February, 2009

The Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress

Created by an act of Congress in 1914, the Congressional Research Service (formerly called the Legislative Reference Service) of the Library of Congress is charged with serving its legislative needs.  In addition to assisting at every stage of the legislative process, CRS staff analyze and publish reports on issues in the areas of law, economics, foreign affairs, defense, homeland security, public administration, education, health care, immigration, energy, environmental protection, science and technology. 

Since these reports do not become public until a member of Congress releases the report, the Law Library has collected many of these reports. They are available in microfiche and are searchable using the Law Library webcatalog.  Please do not hesitate to ask the Librarian on duty at the Reference Desk for assistance in the locating a CRS report.

Access to CRS reports already in the public domain is provided by Open CRS, a project of the Center of Democracy & Technology in cooperation with several organizations and collectors of CRS reports.  Among the featured collections offered at Open CRS are those of the National Council for Science and the Environment, the Federation of American Scientists, the Thurgood Marshall Law Library at the University of Maryland School of Law, and the IP Mall at Franklin Pierce Law Center. 

At Open CRS is an option to search for CRS reports by keyword or click on a subject to browse CFR reports. 

[Posted February 23 , 2009]

Spotlight on HeinOnline!

Available from the Law Library, HeinOnline offers a wide variety of image-based texts (current and archive) for the legal researcher.  Content is continually added to HeinOnline.  The HeinOnline blog contains information on the latest content and enhancements as well as tips for searching and HeinOnline’s Tip-of-the-Week.  You can sign up for e-mail alerts or add the blog to your RSS feed.

It is easy to retrieve documents from HeinOnline by browsing the Table of Contents of individual publications or by conducting a keyword or advanced search of several publications simultaneously.  Each document is easily downloadable to a pdf. for printing or emailing.

HeinOnline is a great resource when searching for older law review articles not available on LexisNexis or Westlaw.  Law review issues on HeinOnline go back to the law review’s inception.

In addition to law reviews, HeinOnline is your source for

• Materials of the U.S. executive, legislative and judicial branches
• Treaties and foreign and international law publications
• National moot court competition records and winning briefs
• Legal classics

Click here to view the complete listing of HeinOnline’s materials.

If you need help using HeinOnline, ask the Librarian on duty at the Reference Desk.

[Posted February 16 , 2009]

Oxford Reports on International Law

The Oxford Reports on International Law database is available from the Law Library for access to decisions on public international law issues being decided in domestic courts worldwide and for judgments of international courts, The Oxford Reports on International Courts of General Jurisdiction and the International Law in Domestic Courts are the two modules of the Oxford Reports on International Law database to which the Law Library subscribes.

The Oxford Reports on International Courts of General Jurisdiction module covers judgments of the International Court of Justice and the Permanent Court of International Justice.  Judgments from the Permanent Court of Arbitration and from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea will eventually be added to this module.

The International Law in Domestic Courts module contains decisions on international law as applied in the domestic courts of over 65 jurisdictions.  Expert commentary accompanies the full-text of these decisions in their original language and translations of key passages of non-English judgments into English.

There are options to search by keyword or search by portions of the decision.  Decisions may be viewed by date or subject.

[Posted February 9 , 2009]

LegallyMinded.com: the New ABA Social Networking Site!

The ABA now offers a social networking site LegallyMinded.com.  The site is open to both legal professionals and the general public. The site is free to join.  There are group discussions in which to participate and blogs to read.  There are resources for information about careers, technology, work/life balance issues, and marketing/business development in addition to legal news.  Note that access to some of the site’s content is restricted to ABA members.  Click here to read about LegallyMinded.com in the December 2008 issue of the ABA Journal.

[Posted February 2 , 2009]