Library
Legal Research Guides
Consult this list of library Research Guides to see if one is available for your topic. These research guides are authored by SCU reference law librarians and highlight the best resources, in both electronic and paper formats, for a particular legal topic.
These research guides are also available on Claranet in PDF format. Click here for a list of these.
California | Federal | Intl./Foreign | How-to guides | Subject-Specific | Success in Law School | Video Tutorials
Attention first-year students!!! Please look at these guides for a basic introduction to law school.
California
- California Legal Research
- California Regulations Guide
- Suggested Strategies for California Research
- California Case Reporter Chart
- California Legislative History and Intent
- Locating California Legislative Documents
- California Family Law
- Using the Witkin Treatises
Federal Law
- Federal Statutory Research
- How to acquire federal legislative documents
- Intellectual Property Research
- Guide to Federal Legislative Histories
- How do I compile a Federal Legislative History?
- Guide to Federal Civil Procedure
- Federal Case Reporter Chart
- Immigration Law
- Locating Federal Regulations
- Federal Regulatory History
- Most cited U.S. Supreme Court Cases
International/Foreign Law
- Foreign and Comparative Law
- Foreign and International Labor Law
- Canadian Legal Research Guide
- European Union Research Guide
- U.S. Treaties and International Agreements
- World Treaties
- UK Legal Research Guide
- International Legal Research
- International Resources for Intellectual Property
- Transnational Terrorism
- United Nations Documents
"How To" Guides
- How to Read a Legal Citation
- Introduction to Basic Legal Citation
- How to find previous exams
- Using a case digest
- Finding the status of a bill
- Finding briefs and records
- Requesting government documents
Subject-specific Guides
- American Law Reports
- Environmental Law
- Legal Issues of Sexual Orientation
- Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility
- Restatements of the Law
- Uniform Laws/Model Acts
- Animal Law
- Labor and Employment Law
- Guide to Art Law
- Guide to Housing Law
- Guide to Virtual Law
- Guide to Bioethics Legal Research
- Corporate Transactions (designed for Dean Polden's class)
Success in Law School
Upper division resources:
- Resources for Cite-Checkers
- Major Treatises by Subject
- Most important law review articles
- Bar Exam Resources
- Secondary Source Chart
- Resources for comment and paper topics
- Sources for identifying and acquiring scholarly legal articles
- Legal Resource Quick Reference Chart
Video Tutorials
- How to find a journal article
- How to find course reserves
- How to find a book
- Using LegalTrac and Google Scholar to locate law review articles
- Introduction to Inter-Library Loan Services
- How to use a law review index
- Introduction to library website
- Finding government documents using GPOAccess
- How to renew books and other library items using OSCAR
- How to read a call number (LC)
- Introduction to RSS and Google Reader
Other law school research guides
- Legal Research Engine -- (Cornell Law) Indexes research guides from a number of law schools.
- The Scout -- (University of Akron) Searches research guides from over 130 law schools.
- Georgetown University Law Library -- Large collection of research guides, particularly strong in research techniques.
- Columbia University Law Library -- Excellent source for research guides on foreign/international law.
- Duke University Law Library -- Large collection of research guides.
- Yale University (China Legal Resources) -- Excellent collection of materials dealing with Chinese law topics.
- Harvard University Law Library -- Large collection of research guides.
- New York University Law Library -- Large collection of research guides. Strong selection of NY state law and European guides.
- Most Cited Law Books -- (University of Washington Law Library) Most cited law book and treatises.
Page last updated: September 10, 2009