Law Library of Congress
The Law Library of Congress provides legal and legislative research assistance for foreign, international, federal, and state law. If you are having a difficult time tracking down the resource you need, consider submitting an online inquiry for assistance. You will receive a response within 5 business days.
ASU Library Catalog
Begin your search with the ASU Library catalog to determine if the book is available in an ASU Library. Available print books can be requested for delivery to the Law Library for checkout or you can request to have pages scanned and emailed.
If you cannot locate the book in the catalog, use the ILL Request Form to submit an interlibrary loan request.
Books for cite checking assignments are checked out to the requesting student’s library account and are subject to all policies regarding library material. Please do not relocate library books to the journal office without first checking the items out.
Searching for Older Books - Digital Repositories
If the book was published prior to 1923, it is out of copyright, and may be freely available on the web. Try these digital libraries for older material before you request them through interlibrary loan:
ASU Library Catalog - Journal Title Lookup
Google and Google Scholar
Some journals make recent articles freely available as PDF files on their website so we recommend checking the journal's home page. Google Scholar may point you to a PDF copy as well, especially if the journal is online-only.
Internet Archive Scholar
Internet Archive Scholar makes scholarly resources from “vanished” open access sources such as open access journals, faculty webpages, and digitized microfilms available as PDF files. The site offers full text keyword searching.
HeinOnline
The HeinOnline Law Journal Library (available on campus and remotely with ASURITE) provides online, image-based access to law periodical titles. HeinOnline contains numerous complete runs of titles from the first volume, predating coverage available on either Lexis or Westlaw for most titles. Its most attractive feature for cite checkers is that it contains full-text, exact-page images of law reviews and journals, U.S. Reports, the Federal Register, and other primary and secondary legal sources. There is no difference between looking at a PDF version of a law review volume and looking at the actual print volume.
Westlaw and Lexis
The Westlaw Law Reviews & Journals (Westlaw password required) and Lexis Law Reviews and Journals (Lexis password required) databases contain hundreds of full-text law reviews and bar journals. These periodicals can be searched as a group, individually, by topic, or by jurisdiction.
Indexes
Indexes can be helpful in identifying articles on a topic or by an author or to fill in missing information of a citation. They also complement Westlaw or Lexis because even though they don't have the full text of an article, they may cover journals not included in Westlaw or Lexis.
Ulrich’s Periodical Directory
Ulrich's Periodicals Directory is a source of detailed information on more than 300,000 periodicals (also called serials) of all types: academic and scholarly journals, e-journals, peer-reviewed titles, popular magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and more. Ulrichsweb covers more than 900 subject areas. Ulrich's records provide data points such as ISSN, publisher, language, subject, abstracting & indexing coverage, full-text database coverage and tables of contents, and reviews written by librarians. TIP: Use the advanced search to narrow by language, by subject, to find journals that have ceased publication, etc.
It is difficult to obtain reproductions of current print newspaper articles. Electronic materials are significantly easier for the Law Library to help you access.
Content from hundreds of newspapers can be accessed within the many journalism databases available through the ASU libraries. Check the database summary for particular titles, geographic regions of coverage, and dates of coverage
New York Times
Washington Post
Los Angeles Times
Wall Street Journal
Arizona Republic
Arizona Statutes
Information on locating Arizona slip laws, session laws, and the Arizona Revised Statutes (official statutory code of the state of Arizona) is available on the Arizona Legislature page of the Law Library’s Arizona Law Research Guide.
Arizona Regulations
Information on locating Arizona regulations can be found on the Arizona Agencies page of the Law Library’s Arizona Law Research Guide.
Arizona Cases
Information on locating Arizona court opinions is available on the Arizona Courts page of the Law Library’s Arizona Law Research Guide.
Arizona Court Dockets
Westlaw, Lexis, and Bloomberg Law all have most published state and federal court cases available online.
U.S. Supreme Court Cases and Court Documents
Information on searching for and accessing U.S. Supreme Court opinions, orders, and court documents including dockets, briefs, and petitions for certiorari can be found on the Ross-Blakley Law Library U.S. Supreme Court Research Guide.
Other Federal Court Cases and Court Documents
Information on searching for and accessing other federal court cases as well as federal court dockets and court filings can be found on the Ross-Blakley Law Library Federal Courts Research Guide.
Detailed information on accessing federal slip laws (public laws), Statutes at Large, and the U.S. Code can be found on the Law Library's Federal Legislature - Statutes and Legislation Research Guide. The guide links to both free resources and subscription resources. Most subscription resources can be accessed on campus or remotely by Arizona State University students, faculty, and staff with an ASURITE ID.
Slip Laws
The first official publication of an enacted federal law, whether public or private, is a slip law. Public laws are those that affect society as whole and are indicated with "Pub. L." Private laws are intended for individuals or small groups of people.
Copies of slip laws are available in the Document Offices of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as available from the Superintendent of Documents. Slip laws can be accessed online at:
Public laws are also reprinted by public law number in the unofficial United States Code Congressional Administrative News (USCCAN). USCCAN publishes new laws monthly via advance sheets and then issues bound volumes at the end of each Congressional session. USCCAN is available in print in the Law Library Core and electronically on Westlaw (Westlaw password required).
Session Laws
At the end of every Congressional session the slip laws are compiled, indexed, and published in bound volumes. The official compilation of the laws of each session of Congress is the Statutes at Large, indicated by "Stat."
Statutes at Large is available in print in the Law Library Core. It is available online at:
Codified Law
The United States Code is the official statutory code of the federal government – it is the subject arrangement of all federal public laws and is published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives. The Code has 53 titles; each title is divided into chapters and further subdivided into sections. The U.S. Code was first published in 1926. A new edition is reissued every six years and is updated annually with cumulative bound supplements. It is available online at:
There are two commercially published versions of the U.S. Code that are not official: the United States Code Annotated and the United States Code Service. These are both annotated versions of the Code and include historical notes, cross-references, and a Notes and Decisions section for each statute.
The United State Code Annotated is available electronically on Westlaw (Westlaw password required).
The United States Code Service is available in print in the Law Library Core and electronically on Lexis (Lexis password required).
Detailed information on accessing both current and historic bills/proposed legislation can be found on the Law Library's Federal Legislature - Bills and Proposed Legislation Research Guide. The guide links to both free resources and subscription resources. Most subscription resources can be accessed on campus or remotely by Arizona State University students, faculty, and staff with an ASURITE ID.
Bills
Proposed laws are introduced in Congress as bills or joint resolutions. House bills are indicated by “H.R.” and Senate bills are indicated by “S.” House Joint Resolutions are indicated by “H.J. Res.” and Senate Joint Resolutions are indicated by “S.J. Res.” Take note that as bills go through the legislative process, they can be changed many times.
Bill text can be accessed through the following sources:
Committee Reports and Conference Reports
Conference reports are numbered as either a House or Senate committee report and considered part of the same series. House reports are indicated by H.Rept. [Congress No.]-[Report No.] and Senate reports are indicated by S.Rept. [Congress No.]-[Report No.].
Committee and conference reports can be accessed through the following sources:
Hearings
A hearing is a meeting or session of a Senate, House, joint, or special committee of Congress. Hearings can be accessed through the following sources:
Debates
Discussions on the floors of Congress are available in the Congressional Record. The Congressional Record can be accessed through the following sources:
Other Congressional Documents
Detailed information on accessing federal regulations can be found on the Law Library's Federal Agencies and Executive Branch Research Guide. The guide links to both free resources and subscription resources. Most subscription resources can be accessed on campus or remotely by Arizona State University students, faculty, and staff with an ASURITE ID.
Federal Register
The Federal Register is the official daily publication for final regulations, proposed regulations, notices of administrative actions, presidential proclamations and executive orders, reorganization plans, and other documents either required by statute or ordered by the President to be published.
The Federal Register can be accessed through the following sources:
Code of Federal Regulations
The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) is the annual codification of the final regulations of federal agencies. It is divided into 50 titles, which represent broad subject areas. Each title is revised once a year; the schedule for revision is:
Titles 1 through 16 —January 1
Titles 17 through 27 —April 1
Titles 28 through 41 —July 1
Titles 42 through 50 —October 1
The Code of Federal Regulations can be accessed through the following sources: