Law

This is a guide to sources of primary documents related to the law, such as statutes, regulations, rulings, court opinions, as well as secondary resources such as dictionaries, directories, and law reviews. It also includes tips on researching and writing about the law.

• Getting Started
• Overview of the American Legal System
• How to Read a Legal Citation

Getting Started

These are some of the most popular sources for legal research.

General Resources

GPO Access (U.S. Government Printing Office)

The Government Printing Office prints many of the official legal publications of U.S. federal agencies. This Web site includes online versions of the federal statutes, congressional materials, proposed and final federal regulations, and presidential documents.

LexisNexis® Academic

This database, available to members of the UNT community, contains full-text law reviews and journals, U.S. federal and state codes, federal and state caselaw,including case summaries, headnotes, and Shepard's Citations, and Canadian and European legal materials.

Campus Research (Westlaw)

This database, available to members of the UNT community, is design specifically for the needs of librarians and college students. It includes the full text of the U.S. Code Annotated, federal and state statutes, all published federal and state cases, current and pending federal regulations, European Union laws and regulations, and secondary sources such as American Jurisprudence, American Law Reports, and hundreds of law reviews and journals.

Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids (U.S. Government Printing Office)

This site provides learning tools for K–12 students, parents, and teachers. These resources teach how our government works, how to  use of the primary source materials of GPO Access, and how one can use GPO Access to carry out one's civic responsibilities. The site can also be useful to adults who need a simple explanation of how our federal government works.

Statutory Law

THOMAS (Library of Congress)

This free government database is one of the best sources of current and historical legislative information. Bills can be searched by keyword or bill number, or browsed by sponsor. Related resources such as committee reports, schedules, and calendars are also included.

U.S. Code (Cornell University Law School)

The United States Code is the codification by subject matter of the general and permanent laws of the United States. It is divided by broad subjects into 50 titles and published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives. This version is generated from the most recent official version made available by the US House of Representatives. Search by Title and Section, browse by Table of Contents, or search by keyword.

LexisNexis® Congressional

This database, available to members of the UNT community, contains information about the U.S. Congress and its activities. Included are legislative histories, bills, and laws; background information on members of Congress and their committees; full text of the Congressional Record back to 1985; information on hot bills and hot topics; and full text of the congressional news publications The Hill, Roll Call, and Section A of The Washington Post. For a guide to using this database, see Using LexisNexis Congressional.

Regulatory Law

regulations.gov

This is the main online source for U.S. government regulations from nearly 300 federal agencies. On this site you can Search for a proposed rule, final rule, or Federal Register (FR) notice; submit a comment on a proposed regulation or on another comment; submit an application, petition, or adjudication document; sign up for E-mail alerts about a specific regulation; quickly access regulations that are popular, newly posted or closing soon; and subscribe to RSS feeds by agency of newly-posted FR notices.

Federal Register (Library of Congress)

Published by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)‘s Office of the Federal Register, the Federal Register is the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents

Code of Federal Regulations (Government Printing Office)

The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) is the codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government. It is divided into 50 titles that represent broad areas subject to Federal regulation. Each volume of the CFR is updated once each calendar year and is issued on a quarterly basis.

Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (Government Printing Office)

The Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (e-CFR) is a currently updated version of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) that can be browsed by Title, Part, and Section. It is not an official legal edition of the CFR. The e-CFR is an editorial compilation of CFR material and Federal Register amendments produced by the National Archives and Records Administration's Office of the Federal Register (OFR) and the Government Printing Office. The OFR updates the material in the e-CFR on a daily basis. The current update status appears at the top of all e-CFR web pages.

Judicial Law

United States Courts (Federal Judiciary)

Official directory of official US federal courts and their Web sites. Includes extensive information on the U.S. federal court system, including statistics, history, rules and regulations, services available, and recent news. Also includes forms and records.

LexisNexis® Academic

Use the US Legal category to find judicial opinions, Supreme Court briefs, and law review articles; research prior and subsequent history and all citing references to a case; identify and obtain full text of landmark Supreme Court cases; and access several legal reference works such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, and directories.

State Law

LexisNexis® State Capital

This database, available to members of the UNT community, contains current statutes, regulations, and pending bills for each state in the U.S. It also includes information on members of each state legislature.

Texas Legislature Online

Official Web site of the Texas Legislature. Find information about members and committees, track bills, and research earlier legislation back to 1989. The Legislative Reference Library provides extensive information on the legislative process and on the background of specific bills and other issues.

Texas Constitution and Statutes

Current Texas Constitution as most recently amended, and a codification by subject matter of the current general laws of the State of Texas.

Texas Administrative Code (Texas Secretary of State)

The Texas Administrative Code (TAC) is a compilation of all Texas state agency rules and regulations currently in effect. Rules are organized into 16 titles. Each title represents a subject category and related agencies are assigned to the appropriate title.

Texas Courts Online

Portal to Texas judicial pages. Locate courts and view contact information, find opinions and briefs, track cases. Includes an encyclopedia explaining aspects of the Texas judicial system.

Overview of the American Legal System

The Three Branches of Government

Separation of powers: The United States government is divided into three branches, each with its own distinct powers independent of the other two. 

The Legislative Branch makes the laws, called statutes [statutory law]. The Legislative Branch consists of the United States Congress, which is divided into two chambers: the Senate, in which each state is represented by two members, and the House of Representatives, in which states are represented proportionally according to their population.

The Executive Branch administers and enforces the laws, indicating through regulations and rulings exactly how the statutes are to be carried out [administrative or regulatory law]. The Executive Branch consists of the President, the Vice President, the Cabinet and all federal Departments, and most federal agencies.

The Judicial Branch interprets the meaning of the laws through court opinions [judiciary law]. The Judicial Branch consists of the Supreme Court, which mainly reviews cases appealed from lower courts and is the court of last appeal in the United States; the Federal Circuit Courts of Appeals, which hear appeals of contested decisions from the District Courts; the District Courts, which are federal trial courts; and several Special Courts that hear special types of cases, such as international trade cases or cases against the federal government.

Checks and Balances: Each branch has the authority to counter the actions of the other branches in certain ways, so that no one branch has complete control over the government. For example, the President may veto a bill passed by Congress and has the power to appoint federal judges; Congress must approve presidential appointments, and has the power to impeach federal judges and other officials; and the Supreme court can declare laws passed by Congress or regulations issued by the Executive Branch to be unconstitutional. 

Federalism

The U.S. federal government has jurisdiction over matters that are of national interest or that cross state boundaries, such as the currency system. The state governments reserve authority over matters that transpire within their own boundaries, such as punishment for various crimes.

In case of a conflict, federal laws and international treaties supersede state and local laws.

The U.S. Constitution, considered the supreme law of the land, supersedes all federal, state, and local laws. None of these laws is allowed to contradict the Constitution. Each state also has its own constitution, which laws within the state cannot contradict.

Each state government also has its own constitution and its own three branches of government. The legislative branch consists of a state legislature, usually consisting of a senate and a house of representatives, which enacts the statutes that apply to that state. The executive branch consists of a governor and various state agencies, implement the state laws and prescribe how they are to be carried out. The judicial branch consists of a hierarchy of courts, including several trial courts, at least one level of appellate courts, and one or two courts of last resort. State courts only interpret laws within their own state, and their opinions are not binding on other states.

How to Read a Legal Citation

In the 1920s, editors of law reviews realized that the extensive footnotes to the scholarly article in their publications often took up more space than the articles themselves. In order to simplify matters and economize on space, they devised a shorthand system for identifying legal publications. This system was codified in the 1926 publication A Uniform System of Citation, which came to be known as The Bluebook. This system is now the most widely used method for citing legal materials in the United States.

For citations to Texas law, the Texas Law Review Association has developed a supplement to The Bluebook called Texas Rules of Form. It is popularly referred to as the Greenbook. The rules in the Greenbook apply specifically to sources of Texas state law and always supersede the general rules contained in the Bluebook. The Greenbook is not available online, but a paper copy is on reserve at the Government Documents Service Desk.

More a more thorough explanation of legal citation principles, including instructions on how to create a citation, see Basic Legal Citation by Peter W. Martin of Cornell University.

Example of a Legal Citation

Empy v. State, 571 S.W.2d 526 (Tex. Crim. App. 1978).

This is a reference to a case between Louis Empy and the state of Texas. The decision was published in volume 571 of the South Western Reporter, second series, on page 526. The case was tried in 1978 in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

For more examples of various types of legal materials, see Basic Legal Citation: Examples.

Basic Form of a Citation

The exact format of a legal citation will differ depending on what sort of work is being cited. Nevertheless, legal citations following The Bluebook will include the following elements:

• The name of the case, statute, regulation, or article
• The source information, which consists of three parts:
• Volume number
• Name of the source (usually abbreviated)
• Page or section number
• The date

Many citations contain additional information, such as an author's name or the name of the court that issued a particular decision. This can help you evaluate how authoritative or credible the item cited might be.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations are used to make a citation as brief as possible. They can also render it obscure. There are many resources that can help you identify what source is being referred to by an abbreviation in a legal citation. Perhaps the most comprehensive is Bieber's Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations, by Mary Miles Prince. This reference work is available at the Government Documents Service Desk in Willis Library.