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Legal History Research GuideThis selective research guide highlights major print and electronic resources available to Cleveland-Marshall College of Law students engaged in "Legal History" research, with primary emphasis upon United States legal history. Please contact the research services staff during research services hours, or via email to research.services@law.csuohio.edu, for help in locating these or other resources to meet your needs.
Research Paper Topic Selection Searching SCHOLAR and OhioLINK Catalogs Periodicals and Current Awareness Services LexisNexis/Westlaw "Saved Searches"
Researching Legal History can help one to better analyze and critique the foundation and development of current law as well as current cultural, social, economic, and political issues. Perhaps most illuminating, in the face of the doctrine of precedent, legal history provides evidence for how law changes over time and how law changes in relationship to cultural, social, economic, and political change. Though it is difficult to completely remove oneself from one's personal philosophies and experiences, when researching legal history one should make every effort to analyze historical figures and their actions according to their environment, language, society, and culture. In addition to objectivity, keen critical evaluation of resources is essential for valid legal history research. Legal History encompasses a great array of primary and secondary materials and literature. At any time you may need to research statutes, code sections, legislative history, regulations, regulatory history, administrative decisions, and court decisions, as well as archival, historical, cultural, and social science materials. For in-depth information on statutes, code sections, and legislative history, consult the Federal Legislative History and Legislative History Research guides available on the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Library Law Library Publications and Resource Guides page. In these legislative history guides, note in particular the historical resources A Century of Lawmaking For A New Nation: US Congressional Documents and Debates 1774-1875 from the Library of Congress Thomas system, the CIS United States Serial Set Index and Microfiche Library (for 1789-1969 Congressional materials) in Law Library Microforms, and the CIS US Congressional Committee Hearings Index and Microfiche Library (for 1833-1969 hearings) in Law Library Microforms. See also the LexisNexis: Legal: Legislation & Politics - U.S. & U.K.: U.S. Congress: Legislative Histories: CIS/Historical Index (for 1789-1980 Congressional materials). For in-depth information on regulations, regulatory history, and administrative decisions, consult the Administrative Law guide available on the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Library Law Library Publications and Resource Guides page.
Research Paper Topic Selection Selecting an appropriate topic for a research paper may seem more stressful than the writing itself. How can you find an interesting topic in which there's not too much, yet not too little, written? First, try reviewing current issues and hot topics. Yes, there are "current issues and hot topics" in legal history research. Historians and legal history scholars continuously analyze the past, as well as critique historiography. Browse news and current events on professional or scholarly organization Web sites, such as the Association of American Law Schools and American Society for Legal History. Check out Lawtopic.com, which lists over 90 paper topics and includes tips on writing a student article. Browse legal news Web sites such as American Lawyer Media's American Lawyer, Law.Com, National Law Journal, and New York Law Journal, as well as Lawyers Weekly. Beyond providing resources for conducting research on a topic, both LexisNexis and Westlaw have news and other materials that may help you to identify a paper topic. In LexisNexis, review the source files arranged under "Legal - Area of Law - By Topic," "Legal - Secondary Legal" (such as the Bar Journals, Combined and Combined Legal Newsletters source files, as well as the American Bar Association group of source files) and "Legal - Legal News," as well as "News & Business - News" and "News & Business - Market & Industry - By Industry & Topic." In Westlaw, review the databases arranged under "Topical Materials by Area of Practice," "Legal Periodicals & Current Awareness" (such as Legal Newsletter Multibase, Legal Newspapers, and Notable Trials) and "Business and News" (such as the "Business & Trade Journals by Industry" and "Legal News" groups). Second, once you've identified an appropriate topic, do a quick preliminary literature review to determine whether there are sufficient resources to discuss the topic as well as present your hypothesis and evidence-based conclusion. See the Scholarly Writing research guide, available on the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Library Law Library Publications and Resource Guides page, and other sections of this Legal History guide for more complete information on conducting print and electronic research for your paper.
Searching SCHOLAR and OhioLINK Catalogs (SCHOLAR hands-on instruction) SCHOLAR is the electronic catalog for Cleveland State University's Law Library and University Library. CSU also participates in the state-wide consortia OhioLINK, which provides access to a state-wide central catalog and numerous research databases. For treatises and other materials on legal history, search the SCHOLAR and OhioLINK catalogs with the subject headings Jurisprudence - History, Law -- History, and Law --United States -- History.
America on Trial: Inside the Legal Battles that Transformed Our Nation / Alan M. Dershowitz. Warner Books, c2004. KF220 .D368 2004 American Law in the 20th Century / Lawrence M. Friedman. Yale University Press, c2002. KF385 .A4 F7 2002 American Legal Realism / William W. Fisher III, Morton J. Horwitz, and Thomas Reed, eds. Oxford University Press, c1993. KF379 .A43 1993 The Anglo-American Legal Heritage: Introductory Materials / Daniel R. Coquillette. Carolina Academic Press, c1999. KD532 .C66 1999 The Cloaking of Power: Montesquieu, Blackstone, and the Rise of Judicial Activism / Paul O. Carrese. University of Chicago Press, c2003. K2146 .C375 2003 The Common Law and English Jurisprudence, 1760-1850 / Michael Lobban. Clarendon Press and Oxford University Press, c1991. KD671 .L6 1991 Constitutional History of the United States as Seen in the Development of American Law: a Course of Lectures before the Political Science Association of the University of Michigan / T.M. Cooley, et al. F.B. Rothman, c1993. KF4541 .Z9 C59 1993 Critical Studies in Ancient Law, Comparative Law and Legal History / John W. Cairns and Olivia F. Robinson. Oxford and Hart, c2001. K590 .C74 2001 Documents of American Constitutional and Legal History / Melvin I. Urofsky and Paul Finkelman, eds. Oxford University Press, c2002. Reference KF4502 .D635 2002 Essays in Legal History Read before the International Congress of Historical Studies Held in London in 1913 / Paul Vinogradoff, ed. Gaunt, c1993. K179 .V55 1993 The Evolution of Western Private Law / Alan Watson. Johns Hopkins University Press, c2001. K150 .W37 2001 Folkways and Law Ways: Law in American Studies / Helle Porsdam, ed. Odense University Press ; distributed by International Specialized Book Services, c2001. KF385 .F65 2001 Form, Substance, and History in Max Weber's Sociology of Law / John Wright Sither. PhD in Jurisprudence and Social Policy, University of California, Berkeley, May 1995. K370 .S57 1995 Historic U.S. Court Cases: an Encyclopedia / John W. Johnson, ed. Routledge, c2001. KF385 .A4 J64 2001 Historical Law-Tracts / Henry Home Kames. Lawbook Exchange, c2000. KD612 .K36 2000 History and the Juridical Field: Narrative, Justification and Explanation in the American Case / Christopher L. Tomlins. American Bar Foundation, c2003. KF294 .A3 W6 no.2209 A History of American Law / Lawrence M. Friedman. Simon & Schuster, c2005. KF352 .F7 2005 The History of Lawyers: Ancient and Modern / William Forsyth. Lawbook Exchange, c1996. K115 .F668 1996 Ideology and Community in the First Wave of Critical Legal Studies / Richard W. Bauman. University of Toronto Press, c2002. KF380 .B38 2002 Imagining the Law: Common Law and the Foundations of the American Legal System / Norman F. Cantor. HarperCollins, c1997. KF394 .C36 1997 In a Wilderness of Tigers: the Culture of Violence, the Discourse of English Colonizing, and the Refusals of American History / Christopher L. Tomlins. American Bar Foundation, c2001. KF294 .A3 W6 no.2105 Intervention and Detachment: Essays in Legal History and Jurisprudence / G. Edward White. Oxford University Press, 1994. KF379 .W54 1994 Introduction to Anglo-American Law & Language = Einführung in die Anglo-Amerikansche Rechtssprache / von B. Sharon Byrd. Beck, c2001. K213 .B97 2001 Jurisprudence: from the Greeks to Post-Modernism / Wayne Morrison. Cavendish Pub., c1997. K325 .M67 1997 Law and History: the Evolution of the American Legal System / Anthony Chase. New Press; distributed by W.W. Norton, c1997. KF352 .C46 1997 Law and People in Colonial America / Peter Charles Hoffer. Johns Hopkins University Press, c1998. KF361 .H63 1998 Law as Culture and Culture as Law: Essays in Honor of John Phillip Reid / Hendrik Hartog and William E. Nelson, eds.; Barbara Wilcie Kern, ex. ed. Madison House Publishers, c2000. KF352 .A2 L367 2000 Law in America: a Short History / Lawrence M. Friedman. Modern Library, c2002. KF352 .F7113 2002 Law, Society, and the State: Essays in Modern Legal History / Louis A. Knafla and Susan W.S. Binnie, eds. University of Toronto Press, c1995. KE394 .L385 1995 The Legal Origins of the Modern American State / William J. Novak. American Bar Foundation, c1999. KF294 .A3 W6 no.9925 Legal Traditions of the World: Sustainable Diversity in Law / H. Patrick Glenn. Oxford University Press, c2004. K559 .G545 2004 Lex et Romanitas: Essays for Alan Watson / Michael Hoeflich, ed. Robbins Collection, c2000. K561 .L48 2000 The Life of the Law: the People and Cases that Have Shaped Our Society, from King Alfred to Rodney King / Alfred Knight. Crown, c1996. KF385 .A4 K58 1996 Looking Back at Law's Century / Austin Sarat, Bryant Garth, and Robert A. Kagan, eds. Cornell University Press, c2002. KF371 .A2 L66 2002 Main Currents in American Legal Thought / Bernard Schwartz. Carolina Academic Press, c1993. KF352 .S35 1993 The Many Legalities of Early America / Christopher L. Tomlins and Bruce H. Mann, eds. Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture by the University of North Carolina Press, c2001. KF361 .A2 M36 2001 "No Respecter of Persons": Law and the American Renaissance / Allen Ascher. PhD Thesis, City University of New York, 1993. PS217 .L37 A82 1993 On Trial: American History through Court Proceedings and Hearings / Robert D. Marcus and Anthony Marcus. Brandywine Press, c1998. E173 .O58 1998 The Original Misunderstanding: the English, the Americans and the Dialectic of Federalist Jurisprudence / Stephen B. Presser. Carolina Academic Press, c1991. KF380 .P73 1991 Patterns of American Jurisprudence / Neil Duxbury. Clarendon Press and Oxford University Press, c1995. KF380 .D84 1995 The People's Welfare: Law and Regulation in Nineteenth-Century America / William J. Novak. University of North Carolina Press, c1996. KF366 .N68 1996 and Electronic The Politics of Jurisprudence: a Critical Introduction to Legal Philosophy / Roger Cotterrell. University of Pennsylvania Press, c1992. KD640 .C67 1992 Roman and Civil Law and the Development of Anglo-American Jurisprudence in the Nineteenth Century / M.H. Hoeflich. University of Georgia Press, c1997. KD540 .H64 1997 A Short History of Western Legal Theory / J.M. Kelly. Clarendon Press and Oxford University Press, c1992. K215 .E53 K45 1992 The Spirit of American Law / George S. Grossman; foreword by Rennard Strickland. Westview Press, c2000. KF351 .S68 2000 Stewards of Democracy: Law as a Public Profession / Paul D. Carrington. Westview Press, c1999. KF352 .C33 1999 The Story of Law / John Maxcy Zane; introduction by James M. Beck; new foreword, annotations, and bibliographies by Charles J. Reid, Jr. Liberty Fund, c1998. K150 .Z36 1998 Vignettes of Legal History / Julius J. Marke; introduction by Bernard Schwartz. Simmonds & Hill Pub. and Gaunt, c2000. KF4541 .M33 2000 A Year at the Supreme Court / Neal Devins and Davison M. Douglas, eds. Duke University Press, c2004. KF8742 .Y428 2004
Periodicals and Current Awareness Services See the Finding Articles in Law Reviews, Journals and Other Legal Periodicals guide for an explanation of the legal periodical indexes and databases available to Cleveland-Marshall College of Law students and the CSU community. That guide covers print and electronic indexes, as well as electronic full-text journals. In particular, note OhioLINK's Electronic Journal Center and its 11 subject clusters, such as "Social Sciences," which includes Politics, Political Science, and Law journals, and "Arts and Humanities," which includes History journals. Selected periodicals and current awareness services in the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Library collection concerning "Legal History," with primary emphasis upon United States legal history, include the following: The American Journal of Legal History. Temple University School of Law. K1 .M475 & Electronic via Hein Online ASLH Newsletter. American Society for Legal History. KF352 .A1 A84
No matter what topic you select for your "Legal History" research paper, to fully understand and appreciate the myriad issues involved in it, you will likely need to conduct interdisciplinary research in historical, cultural, social, economic, and/or political areas. The OhioLINK state-wide library consortia provides access to over 100 Research Databases arranged in 40 topical groups. For example, the "Law and Legislation" group includes Index to Legal Periodicals and Books; LexisNexis Academic; Ohio Capitol Connection; Oxford Reference, Law; Oxford Reference, Politics and Social Sciences; PAIS International; and Sociological Abstracts. The "History" group includes America: History and Life; American Periodicals Series Online; Historical Abstracts; and Oxford Reference, History. Both of these two topical groups include Dissertation Abstracts; Historic New York Times; New York Times; PapersFirst; ProceedingsFirst; and Social Sciences Citation Index. All of the OhioLINK topical Research Databases groups include WorldCat, an international library consortia catalog of over 43 million records of materials dating from 1000 BC to the present. The Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Library Web site includes links to numerous Legal Reference materials, Federal Legal Resources, and Ohio/Local Legal Resources, as well as Law Library Publications and Resource Guides. New Resource Guides, covering topics such as Legal History and Slavery Law, are being added on a continuous basis.
LexisNexis/Westlaw "Saved Searches" LexisNexis “Saved” Searches – Alerts LexisNexis allows you to save a search then have it automatically run for you on a periodic basis. You can have "Alert" search results delivered to you as a regular LexisNexis print or emailed. You must first conduct a search in order to save it as an "Alert" search. You cannot enter "Alerts," then create a search. As with all LexisNexis searching, the "Alerts" service allows you to combine numerous source files in which to run your search. During your source file selection, the system will prompt you as to whether specific source files can be combined. Whenever you are in the results of a desired search, click on “Save as Alert” link at the top. The Save Alert” page should appear. The system asks you to: (A) name the search (B) specify daily, weekly (as well as what day of week), or monthly (as well as what day of month), frequency for the search to be run (C) specify online, print or email delivery – various options apply to each of these choices (eg, Cite, KWIC, or Full documents) (D) specify whether you want email notification of search delivery Once you have made your selections, click on “Save” at the lower right. The “Confirm Alert” page should appear, verifying your Alert search set-up. Click on “Save” to really save the Alert search. To manage your "Alert" searches, whenever you’re in LexisNexis, click on “Alerts” tab at the top. The “Alerts” page should appear, with information on each search displayed. (A) To edit an Alert search, click on “Edit” to the right of the desired search. The “Edit Alert Properties” page should appear. Click on “Edit Search” button at top right. The “Edit Alert Search Properties” page should appear. (B) To delete an Alert search, click on “Delete” to the right of that search. The system will ask if you really want to delete the search – click on “Yes.” Westlaw “Saved Searches” – WestClip Westlaw allows you to save a search then have it automatically run for you on a periodic basis. You can have search results delivered to you as a regular Westlaw print or emailed. As with all Westlaw searching, the WestClip service allows you to combine up to ten databases in which to run your search. However, not all databases are available for WestClip searches. During your database selection, the system will prompt you as to whether specific databases are available for WestClip. After signing on to Westlaw, you can initiate a WestClip search by clicking on the arrow next to the "More" box at the upper right and selecting WestClip in the drop-down menu. You can also initiate a WestClip search whenever you are in the results of a desired search by: (A) when in "Full Screen View," click on "Result Options" at the bottom right, or (B) when in "Full Text Results," and have the "Result List" tab selected in the left frame, click on "Result Options" at the upper left of the left frame. Whichever method used, a menu should appear, and you should select "Add Search to WestClip" within that menu. Whichever above method you use to initiate a WestClip search, the “WestClip: Create Entry” page should appear. The system asks you to: (A) under “Entry Details” (in left column), name the “clip” search. [Here you are also able to change or add database(s), as well as edit your search.] (B) next to “Delivery Settings” (in right column), click on “Edit” and specify search: (1) Frequency (eg, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, etc.) (2) Destination (eg, Stand-alone Printer, Download to Disk, E-mail, etc.); notification options here too (3) Result Format (eg, All Pages, First Pages, List of All Citations, etc.) (4) Size of Results (a) Inform me of no results (b) Limits (eg, Maximum lines per result, etc.) (6) Ranking Order (7) Next Run Date (8) End Date After making your selections, click on “Save” at the lower left. The “WestClip: Create Entry” page should reappear. Click on “Save” at lower left to really save WestClip search. The “WestClip: Directory” page should appear, with your WestClip search listed. To manage your WestClip searches, whenever you’re in Westlaw, click on the arrow next to the “More” box at top right, and select “WestClip” in the drop-down menu. The “WestClip: Directory” page should appear, with information on each search displayed. (A) To edit a WestClip search, click on its name. The “WestClip: Create Entry” page should appear. Click inside the “Database” box to change database identifier. Click inside the “Query” box to edit search. Click on “Edit” at the upper right to change “Delivery Settings.” (B) To delete a “WestClip search, click on “Delete” to the right of that search’s information row. The system will ask if you really want to delete the search – click on “OK.”
If you're inexperienced with searching the WorldWideWeb, or having poor luck doing so, consult the Web Searching guide available from the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Library Law Library Publications and Resource Guides page. It includes information on evaluating Web sites, principles and guidelines for Web searching, Web directories, Web search engines, Web metasearch engines, and the Invisible Web. Key Law-Related and Legal Research Web sites concerning "Legal History," with primary emphasis upon United States legal history, include the following: American Association of Law Libraries: Legal History & Rare Books Special Interest Section: Legal History Websites American Bar Association: Division for Public Education American Society for Legal History Association of American Law Schools Section on Legal History "Primary Sources from American Popular Culture." See in particular its Resources, Founding Documents and References. Cornell University Law School: Legal Information Institute: Court Opinions: US Supreme Court Opinions Note links to historic opinions grouped by topic, author, and party. Federal Judicial Center: History of the Federal Judiciary FindLaw: FindLaw for Students: Outlines & Exams: Legal History, Theory & Process Georgia State University College of Law: Meta-Index for U.S. Legal Research See in particular the Law and History Review, available here in full-text. Jurist: Legal Research: Law Guides: Legal History Library of Congress: American Memory: Government, Law Collection Full text of approximately 9,500 books and 50,000 articles from the 19th century. "U.S. Supreme Court Multimedia." Selective coverage before 1995, but full coverage 1995 forward. Penn State University: Sheely-Lee Law Library: Legal Research Resources: Legal Research HELP: Anglo-American Legal History Research Guide and Bibliography South Texas College of Law: Faculty: Professor Profiles: Mark E. Steiner: Web Resources for American Legal History Supreme Court Historical Society United States Congress: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress United States National Archives and Records Administration See in particular its Access to Archival Databases and Historical Documents Online: Search Hints for Selected Topics in ARC. University of Chicago D'Angelo Law Library: Legal History Sources University of Pittsburgh School of Law: Bernard J. Hibbitts: Legal History University of Texas at Austin: Tarlton Law Library: Research and Reference: Subject Guides: Guide to Legal History Resources on the Web Yale Law School: Avalon Project at Yale Law School: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy
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Laura E. Ray, MA, MLS Educational Programing Librarian February 2006 |
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