Legal Research
The UConn Library, in conjunction with the UConn Law Library, offers access to a number of legal databases; Nexis Uni (an academic version of the Lexis-Nexis database) provides full-text access to law reviews, and state and federal regulations, statutes, and cases. Legislative Insight by ProQuest provides legislative histories for select federal legislation (for more information on conducting a legislative history, see my Federal Legislative History and Analysis guide). Hein Online is terrific for access to scanned volumes of Congressional Record and many other legal reference materials.
Key Legal Databases
- Nexis UniIncludes cases at all state and federal levels, state and federal statutes, and the full text of hundreds of law reviews.
- LegalTracAccess to article abstract for major law reviews, legal newspapers, specialty publications, Bar Association journals, and international legal journals.
- Supreme Court InsightFull opinions from U.S. Supreme Court-argued cases from 1975-2016 that includes per curiam decisions, dockets, oral arguments, joint appendices, amici briefs, and landmark decisions.
- Legislative Insight by ProQuestFull-text publications generated in the course of U.S. Congressional lawmaking including bills, reports, documents, hearings, CRS reports, committee prints, presidential signing statements, and statutes.
- Making of Modern Law: U.S. Supreme Court Records and BriefsRecords and briefs brought before the U.S. Supreme Court between 1832-1978.
- See all UConn Library law databasesList of all library research databases with a focus on, or coverage of, legal materials.
Books / reference materials
- American Jurisprudence online (legal encyclopedia)
American Jurisprudence through Nexis Uni American Jurisprudence, Second Edition, published by West Publishing Company a division of Thomson Reuters, is an encyclopedic text of both procedural and substantive American law, state, federal, criminal, civil and procedural. Consisting of over 430 topic headings (titles), Am Jur 2d articles collect, examine, and summarize the broad principles of American law and, at the same time, provide direct leads to supporting cases, related annotations, forms, proofs, and trial techniques.
Search Tip: American Jurisprudence has an extensive table of contents structure that is reproduced in the Nexis Uni database. Take advantage of this detailed indexing by looking for chapter and sub-chapter headings in document titles:
The Law of Journalism and Mass Communication by Call Number: Babbidge Library Stacks KF2750 .T73 2010ISBN: 9780872899230Publication Date: 2009-07-23"The Law of Journalism and Mass Communication offers students essential coverage and substantive discussion, but brings the subject to life with an abundance of photographs, useful feature boxes, timelines, a marginal glossary, and a colorful interior design. The book is sure to hook students and keep them reading, while grounding them in core concepts.With an approach geared towards students as future practitioners, not as future lawyers, the authors provide a foundation for understanding the law by balancing conceptual learning with practical guidance."
The Oxford Companion to American Law by ISBN: 9780195088786Publication Date: 2002-05-02"This Companion offers a one-volume, alphabetically arranged, encyclopedia introducing the main lines of American law, from the institutions, people, events, and cases to the doctrines and concepts."
The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States by ISBN: 9780195176612Publication Date: 2005-05-19"This new edition includes new entries on key cases and fully updated treatment of crucial areas of constitutional law, such as abortion, freedom of religion, school desegregation, freedom of speech, voting rights, military tribunals, and the rights of the accused. These developments make the second edition of this accessible and authoritative guide essential for judges, lawyers, academics, journalists, and anyone interested in the impact of the Court's decisions on American society."
