Legislative Sources
- Congressional (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
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Provides access to congressional and legislative information. Includes information about members of congress like voting records, addresses, etc.
Congress.gov - open site for Federal legislation
Federal legislative information: bills, resolutions, Congressional Record, schedules, calendars, committee information, Presidential Nominations, treaties and government resources. Formerly known as THOMAS. Coverage: 1967 - current
Summaries of Legislative Issues
Congressional Research Service - works exclusively for the U.S. Congress, providing policy and legal analysis to committees and Members of both the House and Senate, regardless of party affiliation
Court Case Sources
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
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Best source for court cases at both federal and state system levels. Overall good for legal research - has law reviews and patent information.
Part of common law, consisting of judgments given by higher (appellate) courts in interpreting the statutes (or the provisions of a constitution) applicable in cases brought before them. Called precedents, they are binding on all courts (within the same jurisdiction) to be followed as the law in similar cases. (from What is case law?- BusinessDictionary.com)
Stare decisis, (Latin for “let the decision stand”), is the principle by which judges are bound to past decisions.
These judicial interpretations are distinguished from statutory law, which are codes enacted by legislative bodies, and regulatory law, which are established by executive agencies based on statutes.
These judicial interpretations are distinguished from statutory law, which are codes enacted by legislative bodies, and regulatory law, which are established by executive agencies based on statutes.
Law Reviews
Law reviews are secondary sources of scholarly journals used for conducting legal research.
- They provide thorough discussion & analysis of a particular legal issue,
- Footnotes provide citations for the primary sources of law (statutes, cases, etc.) related to the issue.
Nexis Uni - indexes law reviews
Law Review Commons - 300+ open-access law reviews · 220,000+ articles · Free current & archives from 1852