legal research papers pdf

Free Legal Research Resources - United States

Federal law & gov't docs, secondary sources, data sources, getting help, how to use this guide.

This guide contains selected, free, online United States federal and state legal research materials.

Many lawyers have access to paid databases. Yet, combining paid and free resources, can help them to avoid potentially expensive searches. According to a 2020 Legal Technology Survey Report, nearly 60% of lawyers “say they regularly use free online resources to conduct legal research.”

• Legal Technology - ABA Legal Profile

For researchers without access to paid databases, the following resources may be essential. Legal research is often more effective when using a local law library. To learn more about law libraries throughout the United States, visit:

• Local Law Libraries by AJ Blechner Last Updated Apr 12, 2024 1267 views this year

Range of Materials

The Constitution

Statutes and Legislative Materials

Statutes and legislative materials are becoming available freely online, with increasing frequency. Free resources can be a great starting place for statutory research. However, always make sure you confirm your findings in an authoritative version of the law.

Supreme Court

Case Law and Court Documents

Federal case law and court documents are often available freely online, particularly recently decided cases. Check the website of the deciding court for digital copies of their cases. In addition, the following resources provide free case law.

Case Validation

Case involves ensuring that cases have not been overruled or negatively impacted by later caselaw. Case searching and retrieval through free databases is increasingly achievable. However, paid services are still most often used to validate cases. Tools that facilitate this case validation process are called citators. The best way to access free citators is through state and local public law libraries. To find a state or local law library visit:

Executive Documents

State Statutes and Regulations

Many states and localities publish some or all of their legislative materials on their website. Consider starting with the website of the state or locality in question. Remember, materials on official government websites, may not be the “official copy.” The National Conference of State Legislators provides a list of State Legislative Websites.

The sources below provide alternatives for hard-to-find state materials.

State Case Law and Court Documents

Courts are increasingly making their materials freely available online, frequently via the court website. This is particularly true for state Supreme Courts. When looking for state case law, consider starting with the website of the deciding court. The National Center for State Courts provides a list of state court websites.

U.S. Treaties

Several government-sponsored websites provide the full-text of U.S. treaties on the web. Refer to the list below for date ranges for each sources.

Foreign & International Law

For free resources on foreign and international law, see our foreign and international law guide:

• Free Legal Research Resources - Foreign & International by AJ Blechner Last Updated Sep 12, 2023 1210 views this year

Journal Search & Legal Opinions - Google Scholar

Google Scholar offers access to many legal documents including patents, legal opinions and journals. Use the search box below and select the appropriate options from the dropdown menu at the top left of your screen.

While many journals are only available through paid databases, high-quality, open access journals are increasingly common. The following sources collect freely available journal articles.

Books, Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Treatises, Dissertations, Etc.

Secondary sources are also increasingly available online for free. 

Federal Data Sources

Many government data sources are made available to the public for free online. Check the websites of relevant agencies or organizations to look for additional data.

• Additional sources are available on the Harvard Law School Library's website.

Contact Us!

  Ask Us!  Submit a question or search our knowledge base.

Chat with us!  Chat   with a librarian (HLS only)

Email: [email protected]

 Contact Historical & Special Collections at [email protected]

  Meet with Us   Schedule an online consult with a Librarian

Hours  Library Hours

Classes  View  Training Calendar  or  Request an Insta-Class

 Text  Ask a Librarian, 617-702-2728

 Call  Reference & Research Services, 617-495-4516

This guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License .

You may reproduce any part of it for noncommercial purposes as long as credit is included and it is shared in the same manner. 

• Last Updated: Apr 12, 2024 4:50 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.harvard.edu/law/free

Harvard University Digital Accessibility Policy

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

Legal Research

The chapter discusses the epistemological and methodological aspects of legal research undertaken within the built environment, as well as the cultural aspects that distinguish it from other research within the field. At an epistemological level it describes the defining characteristic of most academic legal research as a normative process of doctrinal analysis and demonstrates how this places it within the humanities tradition, with corresponding methodologies and cultural norms. The absence of an explicit methodology within legal research, as the term is commonly understood by the sciences, is explained in these terms. It is noted that this has traditionally caused communication difficulties between legal researchers and their colleagues in other built environment subject disciplines. The chapter therefore explores the various forms of legal reasoning which are undertaken by legal researchers with a view to making explicit the various implicit methodologies which are employed at a subconscious level. It concludes with some recommendations for increasing the quality of communication, and the level of understanding between legal scholars and scholars working in other disciplines within the field. BASED IN INDIA? Please contact me for further discussions about the content of the above paper at [email protected].

Related Papers

Mark Van Hoecke

1. Legal Doctrine: Which Method(s) for What Kind of Discipline? Mark Van Hoecke 2. The Method of a Truly Normative Legal Science Jaap Hage 3. Explanatory Non-Normative Legal Doctrine. Taking the Distinction between Theoretical and Practical Reason Seriously Anne Ruth Mackor 4. A World without Law Professors Mathias M Siems 5. Open or Autonomous? The Debate on Legal Methodology as a Reflection of the Debate on Law Pauline C Westerman 6. Methodology of Legal Doctrinal Research: A Comment on Westerman Jan Vranken 7. The Epistemological Function of 'la Doctrine' Horatia Muir Watt 8. Maps, Methodologies and Critiques: Confessions of a Contract Lawyer Roger Brownsword 9. Legal Research and the Distinctiveness of Comparative Law John Bell 10. Does One Need an Understanding of Methodology in Law Before One Can Understand Methodology in Comparative Law? Geoffrey Samuel 11. Comparative Law, Legal Linguistics and Methodology of Legal Doctrine Jaakko Husa 12. Doing What Doesn't Come...

Utrecht law review

Philip Langbroek

Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Law and Theory, London: Routledge, 2018

Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos

Routledge Handbook for Law and Theory attempts to reconceptualise legal theory in a material, socially contextualised, affectively engaged and politically radical way. Its main purpose is to offer a new collective approach to the theory of law, unbound by the grand legal abstractions of pure textuality, strict normativity, universalised judgement , abstract political thinking, theoretically poor doctrinal or empirical work, and decontextualised philosophical inquiry. This volume distinguishes itself from positivist legal theory, most strands of traditional philosophy of law, but also from most forms of by now more or less normalised sociolegal or critical legal theory. This is because the volume represents an attempt to escape the often superficial veneer of interdisciplinarity in legal theory, and seriously situate legal thinking in the open plane of other disciplines as well as non-disciplines (namely, boundaries between disciplines, conceptual advancements that belong to many disciplines at the same time and ethical calls for not settling in a discipline), determined by such new parameters as the post/nonhuman, the anthropocenic, the material, the ontological, the ecological and so on. To this effect, the volume engages with supradisciplinary debates on the areas of spatiality, temporality, materiality, cor-poreality and sensorial studies, anticipating and perhaps even shaping in this way future developments of current legal theory.

shah jubaer

This paper aims to improve our understanding about the prevalence and determinants of legal research in both approach and comparative perspectives with an introductory reflections on the importance and role of legal research, the inter rapport between research and their legal research in general, further issues covered including different classifications of Legal Research.

Prakhar Sharma

ANDREEA-MARILENA LUNGU

Jack Fox-Williams

This paper outlines the characteristics of doctrinal legal research and the contexts in which such research is applied. It also examines the strengths and weaknesses of doctrinal research in the analysis of legal cases implicating complex social and moral issues.

SLS Annual Conference, University of Central Lancashire

John Magyar

An epistemological analysis of common law doctrinal legal methodology seeks to answer one basic question: why is doctrinal legal method the best approach for acquiring knowledge about law? A lawyer might provide a pragmatic answer—because that is the method that the judge will use when deciding cases; and a judge could provide an institutional answer—he or she is bound by law to abide by the official legal texts. Yet, an epistemological justification requires more. As a starting point, one needs a theory that justifies the objective existence of a socially constructed phenomenon called ‘law’. If we accept Searle’s account of social facts, and we accept that reflective equilibrium is at work within the individuals within a particular jurisdiction as they acquire knowledge about law, then doctrinal method can regarded as the most important source of the social agreement that brings about the objective existence of law. This is so because law is created and modified by applying doctrinal method—legislative utterances provide the constitutive rules that govern socially constructed things. Meanwhile, uncertainty within these texts are adjudicated by the courts, and the utterances of the court are also official legal texts. As such, the courts act as arbiters of social reality, and this arbitration provides a solution to the problem of intersubjectivity by converting anecdotal interpretations into official determinations as agreed upon by collective intentionality. As a result, in a common law jurisdiction, the doctrinal research methodology is the best way of acquiring knowledge about the law. Legal realism provides the most prominent criticism of doctrinal method, but in practice, realist claims are limited by doctrinal method: where the law, as determined by doctrinal method, is clear, the critique lacks credibility. Thus realism points out the epistemological limitations of doctrinal method and does not undermine the core of it.

Paul Chynoweth

Describes the scope and editorial policy of the International Journal of Law in the Built Environment in the context of ongoing changes in the nature of legal scholarship. The shift towards policy and law reform issues is described, and the role of doctrinal, socio-legal, theoretical, interdisciplinary and comparative research approaches are explained. The editorial includes the following four sections: 1. The servant of the legal profession 2. The changing nature of legal scholarship 3. Editorial policy 4. Papers in this issue http://www.ijlbe.com BASED IN INDIA? Please contact me for further discussions about the content of the above paper at [email protected].

Loading Preview

Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.

RELATED PAPERS

Brettel Dawson

Meghna Mittal

Miftahus Sholehudin

Okuma Nwachukwu

SIGn Jurnal Hukum

Nurul Qamar

Utrecht Law Review

Dr. Jayanta Ghosh

Tonny Nyarko

Muhammad Ainun Najib Surahman

Muhammad A I N U N N A J I B Surahman

International Journal of Management, Technology, and Social Sciences (IJMTS)

Srinivas Publication

Bald de Vries

Roberto Fragale , Alexandre Veronese

Parth Indalkar

American Journal of International Law

Nicholas Onuf

Law and Method

Wibren van der Burg

Law & Policy

Frank Munger

Jahlan Remtula

Miguel Poiares Maduro

Buffalo L. Rev.

annelise riles

PLANNING MALAYSIA

AZIMAH GHAZALI

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

Writing a law school research paper or law review note

• Books and articles

Basics of Format & Content

Research papers are not as strictly structured as legal memos, briefs, and other documents that you've learned about in legal writing and drafting courses. For example, there is no prescribed content/format similar to to the Questions Presented, Brief Answers, etc. that you learned for a legal memo.

A general approach to thinking about the content of a research paper is:

• Introduction in which you give some background and a clear statement of your thesis
• Status quo -- what is the existing law and why is it a problem
• Proposals for change

See this blog post by Jonathan Burns , an IU McKinney alum, for more on basic content.

If you're writing for a law review or seminar, you should get formatting instructions regarding things like margins, font size, line spacing. If you don't, or if you're doing an independent study, here are some basic guidelines to follow:

• Times New Roman or similar, 12 pt font.
• Double spaced lines.
• One inch margins all around.
• Footnotes in academic Bluebook style (use the rules on the main white pages instead of the light blue pages at the front of the Bluebook).
• Footnotes in same font as text, 10 pt font.
• Use Roman numerals and/or letters on headings and subheadings or style the fonts so that the difference between headings and subheadings is clear.   
• Page numbers in the footer, preferably centered, especially on first page. You could do bottom center on first page and then upper right in the header thereafter. Use the header and footer functions for this. If you don't know how to use headers and footers in Word, here is help:  https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/word2016/headers-and-footers/1/ . 

Headings and subheadings

Research papers should have headings and subheadings. These help your reader follow your logic--and a logical structure is very important. Headings and subheadings can also help you keep your thoughts organized. Just don't overuse them--you don't want every paragaph to have a subheading. 

Road map paragraph

Often, research papers will also include a paragraph at the end of the introduction that narrates the road map the paper will follow.   Here is an example of this kind of paragraph:

"The section that follows [this introduction] sets the stage by recounting two scenarios from the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, with discussion of the knowledge and implementation of accessibility features in online instructional materials. The next section provides an overview of various impairments and their effects on a user's experience of the online environment. Next is a review of the laws relevant to accessibility with attention to their potential application to online instruction, along with standards used to guide accessibility compliance. The article then explores the concept of universal design and its guiding principles, followed by a discussion of how to use the universal design principles to organize and better understand accessibility standards and practices. The final section briefly summarizes the discussion and encourages law librarians and professors to become knowledgeable and skilled in universal design for online materials to benefit all their students."

Table of Contents

A table of contents can also be helpful, though it's not necessary. If you add a table of contents to your papers, put it right at the beginning, before the introduction. Here's part of the table of contents for the same paper the paragraph above was taken from--it really just lays out the heading and subheadings with page numbers: 

• << Previous: Home
• Next: Books and articles >>
• Last Updated: Jul 29, 2022 11:08 AM
• URL: https://law.indiana.libguides.com/c.php?g=1071346

University of Bristol Law School

Law working papers series.

Welcome to the Bristol Law Working Papers Series. The series publishes a broad range of legal scholarship in all subject areas from members of the University of Bristol Law School. All papers are published electronically and available to download as pdf files.

Working papers

Going forward by staying put: the political economy of stabilizing trade agreements and initiatives (pdf, 1,533kb).

Author: Christian Delev

This article examines the emerging practice of states entering into trade agreements or negotiating initiatives which sustain parties’ existing market access commitments and ‘behind-the-border’ regulatory barriers to trade.

The Legal Status and Targeting of Hacker Groups in the Russia-Ukraine Cyber Conflict (PDF, 1,750kB)

Author: Giacomo Biggio

The armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine has been characterized by a considerable number of cyber operations. This article considers the legal status of hacker groups and individuals who have conducted cyber operations in support of Ukraine and the legality of targeting of individuals who directly participate in hostilities.

Migration and Work in the Post-Brexit UK (PDF, 1,603kB)

Authors: Manoj Dias-Abey and Katie Bales

This briefing paper examines the major labour migration pathways in the new post-Brexit migration system that came into force on 1 January 2021.

Default Norms in Labour Law- From Private Right to Public Law (PDF, 1,525kB)

Author: Alan Bogg

How far can the common law limit freedom of contract in employment contracts? This paper considers the limits of freedom of contract in relation to (i) contracting out of employment status; (ii) contracting out of implied terms. It argues that public policy can impose necessary limits on the employer's contractual powers.

Exceptions and Regulatory Autonomy (PDF, 1,504kB)

Author: Joshua Paine

This paper provides a comparative overview and analysis of exceptions commonly included in Preferential Trade Agreements.

An Analysis of the UK–Australia FTA’s Investment Chapter (PDF, 630kB) Author: Joshua Paine

A Kantian moral cosmopolitan approach to teaching professional legal ethics (PDF, 693kB) Author: Omar Madhloom

COVID-19 at Work: How risk is assessed & its consequences in England & Sweden (PDF, 837kB) A‌uthors: Peter Andersson and Tonia Novitz

Capturing the value of community fuel poverty alleviation (PDF, 1,891kB) Authors: Colin Nolden, Daniela Rossade and Peter Thomas

Bridging the Spaces in-between? The IWGB and Strategic Litigation (PDF, 522kB)  Author: Manoj Dias-Abey

View past papers

The Forces of Law: Duty, Coercion and Power

Oxford Legal Studies Research Paper No. 12/2015

34 Pages Posted: 3 Apr 2015

Leslie Green

Queen's University - Faculty of Law; University of Oxford - Faculty of Law

Date Written: March 31, 2015

This paper addresses the question of the relationship between law and coercive force. It defends, against Frederick Schauer’s claims in his book, The Force of Law, the following propositions: (a) The force of law consists in three things, not one: the imposition of duties, the use of coercion, and the exercise of social power. These are different and distinct. (b) Even if coercion is not part of the concept of law, coercion is connected to law in a variety of ways. These are amply recognized in contemporary jurisprudence. (c) We cannot determine how important coercion is to the efficacy of law until we know what counts as coercive force. This question is not a matter for empirical generalization or bare stipulation. It requires an explanation of the concept of coercion.

Keywords: law, coercion, power, jurisprudence, Frederick Schauer, Hans Kelsen, H.L.A. Hart

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Leslie Green (Contact Author)

Queen's university - faculty of law ( email ).

Kingston, Canada, Ontario K7L3N6 Canada

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/people/leslie-green

University of Oxford - Faculty of Law ( email )

Balliol College Oxford Oxford, UK, OX1 3BJ United Kingdom

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics, related ejournals, law & humanities ejournal.

Subscribe to this fee journal for more curated articles on this topic

Jurisprudence & Legal Philosophy eJournal

Philosophy of law ejournal.

Subscribe to this free journal for more curated articles on this topic

Political Theory: Political Philosophy eJournal

Home > NLSJ

The National Law School Journal (NLSJ) is the flagship journal of the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru. It is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal that has consistently published original contributions to contemporary legal scholarship on India and the developing world since 1989. The journal’s Editorial Board includes the Vice-Chancellor and members of the faculty. NLSJ invites contributions from academics, practitioners and researchers across legal studies and allied interdisciplinary scholarship.

NLSJ is published twice a year. The journal is indexed in UGC-CARE.

The National Law School of India University, Bengaluru is India’s premiere law school and has pioneered legal education reforms for over three decades.

Current Issue: Volume 17, Issue 1 (2023)

Tunnels as Temples of 'New Green India': Dominant Narratives of Himalayan Dam Building Manshi Asher and Vivek Negi

Locating the 'Nanny' in Legal Theory Akshat Agarwal

The Uber Conundrum: Analysing the Worker Rights of Uber Drivers in India Shantanu Braj Choubey

Case Comment

The Difference Method Makes: Judicial Restraint and Judicial Creativity in Rana Nahid v Sahidul Chisti Saptarshi Mandal

Book Review

Book Review | Sangeeta Dasgupta, 'Reordering Adivasi Worlds: Representation, Resistance, Memory' (Oxford University Press 2022) Nishant Gokhale

• Journal Home
• Aims and Scope
• Submission Guidelines
• Editorial Board
• The NLS Blog
• Submit Article
• Most Popular Papers
• Receive Email Notices or RSS

Advanced Search

ISSN: 0971-491X

Home | About | FAQ | My Account | Accessibility Statement

Privacy Copyright