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Finding Laws

• Constitutional Law
• Statutory (Legislative) Law
• Case (Judicial) Law
• Administrative Law
• How to read a case citation

Lexis-Nexis Academic contains federal and state laws and cases except for state administrative law. Two hints for using Lexis-Nexis:

1. Be patient - don't click furiously: Lexis-Nexis contains a vast amount of information, and processing can be relatively slow.
2. Don't use your browser button to go back; use the hyperlinks under the "Lexis-Nexis Academic" banner to navigate backwards.

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States and the federal government have constitutions: documents which lay out the general rights and responsibilities of both the government and citizens. These documents are generally short, and the principles they contain are elaborated upon in statutory, case, and administrative law.

To find constitutional laws, go to the Lexis-Nexis Academic database then

1. Click on the "Legal" tab and then click on the link on the left for "Federal & State Codes."
2. Enter your search terms, and then choose "Constitution of the United States" or the abbrievation of the state code you need from the pulldown menu.
3. Click on the "Search" button.
4. Once the result list comes up, change the "Sort" option from publication date to relevance.
5. On the left hand side of the screen, click on "Constitutions," then choose whichever constitution you wish to search.
6. Browse through the search results; click on results to view the text.

 

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Statutory Law

Statutory laws are created and passed by legislators. They are sometimes called codes or statutes.

To find statutory laws, go to the Lexis-Nexis Academic database then

1. Click on the "Legal" tab and then click on the link on the left for "Federal & State Codes."
2. Enter your search terms, and then choose "United States Code Service" or the abbrievation of the state code you need from the pulldown menu.
3. Click on the "Search" button.
4. Once the result list comes up, change the "Sort" option from publication date to relevance.
5. On the left hand side of the screen, click on "Statutes (Statutory Codes) ," then choose whichever code you wish to search (Note that states do not appear in alphabetical order).
6. Browse through the search results; click on results to view the text.

 

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Case Law

Case law is based on court decisions which elaborate on existing laws. When a judge or jury decides a case which interprets a particular law in a particular way, it sets precedence.

To find court decisions (case law), go to the Lexis-Nexis Academic database then

1. Click on the "Legal" tab and then click on the link on the left for "Federal and State Cases."
2. Enter your search terms, and then choose "Federal and State Cases, Combined " or "U.S. Supreme Court Cases" or "NC Federal and State Cases, Combined" (or whichever state you want) from the pulldown menu.
3. Click on the "Search" button.
4. Once the result list comes up, change the "Sort" option from publication date to relevance.
5. On the left hand side of the screen, click on "Cases," then choose whichever cases you wish to search (Note that states do not appear in alphabetical order).
6. Browse through the search results; click on results to view the text.

Note that you can also search by litigants (Kramer v. Kramer) or by citation (491 U.S. 397). See the How to Read a Citation section below for more information.

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Administrative Law

Administrative law consists of agency regulations and executive orders. Most federal administrative law is contained in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). Many state governments now have their administrative laws and regulations available on their official web sites.

To find federal administrative law, go to the Lexis-Nexis Academic database then

1. Click on the "Legal" tab and then click on the link on the left for "Federal and State Codes."
2. Enter your search terms, and then choose "CFR - Code of Federal Regulations " from the pulldown menul.
3. Click on the "Search" button.
4. Once the result list comes up, change the "Sort" option from publication date to relevance.
5. Browse through the search results; click on results to view the text.

To find state administrative law for North Carolina, go to NCGov.com then

1. Click on the link on the left for "NC Agencies."
2. Click on the name of the relevant agency.
3. Every agency's web site is different, so look for terms such as laws, regulations, policies, etc. in the menu options.

 

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How to Read a Citation

A case citation is most often made up of three parts:  a volume number, an abbreviation, and a page number.  The year the case was decided may be included as a fourth part.  Case citations are interpreted as follows:

Often a case will be reported in several different reporters.  These additional references are known as parallel citations.  Two examples of parallel citation are given here:

United States Supreme Court Case:

• 491 U.S. 397
• 109 S. Ct 2533
• 105 L.Ed.2d 342

North Carolina Supreme Court Case:

• 357 N.C. 469
• 584 S.E.2d 81, 2003

The most frequently requested law reporters are listed in alphabetical order by abbreviation in the following table.  You can use the given call number to find the different reporters in the reference section of the library.  You will find the text of these titles and many more, including other regional and state reporters, are available electronically through searching Lexis-Nexis either on subject or citation.  Reporters are arranged chronologically.  Digests are similar to reporters, but are arranged by subject.

Updated September 22, 2008 by AF
Copyright 2007
http://www.methodist.edu/library/davis.htm