UVM Libraries: Law and Legislation: Secondary Legal Sources

Start with Secondary Sources!

The single most important thing to keep in mind when searching for legal sources is to consult secondary sources first (e.g., articles, books, and websites). They will help you identify primary sources such as court cases, legislation, and regulations. Secondary sources are listed below.

Use Law Reviews

Law review articles are an excellent starting point in legal research. These articles usually include extensive references to primary legal and other relevant sources. Law review articles can be found on Westlaw (click "Secondary Sources" > "Law Reviews & Journals") or Nexis Uni (click "Law Reviews")

Consult Secondary Legal Sources

Westlaw
Westlaw includes a fairly comprehensive collection of primary and secondary legal sources. It also incorporates West Key Number indexing.
Nexis Uni
This source includes a fairly comprehensive selection of primary and secondary legal materials. It does not include West Key Number indexing.
ProQuest Congressional
This source provides access to proposed and enacted federal legislation. It includes bill tracking reports, legislative histories, committee reports, documents, hearings and the Congressional Record.

Vermont Legislature
The site for the Vermont Legislature provides links to proposed legislation, bill tracking, enacted legislation, statutes, and information on legislative committees.
Oyez
The Oyez Project at Chicago-Kent is a multimedia archive devoted to the Supreme Court of the United States and its work.

JSTOR
This resource is a searchable multidisciplinary database of the full content of archival issues of scholarly journals. Issues published within the last 3-5 years are generally not covered. It also provides citations to books and pamphlets provided by JSTOR in digital format.
LegalTrac
This resource provides indexing for a wide variety of legal journals, as well as full text for some publications. It includes U.S. and international journals, as well as a "Topic Finder" tool.
LLMC Digital
This resource includes U.S. federal, state, and territories government documents, laws, case reporters, legal periodicals and treatises. It also includes foreign government, multi-jurisdictional, and international law documents; canon law, Native American law, and legal philosophy.
America's Historical Newspapers (1690-1999)
This full-text collection includes hundreds of American newspapers from all 50 states published between 1690 and 1999 (most coverage is for dates prior to 1924). Papers are presented as full-image PDFs and include news, editorials, advertisements, and more.

Libraries

Research Guides

Ask the Libraries

Contact Us

Today's Reference Desk Hours

Law and Legislation

Start with Secondary Sources!

Use Law Reviews

Consult Secondary Legal Sources