Databases at UCI
The list below is a selection of databases that are especially useful for legal research. Many other databases are also available to UC Irvine students and faculty. For help choosing a database for non-legal research, see the UCI Libraries guide on "Databases To Get You Started."
Connecting from off-campus: Databases and electronic journals (e.g. CQ Weekly, HeinOnline, LegalTrac) have licensing agreements that restrict online access. Most are available off-campus, with a little technological help. For electronic resources:
Restricted to UCI Law: instructions for connecting from off-campus are available.
Restricted to UCI: instructions for connecting from off-campus are available.
Selected Legal and Interdisciplinary Databases
- Scholarly and news articles on a variety of topics
- Articles about the practice of law.
- Primary and secondary legal sources. Popular resources include BNA news and dockets from federal and state courts. Law Students can register online.
- Over 100 books and newsletters about corporate, health, IP, labor, litigation, etc. Circuit court split lists in US Law Week - for journal notes and comments.
- Over 50 treatises and practice guides covering antitrust, Internet, IP, and tax.
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Contents of over 90 titles covering tax and corporate tax issues.
- Constitutions of the countries of the world covers over 190 nations. Includes notes on recent amendments, as well as historical, legal, political and economic information.
- Constitutions of dependencies and territories includes full-text access to eight volumes of original documents and commentary.
- Constitutions of the US has national and state constitutions, plus the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Marshall Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia. Also provides introductory and comparative notes.
- CQ Almanac and Congress and the Nation
HTML versions back to the 40s of both publications. Plain-language summaries and analysis of politics, legislation, budgets, etc. CQ Almanac is published annually; Congress and the Nation is published every few years.
- CQ Press Voting and Elections Collection
Data, analyses, explanations, and historical material on voting and elections in America. Chronological coverage varies by office. Presidential coverage begins 1789. Election data can be downloaded.
- CQ Researcher, CQ Global Researcher, and CQ Weekly
Articles cover current and controversial policy issues, including legislation.
- Supreme Court Collection
Analysis and commentary of Supreme Court decisions, biographies of Supreme Court justices, and history of the Court and the U.S. Constitution.
- CQ Almanac and Congress and the Nation
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Access audio opinions of precedential judicial opinions. Users can browse through and download audio files by 1L, 2L and 3L subjects, casebooks, and most popular cases. Also access trial videos by case name, practice area or jurisdiction, including real courtoom video clips highlighting trial techniques with analysis.
- Practitioner-focused information about environmental legal issues.
- Aims to include every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in the United Kingdom, along with thousands of important works from the Americas, between 1701 and 1800. Consists of books, pamphlets, broadsides, ephemera. Subject categories include law, as well as history and geography; fine arts and social sciences; medicine, science, and technology; and others.
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Online version of the monthly News and Analysis, updates, and links to statutes and regulations. From the Environmental Law Institute.
- Full text coverage of local and regional newspapers, trade publications, business newswires, press release wires, media transcripts, news photos, business-rich Web sites, investment analyst reports, market research reports, country and regional profiles, company profiles, historical market data.
- Links to current sources of codes and basic legislation in jurisdictions all over the world. Also provides background information on the history and legal system of the countries of the world, and discusses primary sources for each country.
- Search full-text, scanned images. Collections include: Law Journals, Bar Journals, the Federal Register, U.S. Session laws, Treaties and Agreements, U.S. Supreme Court documents, U.S. Attorney General opinions, and Legal Classics. Coverage: for journals, first issue through latest issue licensed (for many journals, this is the latest issue.)
- Multilingual index to articles and book reviews published worldwide. Also analyzed are the contents of legal essays, festschrifts, melanges, and congress reports. Covers international (public and private), comparative, and municipal law of countries other than the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia
- Citations to articles from over 600 legal journals, yearbooks, institutes, bar association organs, law reviews, and government publications originating in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Includes book reviews. Coverage: indexing since 1981; abstracts since 1990; select full text since 1995. Comprehensive coverage information is available.
- Abstracts and indexes for older articles in ILP publications, including indexing back to the early 1900s for some journals. Full-text is not available, however, click-through access to individual articles in HeinOnline, Proquest, and other resources may be available. Comprehensive coverage information is available.
- Updates Index to Legal Periodicals in the four-to-eight week gap between journal publication and ILP's database updates. More information from the UW Law Library.
- Index and tables of contents for more than 10,000 legal titles from over 90 publishers.
- Archive of PDF articles in arts, humanities, social sciences, and science.
- English reports (1220-1873), State trials (1163-1858), Aspinall's reports of Maritime Cases (1970-1940), UK statutes (1235-present) and UK statutory instruments (1949-present); International law reports (19-).
- Lists information about hundreds of secondary sources. (Describes resources, but does not provide click-through access to them.)
- Electronic version of a subset of Leadership directory yellow books. Includes Judicial Yellow Book and Law Firms Yellow Book.
- Indexes over 850 titles including major law reviews, legal newspapers, bar association journals and international legal journals. Also contains law-related articles from over 1,000 additional business and general interest titles. Coverage: Indexing since 1980; full text of over 250 journals, some as early as 1980. Comprehensive coverage information is available.
- Campus-wide access to newspapers, journals, company financial information, industry and market news, federal and state case law, law reviews, medical news and abstracts, and state and country profiles.
- Scanned images of early primary law documents, including some foreign jurisdictions.
- Updated version of the Encyclopedia of public international law published in print between 1991 and 2003.
- Includes monographs on the laws of foreign jurisdictions. Primarily 19th and early 20th century; also several hundred classics in European international law since the 17th century.
- Includes early U.S. state codes, city charters, constitutional conventions and compilations ... legal dictionaries, and published records of the American Colonies. Covers 1620 - 1970.
- Published trial transcripts, newspaper articles, briefs, arguments, and other trial documents.
- Scanned legal treatises on US and British law published from 1800 through 1926. Full-text searching. Includes casebooks, local practice manuals, form books, works for lay readers, pamphlets, letters, speeches, etc.
- Records from over 15,000 Supreme Court cases, most without a full opinion.
- California legal commentary and analysis. Citations are linked to the primary law. Includes attorney-drafted forms with explanations and directions.
- Five-volume set on of all aspects of human rights theory, practice, law, and history. Over 300 entries signed by leading scholars and human rights experts. Covers: major figures, organizations and institutions, human rights events and crises, human rights norms, etc.
- Surveys historical, political, theoretical and philosophical issues relating to peace and conflict. Covers: major figures, major events, organizations, theories, etc. Each entry is signed by a leading scholar in the field, contains a bibliography for further reading, and is cross-referenced.
- Approximately 1,000 articles explore the traditions of Ancient Greek Law, Ancient Roman Law, Medieval Roman Law, Chinese Law, English Common Law, Islamic Law, United States Law, and the laws of such other regions as Africa, Latin America, and South Asia. Major categories of law explained in detail include private law (contract, tort, civil procedure), public law (statutory, criminal, etc.), and higher or constitutional law.
- Full text of over 300 books. Titles cover legal history, as well as European, international, criminal, and labor law.
- Covers all international law jurisprudence. Reported decisions have a headnote, the full text of the decision, and links to the Oxford Law Citator.
- Over 2,500 entries with references for further research including cases, treaties, journal articles, and websites.
- References to journal articles, books, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, conference reports, publications of international agencies, microfiche, Internet material, and more. Newspapers and newsletters are not indexed. PAIS International includes publications from over 120 countries throughout the world. In addition to English, some of the indexed materials are published in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.
- Extensive collection of federal legislative history documents, including bills, hearing testimony, congressional records, and CRS reports.
- Full-page scans of recent issues of Barron's, LA Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. Coverage generally starts in 2008. (For more Newspaper resources, check the UCI Libraries Guide to News & Newspapers.)
- Throughly-researched compilations of digital full-text publications relevant to enacted United States law. Includes all major legislative history documents: bills, public laws, committee reports, committee prints, hearings, CRS reports, and signing statements.
- Includes scanned historical articles from newspapers (including New York Times and Wall Street Journal), dissertations, and other databases that combine multiple sources by subject (Alt-Press Watch, Criminal Justice, Ethnic NewsWatch, GenderWatch).
- Statistical data from U.S. government publications 1973-current, state and private sources 1980-current, and international organizations 1983-current. Subscription includes: American statistics index, Statistical reference index, and Index to international statistics.
- News and analysis of federal tax issues.
- Data and information about federal government enforcement activities, covering civil, criminal and administrative enforcement actions. Tracks federal funding, staffing and spending for these activities.
- Articles in arts, humanities, social science, and science.
- Primary and secondary legal research materials, including federal and state case law, court rules, statutory and regulatory materials, reference publications, and full-text legal periodicals, as well as legal guides and information for pre-law students.