Law & Economics (Fall 2008)

Instructor: Prof. Zorina Khan
Librarian: Carr Ross (x3545; cross@bowdoin.edu)

The purpose of this guide is to identify library sources that will help you with your assignments in this class. Although these sources will be helpful, you will have additional needs depending on your topic. If you have questions feel free to contact Carr (x3545 or cross@bowdoin.edu).

Background Information on Law and Economics

These sources will help you with background on a topic and also may identify relevant court cases and/or statutes.

Books

  • NExpress
    - a combined catalog containing the library holdings of Bowdoin, Bates, Colby, Wellesley, Williams, Middlebury, Vassar, and Northeastern University. It too has an online request feature. Books arrive in 2-3 days.
  • MaineCat
    - statewide catalog; online request feature - Colby & Bates books arrive in 2-5 days

Journal Articles

Law Reviews

Scholarly commentary on American law . . .

  • Westlaw Campus
    - cases, statutes, law reviews and more; for law reviews, FIRST MAKE SURE YOU ARE USING THE "LAW" TAB IN THE UPPER LEFT-HAND CORNER, then type search terms inside the Search box(es) and select Journals and Law Reviews below it (you must select All Journals and Reviews or an individual state)
  • Lexis/Nexis Academic
    - similar to Westlaw, contains cases, statutes, law reviews and more; for law review articles, FIRST MAKE SURE YOU ARE USING THE "LEGAL" TAB IN THE UPPER LEFT-HAND CORNER, then click on Law Reviews from the left-hand menu
  • Index to Legal Periodicals (Main Periodical Index section, H-L Library)
    - library has 1926-1994 only; an index to legal periodicals and books; arranged by subject and author, also has Table of Cases and Table of Statutes sections

Peer Reviewed Economics Journals

Scholarly research in economics and related fields . . .

  • EconLit
    - the primary index for the scholarly literature of economics, covering journal articles, books, and working papers, published from 1969 to the present
  • JSTOR
    - a collection of scholarly journals; type in your search terms and select the Economics discipline; dates of coverage vary.
  • Additional Databases
    - your topic may be covered more thoroughly in a database from another discipline

Statutes

Federal Statutes Citations

When first enacted, a federal law will have two citation forms:

  • P.L. 108-458 (458th law of the 108th Congress) or
  • 118 Stat 3638 (volume 118, page 3638 of Statutes at Large)

After codification, law citations appear in these forms:

  • 50 USC 402 (title 50, section 402 of the official United States Code), or
  • 50 USCA 402 (title 50, section 402 of the commercial publication United States Code Service) or
  • 50 USCS 402 (title 50, section 402 of the commercial publication United States Code Annotated)

Finding Federal Statutes

  1. Laws, as enacted by Congress, are found in their entirety in the sources listed in the slip laws section below and in United Statutes at Large (Govt. Doc AE 2.111: ). After appearing in slip form, laws are codified by subject into the official U.S. Code and its commercial counterparts, United States Code Service (Lexis/Nexis) and United States Code Annotated (Westlaw Campus). Unlike the official Code, the commercial sources include interpretive information; for example court decisions applying to a code section. The Code is organized according to broad topics (e.g., education, conservation, copyright), called titles. Titles are further subdivided into sections. Remember: if you want the entire act in its original form, i.e., not codified, use Statutes at Large or slip version.

    A statute may contain many unrelated parts and so, once codified, may not remain intact once it is placed into the Code. Instead, these parts will be classified according to their topics and placed into the appropriate title or section of the Code. All three Code sources provide parallel references, that will show you where certain sections of a statute are placed in the Code. Remember: laws in the Code are those that are currently in force and so will change regularly as sections are amended or repealed.

  2. If you have a public law number, Statutes at Large citation, or a Code citation, match it up with the appropriate source below (see Sample Citation column) and execute a search.
  3. If you lack a citation, an act can usually be found by its popular name at the Legal Information Institute's Table of Popular Names. The Table lists laws alphabetically under either short titles assigned by Congress or names by which they have become known, e.g., Megan's Law. It provides the public law number and citations to Statutes at Large and U.S. Code. Also, all three Code sources below allow for searching by keyword.
FEDERAL LAWS
Title Sample Citation Congress Years Format Location Classification Indexing/Notes
Slip Laws
(acts of Congress published in their entirety)		 Pub. L. 103-159 (159th law of the 103rd Congress); sometimes cited as P.L. 103-159 or 103 P.L. 159 93rd- 1973- electronic Westlaw Campus   Search by PL number or Statutes-at-Large cite
100th-
 1988- electronic Lexis/Nexis Congressional   Search by PL number, Statutes-at-Large cite, enacted bill, or keyword; Use the "Get a Document" tab
U.S. Statutes at Large
(acts published in their entirety & compiled chronologically)		 102 Stat. 487 (volume 102, page 487) 1st - through most recent 1789 - paper Govt. Doc. AE 2.111: Index in each volume
108th and 109th only 2003 - 2006 electronic GPO Access    
U.S. Code (official source of codified laws) 18 U.S.C. 925A (title 18 of the code, section 925A)   current edition electronic Legal Information Institute (Cornell)   Browse or search by title or Table of Popular Names; easy to use
United States Code Annotated 18 U.S.C.A 925A   current edition electronic Westlaw Campus   Search by keyword and citation. Same as U.S. Code except includes annotations.
United States Code Service 18 U.S.C.S 925A
 		 current edition electronic Lexis/Nexis Congressional
 		 Search by keyword and citation. Same as U.S. Code except includes annotations.
STATE LAWS
Maine Revised Statutes Annotated (current laws in force) 10 M.R.S.A. §1701 (title 10 of the code, section 1701)   current edition electronic Maine Revised Statutes   Statute Search
All States (current laws in force)     current edition electronic FindLaw      
    current edition electronic Legal Information Institute (Cornell)      

Court Cases

How To Read A Citation

Lawyers and law scholars use a specific form of bibliographic citation to identify law cases. To locate an individual law case, you need to know the case's citation. Law cases are consistently cited in this format:

Volume number / Abbreviation of Law Reporter Name / Page number.
21 L. Ed. 2d 731

In the above example "21" is the volume, "L.Ed.2d" is the abbreviation for the law reporter (United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers Edition 2nd Series) and "731" is the page number.

It is not unusual for there to be more than one source for court cases.  For example, for the U.S. Supreme Court there is the official United States Reports (citation example: 349 US 294) and two commercial counterparts: United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers Edition (published by Lexis/Nexis; citation example: 99 L.Ed. 1083); and Supreme Court Reporter (published by Westlaw; citation example: 75 S.Ct. 753). Commercial versions contain helpful annotations, the official one does not.

Finding Law Cases By Citation

  1. Go online to either Westlaw Campus or Lexis/Nexis Academic and type the citation into the appropriate search box,

    Or
  2. Using the citation, figure out which hardcover law reporter you need from the table below. Using the classification number, locate the reporter in the Govt. Doc stacks.

Finding Law Cases by Name

Although much case law is referred to by citation, sometimes you may only have the name of the case. Follow these steps when you only have the name of a law case:

  1. Go online to Westlaw Campus or LexisNexis Academic and type the names of the litigants into the appropriate search boxes
  2. Full text of the case appears on the screen.

Finding Law Cases by Subject

  1. Look in one of the sources listed in the Background section of this guide (especially The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics and the Law), or
  2. Search for references in articles in the Journal Articles section of this guide, or
  3. Legal Information Institute at Cornell provides excellent background information, including relevant cases & statutes, on various areas of the law, or
  4. Search Westlaw Campus or Lexis/Nexis Academic by keyword

Finding Court Cases Related to a Statute

  1. Search in Westlaw Campus for a statute (e.g., 8 USC 1776) and look in the left-hand panel for "Cases.", or
  2. Search in Lexis/Nexis Congressional by statute and look for the Interpretive Notes and Decisions section - it includes court cases, or
  3. You may go to United States Supreme Court Digest (Main Library Ref. KF101.1.A5D5), vol. 16 Index to Decisions, Annotations, and Digest. Look up your act by popular name, e.g., Sherman Act. Under the heading will be listed subtopics of the act with corresponding citations for related Supreme Court cases. Use the L. Ed citation to locate the case in the United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyer's Edition volumes in Govt. Doc KF101.A5U5.

Law Reporters

Please note: the sources below vary in the amount of interpretive annotations they provide. Even within a single source, earlier volumes may not include annotations or they may be very brief. Generally, the commercial sources will provide more supplemental information than the official source. It is important to consult more than one source for a case if you would like a full range of interpretive annotations.

FEDERAL and STATE CASES
  Court(s) Sample Citation Years Format Location Classification Notes
  Federal and State courts of all levels (with exceptions, varies by state) 134 F.3d 817;
19 F Supp. 2d 104;
139 L. Ed. 2d 25;
118 S Ct. 62;
514 U.S. 673
Also, many state & regional formats		 17xx-present electronic Westlaw Campus†   search by citation, litigants, or keywords; includes annotations
same as above 17xx-present electronic Lexis/Nexis Academic†   search by citation, litigants, or keywords; includes annotations
  varies, normally 1980's- electronic Legal Information Institute (Cornell)   search parameters vary by court; no interpretive annotations

†Unlike Supreme Court decisions, not every case considered by the lower federal courts is published in one of these reporter series. Each circuit has rules establishing criteria to determine whether decisions are published.

Statistics/Data

  • FedStats
    - gateway to federal statistics on many topics

Other Relevant Web Sites

Style Manuals and Citation Guides

  • Complete Guide to Citing Government Information Resources (1993 ed.)
    Reserve 133E