Law Resources

Author: Kathryn Thomas

    Federal

    Legislative

    • House and Senate Bills and Resolutions
      GPO Access       and THOMAS
    • History of Bills
      GPO Access
    • Congressional Documents and Reports
      GPO Access
    • Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress
      GPO Access       and THOMAS
        Issued daily while Congress is in session. Contains speeches and debates from the Senate and the House of Representatives in full, records of votes, and the President’s messages. Does not include texts of all bills.
    • Public Laws (Slip Laws)
      Reference KF 50 and GPO Access and THOMAS
        Published separately, as soon as enacted. Print version replaced by Statutes at Large.
    • Statutes at Large of the United States of America
      Reference KF 50
        Contains public laws, private laws, and concurrent resolutions and proclamations. A subject index is included in each volume.
    • United States Code Congressional and Administrative News
      Reference KF 48
        Published semimonthly during the session of Congress, and monthly when Congress is not in session, with annual bound cumulations. Includes all public laws (full text), legislative history, executive orders, presidential proclamations, administrative regulations, messages of the president, popular names of laws, etc. Contains an index-digest of bills enacted.
    • United States Code
      Reference KF 62 1988 .A2 and GPO Access
        Compiles all the laws of a general and permanent nature arranged under fifty titles (subjects), with many subdivisions called chapters. Supplements and/or replacement volumes are issued from time to time.
    • Congressional Quarterly Weekly
      Reference JK 1 .C15
        A weekly summary of congressional action and developments. Issues usually include sections: “National Report,” “Political Report,” “Executive Branch,” “Lobby Report,” “In Committee,” “On the Floor,” “Vote Charts.” Indexed in InfoTrac General Reference Center Gold.
    • Congressional Quarterly Almanac
      Reference JK 1 .C663
        Annual summary of major congressional action in sections dealing with categories of legislation (such as agriculture, appropriations, crime and justice, etc.). Includes voting records and several appendices. Indexed.
    • CQ Researcher
      Reference H 35 .E37
        Weekly issues treat a subject currently in the news or likely to be in the near future. Each report contains a discussion of the importance and major issues of the subject, the background and history, and possible future developments. Weekly issues are combined into annual volumes. A subject and title index to the previous fifteen years is in each annual edition. Indexed in InfoTrac General Reference Center Gold.
    • Congressional Information Service Index and Abstracts
      Reference Z 1223 Z7 .C14 (Library has 1970-1993)
        Indexes and summarizes Congressional publications including hearings, committee prints, documents, reports, special publications, and Senate executive reports. Detailed index of subjects and names (including witnesses at hearings), plus an index of bill, report, and document numbers. Issued monthly, with cumulated quarterly and annual indexes.
    • Congressional Hearings
        Transcripts of testimony given before Congressional committees on pending legislation and various other topics. A limited number are available via GPO Access; NDSU and/or other regional library holdings may be found by searching WebPALS, ODIN, or MNCAT.
    • GPO Access
        Legislative information from the Government Printing Office.
    • THOMAS
        Legislative information from the Library of Congress.
    • U.S. House of Representatives
    • U.S. Senate
    Executive
    • Federal Register
      Reference KF 70 .A2 and GPO Access (1994 forward)
        Contains all presidential proclamations and executive orders, rules and regulations of the various bureaus and departments of the government, and decisions of fact-finding bodies. Issued daily. Indexes cumulated monthly, quarterly, and annually.
    • Code of Federal Regulations
      Reference KF 70 .A3 and GPO Access
        Administrative rules and regulations of the various bureaus and departments of the government arranged into fifty titles (subjects). Indexed by subjects and agency. Each title is revised annually. Additions and changes are published in the Federal Register.
    Judicial
    • United States Reports: Cases Adjudged in the Supreme Court at ... and Rules Announced at ...
      Reference KF101 .A212 (1993 forward) and GPO Access (1937-1975)
    • United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers’ Edition
      Reference KF 101 (to 1992)
        Contains orders and opinions of the Court. Most cases have annotations concerning legal matters raised by the case. Each volume includes a subject index and case index.
    • Digest of United States Supreme Court Reports
      Reference KF 101.1 .D5
        Provides subject access to the entire Lawyers’ Edition.
    • American Law Reports
      Minnesota State University Moorhead Library Reference KF132 .A4
    • American Law Reports. ALR Federal: Cases and Annotations
      Minnesota State University Moorhead Library Reference KF132 .A47
        State and federal appellate cases which set precedent in American law. Contains in-depth critical analysis of the case, summarizing it and discussing the case as it relates to other relevant cases. Pocket supplements give summaries of later cases which discuss the annotations in the main volume. Quick index contains an alphabetical arrangement of law topics and fact words; supplements are located in the front of each index volume.
    • Federal Supplement
      Minnesota State University Moorhead Library Reference KF 105 .F44
        Contains selected cases from the United States District Courts and the Court of International Trade involving legal issues not dealt with before or which may set precedent.
    • Federal Reporter
      Minnesota State University Moorhead Library Reference KF 105 .F43
        Contains cases from all United States Courts of Appeal. Arranged chronologically. Each volume includes a digest which provides subject access to the decisions in that volume.

    Guides to Federal WWW Resources

    North Dakota

    Legislative

    • Senate Bills Introduced by the ... Legislative Assembly, State of North Dakota
      Reference J 87 .N9 (year)f and World Wide Web
    • House Bills Introduced by the ... Legislative Assembly, State of North Dakota
      Reference J 87 .N9 (year)g and World Wide Web
    • Journal of the Senate of the ... Legislative Assembly
      Reference J 87 .N9 (year)b and World Wide Web
    • Journal of the House of the ... Session of the Legislative Assembly
      Reference J 87 .N9 (year)c and World Wide Web
    • Laws of North Dakota (North Dakota Session Laws)
      Reference KFN 8625 and World Wide Web and West Premise (on Library computer network)
        Texts of laws passed at North Dakota legislative sessions.
    • North Dakota Century Code
      Reference KFN 8630 .A2 1959 and World Wide Web and West Premise (on Library computer network)
        Laws of North Dakota arranged by subject. Updated after each legislative session.
    • Legislative Branch
        Information on the Legislative Assembly composition, how to contact a Legislator, the Legislative Council and its Interim Studies, Interim Committee meeting notices, how a bill becomes a law, how to testify before a legislative committee, and legislative deadlines.

    Executive

    Judicial

    • Supreme Court
        Includes opinions back to mid-1993, court rules, calendars, information on other courts, a directory of lawyers in North Dakota, and general information on the North Dakota judicial system.
    • Reports of Cases Decided in the Supreme Court of the State of North Dakota
      Microfiche KFN 8645 .A2 (1891-1955) and World Wide Web
    • North Western Reporter
      Reference KF 135 .N7 and West Premise (on Library computer network (North Dakota cases only, 1 NW2d forward))
        Reports state appellate cases for North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
    • North Western Digest
      Reference KF 135 .N72 N6 & KF 135 .N72 W4
        Provides subject access to North Western Reporter.
    • North Dakota Attorney General Opinions
      World Wide Web and West Premise (on Library computer network)

    Minnesota

    Legislative

    • Minnesota Statutes
      Minnesota State University Moorhead Library Reference KFM 5430 .A2 and World Wide Web
        Laws of Minnesota arranged by subject. Kept up to date by pocket supplements.
    • Legislative Branch

    Executive

    Judicial

    Local

    Other Resources

    • American Jurisprudence
      Reference KF 154 .A42
      Minnesota State University Moorhead Library Reference KF 154 .A42
        A general legal encyclopedia for American law. The text is supported by selected references to cases in point. Divided into about 400 topics arranged alphabetically. The general index is used to locate specific subjects. NDSU copy is not updated.
    • Corpus Juris Secundum
      Minnesota State University Moorhead Library Reference KF 141 .C6
        Multi-volume set provides textual treatment for over 400 topics. Coverage is supported by numerous footnotes to cases back to 1658.
    • Black's Law Dictionary
      Reference KF 156 .B53
        This comprehensive work is the standard law dictionary.
    • Index to Legal Periodicals
      Reference K 33 .I5
        Monthly with annual cumulations. Indexes legal periodicals published in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand by subject and author. A list of subject headings is located at the front of each annual edition. Also includes a table of cases and a book review index.
    • InfoTrac
        Search the databases for references to articles in law journals.
    • Web Legal Research Resources UND Law Library
    • Legal Resources Minnesota State University Moorhead Library
    • FindLaw
    • the Internet Public Library Law Resources
    • Legal Information Institute