LibGuides: Subject Guides for Websites: Government & Law

GOVERNMENT & LAW Subject Guide

The 'Lectric Law Library's Free Legal Lexicon – Terms, Definitions, & Explanations
• http://www.lectlaw.com/def.htm
• The ‘Lectric Law Library
• .com
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A law dictionary with thousands of definitions & explanations of legal terms, phrases & concepts.
The American Presidency Project
• http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/
• University of California, Santa Barbara
• .edu
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Provides online access to: Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Washington - Taft (1789-1913, Public Papers of the Presidents: Hoover to G.W. Bush (1929-2006)& Obama (2009), Presidential Documents: Carter - G.W. Bush (1977-2009), and Presidential Documents: Obama (2009-2012). Also provides thousands of other documents, such as party platforms, candidates’ remarks, etc.
The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, & Diplomacy
• https://avalon.law.yale.edu/
• Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale University
• .edu
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Provides access to digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government. Includes documents from ancient history to the present. May search by keywords, or browse by time periods or alphabetically by title of document collection.
Brookings Research – U.S. Politics & Government
• https://www.brookings.edu/topic/u-s-politics-government/
• Brookings Institute
• .edu
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The three branches of the U.S. government—legislative, judicial and executive—each holds its own responsibilities and powers to execute the nation’s laws on behalf of all American citizens. Brookings experts examine how the government’s many agencies and organizations function and interact, the role the U.S. government plays in citizens’ lives, and offer recommendations on increasing government efficiency.
Catalog of U.S. Government Publications
• http://catalog.gpo.gov/F
• U.S. Government Printing Office
• .gov
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Provides an index of government publications issued by the GPO since January 1976. Includes descriptive records for historical and current publications and provides direct links to those that are available online. Also offers the option to find a nearby Federal Depository Library.
Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Annual Edition
• http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collectionCfr.action?collectionCode=CFR
• U.S. Government Printing Office
• .gov
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The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) annual edition is a codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the departments and agencies of the Federal Government.
Congressional Research Service [CRS] Reports
• https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/
• Federation of American Scientists; maintained by Steven Aftergood
• .org
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Provides access to Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports that are already in the public domain. The Congressional Research Service is a publically funded "think tank" that provides reports to members of Congress on a variety of topics relevant to current political events.
DOAJ - Directory of Open Access Journals
Provides a comprehensive, subject-organized list of open access journals that are peer reviewed. Defines “open access journal” as any which does not charge readers or institutions for access.
Duhaime's Law Dictionary
• http://www.duhaime.org/LegalDictionary.aspx
• Lloyd Duhaime, Duhaime Law firm
• .org
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A dictionary of legal terms, history of law, legal Latin terms, and more.
Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (e-CFR)
• http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/ECFR?page=browse
• Office of the Federal Register (OFR), National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
• .gov
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The e-CFR is a currently updated version of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). It is not an official legal edition of the CFR. The e-CFR is an editorial compilation of CFR material and Federal Register amendments. The OFR updates the material in the e-CFR on a daily basis.
Federal Digital System - FDsys
• http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/home.action
• U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO)
• .gov
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Provides free online access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government. Allows advanced search features, retrieval by citation, and browsing by collections such as: Budget of the US Government, Code of Federal Regulations, Public and Private Laws, Congressional Bills, etc.
Federal Executive Branch - Branches of the US Government
• https://www.usa.gov/branches-of-government#item-37562
• USA.gov
• .gov
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Provides links to information/ Web pages about the current President, the current First Lady, the Vice President and his/her spouse, each of the 15 cabinet departments, and other agencies, Boards, Commissions, and Committees, and Quasi-Official Agencies that make up the Executive Branch.
Federal Judicial Branch
• https://www.usa.gov/judicial-agencies
• USA.gov
• .gov
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Provides links to information/ Web pages about the Supreme Court; lower courts: US District Courts, US Bankruptcy Courts, US Court of International Trade, etc.; special courts: US Tax Court, US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, etc.; and court support organizations as well as additional resources.
Federal Legislative Branch Agencies
• https://www.usa.gov/legislative-agencies
• USA.gov
• .gov
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The legislative branch includes Congress and the agencies that support its work.
Federal Register
• http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collection.action?collectionCode=FR
• US Government Printing Office
• .gov
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The Federal Register is the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents.
Government Documents A-to-Z Digitization Project
• http://digital.library.unt.edu/explore/collections/ATOZ/
• UNT Digital Library, University of North Texas
• .edu
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Offers access to digitized pre-1960 government documents. The project is being done alphabetically, starting with the call number A, which includes agricultural documents. It also contains vintage War Department field manuals and technical manuals, Has a total of 62,515 unique items.
Historical Documents - Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS)
• https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments
• Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs
United States Department of State
• .gov
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The Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity.
LLSDC Legislative Source Book
• http://www.llsdc.org/sourcebook/
• Law Librarians Society of Washington, D.C. (LLSDC)
• .org
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Provides includes links to Internet and online sources of legislative and regulatory information, links to House and Senate documents and hearings, and legislative telephone numbers.
Oyez - U.S. Supreme Court Media
• http://www.oyez.org/
• Hosted by Chicago-Kent College of Law
• .org
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Provides a complete and authoritative source for all audio recorded in the Court since October 1955, provides information on all justices, offers a virtual reality tour of portions of the Supreme Court building, including the chambers of some of the justices, and provides links to latest stories from OyezToday.
The Public Library of Law - PLOL
• http://www.plol.org
• Fastcase (an American company)
• .org
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Provides free access to cases from the U.S. Supreme Court and Courts of Appeals, cases from all 50 states back to 1997, Federal statutory law and codes from all 50 states, regulations, court rules, constitutions, etc. Also provides links to paid content on Fastcase, the creator and sponsor of the PLoL.
Roll Call Votes
• https://www.congress.gov/roll-call-votes
• Library of Congress
• .gov
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Provides access to information about the bills that received roll call vote from the House and/or Senate from the 101st session to the present. Includes links to summaries, full-text and related bills. 101st Congress to current session
Supreme Court of the United States
• http://www.supremecourt.gov/
• U.S. Supreme Court
• .gov
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Provides information on the Supreme Court of the United States, biographies of the current justices, history, traditions, procedures, current docket, and full-text of cases & opinions from 2007 to the presents, and links to official and unofficial opinion sources.
United States House of Representatives
• http://www.house.gov/
• U.S. House of Representatives
• .gov
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Primary Webpage of the House of Representatives: includes information about current office holders, legislation, voting histories, house committees, directories, educational resources, legislative activity, legislative archives, etc.
United States Senate
• https://www.senate.gov/index.htm
• U.S. Senate
• .gov
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Primary Website of the Senate: includes information about current senators, voting statistics, nominations, sessions of Congress, legislative statistics over a 20-year period, a Bill Search feature, a Recent Floor Activity feature, access to the Congressional Record, FAQs, and more.
The White House
• http://www.whitehouse.gov/
• USA.gov
• .gov
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Provides a current issues forum, blog and information on all aspects of the incumbent president. Photos, documents, briefing digests, links to other government offices are also available.

Last update: 8/11/2021

Google Scholar

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a variation of Google. It is designed specifically for scholarly literature searches.

Advantages

It’s free to use.
It has a simple, familiar interface that works much like regular Google.
It finds scholarly books, articles, and conference papers from a wide range of disciplines.

Disadvantages

Coverage is not comprehensive. It is a good first place to start researching a paper, but not comprehensive enough to be the only place you look.
Criteria used for selecting “scholarly” materials is not given. Search results can be a mixture of articles and books as well as unpublished manuscripts, course syllabi, and high school term papers, so you must critically evaluate what you find.
Results are not always full-text or free like regular Google. Often the link for an article will take you to the publishers website where the full article is available only if you buy it.