LibGuides: Finding legal information: the absolute basics. : Background information

Useful resources for background information

These are great places to get an overview of a topic or a famous case:

Gale Encyclopedia of American Law
ISBN: 9781414443027
Publication Date: 2011
3rd edition. Previous editions called "West's Encyclopedia of American Law".
American law year book series by Gale/West
Covers today's leading cases, major statutes, legal terms and concepts, notable persons involved with the law, and important documents. Includes topics such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, capital punishment, domestic violence, gay and lesbian rights, physician-assisted suicide and more.

CQ Press Electronic Library
Twelve CQ publications here - including Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court Yearbook. Also very good for information on what is currently going on in Congress.

Encyclopedia of the American Constitution by Leonard W. Levy and Kenneth L. Karst, eds.
ISBN: 9780028659862
Publication Date: 2000
2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2000. 6 volumes. Contains new and updated original articles covering recent concepts (i.e. adoption, race, the Constitution, birthright citizenship) and court cases since 1992 offering comprehensive coverage of all aspects of constitutional law, as well as biographies of people who have had an impact on our government's legal framework (Supreme Court Justices, Presidents, Cabinet Members, Lawyers, and more). Also covers judicial decisions handed down by the Supreme Court. Printed volumes are kept at the Reference Desk on the upper floor of the library.

Guide to Law Online
Prepared by the Law Library of Congress Public Services Division, this is an annotated guide to sources of information on government and law available on the internet.

Great American Court Cases, Gale by Mark F. Mikula (Editor); L. Mpho Mabunda (Editor); Allison McClintic Marion (Editor)
Call Number: Reference desk KF385 .A4 G68 1999
ISBN: 9781849721127
Publication Date: 2005-04-01

For more advanced rearch, the huge multivolume American Jurisprudence is invaluable. It is shelved near the reference desk - just ask a librarian to show you where. At over 80 volumes, it is enormous, and written in quite technical legal language. Best to use the indexes at the end of the set. It is also in our big legal database Lexis-Nexis Academic.

Law dictionaries

Black's Law Dictionary in print fomat is kept at the reference desk on the upper level of the Library.

Our longer guide to law

The aim of this guide is to provide you with only the absolute bare essentials needed to start exploring legal information. To learn more, please do use our much longer Guide to legal resources in the Lloyd Sealy Library ... (2003).

Guide to legal resources in The Lloyd Sealy Library at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (2003)