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Skell Library

RESEARCH GUIDES

Comprehensive Legal Resources

Casemaker Casemaker is a legal research database, similar to WestLaw or Lexis, which is provided free-of-charge to all members of the Texas bar. Law students also have access to Casemaker. In order to create an account, go to Casemaker and click "Sign Up." Make sure you register using your St. Mary's University email address.

Fastcase Premium (On-campus access) A legal research database similar to Westlaw or Lexis. Libraries include primary law from all 50 states, as well as federal coverage going back to 1 U.S. 1, 1 F.2d 1, 1 F.Supp. 1, and 1 B.R. 1. The Fastcase collection includes cases, statutes, regulations, court rules, and constitutions.

Law Library Microform Consortium (LLMC) (On-campus and off campus access)
Contains archives of the scanned versions of hard-to-find state and federal legal materials. Also contains legal materials from jurisdictions around the world.

Lexis (Password restricted: Each law student and faculty member is assigned an individual password.)
Collection of thousands of databases comprising mostly primary and secondary legal materials as well as collections of newspapers and other sources of information.

Westlaw (Password restricted: Each law student and faculty member is assigned an individual password.)
Online portal to legal materials published by West. Also includes access to thousands of databases across a spectrum of legal and current affairs topics.

 

Federal Resources

U.S. Government Information (open access)

govinfo is free U.S. Government information for all. govinfo provides free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government. It is a service of the United States Government Publishing Office (GPO), a Federal agency in the legislative branch. To learn more, visit the govinfo about page.

Congress.gov (open access)

A division of the Library of Congress, this is a great resource for finding legislative history of recent enactments. It’s also useful for checking the status of and tracking current Bills.

 

Texas Legal Resources

Texas Legislative Reference Library (open access)
Provides online access to many of the resources indexed by the Legislative Reference Library of Texas. The LRL provides copies of current Bills being considered in the legislature as well as a detailed collection of the legislative history of Texas laws.

Texas State Law Library (open access)
Provides free access to online legal resources. Must be a Texas resident to create an account.

Texas Courts Online (open access)
Contains links to Texas court cases as well as a wealth of information of the Texas judicial system.

Texas Legislature Online (open access)
Links to current legislative information, session activity, etc.

Texas Legal Forms (Gale Database)
Database of legal forms (all states are represented) covering a variety of subjects.

Texas Secretary of State (open access)
Texas administrative regulations are here as well as filings of Texas corporations and other business entities.

 

International and Foreign Law

Open Access Books from Brill

Brill offers open access books focused on many subjects, including more than one hundred on international law.

Foreign Law Guide (On-campus and off-campus access)

Provides access to secondary law sources from jurisdictions around the globe.

LawInfoChina

English language versions of Chinese legal and law related documents including the Chinese Constitution, statutes, regulations and case law. It also provides access to gazette and law journal articles as well as information of the structure of the Chinese legal system.

Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law (On-campus and off-campus access)

The Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law (MPEPIL) is a comprehensive online resource containing over 1600 peer-reviewed articles on every aspect of public international law. It has been re-designed to improve the look and feel of the site, and the search functionality. New updates and articles will be added in August. Written and edited by an incomparable team of over 800 scholars and practitioners, published in partnership with the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, and updated throughout the year, this major reference work is essential for anyone researching or teaching international law.

UN Treaty Collection (open access)

This collection provides access to every treaty and every international agreement entered into by any member of the United Nations as well as a wealth of other UN related material.