Legal Resources on the Web

Jane Cramer

MEGA SITES

WWW Virtual Library-Law     http://www.law.indiana.edu/law/v-lib/lawindex.html
 A collection of subject related Web sites maintained by institutions throughout the world, each administering a different subject. Material within the Virtual Law Library is organized by organization type (i.e., US Government Servers) and by legal topic (i.e., Contracts). There is also a list of search tools and other comprehensive sites for law. Includes links to online legal periodicals.  One stop shopping for legal information.

Law Library of Congress      http://lcweb2.loc.gov/glin/us.html
Contains the following:
               - Introductions to Legal System & the Nation
               - Constitution & Constitutional Law
               - Congress & Federal Legislative Process
               - Code & Other Federal Legislation
               - Executive Agencies & Regulations
               - Law - Particular Fields
               - Federal Courts & Decisions
               - States & Associated Jurisdictions
               - Criminal Justice System (including states)
               - Law Reviews Online
               - Native Peoples ("American Indian Tribes")
               - Other Online Guides & Lists to U.S. Law
               - NAFTA - North American Free Trade Agreement
               - World Trade Organization & GATT

Library of Congress Judicial Resources Page  http://lcweb.loc.gov/global/judiciary.html
Statutes, regulations, judicial opinions, court rules, Comptroller General decisions, law journals, and links to law-related Internet sites. 

The Senate      http://www.senate.gov
Government and non-government links to law sites.

FindLaw    http://www.findlaw.com
An excellent and nearly comprehensive guide to legal information on the WWW. Includes many levels of law both US and International.

RefLaw     http://lawlib.wuacc.edu/washlaw/reflaw/reflegis.html
Rich site, built in search engines, good resources.

The Legal Information Institute--Cornell Law School     http://www.law.cornell.edu
This WWW-server integrates both the Gopher-based and the WWW-based offerings of the Legal Information Institute (LII), Cornell Law School. Includes recent Supreme Court decisions and indexes cases by justice's name, constitutional issue and case name. Also includes recent opinions of the New York Court of Appeals, full US Code and many other important legal documents. Provides links to other law sites.

LawMarks: The Legal Resource Database      http://www.iwc.com/entropy/marks/bkmrkjsm.html
Click on the "Federal Documents" section to search CRF, Fed Register, US Constitution, Congressional Directory, Federalist Papers, and more.
 

SUBJECT SPECIFIC SITES

Constitution of the United States    http://www.access.gpo/gov/su_docs/dpos/coredoc.html
Includes many core historical documents of the US Government.

Supreme Court
All of the Mega Sites have Supreme Court links but these sites have something extra:

FedWorld    http://www.fedworld.gov/supcourt/index.htm
Full text retrospective collection of decisions from 1937-1975.
 
Northwestern University http://oyez.at.nwu.edu/cases
This site has selected cases and arguments back to 1961. You must have the "Real Audio" plugin in order to use this site. Civil Liberties Site http://www.uark.edu/depts/comminfo/www/ACA.html
Sponsored by the American Communication Association this site provides links to a  wealth of Internet resources from around the world in the following areas of study:     - Academic Freedom and Campus Speech Codes
    - Copyright and Intellectual Property
    - Freedom of Speech
    - Freedom of Information
    - Freedom of Religion
    - Human Rights Issues
    - Law and Legal Research
    - Privacy Rights and Issues
    - Telecommunications: Law, Policy, and Society Legislation: Bills, Statutes, and Regulations
The legislative process involves several stages. Bills are introduced in Congress, whose activities can be tracked using the Congressial Record. They are considered by committees which generate hearings. New laws are first published as Statutes at Large and later codified into the US code. The actual application of laws is governed by the regulatory process which is published daily in the Federal Register and compiled annually in the Code of Federal Regulations.

Bills

THOMAS    http://thomas.loc.gov
Hot Bills: Subjects of floor action, debate or hearings in the 104th & 105th Congress; searchable by topic, popular/short name, or bill number.
Bill Summary & Status: Searchable summaries, and legislative histories of bills/amendments; browse lists of public laws and vetoed bills. Bill Text provides searchable versions of House and Senate bills; browse lists of bills by number and type for the 103-105 Congresses. Major new laws are available through Thomas and via GPO Gateway sites such as:   http://www.ucop   and   http://www.umich.edu 

The Historical History of Bills and Resolutions (1983-1996) http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aaces200.html
The History of Bills and Resolutions is a section of the Congressional Record Index that provides information about all bills and resolutions introduced during that session of Congress. The database is updated daily, usually the day after publication of the Congressional Record. Each year is available for searching individually, however, searching the Historical database searches all years except for the current year. Entries for each bill include actions that are reported in the Congressional Record and reference issue and date and pages where the action is reported.

Congressional Record Index     http://thomas.loc.gov
Track Congressional action on bills using this topical index to the Congressional Record. Browse Date and Part indexes for the 103rd and 104th Congresses and search daily proceedings on House and Senate Floors from 1994-to date.

Historical Congressional Record Index     http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aaces190.html
The Congressional Record Index is a publication of Congress' s Joint Committee on Printing. The database is updated daily when Congress is in session and indexes the daily issues of the Congressional Record. Unlike the paper editions, these databases cumulate, from the beginning of  each session of Congress. Each year of the Congressional Record Index can be searched individually, however, selecting the Historical database searches all years except for the current year.

Hearings     http://www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/Documents.center/legishis.html
Hearings for selected committees have recently became available. The University of Michigan site is a good place to start your search.

 Statutes Public Laws at GPO Access       http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aaces002.html
Public Laws for the 104th and 105th Congress. Files are available in both ASCII text and PDF format. Regulations Federal Register     http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/index.html#fr
Official online edition, containing Presidential documents,  proposed and final Federal Regulations, general notices and other documents, is published Monday through Friday, except federal holidays. The table of contents from the current issue is available here on the day of publication. The issue date is always the same as the day of publication.

Code of Federal Regulations      http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/cfr-table-search.html
The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) is a codification of the general and permanent rules
published in the Federal Register by the executive departments and agencies of the federal
government. Divided into 50 titles which correspond directly to the titles of the US Code and represent broad areas subject to federal regulation. An experimental Web interface for searching the CFR is now available via GPO Access. You can search either single or multiple titles.

GPO Gate's CFR      http://www.gpo.ucop.edu
University of California's GPO Gate offers an enhanced adaptation of GPO Access. The enhancements include searching by:

- CFR Title number
- CFR Title and Part number
- CFR Title and Part Number and Page number
- Combining any of the above with a keyword
- Limiting by words in the title of a document
- CFR tables of contents (which include hot links to sections) Please note: Not all of the CFR is yet online but the above mentioned sites can be handy tools if you are stranded far from a library.
STATE AND LOCAL SITES

New York State Case Law
For New York Reports, Court of Appeals, 2nd Series
See: State sections of sites listed under Mega Sites.

State and NYC Laws and Information

NY State Legislature      http://www.senate.state.ny.us

NYS Gopher      http://www.iwc.com/entropy/marks/ny.html
Provides NYS legislative and judicial information and access to NYS Agency gophers.

NYS Government Information Locator Service      http://wwww.nysl.nysed.gov/ils
Links to official NYS WWW pages and provides subject and branch of government access.

Other sites with state-level legal information are:

RefLaw     http://lawlib.wuacc.edu/washlaw/uslaw/statelaw.html

Legalonline (compiled by Robert Ambrogi)      http://www.legalonline.com/statute2.htm

FindLaw      http://www.findlaw.com/11stategov/ny.html

Library of Congress      http://lcweb.loc.gov/global/state/stategov.html

New York City Official Web site      http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us
City agencies, forms, and publications.
About the author:
Jane Cramer is the Government Publications Specialist and Law Bibliographer at the Brooklyn College Library. She has been a Documents Librarian for 10 years.
Professor Cramer can be reached at: jncbc@cunyvm.cuny.edu
 
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