• Statutory Law
  In the United States governmental system, laws (aka statutes) generally are passed by legislative bodies (Congress) and signed by an executive (President). Each new law is assigned a public law number (P.L. 108-15). The 108 refers to the number of the Congress (each Congress lasts two years) and the "15" indicates this was the 15th bill passed by the 108th Congress. Over time, most laws are superseded in whole or in part by later legislation or become irrelevant as conditions change.

  The methods for citing laws are based on print publications. Statutory laws are published in two forms:

  • Statutes at Large
    This version provides the text of the law as passed by Congress. For example, the Privacy Act of 1974 (P.L. 93-579) is cited as "88 Stat 1896" where "88" refers to the volume number, "Stat" signifies the Statutes at Large, and "1896" is the first page of the document. The Pennsylvania equivalent is the "Laws of Pennsylvania."

  • United States Code (USC)
    The Code represents laws that are in effect now. New laws often deal with a variety of topics. The laws are broken up and the parts are placed in the appropriate section of the Code. The federal government printed the latest complete compilation in 2000. Annual supplements keep the user up-to-date. The electronic version of the U.S. Code in Lexis/Nexis Congressional is up-to-date so you do not have to check multiple sources. The Consolidated Statutes is the Pennsylvania equivalent of the Code.

• Case Law
  Court decisions (case law) interpret statutory law. The judicial system encompasses three levels of courts - district, appeals, and supreme - plus some special courts. The latter do not concern us here. The vast majority of cases begin and end in the District Courts. Courts of Appeal can either affirm or overturn the decisions of a District Court; the Supreme Court can do the same to decisions of the Appeals Courts. Very few cases are accepted by the Supreme Court. Court decisions are legally binding only within the geographic region that a court oversees.

  Court decisions are published in "Reporters." There are numerous editions of Reporters. Some cover geographic regions (e.g. Atlantic Reporter) or types of courts (U.S. or S.Ct. = Supreme Court). The citation system is built around these Reporters. For example, "76 F.Supp. 2d 258" refers to the decision in the Federal Supplement, 2nd series beginning on page 258 of volume 76. When using Lexis/Nexis, the primary importance of these citations is to enable you to search for other cases easily. Click on "Get a Case" and type in the citation. You can also search by the names of the plaintiff(s) and defendant(s) in a case, but a citation search is more precise.

  Courts rely heavily upon earlier court decisions (precedents) when deciding a case. This explains the large number of citations to other cases in court decisions.

As you begin your research, it may be beneficial to examine the print editions of the Statutues at Large, United States Code, and United States Reports. The print versions make the structure of these documents - with their numerous subsections, footnotes, and marginal notes - much more obvious and understandable. The call numbers are given in the next section.

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Reference Sources

• American Law Yearbook (1998 -)
  REF-1   348.7303 W5382
  
  
• Black's Law Dictionary: Definitions of the Terms and Phrases of American and English Jurisprudence, Ancient and Modern (1999)
  REF-1 340 B62A6
  
  
• The Encyclopedia of American Law (2002)
  REF-1  349.7303 E56
  

• Laws of Pennsylvania (1968-)
  REF-1 345 P392L

• Legal Research Illustrated: An Abridgement of Fundamentals of Legal Research (1994)
  REF-1 340 J17L6

• The Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions (1999)
  REF-1 348.73 O98

• Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes (1975-)
  REF-1 348.748 P41P

• Real Life Dictionary of the Law: Taking the Mystery out of Legal Language (1995)
  REF-1 349.73 H64R

• United States Code (2000 edition with supplements)
  REF-1 345 U58A12

• United States Reports (1949-1983)
  REF-1 348.73413 U58o
  Supreme Court decisions.

• United States Statutes at Large (1968, 1973-1977)
  REF-1 345 U58S

• West's Encyclopedia of American Law (1998)
  REF-1 348.7303 W538

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Databases

• Lexis/Nexis Academic (Carnegie Mellon users only)
  1966- (updated weekly)
  Lexis/Nexis Academic is the primary source for case law and legal information at CMU. Researchers can access federal and state court decisions, state statutory law (see "State Codes"), legal news, and law reviews. Documents are available in full text.

• Lexis/Nexis Congressional (Carnegie Mellon users only)
  (updates vary by type of information)
  CIS Annual: Congressional Information Service Index. Vol. 1-28, 1970-1997. (annual)
  REF-1 INDEX
  This database provides comprehensive access to U.S. legislative information and statutory law. It includes the Congressional Record, proposed and recent bills, bill tracking, testimony, laws, legislative histories, the United States Code, and more. Most documents are available in full text; the years of coverage vary by document type. Hunt Library possesses a set of microfiche with the full text of Congressional documents from 1977 to the present.
  
  
• ProQuest Direct (Carnegie Mellon users only)
  1986- (updated daily)
  ProQuest provides full text access to the Journal of the American Statistical Association (JASA), the Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, and many other resources. The database contains a law module that you can search separately.

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JSTOR

• JSTOR (Carnegie Mellon users only)
  JSTOR contains the full text of journal articles. You can search the contents or browse the issues. Due to licensing restrictions, the most recent five years of journals usually are not available.

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Internet Sites

• Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
  Circular A-130 deals with data collection and federal information resources issues. Government statisticians use this document as a general guide in their work.

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Citing Sources

• Print (Hunt Reference Desk)
  • A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (1996)
    REF-1 808.02 T92M6
    AKA: Chicago Style or Turabian

  • MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (1999)
    REF-1 808.02 M68a5

  • Publications Manual of the American Psychological Association (2001)
    REF-1 029.6 A512p

• Electronic
  • Citing Digital and Print Resources
    This is part of the Virtual Reference Shelf available through the library home page.

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