Finding Topic Background Information
Articles from education journals, news publications, reports, and law reviews will help you identify and explain the importance of your judicial, legislative, or public policy. They may discuss significant holdings, trends in litigation, relevant law, and contrary opinions (Law review articles may be particularly useful for this). These databases will be a good place to start your literature review.
- ERIC (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new windowSearch for journal articles, ERIC Documents, reports, etc. using keywords which describe your topic. Also includes some education law reviews.
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new windowSearch using keywords related to your topic and use the Law Reviews or Legal News facets in the left column of the results list to limit to either of those types of sources. News may be a useful facet as well.
- Congressional Research Service Reports (University of North Texas) This link opens in a new windowUse Congressional Research Service Reports to find government reports. The Congressional Research Service is tasked with "providing timely, objective, and authoritative research and analysis to committees and Members of both the House and Senate, regardless of political party affiliation." Information as this is compiled and made available as a public service by the Government Documents Department at the University of North Texas Libraries and includes reports not officially released to the public. See the link below for reports made available from the Library of Congress.
- Congressional Research Service Reports (Library of Congress) This link opens in a new windowThe Congressional Research Service Reports (Library of Congress) database provides access to reports prepared by the Congressional Research Service and are added as they are made available to congress.
Cases, Statutes, and Legislation
Strategies for Finding Cases, Statutes, and Legislation Related to Your Topic
- See what cases are mentioned in your textbook. Look up the case in Nexis Uni and use the headnotes and the Citing Decisions links in the right column of the decision to find related cases.
- Use West's Education Law Digest, located in the Bracken Library, to find cases on a topic.
- Look for law review articles on your topic in Nexis Uni, they will cite cases and existing statutes related to your topic. Also, they often include a history of the issue and make an argument for why current policy should be changed.
- Do a keyword search in Nexis Uni and use the facets in the left column of the results list to narrow results to cases or statutes.
- Use ProQuest Congressional to find current legislation.
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new windowRelevant cases, statutes, and law review articles can be found in Nexis Uni. Here are some tips.
1. To find a case or statute using a citation, enter the legal citation (e.g. 9 N.E. 3d 230 or i.c. 34-51-2-6), into the big search box.
2. To find a case, statute, or law review article using keyword searching, enter keywords describing your topic into the big search box and select either Cases, Statutes and Legislation, or Law Reviews and Journals from the facets in the left column of the results list.
3. Clicking on the hyperlinks above the headnotes in the case will lead you to cases on the topic which the headnote is written. Click on the headnote and then Get Documents. Headnotes are annotations from Nexis Uni which tell how a case relates to the topic and are located below the Case Summary. - ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new windowTo find current legislation by keyword, enter keywords that describe your topic into the search box and then use the facets in the left column to limit the results to current legislation. First, click on the Congress button at the top of the left column and select the most recent congress from the drop-down box. Next, use the facets in the left column to find legislation. Scroll down to the Document Type box and select Bill Profile under Bills. Bill Profiles provide an overview of the legislation as well as the text of the bill. Note: All types of documents will show up on the list, including hearings and CRS reports.
- West's Education Law DigestThis is a multi-volume print source is located in Bracken Library. The set contains summaries of cases arranged by legal topic. Cases are given "key numbers," which is a combination of a word, representing the broad topic, and a number which represents a subtopic (e.g. Courts 89). Users can use the outline of the key number system at the beginning of each volume to determine what key number relates to their topic. The user then looks that number up in the digest, where they will find brief summaries of cases that relate to that topic and subtopic, along with a case citation (e.g. 9 N.E. 3d 230). The citation can be looked up in Nexis Uni.