GVPT 331: Law & Society

Web page created by Gerri Foudy, Social Sciences Team, UM Libraries
Instructor: Professor Amir M. Sadeghy

The University of Maryland Libraries have many resources that will help with research for your GVPT 331 class. If you need additional information, please contact Gerri Foudy, the Government & Politics Librarian, or speak with a Reference Librarian at McKeldin Library's Government Documents Desk (on the fourth floor).

Table of Contents

• Finding Cases
• Updating Cases
• Finding Statutes
• Finding Regulations
• Secondary and Tertiary Authority
• Books
• Dictionaries
• Encyclopedias
• Law Reviews
• Legal Citation

When accessing subscription databases from off-campus, you will be prompted to enter your last name and the 14-digit number on the back of your UM student id card.

Finding Cases

Use the Westlaw Campus Research database to find cases.

First, click on the "Law" tab at the top of the screen.

If you know the citation or party names of a case, enter the information under the "Find" boxes on the top left.

Example: 798 N.E. 2d 941

If you do not know the party names or citation, try to find it through using secondary sources, such as encyclopedias or law reviews, or try a Key Search .

For United States Supreme Court cases only, you also can use the CQ Supreme Court database.

Updating Cases

Use the Westlaw Campus Research database to update ("Shepardize") cases.

First, click on the "Law" tab at the top of the screen.

Use KeyCite to help you determine whether a case or statute is good law and to retrieve citing references. Click the KeyCite status flag in a document or next to a document's citation to access KeyCite.

You will find the case's history and citing references.

KeyCite Status Flags

"A KeyCite status flag lets you immediately know the status of a case, administrative decision, statute, or regulation.

• A red flag warns that the case or administrative decision is no longer good law for at least one of the points of law it contains or that the statute or regulation has been amended by a recent session law or rule, repealed, superseded, or held unconstitutional or preempted in whole or in part.
  

• A yellow flag warns that the case or administrative decision has some negative history but hasn’t been reversed or overruled; that the statute has been renumbered or transferred by a recent session law; that an uncodified session law or proposed legislation affecting the statute is available (statutes merely referenced, i.e., mentioned, are not marked with a yellow flag); that a proposed rule affecting the regulation is available; that the regulation has been reinstated, corrected, or confirmed; that the statute or regulation was limited on constitutional or preemption grounds or its validity was otherwise called into doubt; or that a prior version of the statute or regulation received negative judicial treatment.
  

• A blue H indicates that the case or administrative decision has some history.

• A green C indicates that the case or administrative decision has citing references but no direct or negative indirect history or that the statute or regulation has citing references."

Statutes

Federal statutes are published in the following order: first as slip laws; then as session laws in United States Code Congressional and Administrative News (U.S.C.C.A.N.) and United States Statutes at Large (Stat.); next as code in the United States Code (USC); and finally as annotated code (USCA or USCS).

The U.S. Code is arranged in fifty subjects known as Titles. Titles are divided into chapters and then into sections. After each statutory section in the U.S. Code there is a reference to its source in the Statutes at Large, including sources for any amendments.

How a Bill Becomes a Law

Use the Westlaw Campus Research database to find federal statutes.

First, click on the "Law" tab at the top of the screen.

If you know the citation, enter the information under the "Find" boxes on the top left.

Example: 50 U.S.C. 402

If you do not know the citation, scroll down to Statutes and Regulations and check the box next to United States Code Annotated.

Scroll back up to enter keywords or phrases in the search boxes. However, beware, a keyword search may bring up too many results. Use secondary sources to try to find the citation.

Example: "same-sex marriage "

OR

Use the Lexis Nexis Congressional database.

Go into Legislative Histories, Bills, and Laws

More on Federal Legislative Information

To find State Statutes, use the Westlaw Campus Research database.

If you know the citation, enter the information under the "Find" boxes on the top left.

Example: MD Code, Environment, 4-101.1

If you do not know the citation, scroll down to Statutes and Regulations and check the box next to State Statutes, and choose a state. Scroll back up enter keywords or phrases in the search boxes. However, beware, a keyword search may bring up too many results. Use secondary sources to try to find the citation.

Example: wiretapping and "civil rights"

Finding Regulations

Regulations are published in two basic formats, first chronologically and later are arranged into subjects. The Federal Register (FR) is issued every business day. Regulations are later published in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) which is arranged by issuing agency and subject.

To find federal OR state regulations use the Westlaw Campus Research database.

If you know the citation, enter the information under the "Find" boxes on the top left.

Example: 12 CFR 40.3

Example: Internet and privacy

You also can use the HeinOnline Federal Register Library.

More on the Federal Regulatory Process

Secondary and Tertiary Authority

• Books

  Legal introductory "textbooks" are oftened called hornbooks or nutshells.
  Search the online catalog for books and documents on your topic.

  Make sure you do a multi-campus search and check off USMAI all campuses so that you can request that books be sent from one of the UM law school libraries in Baltimore.

  Start with a "words anywhere search".
  Example: Environmental Law AND (nutshell or hornbook)
  Example: "Clean Water Act" AND hearings

• Dictionaries
  • Black, Henry Campbell. Black's Law Dictionary 8th ed. St. Paul, Minn.: West Pub. Co., 2004.
    The most widely used law dictionary, includes authoritative definitions and often provides cites to the court case that defined a particular word or term.
    LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
    CALL NUMBER: KF156.B53 1999
    Also available through the Westlaw database (click on the "Content List" link)

  • Garner, Bryan A. A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
    LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
    CALL NUMBER: KF156 .G367 1995

• Encyclopedias
  • West's Maryland Law Encyclopedia : Based on Maryland Statutes and Cases. St. Paul, Minn.: West Group, 1960-
    Dozens of volumes arranged by broad topic, with very specific entries searchable by index or detailed tables of contents. Explanatory articles and many citations to Maryland cases and statutes.
    LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks or Maryland Room Reference (most up-to-date copy is in Maryland Room)
    CALL NUMBER: KFM1265.W4
  • American Jurisprudence 2d (AmJur 2d). Rochester, NY: Lawyers Cooperative, 1990 - .
    Legal encyclopedia on state and federal law; updated with pocket parts in the back of each volume. Provides comprehensive research references for each topic.
    LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
    CALL NUMBER: KF385.A2
    Also available in the Westlaw Campus Research database

  • Corpus Juris Secundum (CJS). Brooklyn, NY: American Law Book Co., 1938 -.
    Legal encyclopedia arranged by title (subject) of American law. Kept up-to-date by cumulative annual pocket parts, replacement volumes, and additional, extra numbered and lettered volumes.
    LOCATION: McKeldin Reference Stacks
    CALL NUMBER: KF100.C63

  Law Reviews

  To find Law Review articles, use the use the Westlaw Campus Research database.

  If you know the citation, enter the information under the "Find" boxes on the top left.

  Example: 148 U. Pa. L. Rev. 743
  
  

  

  If you do not know the citation, scroll down to Encyclopedias and Law Reviews and check the box next to Journals and Law Reviews and select "All Journals and Law Reviews" or choose a state. Scroll back up enter keywords or phrases in the search boxes. However, beware, a keyword search may bring up too many results.

  

  Example: "amicus curiae briefs" and "supreme court" and immigration

  

  Getting too many results? Try limiting the date range or adding more keywords.