INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES GUIDE
by Wendy Scott, Assistant Director for Faculty & Outreach Services  
2008

A Selection of Resources to Support Legislation & Policy Courses

Federal Legislative History Research: A Practitioner's Guide to Compiling the Documents and Sifting for Legislative Intent (pdf)
Prepared by the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C.

This comprehensive document explains in detail (both in outline and in written narrative forms) the steps to go about in researching, compiling and sifting through the legislative history documents of recent and historical U.S. public laws. 
H. Douglas Barclay Law Library Research Guide - Federal Legislative History
Research guide developed by Barclay Law Library librarians.  This is a guide in outline form that describes our library's print and electronic sources in detail.


HeinOnline U.S. Legislative History Library 
Sources of Compiled Legislative History Database
Index to sources of selected legislative histories. The sources for these compilations include congressional documents, legal periodicals, treatises and looseleaf services.
(also in print at: Reference KF 42.2 .J68)

U.S. Federal Legislative History Title Collection
Full-text of selected legislative histories.

Legislative Reference Checklist: The Key to Legislative Histories from 1789-1903
Checklist by Public Law number that provides Statutues-at-Large and Bill Number citations for laws enacted 1789 - 1903.
(also in print at: Reference KF 49 .L43 1982)


LexisNexis Congressional
Access is restricted to Syracuse University College of Law users.

An electronic version of the CIS Legislative History collection, with links to some full-text documents. The Congressional Serial Set offers a collection of more than 337,862 Congressional and Executive Branch documents produced between 1789 and 1969. The collection now includes some CRS Reports. For more information about the Serial Set, contact a reference librarian.


Westlaw
Valid username and password required.

Arnold and Porter Legislative Histories
Individual databases containing the full-text of legislative histories for selected Public Laws. 

Lexis
Valid username and password required.
US- CIS Legislative Histories and CIS Historical Index

The CIS is also available as print indexes and documents on microform.  For details, see the H. Douglas Barclay Law Library Research Guide - Federal Legislative History.

Lexis also contains individual databases for legislative histories of selected, significant legislation.


Union List of Legislative Histories
Reference KF 49 .L39

--Covers the 37th to 102nd Congresses (1861-1992).
--Provides a list of libraries in the Washington, D.C. area that have compiled in-house legislative histories.


United States Code Congressional and Administrative News
KF 48 (Floor 4)

The United States Code Congressional and Administrative News (USCCAN) collects public laws and legislative histories by Congressional session. Both sections (in annual volumes) are organized chronologically. The Legislative History section provides the text of selected, significant committee reports with additional information on other components of the legislative history.


Sources for the Congressional Record



FORMAT	COVERAGE	LOCATION
Paper	1996 - present	Bird Library Government Documents Floor 3
Microform	complete series	Bird Library Government Documents Floor 3
Microform	1976 - present	Unclassified Floor 2
Westlaw	1985 - present	Yes
Lexis	1985 - present	Yes
Internet	1994 - present	Congressional Record Online http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aces150.html
Internet	1985 - present	Lexis Nexis Congressional (Law user access only) see Federal Resources web page
Internet	1774 - 1875	A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation, produced by the Library of Congress: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lawhome.html

Other Relevant Research Guides

H. Douglas Barclay Law Library Research Guides
See especially:


Federal Statutory Law
Federal Administrative Law

Tutorials & Multimedia Instructional Aids

PowerPoint Presentations

PowerPoint Presentations from Westlaw's Help & Tutorials Web Page
I recommend that you download these to your hard drive or network drive, and then modify them using the PowerPoint application. Presentations are in outline form with some useful graphs, tables & charts.

Of particular interest: (note: upload speed depends on Internet traffic)

Statutory Research

Introduction
The Legislative Process
Anatomy of a Statute
Statutory Research on Westlaw
Expanding Research: Legislative History, Case Law & Secondary Sources


Learning LexisNexis Tutorials & Tours
These basic and advanced exercises may be useful as assignments or for review.

Of particular interest:


Statutory Research
Legislative History Research
Administrative Law Research


About CALI (Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction)


CALI is a "non-profit consortium of law schools that researches and develops computer-mediated legal instruction and supports institutions and individuals using technology and distance learning in legal education. CALI was incorporated in 1982 and welcomes membership from law schools, paralegal programs, law firms and individuals wishing to learn more about the law." CALI Homepage, http://www.cali.org.

There are a number of exercises on federal and state statutues, legislative history, and administrative rulemaking. The selections below, grouped under the heading of Legal Research, are well suited for review by your first year law students.


Finding Statutes
Federal Legislative History Research - Compiled Legislative History
Forms of Federal Statutory Publication
Codification
Internal Agency Materials
Researching Federal Administrative Regulations
Researching Federal Legislative History
Rulemaking: Federal Register & CFR