Research Guides: Legal Research and Government Documents: Home

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Welcome to this research guide about legal and government resources!

Places to Start

Avalon Project: Documents in Law History and Diplomacy This link opens in a new window
A project of the Yale Law School. The Avalon Project contains digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy, and Government.
The Caselaw Access Project This link opens in a new window
The Caselaw Access Project (“CAP”) expands public access to U.S. law. Our goal is to make all published U.S. court decisions freely available to the public online, in a consistent format, digitized from the collection of the Harvard Law School Library.
Cornell Legal Information Institute (LII) This link opens in a new window
Cornell LII publishes electronic versions of core materials in numerous areas of the law, primarily on the web, ranging from the Constitution to the U.S. Code, Supreme Court decisions to the Code of Federal Regulations and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Bankruptcy, and Criminal Procedure. It also includes legal commentary and explanations contained in Cornell's WEX legal dictionary and encyclopedia, and the LII Supreme Court Bulletin, which provides analysis of cases that are about to be argued before the Supreme Court.
HeinOnline Academic This link opens in a new window
HeinOnline Academic includes more than 100 million pages of multidisciplinary content in more than 100 subject areas, including history, political science, criminal justice, religious studies, international relations, women’s studies, pre-law, and many more.
Westlaw This link opens in a new window
Online research service that provides a comprehensive collection of news, business, and law related information for students.

AnyLaw
Free legal research platform with full coverage of US state and federal case law.
Law Library of Congress
Starting point for researching legal topics and recommend relevant materials in the Library of Congress' Law Library and beyond.

Abbreviations, Definitions, and Citations

Legal Citation Guides and Abbreviations
This guide from the Harvard Law School Library lists citation manuals and dictionaries of legal abbreviations.
Nolo's Free Dictionary
Law terms and legal definitions.
Wex Legal Dictionary
Community-built, freely available legal dictionary and legal encyclopedia; part of the Cornell Legal Information Institute (LII).