Law & Legislation

new! Credo Reference offers access to specialized guides, encyclopedias, and dictionaries.

Tracking Legislation

New!Gov track: "a civil project to track Congress." Information gleaned and synthesized from 11 separate web sites.

New!Open Congress
Available from the Sunlight Foundation and the Participatory Politics Foundation, this site combines information from Thomas with news articles from Google News, blog posts from members of Congress, and the OpenCongress blog. It's mission is "to help make Congress more transparent and to encourage civic engagement." Enjoy!

Thomas from the Library of Congress
Provides the official text of bills passed by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives back to the 103rd Congress. Full text of Public laws are provided back to the 93rd Congress (1988) as well as a record of the activity leading to their passage such as sponsoring legislators, committee Reports, roll call votes. Site maintained by the Library of Congress./p>

Georgia General Assembly
Provides full text of House and Senate bills back to 1995. Bills and resolutions can be searched by keyword or by title. You can also view bills being sponsored by legislators and by Committees

CQ Researcher Ref H35 .E35
A weekly publication, accessible full text online, which focuses on a single issue prominent in the news. It provides historical background and related bills. A good source for tracking legislation tied to an issue.

Congressional Digest
Shelved with Lane Library's journals. A monthly publication giving overviews of important issues before Congress: background, pro/con arguments, Supreme Court precedents, and policy recommendations.

CQ Weekly Report
Ref JK 1 .C67
Summarizes major issues in Congress, week by week. Gives detailed background, current status, and future prospects of bills under consideration.

Congressional Quarterly Almanac Ref JK 1 .C749
Summarizes the year's activity in Congress under broad topics such as Environment, Defense, Commerce, and others. Includes voting records and text of important documents or speeches.

Congress and the Nation Ref KF 49 .C65 (11 volumes)
Summarizes the major activities of Congress. Voume 1 covers 1945-64; volume 11 covers 2002-2004. Useful for tracking the history of legislation as it is amended over the years.

Federal, State and Local Law

United States Code, Annotated Ref KF 62 .W47
The official text of the laws of the United States, in force, supplemented by references to pertinent judicial decisions and treatises. Updated continually by "pocket parts" attached at the back of the volumes.

General Index refers you to Title and Section:

7 $ 5605 refers to Title 7 (Agriculture) Section 5606

United States Code online from GPO Access
Current (2000) edition plus supplements, and previous editions back to 1994 are searchable by keywords. Or browse the Code by Title, Part, Chapter, and Section. The U.S. Code is also provided through LexisNexis in GALILEO.

Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)
Rules and regulations, published in the Federal Register by departments and agencies of the federal government, to specify compliance with federal law. An example is the Dept. of Education's policies and procedures that govern how states must comply with federal law on the education of children with disabilities.

Official Code of Georgia, Annotated Ref KFG 31 .G42
Laws enacted by the Georgia General Assembly, organized by topic and supplemented by references to pertinent court decisions and law review articles. General Index refers you to Title, Section and Part:

20-2-7 = Title 20, Section 2, Part 7

Georgia Code, Unannotated
Provided through the Georgia Assembly website.

Rules and Regulations of the State of Georgia (10 volumes). Ref KFG 35 .A22
Updated regularly as changes occur. Online: Georgia Register

Code of Ordinances, City of Savannah, Georgia (10 volumes). Ref KFX 2374 .A35 1976
Includes the Charter and general ordinances of the city. No more recent edition has been received at the Library; however, some newer ordinances, such as the 1998 Alcoholic Beverage Ordinance, are available online at the City of Savannah Official Government Site.

International Law

GlobaLex electronic legal publication "dedicated to international and foreign law research. Published by the Hauser Global Law School Program at NYU School of Law." - From the website

INTERPOL The International Criminal Police Organization is "the world’s largest international police organization, with 187 member countries." - From the website

EISIL: Electronic Information System for International Law.

Locating Articles in Journals, Newspapers...

Omnifile Full Text Mega Edition from WilsonWeb
A suite of databases for many academic disciplines with full text articles from scholarly journals, including law reviews. Abstracts supplied back to 1984; full text dates from 1995. Select Legal as the subject area.

Academic Search Complete from EBSCOhost
A multi-disciplinary database that searches a total of 10,900 publications including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. Full text is provided for 5,300 journals.

ProQuest Newspapers
Full text from The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, L.A. Times, and Washington Post up to today's date.

Legal Collection from EBSCOhost
Full text for more than 250 law journals. This database provides information centered on the discipline of law and legal topics, such as criminal justice, international law, federal law, organized crime, medical, labor & human resource law, ethics, the environment and much more.

LexisNexis
Provides full text news, business, medical, and legal information. Select the Legal section and then you can specify law reviews as a source. AVAILABLE ON CAMPUS ONLY

Web Sites

• new! First Amendment Center
• The Avalon Project at Yale University Law School Archival legal documents, 18th - 21st centuries
• Famous Trials
• Federal Judiciary Homepage Office of the U.S. Courts
• Guide to Law Online Law Library of Congress
• Law Library Resource Xchange (LLRX)
• Legal Information Institute Cornell University
• Justice Information Center of the NCJRS National Criminal Justice Reference Service
• Thomas Full text of bills from 103rd and 104th Congresses

Selected Books in Lane library

American Law Yearbook	Ref KF 154 .W472
Black's Law Dictionary (7th ed.)	Ref KF 156 .B53 1999
Chambers USA : America's Leading Lawyers for Business, 2004 : The Client's Guide	Ref KF190 .C43 2004
Courts and Political Institutions : A Comparative View	K2100 .K66 2003
Critical Issues in Policing : Contemporary Readings	HV8138 .C6973 2001
Encyclopedia of Constitutional Law (4 vols. + Suppl.)	Ref KF 4548 .E53
Encyclopedia of the U.S. Supreme Court	Ref KF8742.A35 E53 2001
Federal Jobs in Law Enforcement	HV8143 .W17 2002
From Jim Crow to Civil Rights : The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality	KF4757 .K58 2004
God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law	KF9434 .H36 2005
Landlord and Tenant Law in a Nutshell	Ref KF590.Z9 H45 2004
Legal Research : How to Find & Understand the Law	KF240 .E45 2004
McGraw-Hill's LSAT / Curve-breakers	KF285.Z9 C87 2005
School law and the public schools : a practical guide for educational leaders	KF4119 .E84 2005
U.S. Supreme Court digest, 1754 to date	Ref KF 101 .S9
West's Encyclopedia of American Law	Ref KF 154 .W47 1998
1001 Legal Words You Need to Know	Ref KF156 .A113 2003