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Researching for a Journal or Law Review Article

There are many resources available at New England School of Law Library for developing a paper topic. Make sure that you have taken full advantage of the entire print and electronic collection in doing your research. If at any point you need help finding research materials, stop by the reference desk or email.

Treatises

Law Review Articles

Government Documents

International Materials

Non-Law Periodicals

Statistics

Research Guides

Other Resources

General suggestions:

  • Look at the footnotes in your sources for additional books, articles or government documents that may be of use to you.
  • Use Shepard's and KeyCite as research tools. If you find a good case, statute or regulation, make use of citators to expand your research.

Have you checked for treatises on your topic?

  1. Portia
    New England School of Law Library has many legal and interdisciplinary treatises. If you find a treatise that is directly on point, consider expanding your research using the Library of Congress subject headings listed toward the end of the Portia record.
  2. FirstSearch (use your barcode if accessing from home)
    Choose WorldCat under option "Jump to Advanced Search" to search the holdings of thousands of libraries throughout the U.S. and globally. Books that seem on point for your research can be obtained through Interlibrary Loan, either by clicking on the ILL icon at the top of the FirstSearch record or by filling out the library's online interlibrary loan form.

Have you checked for law review articles?

  1. Lexis (Law Reviews, Combined) and Westlaw (JLR) full text databases;
  2. Indexes (Index to Legal Periodicals & Books, LegalTrac, and Current Index to Legal Periodicals).
    Links are to library databases, but Index to Legal Periodicals and LegalTrac (as Legal Resources Index) are available on Lexis and Westlaw. CILP is only available on Westlaw.
  3. HeinOnline
    This database has online many older (pre-1980) volumes of law reviews that are full-text searchable. If older articles may prove useful in your research, this is a good place to look. Choose "Law Journal Library."

Are there government documents or reports that would be useful in your research?

If your topic is international in scope, have you checked these resources?

  • Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals
    The Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals covers international (public and private), comparative, and municipal law of countries other than the United States, the U.K., Canada, and Australia. Also analyzed are the contents of legal essays, festschrifts, melanges, and congress reports.
  • Georgetown Law Library's International Legal Research Tutorial
    This online tutorial provides definitions of key terms in international legal research and provides a good introduction to international legal research materials and how they are used. A column to the left hand side of the screen allows you to move quickly to specific research areas e.g. human rights law, international taxation.
  • Reynolds & Flores: Foreign Law: Current Sources of Codes and Basic Legislation in Jurisdictions of the World
    An extremely valuable looseleaf service that gives the sources of law for countries (listed alphabetically). It is part of the reference collection.
    Call Number: K38 .R49 1989.
  • New England School of Law International Law page
    Provides links to primary foreign law on the web (constitutions, statutes, etc.) and to public and private international law sites.

If you need to access Harvard's International Legal Studies Collection for international or foreign law materials, please ask a reference librarian for a letter of introduction. If you need a semester long pass for international research, please contact Deirdre Yelverton, Library Administrative Assistant.

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