Legal Research Basics

Develop a legal research strategy and add these tips and tools to your legal research checklist. It is often helpful to begin your research in an unfamiliar area of law with a secondary source like a research guide. Below you'll find a list of our favorite legal research guides as well as tips on how to find others.

Law Library Research Guides

• Boston University School of Law Libraries Research Guides
• Columbia Law School Guides to Foreign Legal Research
• Georgetown Law Library Research Guides
• Harvard Law School Research Guides
• NYU School of Law Legal Research Guides
• UW School of Law Gallagher Law Library Legal Research Guides

Other helpful online sources include Zimmerman's Research Guide and LLRX.com. 

Search Online

Search [type of law] law research guide

ex. health law research guide
ex. health law research guide site:.edu (adding site:.edu to Google limits the search to .edu sites only)

Search [type of law] law pathfinder

ex. health law pathfinder

Search [type of law] "annotated bibliography"

ex. health law "annotated bibliography"

Search the Catalog

Search the catalog for subject headings "legal research" or "law bibliography" or do a keyword search for [legal topic] legal research (ex. animal rights legal research). 

There are many specialized legal research books in the library. Search for them under the subject Legal Research - United States (or other jurisdiction).

Below is a sample of the type of specialized legal research books available in the library or online through a library database.