POLS 455: Legal Para-Professional

Resources for Legal Research

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Citations

APSA style help

California Style Manual

Citation Guides

Evaluation

Web Pages: CRAAP Test

Scholarly Articles

Order Articles

Use Interlibrary Loan

Legal Background

West's Encyclopedia of American Law
KF154 W47 2005 (Law Reference)

Encyclopedia of the American Constitution
KF4548 E53 2000 (Law Reference)

Supreme Court Yearbook

Landmark Decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court
KF4549 F56 2003 (Law Reference)

Books

Search the Library Catalog for Books

Court Forms

California court forms can be found on line from the California Court.

Search for Scholarly Articles

See an example for polisci and cj and law

How can you tell it's scholarly? See this: pdf html

Academic Search
Search for articles on political science or criminal justice topics. Link to full text articles. Check "scholarly (peer reviewed) articles" to limit results to scholarly articles.

LexisNexis Academic
Use the "Legal Research" category to search for law review articles. These articles are considered scholarly law journal articles.

Westlaw Campus Research
Select "Journals and Law Reviews" and a state or "all" to find scholarly law review articles in this database.

Search for Legal Sources

LexisNexis Academic
Find laws, cases, regulations, and more on this database. Select "Legal Research" to find legal material.

Westlaw Campus Research
Find laws, cases, regulations, and more on this database.

Legal Information Institute (from Cornell University)
Also has court opinions, laws, and regulations. Very student friendly.

Supreme Court Center (from FindLaw)
Offers guide to upcoming cases, including what legal question is under consideration. This stie also provides a searchable decision database, briefs, and other court materials.