Databases & Portals

Indexes United Nations documents and publications, includes full text of Resolutions from the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, and selected Provisional Verbatim and Summary Record documents.

The leading English-language legal publication in its field, Arab Law Quarterly covers all aspects of Arab laws, both Shari'a and secular. It provides authoritative articles on the laws and legal developments throughout the twenty countries of the Arab world, notes on recent legislation and case law, guidelines on future changes, and reviews of the latest literature in the field.

Note: "Back files available through HeinOnline"

The Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law is the world's only law journal offering scholars a forum in which to present comparative, international and national research dealing specifically with issues of law and human rights in the Asia-Pacific region.

AudioCaseFiles is a database of audio recordings of cases students can download. Separate registration required.

The Berkeley Electronic Press (BEPress) was founded as an electronic alternative to traditional paper academic journals. They publish journals and working papers in law, political science, current affairs, economics, business, marketing, science, technology, and medicine. This site also has a number of author tools, including LawKit and ExpressO, which help in the journal submission process.

Current reporting on business-related and other legal and governmental topics, at the state and federal level.

This Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) portal gives web access to most of their publications.

This database contains current and detailed contact information on the nation’s judges and clerks along with the extensive details on the structure of federal, state, and territorial courts.

This Commerce Clearing House (CCH) portal gives web access to many of its publications in the areas of securities, banking, corporate capital, trade regulation, government contracts, information technology, federal energy, transportation law, and products.

This Commerce Clearing House (CCH) portal gives web access to many of its publications and forms in the areas of human resources management, payroll, pension & benefits, employment law, safety & workers comp., health care reimbursement, health care compliance, and food & drug law.

This Commerce Clearing House (CCH) portal allows web access to CCH's Tax Research Network, which includes the Standard Federal Tax Reporter and many other federal and state tax law databases and publications.

List top lawyers in a 175 countries with independent ranking and editorial commentary. Free access database.

The Chronicle is a great source of news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty members and administrators. It features the complete contents of the latest issue; daily news and advice columns; thousands of current job listings; articles published since September 1989; discussion forums; and career-building tools such as an online CV's, salary databases, and more.

Citizenship Studies publishes internationally recognised scholarly work on contemporary issues in citizenship, human rights and democratic processes from an interdisciplinary perspective covering the fields of politics, sociology, history and cultural studies. It seeks to lead an international debate on the academic analysis of citizenship, and also aims to cross the division between internal and academic and external public debate.

The Congressional Quarterly's Congressional Staff Directory provides a wealth of information about Congress. You can search or browse for member biographies & photos, district/state information and maps, and contact information for the main and district/state offices. Jurisdiction, membership, and staff (with titles, areas of responisibility, and contact information, and biographies) of the committees, subcommittes and caucuses are also included.

The CQ Electronic Library (CQEL, pronounced SEE´quell) is the definitive reference resource for research in American government, politics, history, public policy, and current affairs. A wealth of CQ Press resources and years of journalistic and editorial expertise are combined in its eight modules. The suite includes the online version of the CQ Researcher, and its Spanish-language edition, The CQ Researcher en español. CQEL offers four subject-specific reference databases: CQ Congress Collection, CQ Supreme Court Collection, CQ Public Affairs Collection, and CQ Voting and Elections Collection. CQEL also includes the foundational reference resource, CQ Encyclopedia of American Government; CQ Insider, a comprehensive directory of the institutions and people of American government; and the online version of the CQ Weekly, offering complete coverage of Capitol Hill.

Very current weekly listing of new academic law journal articles in PDF, Word and HTML formats. The HTML format has links to the full-text articles in LexisNexis and Westlaw. (Users must have passwords to access full text.) CILP entries are about six weeks more current than the listings in other legal periodicals indexes. To set up a customized SmartCILP email account, tailored to your subject interests and/or specific journals, see the SmartCILP instructions at the bottom of the CILP page.

This database contains current and detailed contact information on the nation’s judges and clerks along with the extensive details on the structure of federal, state, and territorial courts.

The premier English language encyclopedia, available online along with a world atlas and the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary and Collegiate Thesaurus.

This comprehensive database by the Environmental Law Institute includes statutes, regulations, agency guidance documents and news and analysis and covers both Federal and State environmental issues.

The European Journal of International Law is firmly established as one of the world's leading journals in its field. With its distinctive combination of theoretical and practical approaches to the issues of international law, the journal offers readers a unique opportunity to stay in touch with the latest developments in this rapidly evolving area. Each issue of the EJIL provides a forum for the exploration of the conceptual and theoretical dimensions of international law as well as for up-to-date analysis of topical issues. Additionally, it is the only journal to provide systematic coverage of the relationship between international law and the law of the European Union and its Member States.

The Congressional Quarterly's Federal Staff Directory provides a wealth of information about the Executive Branch. It covers the Executive Office of the President, the Cabinet Departments, and the Independent and Quasi-Official Agencies. You can search or browse for biographies, photos, and contact information for senior officials and staff.

A metasite linking to caselaw, statutes, session laws, regulations and other publications from federal and state jurisdictions.

The Foreign Law Guide provides the lawyer or legal researcher with relevant information on sources of foreign law, including complete bibliographic citations to legislation, the existence of English translations whenever possible, indications of currentness of the legal materials listed, and, finally, selected references to secondary sources in English. Thus, this is primarily a guide to official sources and official versions with references, when appropriate, to full texts of legislation and English translations of codes, laws and relevant material published separately. These translations may be official or unofficial, published as a monograph or in major comparative treatments or in a series or even in journals. The editors have sought to concentrate on current books and materials available in the trade or in normal avenues of document distribution. A second-tier source consists of digests or descriptions of legislation or codes or legal procedures and requirements that fall short of full and reliable translations.

A comprehensive collection of searchable full-text PDF (or text) images of major law journal articles, including back issues. Check online table of contents for coverage of specific journal titles; new titles are added regularly. Also includes searchable pre-1981 issues of the Federal Register. New volumes are added regularly.

Contains more than 40,000 documents from 483 international human rights non-governmental organizations, covering the period from 1980 up to 2007.

Covers selected journals and essay collections worldwide, many non-English language. The WCL community may use interlibrary loan to request articles from titles not in the collection. Provides coverage from 1983. In book form, this index provides coverage from 1960.

This legal periodicals index covers articles in Anglo-American law reviews and selected law-related books from 1983. It excludes legal newspapers. In hard copy, the ILPB provides coverage from 1907.

Industrial Law Journal is established as the leading U.K. periodical in its field, providing comment and in-depth analysis on a wide range of topics relating to employment law. It is essential reading for practising lawyers, academics, and lay industrial relations experts to keep abreast of newly enacted legislation and proposals for law reform. In addition Industrial Law Journal carries commentary on relevant government publications and reviews of books relating to labour law.

A journal for in-depth analytical research on the issues of international criminal law, dealing with the differences between civil and common law jurisdictions, and the development of law by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the International Criminal Court, and other international and hybrid tribunals.

The International Journal for the Semiotics of Law contains articles applying different forms of textual analysis to the discourses of the law. They include the semiotics of Greimas, Peirce and Lacan, rhetoric, philosophy of language, pragmatics, sociolinguistics and deconstructionism, as well as more traditional legal philosophical approaches to the language of the law. Articles are published in either English or French.

One of the key source materials in the field of refugee protection. The journal aims to stimulate research and thinking on refugee law and its development, taking account of the broadest range of State and international organization practice. It regularly provides key information and commentary on critical issues, including the causes of refugee and related movements, internal displacement, the particular situation of women and refugee children, the human rights dimension, restrictive policies, asylum and determination procedures, populations at risk and the conditions in different countries. It is of immeasurable value to anyone involved in refugee work, whether lawyers, teachers, students, researchers, NGO workers, or officials in immigration, government, and international organizations. In addition to publishing original articles, the journal also features regular sections containing selected documents, case abstracts and comments, book reviews and annotated bibliographies of reports and other publications.

"International Journal of the Legal Profession is an academic journal addressing the organization, structure, management and infrastructure of the legal professions of the common law and civil law world. The journal encompasses studies of the work, work practices, skills and ethics of the legal profession as well as the internal management of law firms and chambers. It also considers the methods and extent of provision of legal services. A range of socio-legal information is included involving inter-disciplinary interest from academic and professional lawyers, economists, philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists and business academics interested in the world of law and lawyers. Major changes are occurring in the legal professions of America, Europe and Australasia. The profession has become much more open for study and accountability to the public and to government. Academic interest has grown over recent years and study of the legal profession is now well respected and represented within law departments. Scholars have begun to view law as an interesting area of study and lawyers, without any internal methodology for assessing and measuring their work or value, have welcomed the outside interest."

The Journal of International Economic Law is dedicated to encouraging thoughtful and scholarly attention to a very broad range of subjects that concern the relation of law to international economic activity.

The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization is an interdisciplinary exercise. It seeks to promote an understanding of many complex phenomena by examining such matters from a combined law, economics, and organization perspective (or a two-way combination thereof). In this connection, we use the term organization broadly - to include scholarship drawing on political science, psychology and sociology, among other fields. It also holds the study of institutions - especially economic, legal, and political institutions - to be specifically important and greatly in need of careful analytic study.

The object of the Journal of the History of International Law / Revue d'histoire du droit international is to contribute to the effort to make intelligible the international legal past, however varied and eccentric it may be, to stimulate interest in the whys, the whats and wheres of international legal development, and to promote the application of a sense of proportion to the study of modern international legal problems. The aim of the journal is to open fields of inquiry, to enable new questions to be asked, to be awake to and always aware of the plurality of human civilizations and cultures, past and present, and an appreciation of patterns of cultural flow and interaction that centrally affect international law and development.

Excludes recent 2-to-5 years, otherwise full text of scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences and math. Provided by American University's Bender Library.

The Congressional Quarterly's Judicial Staff Directory provides a wealth of information about the Judiciary. It covers all federal courts as well as the state appellate courts. You can search or browse for biographies, photos, and contact information for judges and their personal staffs, court staffs and administrative offices.

This site covers international arbitration issues and is a comprehensive fully-searchable database of primary and secondary materials and commentary in the field with access to full-text downloads of all materials. Access to this database is from the “International Business” tab on the CCH Business and Finance Database and you must scroll down to the bottom of the screen to access it.

Since 1967, Latin American Newsletters (LAN) has been acknowledged as the foremost source of intelligence on political and economic developments in Latin America and the Caribbean. Read by business investors, government officials and leading academics alike, LAN's comprehensive range of print and online resources offers subscribers a reliable, accurate and timely source of insight into key events that shape the region.

LawTRIO is a fully searchable bibliographic database of over 7,500 legal titles combined from three of our print directories. The titles come in three formats: looseleaf (from Legal Looseleafs in Print, newsletter (from Legal Newsletters in Print), and CD-ROM (from Directory of Law Related CD-ROMs).

Also known as the "Yellow Books," the Leadership Directories contain the most up-to-date organizational and contact information for the fourteen areas they cover: Congressional, Federal, Federal Regional, State, Municipal, Judicial, Corporate, Financial, News Media, Associations, Law Firms, Government Affairs, Foreign Representatives, and the Nonprofit Sector.

The Legal History Review, was founded in 1918 by a number of Dutch jurists, who set out to stimulate a scholarly interest in legal history in their own country and also to provide a centre for international cooperation in the subject. It covers the common foundations of the western legal tradition but also to the special, frequently divergent development of national law in the various countries belonging to, or influenced by it. Modern and contemporary, as well as ancient and medieval history is considered. Roman law and its later development, as well as canon law, have always been particularly important; in addition the history of the English Common Law has been extensively studied.

One of the oldest and best law school sites; a good place to begin legal research.

Legal Studies is the journal of the Society of Legal Scholars (SLS). Legal Studies is recognised as one of the foremost academic law journals in the UK and enjoys an international readership both within the common law world and beyond. Legal Studies is a truly generalist peer-reviewed law journal and aims to include a varied range of scholarly articles in each issue, including doctrinal, conceptual, and socio-legal analysis. The journal warmly welcomes contributions from all those who wish to reach a broad international and UK readership.

The most comprehensive current legal periodicals index. Covers law reviews, bar journals, and legal newspapers. Provides coverage from 1980.

Comprehensive full-text coverage of law, business and news sources, including periodicals.

Access to a wide range of news, business, legal, and reference information for those without access to the full LexisNexis.

CIS indexes, abstracts and legislative histories with links to recent full text documents; also includes LexisNexis files with recent full text congressional bills and bill tracking reports, unofficial hearings, reports and other documents, Congressional Record, US Code Service, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Federal Register.

Digital images of federal and state government materials, primarily administrative agency decisions and court decisions.

Electronic legal research that includes caselaw, statutes, session laws, and regulations from federal and all 50 state jurisdictions. You must register at the Loislaw.com website using the special WCL access code. To get this code, send an email to the law library, or call the Reference Desk at 202-274-4352, and ask for the Loislaw school access code.

"The Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises 1800-1926" provides digital images on every page of 22,000 legal treatises on US and British law published from 1800 through 1926. Full-text searching on more than 10 million pages provides researchers access to critical legal history in ways not previously possible.

Web-based version of the Merriam-Webster English Dictionary.

ODS covers all types of official United Nations documentation, beginning in 1993. Older UN documents are, however, added to the system on a daily basis. ODS also provides access to the resolutions of the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council and the Trusteeship Council from 1946 onwards. The system does not contain press releases (posted at http://www.un.org/News/Press/full.htm), UN sales publications , the United Nations Treaty Series or information brochures issued by the Department of Public Information.

Web-based version of the Oxford English Dictionary. Provided by American University's Bender Library.

Internet Law & Regulation includes the full text of all U.S. court and agency decisions affecting the Internet. Pertinent final rules issued by federal agencies are also included. International coverage extends to selected cases from English-speaking venues (such as Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and India), as well as English-language decisions from the European Union. Select cases from non-English speaking countries (such as France and Germany) are provided in PDF format. Arbitration decisions issued in accordance with the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy are also included. In addition, the service includes case digests of the holdings or actions taken in court and agency decisions that address a particular topic, such as spam, workplace privacy, or peer-to-peer file sharing; The full text of notable complaints, motions, and appellate briefs filed with U.S. courts and agencies; The full text of pertinent laws, regulations, and policy papers from U.S. federal and state governments, foreign countries, and private organizations, with relevant legislative and regulatory history; In-depth articles written by distinguished attorneys and law professors who specialize in Internet law; Topical essays, which serve as comprehensive overviews of each of ILR's eight Topics; and Brief articles covering legal, legislative, and Internet-related business developments written by Pike & Fischer's legal editors and experts from The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.

Currently, Project MUSE® offers nearly 250 quality journal titles from 40 scholarly publishers. As one of the academic community's primary electronic journals resources, Project MUSE covers the fields of literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics, and many others.

Abstracts of periodical articles, with full text of many. Provided by American University's Bender Library.

Index with abstracts covering economic, political and social issues, business, finance, law, international trade and relations, public administration, government, political science and any topics that are or might become the subject of legislation; covers selected journal articles, books, statistics, yearbooks, directories, conference proceedings, pamphlets, reports and government documents. Scope is worldwide in six languages: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. Provided by American University's Bender Library.

RIA Checkpoint is a comprehensive database covering all aspect of U.S. tax laws, and includes the United States Tax Reporter Library, Federal Tax Coordinator Library, Public Domain Library, RIA Citator 2nd, RIA Tax Alerts, and State and local tax materials. Also available through this portal is RIA’s Worldwide Tax Laws Library, which covers major laws for many countries, including income and corporate tax law, VAT, corporation law, trust law, commercial codes, environmental law, money laundering and other regulations affecting financial transactions, labor law, and bankruptcy. Countries included will be expanded throughout 2006 and 2007.

One of the Berkeley Electronic Press journals, dealing with legal theory and jurisprudence.

Access to bills and public laws, committee reports, roll call votes and the Congressional Record. Includes current and retrospective Congresses.

Includes the UN Treaty Series (UNTS), Status of Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General, Texts of Recently Deposited Multilateral Treaties, Photographs of Signature Ceremonies, Titles in the UN Official Languages.

Comprehensive collection of U.S. Supreme Court records and briefs searchable by citation, Docket Number, and keyword.

Published by CQ Press, this invaluable directory of U.S. governmental and non-governmental organizations. It covers federal agencies, governors and other state officials, U.S. and foreign diplomats, NGOs, policy groups, foundations, institutions, and Congress. You may search by keyword, organization name, or advanced search. You may also browse by organization type or public policy topic.

Comprehensive full-text coverage of law, business, news and reference sources, including periodicals.

This is a comprehensive world trade law website. Anyone can do a full-text search of all GATT/WTO Panel and Appellate Body reports, arbitration awards, and decisions. They also have freely available lists of and basic information on those items, as well as subject-matter pages on anti-dumping, ATC, safeguards, SPS, subsides/countervailing duties, trade in services, and TRIPS. It you are on the WCL network, you also have access to their WTO Dispute Settlement Commentaries (these are summaries and critical analyses of all new WTO Panel and Appellate Body reports within 1-3 weeks after they are circulated to the WTO Members), complete with an index of legal provisions/terms and a full-text search capability, as well as Dispute Settlement Commentaries for selected WTO arbitrations and for NAFTA Chapter 20 Panel reports.

RIA Worldwide Tax Law covers major laws for many countries, including income and corporate tax law, VAT, corporation law, trust law, commercial codes, environmental law, money laundering and other regulations affecting financial transactions, labor law, and bankruptcy.