Searching HeinOnline
Secondary Legal Sources in U.S. Law
Secondary legal sources help to learn about points of law and about the legal issues of a wide range of topics. They also serve research by citing relevant primary sources, such as cases, statutes and regulations. Finding legal primary sources is made easier by first using secondary sources. Secondary sources described on this page are accessed similarly to using other indexing databases.
Legal research should include the use of legal journal articles. A great deal of scholarly legal literature is published in law school law reviews. Other types of law journals are bar association journals and journals written for legal practitioners. These publications are all available via HeinOnline.
1. HeinOnline's "Law journal library" indexes legal articles, newspapers and bulletins. Searching is done by topic keyword, by author, or by title of article. For example, searching "Catholic" yields thousands of legal articles on the subject. Results can then be modified by combining with other terms or authors' names. Because of its expansive coverage, HeinOnline is the preferred search engine. Searches which result in lengthy lists of articles can be modified by year of publication and also by other keywords.
2. LegalTrac indexes legal articles in traditional academic publications.
3. LexisNexis Academic indexes American law reviews. It allows you to pre-sort your search by legal topic ("constitutional law," for example).
- HeinOnline This link opens in a new windowOne of the premier sources for legal and political information. Full-text law journals are a major part of the database, but HeinOnline also includes deep historical collections of U.S. federal government documents.
- LegalTrac This link opens in a new windowCumulative indexing of approximately 800 legal publications and law related articles from more than 1,000 additional business and general interest periodicals. Coverage begins in 1980. Includes some full text.
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new windowNexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic) provides access to more than 17,000 news, business and legal sources from LexisNexis. Nexi Uni has three primary collections: 1) full-text access to thousands of news sources in the U.S. and abroad back to the 1970s; 2) aggregated economic data on businesses, corporations, and industries in the U.S. and abroad; 3) full-text legal documents, including U.S. Federal and State court cases, and law reviews from the late 18th century to present.
Other Secondary Sources
Other secondary legal sources include encyclopedias, treatises, restatements, and newspapers. Lauinger holdings include some encyclopedias, treatises, and newspapers. Restatements of the law may be found at GU Law Center Library. News sources are found in HeinOnline's "Law Journal Library."
- Encyclopedia of sexual behavior and the lawRobert L. Maddex.
Washington, D.C. : CQ Press, c2006.
LAU Ref Stacks KF9325.A68 M33 2006 - Encyclopedia of United States Indian policy and lawedited by Paul Finkelman, Tim Alan Garrison.
2 v. ; 29 cm.
LAU Ref Stacks KF8205 .E49 2009 - EU lawJosephine Steiner, Lorna Woods and Christian Twigg-Flesner.
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2006.
9th ed.
LAU Ref Stacks KJE947 .S745 2006 - Law and the wearing of religious symbols : European bans on the wearing of religious symbols in educationErica Howard.
London ; New York : Routledge, 2012.
LAU Stacks KJC5156 .H69 2012 - The Oxford companion to American laweditor in chief, Kermit L. Hall.
New York : Oxford University Press, 2002.
LAU Ref Stacks KF154 .O96 2002
