Legal Reference Sources Subject Guide
Article Databases
8 resources available
- Restricted to WMU users 
- Open Access
The following databases contain references to legal cases and issues related to the law. Westlaw Campus Research, LexisNexis and HeinOnline are the premier legal sources when you wish to read the text of the laws, court reports, and law journal articles.
An extensive research database of legal sources, including the Code of Federal Regulations, Federal Register, United States Code Annotated (USCA), Federal and State court cases, American Law Reports (ALR), and American Jurisprudence 2d, Black's Law Dictionary, Legal Guides, and more. Also includes more than 700 law reviews and journals.
Indexes thousands of domestic and foreign newspapers, as well as journals, and other publications in News, Business company reports and articles, Legal Research, Medical and Reference. The legal research category includes law reviews, law news, federal and state laws and cases. Mostly full text. Includes Hoover's full text. Coverage dates vary.
Librarian's Comment: Select Legal tab, upper left, when searching law cases and issues.
HeinOnline: The Modern Link to Legal History
HeinOnline consists of major full text legal collections including: the Law Journal Library, the Federal Register Library, the Treaties and Agreements Library, U.S. Code, and the U.S. Supreme Court Library. These collections are image-based and fully-searchable, with comprehensive coverage of each title, some going back to the 18th century. Click on "Subscribers please click here to enter."
Librarian's Comment:
Of particular interest to the legal researcher at WMU is the historical coverage of law journals that provides full text from Volume 1 for hundreds of titles. Also not available in other sources at WMU is the Treaties and Agreements Library. The Federal Register Library and the U.S. Supreme Court Library are partially available in print and online in the Libraries.
Index to Legal Periodicals and Books
Indexes articles in over 900 law journals and other publications, including yearbooks and government publications, from the US and other English-speaking countries. Includes book reviews. Coverage: 1981-present. Updated monthly.
Print: KZ .I38x (Ref.) 1952-2000
National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts
Temporarily unavailable. Summarizes more than 170,000 publications, including Federal, State and local government reports, books, research reports, journal articles and unpublished research on all aspects of criminal justice. Coverage: 1975 - present. Also available here
Indexes and provides some full text of articles in law reviews, law journals, bar association journals, international legal journals and legal newspapers. Coverage: 1980-present.
The Educational Resources Information Center indexes and abstracts over 2,000 journals and more than 450,000 reports in education and related fields. Some documents are available full text, the rest are on microfiche in the Education Library. Covers 1966-present. Updated monthly.
This is the FirstSearch version, Tutorial
This database is also available from ProQuest and from the US government.
Librarian's Comment: Useful source for articles and commentaries on laws, legislation, and court decisions affecting all levels and types of education in state, national, and international systems.
An index of over 1,800 publications with abstracts, and full text from over 700 of these titles, selected from newspapers, trade publications, and journals on business including, for example, administration, economics, computers, finance, human resources, management, and marketing. Full-text of Wall Street Journal articles available from 1984. Otherwise coverage is from 1971 to the present with some older material available. Updated daily.
Librarian's Comment: Major index relating to all aspects of business including commerical law as well as international courts and justice systems. Good source for articles on all aspects of business crimes, e.g., computer and credit fraud.
Librarian's Comment: See Content List, upper left, to locate, for example, Cases, Briefs, Legal Encyclopedias and Dictionaries, etc.