Library Guides: CRIMJ 420: Criminal Law and Procedure: Commentary and Analysis

Finding Commentary and Analysis

When evaluating a case, you will want to find secondary sources (the case itself is the primary source) that provide commentary on the case and can help you and other lawyers or legal scholars understand the case more, and analyze what it means for future cases.

Law Reviews are a common resource for commentary and analysis.

Consider some of the resources below when looking for secondary sources on your case.

Getting Started

For basic information about your case and/or the Court, you may want to start with these resources.

Using Secondary Legal Sources Guide
This Guide will link to you many of the secondary legal resources available through Penn State, like legal encyclopedias and dictionaries.
U.S. Supreme Court
If you need case information, you can go straight to the source.
SCOTUS Blog
A helpful resource for the latest information from the Supreme Court.
Oyez
A website with audio of oral arguments, opinions, and case citations for the Supreme Court.
Legal Information Institute (Cornell)

Digging Deeper

These resources will provide more in-depth analysis or commentary on your case.

HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
A full-text research collection offering more than 900 legal journals; federal publications such as the Federal Register, U.S. treaties and agreements, U.S. Supreme Court opinions, federal legislative histories, presidential documents and a collection of legal classics.
Hein Online is a full-text research collection offering more than 900 legal journals; federal publications such as the Federal Register, U.S. treaties and agreements, U.S. Supreme Court opinions, federal legislative histories, presidential documents; a collection of legal classics; and Philip C. Jessup International Moot Court competition materials.
Gale OneFile: LegalTrac This link opens in a new window
Gale Group Infotrac database for research in case law, government regulations, the practice of law, statutes, taxation and international law. Covers all major law reviews, and specialty law and bar association journals.
Gale Group Infotrac database for research in case law, government regulations, the practice of law, statutes, taxation and international law. Covers all major law reviews, and specialty law and bar association journals.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
- expand the Search by Subject or Topic drop-down menu
- choose Law Reviews
- expand the Advanced Options drop-down menu to limit to area of law
Provides access to a wide range of news, business, legal, and reference information. Covers many news sources for 20 years. Court cases and statutes from all federal and state jurisdictions are included. Most resources can be searched in full text.
Congressional This link opens in a new window
Congressional provides access to the best web resources for congressional and legislative information. This includes services available to Penn State Users only, such as Congressional Universe (1789-to date) as well as other free services that provide similar or related information such as Thomas (1993-to date) and GPO Access (1993-to date).
Congressional provides access to the best web resources for congressional and legislative information. This includes services available to Penn State Users only, such as Congressional Universe (1789-to date) as well as other free services that provide similar or related information such as Thomas (1993-to date) and GPO Access (1993-to date). The Guided Tour provides a step-by-step approach to congressional and legislative information for users who have never done research of this type before. Updates:Continuous