Law

Law reviews (also called law journals) are scholarly journals containing articles on legal issues. Articles in law reviews provide the most scholarly and in-depth information on the law. The often extensive footnotes can also serve as useful leads for further research.

Law reviews are edited by students and are published by law schools or bar associations. Most law schools publish a general law review (e.g., Harvard Law Review) dealing with all aspects of the law and usually named after the university, and one or more specialized law reviews (e.g., the Harvard Women’s Law Journal) focusing on a specific area of law. The lead articles are written by professionals such as law professors, lawyers, or judges. Shorter essays, such as case notes analysing the holdings in specific cases, or brief comments on legislation or legal principles, are written by students.

Bar journals are periodicals published by national, state, local, and specialized bar associations. Some bar journals are as scholarly as any law review published by a university, whereas others are more like popular magazines or chatty newsletters. Articles in bar journals tend to be much more practical and focused on the law as it currently exists, whereas articles in law reviews tend more toward the theoretical or idealistic and often discuss options for reform. Articles in bar journals, not being intended for an audience of academics, tend to have much fewer footnotes than those in law reviews.

Information About Law Reviews and Bar Journals

Most Cited Legal Periodicals (Washington & Lee Law School)

Sorts U.S. and some foreign scholarly law journals according to how frequently they have been cited since 1997.

Writing for and Publishing in Law Reviews (University of Washington School of Law)

Tips and resources for students who want to write for or edit law reviews.

Full Texts of Law Reviews and Bar Journals

Electronic

Law Reviews (LexisNexis^® Academic)

Available to members of the UNT community, this online database searches and retrieves the full text of law review and bar journal articles by keyword and by date. Coverage varies by title. Only articles from about the last 10–20 years are available, and the full text of an article is not always available online (authors have the option of suppressing online publication of their articles).

Law Reviews Online (Law Library of Congress)

Alphabetical list of links to law journals and other periodicals that offer free and complete online access to the full text of articles and notes. Indicates which issues are available online. Publication sites that provide only promotional information, tables of contents, or abstracts are not included.

University Law Review Project (Coalition of Online Law Journals)

Searches full text of law reviews available on Internet; links to online journals (some full text, some abstracts only) arranged alphabetically, by topic, and by school.

ABA Journal

This, the official publication of the American Bar Association, is a general-interest news and business magazine about the law and the practice of it. Stories are reported and written in the same style as such magazines as Time or Business Week. Although stories may focus on specific cases or decisions, they are usually reported as part of a more general context in order to interest a broad range of readers. Recent articles are available online. Earlier articles are available upon request.

Texas Bar Journal

This is the official publication of the State Bar of Texas. Issues from 2001 to the present are available online. Earlier articles are available upon request.

Paper

If you have a specific publication in mind and want to see if the Libraries subscribe to it, enter the title as a title search in the Library Catalog. The catalog record will show which issues the Libraries own and where they are located.

Finding Articles in Law Reviews and Bar Journals

Print Indexes

The most efficient way of locating an article in a law review or bar journal is usually by consulting one of the two specialized indexes currently published for legal literature: the Index to Legal Periodicals and Books (formerly the Index to Legal Periodicals) or the Current Law Index. The UNT Libraries subscribe to the former. Both of these publications index the vast majority of law reviews and bar journals published in English by law schools and commercial publishers. They do not index legal newspapers or newsletters.

Some other indexes may be useful for locating older articles that were not indexed in the Index to Legal Periodicals and Books.

Once you have identified an article in one of the following indexes, you can search the title of the periodical (not the title of the article) in the Online Catalog to determine whether the UNT Libraries have a subscription and which issues are available. More recent articles can be obtained online in LexisNexis Academic, available to members of the UNT community.

Index to Legal Periodicals & Books (1994–current)
In Third Floor Abstracts & Indexes

Approximately 2,500 legal treatises are covered by this index, along with approximately 800 legal periodicals. Only articles at least 5 pages long are indexed. Only notes and comments at least 2 pages long are indexed.

Index to Legal Periodicals (1952–1994)
In Third Floor Abstracts & Indexes

This index began with coverage of 80 English-language legal periodicals in 1926 and increased its coverage to approximately 600 legal periodicals by 1994. In 1994 this publication was succeeded by the Index to Legal Periodicals and Books.

Index to Periodical Articles Related to Law (1969–1993)
In Third Floor Abstracts & Indexes

Indexes law-related articles selected from journals that are not included in the the Current Law Index, Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals, or Index to Legal Periodicals.

An Index to Legal Periodical Literature (1888–1939)
Located in Remote Storage

Covers English-language periodicals in the field of law. This index is useful for researching very old articles, since it covers a time period before the Index to Legal Periodicals began publication.

Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (1960–1980)
Located in Remote Storage

Indexes journal articles, festschrifts, book reviews, and collections of essays on international law, comparative law, and foreign law. Many times a foreign legal periodical, even if published in a non-English speaking country, will include a few articles in English.

Full-Text Searching in LexisNexis Academic

The LexisNexis Academic database contains the full text of hundreds of law reviews.

Searching this database is a little trickier than searching a journal index, because subject searching is not available. You can search every word of an article, not just the title and subject headings as you would in a paper index. This means not only that you can create very specific searches (which can even be limited to specific segments of the article, such as the title or the footnotes), but also that you must create a relatively specific search in order not to generate hundreds of irrelevant results.

The coverage of law review articles in the LexisNexis full-text database is also rather spotty compared to coverage in the major paper indexes, so keep in mind that even if you use LexisNexis, you should also search a paper index. LexisNexis does contain hundreds of legal newspapers, magazines, and newsletters that are not indexed in the Index to Legal Periodicals and Books. Each search method offers something the other does not.

To perform a search in LexisNexis Academic:

1. Select Legal Research
2. Select Legal News (to search legal newspapers, magazines, or newsletters) or Law Reviews (to search law reviews and bar journals)
3. Select the Quick search or the Guided search. A Guided search will allow you to search specific segments of the article (such as the title) and will allow you to restrict your search to a specific journal if you wish.

The Source List will tell you which publications are indexed and what years are available for each publication.

Annotated Codes

Annotated codes such as the U.S. Code Annotated and Vernon’s Texas Codes Annotated can provide you with a list of articles that discuss a specific statute.

At the end of each statute, there is a section called LIBRARY REFERENCES. A subsection called Law Review and Journal Commentaries will list any law review articles that have commented on that particular statute.

Shepard's Citations

This resource is usually used to determine the later history of a case or statute, but it can also be used to locate law review articles related to a case, statute, or certain other legal documents. The law review articles always appear at the very end of the results list. See the Shepard's Quick Reference Guide for information on how to Shepardize, how to customize your report, and how to interpret your results.

1. From the LexisNexis Academic Main Menu, select the Legal tab, then select Shepard's® Citations
2. Enter a citation to retrieve prior and subsequent history and all citing references. If you are not sure of the correct format for the document you are citing, click on the Citation Formats link to see a display of sample citations.
3. Click the Check button to retrieve your results. 
4. A list of citations will appear. Some of the results may be available in the LexisNexis Database in the Law Reviews section.
5. If you want to start over, click the Clear Form link to clear all of your entries from the form and start again with the default settings.