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Business - Business Law

 

 

General

Forms

Case Law

Law and Legislation

E-commerce Legal Issues

Labor Law

GENERAL

 

Business Law Site: articles, checklists, research
Articles and links on topics like raising capital, electronic commerce, copyright and trademarks, contracts, employee law, etc., as well as links to research tools.

Business.gov
The official business link to the U.S. government. Use the Select a Topic list on the right side of the screen to choose your topic.

CyberSecuritiesLaw
An extensive website focused completely on securities regulation and the Internet.

Delphion Intellectual Property Network
You can search, retrieve, and view nearly four million patents and applications at this site. The Intellectual Property Network offers access to US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) patent descriptions from 1971 to the present, as well as "over 1.4 million European Patent Office and World Intellectual Property Office patents and applications."

FindLaw
A meta site on all aspects of law. For California Law see its California site. For Business Law see its Business site.

Franchise Laws
 Introduction to franchising requirements, liabilities, cautions, and legal resources.

Lexis Nexis Academic
In Legal Research can search by "area of law by topic"....including Corporate Law (Federal and State Cases). Available only to CSULB students and faculty.

Uniform Commercial Code

Virtual Reference -- Legal Information
A comprehensive list of web sites in law.

Westlaw Campus Research
Full text access to federal and state case law, statutes, regulations and administrative codes, as well as, European Union information, law encyclopedias, law reviews and citators. Available only to CSULB students and faculty.

 

FORMS

Business Service Center / California Secretary of State
The place to check for information and forms for California businesses.

Court Rules, Forms and Dockets
From LLRX includes links to over 1,400 sites where you can browse by court type, type of research, jurisdiction or search by topic.

CASE LAW

SOURCES

REPORTERS

DIGESTS

CITATORS

GUIDES

REFERENCES

 

ARTICLES

SOURCES:

 

Reporters:

  • primary source: full text of published decisions, judgments, or opinions of the court
  • chronological by case date
  • citation includes volume, reporter abbreviation, and page number
  • several reporters per court due to different publishers
  • do not include discussion or arguments

Digests:

  • secondary source finding tool available in print only
  • indexes, abstracts (summarizes or digests) reported cases
  • subject classification scheme puts like topics together by point of law
  • table of cases by title (name of case) alphabetically; descriptive word index
  • kept up to date by pocket parts and supplements

Citators:

  • determine continuing validity of a case; is it still "good law"
  • history and treatment included
  • updated by paperback volumes (gold, red and blue) - may need at least 1 maroon hard volume, 1 gold annual, 1 red monthly, 1 blue express; check the paper volumes for "what your library should contain"
  • affirmances, reversals, dismissals
  • Shepard-izing
  • include state reporters, federal cases, attorney general rulings, state bar publications, law publications, ALR and USSC Lawyer's Editions

Guides:

  • secondary sources
  • most discuss topic, provide analysis and references to primary sources
  • good starting point due to clear explanations and interpretations

Articles:

  • secondary sources
  • journals, magazines
  • most discuss topic, provide analysis and references to primary sources
  • law reviews - background information and analysis of major court cases

REPORTERS

 

Finding Court Opinions on the Web

- from the National Law Journal

- covers supreme, circuit and district court links and state by state courts and cases

 

United States: Supreme Court

  • U. S. Reports (U.S.)
         - official version of Supreme Court decisions
  • U. S. Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers' Edition (L. Ed. or L.Ed. 2d)
    - KF 101 A313 3rd Floor
    - 2d series v. 1 - current
  • Lexis Nexis Academic :
    - all Supreme Court decisions, full text, annotated; includes briefs and previews
    - federal courts included
    - select Legal Research -> Case Law -> Get a Case
    - search by case name; enter participant names in any order
    - search by case citation; include all periods or dots
    - "view citation formats" if not sure of correct citation format
    - select Case Law -> Federal Case Law
     - search by keyword, court and date
    - use "atleast#" to have keywords appear at least # times in the text
    - searches entire case text with options to limit the search to certain fields
    - brackets in the text of a case include one or more * and page numbers; see the top of each case for the ledger of Reporters and *
    - use Focus to narrow a search for a specific topic within a case

United States: Appeals and District Courts

  • Court of Appeals - Federal Reporter (F., F2d, F.3d)
    - 13 courts = 1-11, D.C. Federal
    - KF 105 F42
    - Federal Reporter 1 (1st series) - 600 (2nd series) Lower Level Storage
    - Federal Reporter 601(2nd series) - 999(2nd series), 1(3rd series) - to date 3rd Floor
  • District Courts - Federal Supplement (F. Supp., F.Supp.2d)
    - 94 courts (1-4 per state)
    - KF 120 F42
    - Federal Supplement 1st series 671 - 998, 2nd series 1 - 378 Lower Level Storage
  • Lexis Nexis Academic
    - U.S. Circuit Courts (Court of Appeals) and U.S. District Courts (all 50 states, plus territories)
    - 1789 to date
    - see search approaches outlined above under U. S. Supreme Court

California: Supreme and Appellate Court

  • California Blue and White Book
    - contains parallel citations
    - KFC 45.4 C3 Reference Desk
    - blue pages convert California Reports (Supreme Court, C. or Cal.) and California Appellate Reports (C.A. or Cal App) into (West's) California Reporter
  • California Reporter (Cal Rptr and Cal Rptr 2d)
    - KFC 47 C32 3rd Floor
    - 1st series 1 - 300, 2nd series 1 - 142, 145 - 346
  • West's California Reporter (continues California Reporter)
    - KFC 47 C322 3rd Floor
    - 1st series 1 - 286, 2nd series 1 - 135, 3rd series 1 - to date
  • Lexis Nexis Academic
    - California Supreme Court and Appellate Courts
    - search under Legal Research -> Case Law ->
    - State Case Law -> California then search by subject terms, court, dates
    - Get a Case then search by case names or citation

DIGESTS

 

United States

  • U.S. Supreme Court
    - U. S. Supreme Court Digest
    - KF 101.1 U55 3rd Floor
    - indexes cases from 1754
  • Federal Courts - Federal Practice Digest (F.P., F.P. 2d, F.P. 3d, F.P. 4th)
    - Federal Digest to 1938; KF 127 W46 Lower Level Storage
    - Modern Federal Practice Digest 1939 - 1960; KF 127 W47 Lower Level Storage
    - West's Federal Practice Digest 2d 1961 - 1975 KF 127 W48 Lower Level Storage
    - West's Federal Practice Digest 3d 1975 - mid 1980's; KF 127 W482 Lower Level Storage
    - West's Federal Practice Digest, 4th mid 1980's - to date; KF 127 W482 3rd Floor

California

  • West's California Digest
    - KFC 57 W467 3rd Floor, v. 1-50 1850 - 1949;
    - 2d series; KFC 57 W47 3rd Floor, v. 1-56 1950 - to date

CITATORS

United States

  • Shepard's Federal Case Name Citator - an index
    - 9th circuit
    - 1940 - to date
    - KF 112 9th.2 S53 1987 Reference
  • Shepard's U.S. Supreme Court Case Names Citator - an Index
    - 1900 - to date
    - KF 101.2 S55 Reference Desk
  • Shepard's Federal Citations
    - KF 105.2 S42 Reference
    - U.S. lower court cases
  • Shepard's United States Citations
    - 7th edition
    - Supreme Court
    - KF 101.2 S54 Reference
  • Lexis Nexis Academic - Supreme Court only
    - select Legal Research -> Case Law -> Shepard's For U.S. Supreme Court, then enter citation
    - covers decisions from 1789 to date
    - KWIC search is limited to Appellate history, editorial analysis or within the last 2 months
    - full search is comprehensive with both primary and secondary sources; all prior history, all subsequent appellate history and all citing references
    - select Help-> Using Shepard's Citations Service for an explanation of the color and other codings as well as how to use the citation service

California:

  • Shepard's California Case Names - an index
    - 1950 - date
    - KFC 59 S433 1985 Reference Desk
  • Shepard's California Citations. Cases.
    - 10th edition
    - KFC 59 S44 Reference

How to:

 

GUIDES

 

 

United States

  • West's Encyclopedia of American Law
    - KF 154 W57 Reference
    - 1998 edition
    - kept up to date with American Law yearbook, KF 154 W47 Suppl Reference
  • American Jurisprudence 2d (Am. Jur. 2d)
    - 2nd edition
    - modern comprehensive text statement of American Law, state and federal
    - KF 154 A42 v. 1-83 3rd Floor, Indexes Reference
    - legal encyclopedia
    - alphabetical by topic
    - numerous case references
  • American Law Reports (ALR, ALR 3d, ALR 4th, ALRL 5th)
    - addresses narrow, very specific legal questions or issues
    - explains and discusses legal issues raised in a case
    - summarizes and lists cases from other jurisdictions on the same issue
    - 14,000 case law articles
    - KF 132 A52 series 1 101-175, Lower Level Storage
    - KF 132 A52 series 2d 1-100, 3d 1-100, 4th 1-90, 5th 1 - 125, 6th 1 - to date, Lower Level Storage
    - quick Index KF 132.6 A543 Reference

 

California

  • California Jurisprudence III (Cal. Jur 3d)
    - KFC 80 C29 3rd Floor, Indexes Reference
    - encyclopedia of California law

REFERENCES

 

Uniform System of Citation
- KF 245 U56 1986 Reference
- also called Blue Book or Harvard Citation
- 14th edition

Legal Citation Guides and Abbreviation Lists
- list of resources at Harvard Law School, includes web sites

Introduction to Basic Legal Citations
- by Peter W. Martin, Cornell Law School
- based on the Blue Book Uniform System of Citation, 18th edition
- 2005 edition

Lexis Nexis Academic
- select Help -> Citing References

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
- BF 76.7 B82 2001 Reference and Reserve
- Appendix D is Legal Materials
- Using APA Format - basic guide from the Purdue University Online Writing Lab
- APA Style - Electronic References

ARTICLES

 

Indexes to Legal Periodicals and Law Reviews:

  • Lexis Nexis Academic
         - select Legal Research -> Secondary Literature -> Legal News or Law Reviews
    - search by keyword the entire text
    - use "atleast#" to have keywords appear at least # of times in the text

Indexes to Journal Articles

  • Index to Periodical Articles Related to Law
    - K I3 Reference
    - 1958 - to date
    - no directly law-related periodicals covered
    - covers social and behavioral sciences journals
    - subject approach
  • U.S. Supreme Court Decisions: Index to Excerpts, Reprints, and Discussions
    - 1983 (1960-1980) and 2001 (1980-1999) editions
    - covers court cases from 1778-1996
    - includes non-law related journal articles and books; readily available to the undergraduate
    - by case (by date of decision) with word and phrase index, case names and popular case names indexes
    -KF 101.6 G83 Reference
  • ABI Inform Global
         - 1500 worldwide business periodicals
    - heavily full-text
  • Academic Search Elite
    - general subject database containing indexing and abstracts for nearly 3,000 journals, with many dating back to 1984
    - full-text data for over 1,200 journals, with some information dating back to 1990
  • Los Angeles Times and other Newspapers
    - through Newspapers or Factiva or Lexis Nexis Academic

RETURN TO CASE LAW

 

LAW and LEGISLATION

 

BACKROUND

BILLS

LAWS, STATUTES

CODES

REGULATIONS

SECONDARY SOURCES

 

BACKGROUND

 

West's Encyclopedia of American Law
 - KF 154 W47 1998 Reference
 - history and implications of legal concepts
- cites major court cases

 

BILLS

 

Legislative Terminology

  • Bills - introduced in House or Senate, sent to committee
  • Hearings - held by committees with agency reports, experts and interested parties
  • Reports - one of the most important
     - produced when the bill is reported favorably
     - analysis of bill, dissenting views
     - H. Rpt # (or HR Rpt. #-#, Congress and report number)
     - S. Rpt.# (or S Rpt. #-#, Congress and report number)
  • D ebates - on floor of House or Senate
     - in Congressional Record # Cong. Rec. # (Volume, page)
  • L egislative history - intent
     - first - US Code and Administrative New and Thomas
     - also - CIS, Lexis Nexis Academic, Statutes at Large

United States

  • Thomas Legislative Information on the Internet
    - by words or bill number
     - search legislation for summary and status, text, public law number
     - search c ommittee information for reports
  • On Congress
    - search CQ billtracks for all bill actions
     - search CQ billwatch for summary, background, outlook
     - latest bill text
     - CRS bill digest - section by section
     - committee report - complete or an outline
  • Hearings:
    - CIS Index, Z 1223 Z7C2, 4th Floor Room 407, index with abstract
     - Y4 Search COAST by title or CIS # microfiche

California

  • Bills : Official California Legislative Information
    - by bill number, subject or sponsor
     - c ommittee reports, analysis, text of bills, status, history, votes
  • Propositions
    - text, status, history

LAWS - PUBLIC LAWS - STATUTES

 

Terminology

  • Public Law - individual law as passed and signed by President, U.S. federal
  • Chapter - individual law as passed and signed by governor, California state
  • Statutes - chronological compilation of laws passed by a particular legislature for each session

United States

  • US Code Congressional and Administrative News
    - KF 48 W45 Reference unbound issues, annual bound volumes 3rd Floor
     - Law
     - Legislation's history
     - Congressional record
     - House or senate committee report
  • Statutes at Large (Stat.)
     - KF 50 U5 Lower Level Storage v. 50 -115
    - earlier volumes on microfiche

California

  • Statues of California
         - KFC 25 A213 3rd Floor

CODE - Codified Law

 

Terminology

  • Code
         - compilation of all current laws into 50 subject arrangements
     - annotated = text with reference to cases, other statutes, regulations and other search aids
     - kept up to date with pocket parts and supplemental volumes

United States

California

  • West's Annotated California Code
    - KFC 30.5 W4 3rd Floor (Indexes in Reference)
  • Lexis Nexis Academic
         - search -> Legal Research -> Codes and Regulations -> State Codes ->California -> California Code
  • Official California Legal Information
    Full text of all 29 California state codes.
    California Codes
    From the Institute of Governmental Studies Library at UC Berkeley links to local ordinance codes and charters issued by California cities and counties; includes Long Beach, Los Angeles and numerous surrounding cities.

REGULATIONS

 

Terminology

  • Administrative agency regulations to enforce or implement legislation

United States

California

SECONDARY SOURCES

Commentary

  • CQ Weekly
    - JK 1 C15 3rd Floor Room 322 v. 56 #16 - 61 #18
     - federal
  • National Journal
    - JK1 N28 v. 3 - 5 #29, 7 - 35 3rd Floor Room 322
     - federal
  • California Journal
    - JK 8701 C33 v. 2 - 28 3rd Floor, v. 29 - date Reference

Articles - See Articles Under Case Law

 

References - See References Under Case Law

 

Content maintained by Susan Jackson, Business Librarian