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Legal Studies

UCSC Library Collections Guide

General Research and Style Guides

• Introduction to Basic Legal Citation (LII Cornell Law School)
• Advice on Academic Writing (Univ. of Toronto)
• Academic Writing: Annotated Bibliography (Univ. of Wisconsin)
• ONLINE! Citation Styles (Bedford/St. Martins)

Getting Started

• Legal research in a nutshell / by Morris L. Cohen, Kent C. Olson. St. Paul, MN : Thomson/West, c2007.  KF240 .C54 2007
• Legal research : how to find & understand the law / by Stephen Elias and Susan Levinkind. Berkeley, CA : Nolo, 2007.   KF240 .E35 2007
• Legal research and citation / by Larry L. Teply. St. Paul, Minn. : West Group, 1999.  KF240 .T46 1999
• A dictionary of law [electronic resource] / [editor, Elizabeth A. Martin].  [Oxford] : Oxford University Press, 2002.  OUP
• The Oxford companion to American law. New York : Oxford University Press, 2002.  KF154 .O96 2002 and  OUP
• Encyclopedia of law and society [electronic resource] : American and global perspectives. Los Angeles, Calif. : Sage Publications, 2007.  GVRL
• Native Americans and the law : a dictionary / Gary A. Sokolow. Santa Barbara, Calif. : ABC-CLIO, c2000.  KF8203.6 .S66 2000 and  ABC_Clio
• West's encyclopedia of American law [electronic resource]. Detroit : Thomson/Gale, c2004.    GVRL
•  UCSC Government Publications and Law Virtual Reference Shelf

Indexes and Databases

• Index to legal periodicals & books. Bronx, N.Y. : H.W. Wilson Co., 1994-   K33.I53
• LexisNexis Academic [select Legal tab]
• Full-text legal, news, reference, and business sources. Legal Research section contains United States federal and state case law and codes, as well as law reviews and legal news. LexisNexis CA Codes (Deering's California Codes Annotated, Constitution, Court Rules & ALS, Combined)  Online Tutorials
• LexisNexis Congressional
• Index to publications of the United States Congress since 1789 and some full-text documents beginning in the late 1980s. Includes bills & acts, committee reports, testimony, regulations, legislative histories, and more.
• Westlaw Campus
• Web-based legal research tool for undergraduate and graduate students who need to research law-related issues.  UWM Guide
• CQ Supreme Court Collection
• Provides historical analysis of Supreme Court decisions, biographies of Supreme Court justices, Supreme Court institutional history, and the U.S. Constitution. Offers quantitative analysis of the Justices’ voting patterns.
• CQ Public Affairs Collection
• The full text database brings together CQ's research from encyclopedias, legislative histories, case summaries, and primary sources into one integrated reference tool. Organized by 22 key public affairs subject headings. Good tool for researchers in public affairs and public policy, social work, government, political science, journalism, and communications.
• CQ Researcher
• This reference source explores "hot" issues in the news in depth. Topics range from social and political issues to environment, health, education and science and technology. Each report is full-text and contains charts, graphs and sidebar articles, a pro-con feature, a chronology, lengthy bibliographies and a list of contacts.
• Rand California
• An online source for California and United States statistics. Includes public policy, business, economy, demographics, education, and environmental research information. Also contains monthly reports on the California economy.
• UCSC Newspaper Archives
• Proquest LA Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal. America's Newspapers from Newsbank. ...
• LexisNexisUS Newspapers And Wires
• Access World News (regional US papers)
• Proquest LA Times, NY Times

Other Internet Law Guides and Resources

 UCLA Law Library Research Guides at http://www.law.ucla.edu/home/index.asp?page=1435

 Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute (LII) at http://www.law.cornell.edu/

 WashLaw at http://www.washlaw.edu/

 FindLaw  at http://www.findlaw.com/

 UCSC Library - Government Publications and Law

 GPO Access at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/

 Brandeis University Westlaw Campus + LexisNexis: Quick Guide at http://lts.brandeis.edu/research/help/guides/westlawguide.html

Finding and Managing Citations

•   Login information for off-campus access ( OCA )
•  Managing your bibliography