Types of Materials
Case Law
Codes & Regulations
International Legal
Materials
Searching
Type of Materials
Legal News: Articles from legal newspapers, magazines and newsletters.
Law Reviews: Articles from law reviews
Get a Case: Search here by party name or citation (number) to find Federal & State legal cases. (Ex: Roe v. Wade OR 93 S. Ct. 705)
Finding a Case By Party Name
Finding a Case by Citation
Shepard’sTM for U.S. Supreme Court: Shepard’s citations of U.S. Supreme Court cases. Shepardizing is making sure that a case has not been overturned. Ensures that a Supreme Court case is still “good law.” Shepardizing also allows the user to find additional cases that stand for the same legal principle as the original case.
Federal Case Law: Allows the user to search by keyword for decisions from all federal court level cases. (Ex: Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, District Courts, Bankruptcy Courts, Tax Courts, Customs Courts, Military Courts, etc.)
State Case Law: Allows the user to search state court and appellate court decisions by choosing a particular state in which to search.
Area of Law by Topic: Search here by keyword in a particular field or topic of law such as Corporate Law, Criminal Law, Family Law, Environmental Law, Labor Law, Immigration Law, International Law, etc.
Federal Code: Search here for the U.S. Code, text of the U.S. Constitution and Federal court rules. The U.S. Code is the statutory code for the United States of America as published in the United States Code Service. It includes all laws enacted by the United States Congress. The Federal Court rules are the Federal Rules Annotated from the U.S. Code Service. The U.S. Constitution is the text of the Constitution from the U.S. Code Service.
Federal Regulations:
Search here by keyword for Federal Regulations, agency opinions and U.S.
Attorney General opinions. Includes the Federal Register, which is the official
vehicle for making the regulations and legal notices issued by the federal agencies and departments available to the public. The Code of
Federal Regulations or CFR is a codification of the general and permanent rules
and regulations published originally in the Federal Register by executive
departments and agencies of the federal government.
State Codes: Allows the user to search the State Code, text of the State Constitution, State Advance Legislative Service (all laws enacted during a legislative session), rules for all state courts and State Attorney General’s opinions for a particular state.
Tax Law: The IRS Bulletin, tax regulations, and articles from tax journals.
Canadian Legislative Materials: Search here for Canadian Government Legislation as it is introduced, assented to, and enacted and also to search all current Canadian Legislation.
Canadian Statues & Regulations:
EU Law: Search here for European Union Legislation, Parliamentary Questions, Preparatory Acts, and Treaties related to the European Union.
International Case Law: Case law from countries all over the world.
Most used Search Commands:
And-both words must be mentioned somewhere in the
text. (very broad)
Ex: Enron Corporation and Arthur Anderson
It is often helpful to use the Guided Search Screen to
string phrases together.
Or- one or the other term must be mentioned in the
text
Kenneth Lay or Enron
And not-use this with caution as it can eliminate
relevant documents. Helpful to eliminate unwanted results.
Ex: Arthur Anderson and not Enron (will find results that
contain mention of Arthur Anderson but only if they do not also mention Enron)
w/sentence or w/s-searches for terms within the same
sentence.
Ex: Enron w/sentence Kenneth Lay
w/paragraph or w/p-searches for terms within the
same paragraph.
Ex: Enron w/paragraph investigation
(w/n) w/5 or w/10-words must be within 5 or 10 words
of each other
Ex: Enron w/5 investigation
More help with searching and search commands here.
Truncation
Truncation symbols help to find varying forms of a term.
!-use at the end of a word to retrieve all endings.
Ex: child! Retrieves child or child’s or children or
childhood.
*-use to replace just one letter anywhere in a word
(except the first letter).
Ex: wom*n Retrieves woman or women
Last Update: 10/02/2003
Email: Tina.
Adams@nau.edu
Contact Information