Library Guides: SOC 406: Sociology of Deviance: Legal Resources

Secondary Legal Resources

Westlaw Campus Research - Law This link opens in a new window
To search select secondary sources this will allow you to search American Law Reports (ALR), American Jurisprudence and other resources from states and subject law materials. Related content will allow you to search an online version of Blacks Law Dictionary.
Thomson Reuters Westlaw Campus Research - Law is a comprehensive database of resources for researching U.S. Law. It includes primary sources including case law, statutes and regulations at the federal and state levels as well as secondary sources, e.g., American Law Reports, American Jurisprudence, and over 800 law reviews.

Quick links and description of useful secondary resources in Westlaw Campus Research:

Corpus Juris Secondum
Organized into more than 400 topics, arranged alphabetically it is a national legal encyclopedia that covers state and federal legal topics from A to Z.
American Jursi Prudence 2nd Edition
This comprehensive legal encyclopedia contains textual statements of law alphabetically arranged in more than 400 topics.
American Law Reports
organize, summarize, and analyze pertinent federal and state case law on particular legal issues. Issues include those involving statutory and common law, practice and procedure, and rules and regulations. Each article reviews the cases discussing the relevant point of law. The articles also contain research references and practice pointers.
State legal handbooks and texts
this includes a link to secondary resources (encyclopedia, subject, and topical indexes) similar to the national resources. NOTE: not all states are represented.
Black's Law Dictionary
is the most widely used law dictionary in the United States. Defines more than 55,000 law-related words and phrases, recording their historical and present-day nuances.

Other Secondary Resources

West's Encyclopedia of American Law online [Gale Virtual Reference Library]

Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
includes a number of legal encyclopedias and dictionaries, including the Oxford Companion to American Law, Oxford Dictionary of Law, Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions.
Oxford Reference Online consists of a wealth of facts, figures, definitions, and translations found in dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press.

Statutory Resources

Congressional This link opens in a new window
provides access to the best web resources for types of congressional and legislative information.
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

The two most helpful types of Congressional publications particularly for exploring topics are Congressional Hearing and Congressional Research Service Reports. The quick links are below:

Congressional Hearings
Hearings provide insight into issues and provide firsthand accounts across a variety of subjects and are valuable resources for historical information and background. Witnesses can include important organizations, think tanks and agencies

Congressional Research Service Reports This link opens in a new window
CRS researchers provide reports to congressional committees on issues being consider in the US legislature.
Research papers written by the Library of Congress for the use of Congress. Provide objective, non-partisan analysis of public policy issues before the legislature. Full text PDF of reports.
CQ Electronic Library This link opens in a new window
CQ Weekly, CQ Almanac, and Congress and the Nation provide excellent summaries and context for legislation.
A reference source for research in American government, politics, history, public policy, and current affairs. The suite includes the online version of --CQ Weekly --CQ Researcher --CQ Congress Collection, --CQ Voting and Elections Collection --CQ Historic Documents Online

State Statutory Information Sources

The National Conference of State Legislatures is a rich source of 50-state surveys on various topics ranging from immigration to juvenile justice.

The bill tracking database is here: BILL TRACKING

State Legislative Websites Directory
Contains like to state legislature home pages as well as a mechanism for limiting to content types: issues, bills, press etc...
State Legislatures News (NCSL)
The news source goes back to 1975 highlighting "impactful" state legislation occurring in states.
State Legislature Websites (Congress.gov)
Links to state legislative web sites.

Law Review and Journal Articles

Index to Legal Periodicals & Books Full Text This link opens in a new window
the best index to law review articles
Index to Legal Periodicals and Books indexes legal journals, law reviews, yearbooks, and bar association publications from 1918 to the present. Coverage also includes books and full-text of selected articles from the early 1990s to the present.
HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
choose Periodicals-Law under Browse Collections by Category to find available types of law journals and periodicals included in HeinOnline.
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.
Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals This link opens in a new window
subject index to selected international and comparative law periodicals.
The Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals provides access to legal literature worldwide and covers all forms of foreign law. Types of documents covered include journal articles, congress reports, essay collections, yearbooks, and book reviews. Coverage is 1985 to current.
Gale OneFile: LegalTrac This link opens in a new window
LegalTrac provides indexing and selective full-text for all major law reviews, law journals, specialty law and bar association journals and legal newspapers. The database offers coverage of federal and state cases, laws and regulations, legal practice and taxation, as well as British Commonwealth, European Union, and international law.
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.

Law Journals on the Net
listing of online legal journals maintained by the Legal Information Institute [Cornell University Law School].
Law Research: the Internet Law Library
includes links to various directories in addition to legal reference, law journal lists, etc.
Legal Professional News [FindLaw.com]
top legal headlines from various sources in addition to finding news articles by legal topic.
Jurist
legal news website supported by the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.