Law

You can perform a subject search in any library catalog, using the term Law to find general works on law or legal systems as well as collections of statutes not limited to a specific topic. Use the red Library of Congress Subject Headings books available on each floor of the library to identify more specific subject headings you can use in the library catalog.

To find works on the legislative process, do a subject search using the term Legislation.

To find works on legislative enactments as a source of law, do a subject search using the term Statutes.

To find works on the science of law, do a subject search using the term Jurisprudence.

To find works on the interpretation of statutes and other laws, do s subject search using the term Law — Interpretation and construction.

You can also do a subject search under the following categories:

• Names of legal systems, such as Canon law, Common law, or Roman law
• Branches of law, such as Constitutional law, Criminal law, or Maritime law
• Specific legal topics, such as Contracts or Mortgages

You can search for the subdivision Law and legislation under other specific topics. For example, Telecommunication — Law and legislation.

You can search for the subdivision Legal status, laws, etc. under headings for groups of people. For example, Teachers — Legal status, laws, etc.

Here are some other subject terms related to law:

• Bahai law
• Bible and law
• Buddhism and law
• Canon law
• Christianity and law
• Commercial law
• Compensation (Law)
• Conflict of laws
• Confucianism and law
• Constitutions
• Courts
• Culture and law
• Dead bodies (law)
• Environmental law
• Formalities (Law)
• Illegality
• International law
• Jurisdiction
• Justice
• Justice, Administration of
• Law, Primitive
• Legal polycentricity
• Natural law
• Practice of law
• Procedure (Law)
• Proportionality in law
• Public law
• Public relations and law
• Publicity (Law)
• Religion and law
• Science and law
• Semantics (Law)
• Semiotics (Law)
• Signature (Law)
• Statutes
• Technology and law
• Violence (Law)

Most books in the UNT Libraries general collection are classified under the Library of Congress Classification system, so named because it was originally developed for classifying books at the Library of Congress. 

Most of our more current books related to law are located on the Third Floor of Willis Library under the call number KF.

For a more specific list of call numbers and what type of books are classified under each, see the Library of Congress Classification Outline.

Our reference books related to law can be found under call numbers beginning with KF in the Reference section on Willis Library First Floor, in the Documents Reference section on Willis Library Third Floor, and at the Information Desk on Willis Library Third Floor.

The UNT libraries started classifying books under the Library of Congress system in 1970. Before that, we used the Dewey Decimal Classification system. If you wish to browse older books on law, you can find them on Willis Library Third Floor under call number ranging from 340 to 349. The specific subheadings are as follows:

340 Law
341 Law of nations
342 Constitutional & administrative law
343 Military, tax, trade & industrial law
344 Labor, social, education & cultural law
345 Criminal law
346 Private law
347 Civil procedure & courts
348 Laws, regulations & cases
349 Law of specific jurisdictions & areas

Many of our books on law, especially the compilations of laws, are published by U.S. government agencies. These are arranged in order by the issuing agency and are assigned Superintendent of Documents Classification numbers, which classify documents not by subject, but by the agency that produces the document. This means that government documents related to law will not be in one convenient area, but will be scattered throughout the documents collection. For example, recently passed federal statutes will appear under AE 2.111 because they are published by the National Archives and Records Administration; Supreme Court opinions will appear under JU 6.8 for the Judiciary Department. Older federal statutes appear under GS 4.111 because they used to be issued by the now defunct General Services Administration.

Because of the nature of how government documents are arranged, we advise you to search for publications using the library catalog or to rely on staff in the Government Documents Department rather than try to browse the collection, at least until you are familiar with the arrangement of the federal documents collection.

Texas documents related to law use their own Texas Documents Classification Scheme, which also arranges documents by agency and which poses the same problems in browsing as the federal documents.