News

  • Law.com
    Wide-ranging coverage of substantive legal issues as well as legal practice. Also includes links to popular legal blogs (blawgs) and online versions of legal magazines, including National Law Journal, American Lawyer, and Corporate Counsel.

  • Jurist's Paper Chase 
    Breaking legal news, including international developments, with many useful links to primary documents and in-depth reports.

    • RSS Feeds A list of RSS feeds made available through Jurist (includes U.S. Legal News, Gazette, and Foreign Legal News)

  • SCU School of Law News & Information 
    Links to local, regional, and national news sources as well as to School of Law events.

  • U.S. Law Schools News Brief (St. Thomas Univ.)
    Compiles law school news and press releases from around the nation.

     

Research Guides

The Heafey Law Library has created a number of research guides available here.

 

  • Appellate Court Briefs Online (LLRX)
    Comprehensive guide to accessing appellate briefs online, with information on retrieval from free Internet sources, Lexis, and Westlaw.
  • Law and Policy Institutions Guide
    Furnishes links to a wide range of law-related Internet resources.  Legal topics are organized by subject area. 
  • LLRX.com  (Law Library Resource Xchange) 
    This Web site furnishes a large selection of research guides, legal research articles, and legal forms. Especially useful for guidance on researching foreign and international law topics.
  • Virtual Chase  (Legal Research Guides) 
    Collection of guides on how to conduct legal research on the Internet.

     

Search Tools & Legal Subject Directories

  • AllLaw.com 
    This directory includes links to online primary materials (cases, statutes, and regulations) as well as links to a broad array of secondary materials, such as articles and government reports.
  • Catalaw 
    A directory of domestic, foreign, and international law Internet sites, arranged by subject and region.
  • Hieros Gamos 
    Comprehensive collection of domestic and international legal resources. 
  • Librarians' Index to the Internet

    This site features a legal subject index that includes links to a wide variety of online legal resources.

     

     

     

Page last updated: April 22, 2008