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General Resources
Databases:
- Gale LegalForms This link opens in a new windowThousands of legal forms available. Official, State-Specific, Federal, Business, Personal, Real Estate and General forms covering hundreds of legal subjects and issues.
- Legal Information Institute (Cornell)Access to laws and regulations (especially good for federal) plus a free legal encyclopedia
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new windowdatabase of legal and news information, including laws, cases, and other resources
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowthis basic all-subject database includes many legal journals and full-text of articles are available for a large number of the titles it covers
- Google Scholar This link opens in a new windowGoogle Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats, times, and disciplines. **Only use academically sound resources. When in doubt, check with a LIBRARIAN
Guides:
- Guide to Law OnlineAnnotated guide to online legal resources, covering state, national and international jurisdictions. Provided by the Law Library of Congress.
- How to Research a Legal Problem: a guide for non-lawyersbasic legal research guide from the American Association of Law Libraries
- General Legal Research Sitespart of the Law Librarians' Society of DC's Legislative Sourcebook
Abbreviations:
- Citation Abbreviations for Legal Materialguide from UTSA Library showing common abbreviations
Resources: Federal Laws, Regulations, & Cases
Federal Laws:
- Congress.govOfficial website for U.S. federal legislative branch. Includes information on bills, committees, the recent Congressional Record, nominations, and current treaties.
- Congressional Bills1993-present. legislative proposals from the House and/or the Senate.
- Constitution of the United Statestranscript, images, and educational resources form the National Archives
- govinfo.govPortal to U.S. bills, laws, and other Congressional publications, as well as other government publications.
- Hein Online - U.S. CodeSubscription database. U.S. Code dating back to inception in 1925-1926. Also includes the Early Federal Laws Collection, which represents the most complete collection of federal statute compilations prior to the US Code.
- Public and Private Laws1995-present. Also known as slip laws. A slip law is an official publication. Public laws affect society as a whole, while private laws affect an individual, family, or small group.
- U.S. Constitution: Law Library of Congress:resources for Constitutional analysis, historical study, projects for Constitution Day, etc.
- US CodeCodification of federal laws. 1994-present. The Blume Library no longer has a printed set of U.S. Code volumes, but the Law Library has a set.
- US Constitution (PDF format)PDF format from GPO
- US Constitution (text format)Text format from GPO
Guides to the Federal Legislative Process:
- Congress, Legislation, etc.Blume Library guide covering legislation, regulations, and Congress in general
- Legislative Informationguide by Yale University Library
- US Government Legal InformationGuide from the University of Delaware Library
- Federal Legislative History Research: A Practitioner's Guide to Compiling the Documents and Sifting for Legislative Intentpart of the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, DC's Legislative Sourcebook
- Questions & Answers in Legislative & Regulatory Researchpart of the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, DC's Legislative Sourcebook
Federal Regulations:
- Hein Online - Federal RegisterSearchable access to the Federal Register from inception (1936) to the present. The Federal Register is updated on a daily basis.
- Federal Register1936 - present. Official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents.
- Federal Register: The Daily Journal of the United States GovernmentInteractive version of current Federal Register since 1994 from the Office of the Federal Register.
- Hein Online - Code of Federal RegulationsAccess to CFR volumes from inception (1938) to the present.
- Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)1996 to the present. The CFR is the codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register.
- Regmapgraphical overview of rulemaking process, from Reginfo.gov, in the Office of Management and Budget
- Federal Register Tutorialfrom the National Archives
Supreme Court:
- Hein Online - U.S. Supreme Court Library"Complete coverage of the official U.S. Reports bound volumes as well as preliminary prints, slip opinions, and books and periodicals related to the U.S. Supreme Court"
- Oyez ProjectA multimedia archive of Supreme Court cases from 1955 to the present; also information on past and current Supreme Court Justices of the United States.
- Supreme Court of the United StatesOfficial court website with texts of opinions, current dockets, etc.
- Supreme Court: Legal Information Instituterecent & historically important decisions
- US Supreme Court Opinionssearchable back to 1893
- Supreme Court: Ben's Guidebasic overview of the Court's history and function
Federal Courts:
- USCourts.govlinks to courts, forms, rules, and statistics, as well as educational materials on the federal judiciary
- Court Locator: US Courtslinks to federal courts in all states
- Federal Courts: US Courtslinks to courts, information about individual courts and the judicial process
- Federal Judicial Centerresearch and educational material on the federal courts and the judicial system
- Findlaw: Cases & CodesIncludes some Courts of Appeals cases; for some districts, summaries of cases are available,Coverage of 5th Court of Appeals cases (which includes Texas) goes back to 1995.
Resources: State/Local Laws, Regulations, & Cases
Texas Laws & Legislative Process
- Legislative Reference Libraryarchived and current Texas bills and laws, plus much reference material
- Texas Legislature OnlineSearchable databases of bills and statutes. Also includes other information concerning the Texas legislature and other entities.
- Texas Legislative Councillegislative information for government agencies and the public
- Texas Codes & Statutesfrom the Texas Legislature Online
- Texas Senate Audio/Video Archivechamber and committee proceedings back to 1999; live streaming while meetings are in progress
Texas Regulations:
- Texas Administrative CodeTexas equivalent of the Code of Federal Regulations
- Texas RegisterTexas equivalent of the Federal Register. Links to the UNT Portal to Texas History page that provides searchable access back to v. 1, no. 1 (1976).
Guides to Texas Legislative Resources
- How a Bill Becomes a Law: 82nd LegislaturePDF from the House Research Organization
- Texas Law Timelinefrom the Texas Legislative Reference Library
- How to Follow of Bill Using TLOfrom Texas Legislature Online
- TexasLawHelpDIY forms and educational materials
- State Bar of Texasinformation for the public includes lawyer searches and educational materials
Texas Courts:
- Texas Reports1840-1909, digitized as part of the Portal to Texas History at UNT
- Texas Online Court Docketslinks to court dockets, or schedules of cases to be heard
San Antonio:
- San Antonio Local GovernmentLibGuide with links to agencies and other organizations in San Antonio & Bexar County
Information from Other States/Cities:
- Findlaw: Cases & CodesIncludes some Courts of Appeals cases; for some districts, summaries of cases are available,Coverage of 5th Court of Appeals cases (which includes Texas) goes back to 1995.
- Municipal Codesfind codes from cities throughout the US
- Topical Index: State Statuteslinks to laws from 50 states on a variety of subjects, from Cornell's Legal Information Institute
- State Government Information IndexBlume Library guide with links to libraries in the various states with guides to their own government resources
Resources: International Legal Information
- Inter-Parliamentary Unionlinks to member parliaments and to other legislative and quasi-legislative bodies throughout the world
- Law by Source: Globalconstitutions, cases, databases of information, etc., from Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute
- World Legal Information Instituteworldwide legislation, constitutions, statutes, case law, court decisions, journals, treaties, and related materials.
- World Treaty IndexDatasets (csv) list of both bilateral and multilateral treaties signed during the 20th century.
Guides to International Legal Information:
- Inter-governmental Organizations (IGOs)resources on international government organizations from Duke University
- NGO Research Guideresources on non-governmental organizations from Duke University
Other Blume Library Research Guides and more
- Congress, Legislation, etc.Blume Library guide covering legislation, regulations, and Congress in general
- Country Research GuideBlume Library guide, with a focus on business & economics sources
- Government DatabasesFreely available databases that include journal articles, statistics, and datasets.
- Government InformationBlume Library guide serving as a portal to government information
- International Relations ResourcesBlume Library guides and databases for IR research
- State Government Information IndexBlume Library guide with links to libraries in the various states with guides to their own government resources
- Texas Government Information ResourcesIncludes links to the Texas State Data Center, the Texas Almanac, and more.