Catalog & Databases

See also: 
University Libraries, Research Links, Research Guides

Please note that off-campus use for many of these resources requires that you enter your GMU email username and password. Some databases, such as as BNA, Lexis & Westlaw, are available to law school faculty and students only.

The Law Library shares a catalog with the other GMU libraries as well as access to hundreds of electronic journals, indexes, and databases.

• If you are interested in borrowing books or articles from another library, see Borrowing Materials from Other Libraries.
• If you would like to recommend a book for purchase, see Book Suggestion Form.
• Teaching faculty can find information about library reserves on the Course Material Reserve Resources page.

Quick Links to Frequently Used Databases

For descriptions of these databases, see the list below.

Law-Related Databases

Below is a selective list of law-related databases and materials. If you would like to browse or search the complete list of databases offered through the university libraries, see the search tools above.

• Provided by the GMU Law Library; access may be limited to GMU Law School faculty, staff, and students.
  
• Provided by VIVA.
• Restricted access: Off-Campus use requires GMU e-mail username and password.

Note about restricted access: Many of these databases are governed by license agreements which limit use to the George Mason University Community of students, faculty, staff, and on-site users of George Mason University Libraries facilities. Each user has the responsibility of using these resources only for individual, educational and non-commercial purposes. The systematic downloading, distribution, or permanent retention of significant portions of these databases may be a violation of said licenses or copyright law. Particular resources may have additional requirements for access or restrictions on use.

For questions, see the Law Library Reference Office, Room 141.

Berkeley Electronic Press Journals

(BePress). This series began publication in late 2000 and includes full-text journals in law, economics, political science, health and medicine, and science and technology. Legal titles include Global Jurist and The Journals of Legal Scholarship. This publisher also provides access to working papers, preprints, and newsletters.

Blackwell Journals

This database holds the full-text articles of over 850 journals, the majority of which are published by Blackwell on behalf of international scholarly and professional societies. Subjects covered range across Medicine, Science, Social Science and the Humanities. There are over 70 economics journals and a smaller number of journals on law and criminology.

BNA Libraries

BNA databases cover a wide range of legal subjects, including: business law, criminal law, environmental law, labor law, intellectual property, professional ethics, and the U.S. Supreme Court. The Law Library subscribes to ALL BNA databases, many of which provide daily or weekly email alerts. View a list of all available databases.

CALI (The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction)

A collection of over one hundred interactive, computer-based lessons designed to augment traditional law school instruction. To obtain the password to download CALI lessons, contact the Law Library Reference Office, Room 141.

Cambridge Journals Online

Over 125 specialized journals from renowned research societies in the sciences, social sciences and humanities. Coverage varies by journal title, with the earliest materials starting in 1997.

CCH Business & Finance Library

Contains the current, full-text of a number of CCH services in the following subject areas: Securities, Exchanges and SROs, Corporate Governance, Investment Management, Mergers& Acquisitions, International Business, Banking, Antitrust and Trade Regulation, Intellectual Property & Information Technology, Products, Liability and Safety, Government Contracts, Federal Energy Guidelines, and Transportation Law.
Note: each time you enter the CCH site, you will be required to enter an email address in order to access this service; you also must log-off before you can access the other CCH Library.

CCH Health & Human Resources Library

Contains the current, full-text of a number of CCH services in the following subject areas: Human Resources Management, Payroll Benefits, Pensions, Labor and Employment Law, Safety/OSHA, Health Care Reimbursement (Medicare and Medicaid), Health Care Compliance, and Food, Drugs, & Devices.
Note: each time you enter the CCH site, you will be required to enter an email address in order to access this library; you also must log-off before you can access the other CCH Library.

CCH Tax Research Network

Contains tax news as well as federal and state tax information. Included are tax codes, regulations, court cases, rulings, legislative documents, treaties, IRS publications, as well as CCH explanations and analyses. Note: each time you enter the CCH site, you will be required to enter an email address in order to access this service; you also must log-off before you can access the other CCH Library.

Congressional LexisNexis

Contains Congressional publications, Bills, Hearings, Testimony, Legislative research information, and much more.

Constitutions of the Countries of the World Online (Oceana)

Contains the full text of the constitutions of 187 countries in English. To access, go to the Oceana site and click on the link on the left: "Connect via IP Access." Use from off-campus is available to GMU Law School students and faculty only and requires that the user "Login Using Password." Please see the Reference Office for username and password.

CQ Researcher

1991-present. Offers in-depth analysis of major issues in the news.

CQ Weekly

1983-present. Provides comprehensive coverage of the U.S. Congress, including bill status, votes, and Committee and Floor action.

Early English Books Online (EEBO)

1473-1700. This collection contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700 - from the first book printed in English by William Caxton, through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War.

EconLit

Abstracts, 1969-present, Updated monthly. Indexes and abstracts 400 journals as well as working papers, dissertations and books. Produced by the Journal of Economic Literature. [FirstSearch]

Eighteenth Century Collections Online - Law

1701-1800. A digital collection of over 9,000 legal treatises published in the British Empire and covering a critical era in the development of Anglo-American law and legal practice. British common law, which served as the underlying basis for the laws of the British Colonies in the Americas and elsewhere, was undergoing a crucial transformation. Reflecting this change were the many works published that summarized the laws, explained the court system, dramatized past and pending cases, guided newly minted as well as old and wizened attorneys, and theorized and commented on the application of legal standards.

EUR-Lex

Provides direct free access to European Union law. The system makes it possible to consult the Official Journal of the European Union and it includes inter alia the treaties, legislation, case-law and legislative proposals.

Factiva

Over 8,000 sources (coverage varies). Delivers articles from more than 4,000 Reuters and Dow Jones journalists worldwide - just minutes after the news appears in real-time services. Factiva provides access to more than 900 non-English sources. (Note: This service replaces Dow Jones Interactive)

GMU Library Catalog

GMU Library Catalog. The online catalog of the George Mason University Libraries. Includes materials housed in Fenwick, Prince William, Johnson Center, Arlington, and the Law Library.

Hein OnLine

A constantly growing collection of legal periodicals that currently includes over 1000 full-text journals. Also includes English Reports, Full Reprint, Foreign & International Law Resources Database,  State Session Laws Treaties and Agreements Library, and Virginia Briefs

Index to Legal Periodicals & Books

1908-Present, updated monthly, 620 periodicals covered. Articles from legal journals, yearbooks, institutes, bar association organs, law reviews, and government publications originating in the US, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. This includes full text of some journals as well as a restrospective index going back to 1908.

InfoTrac

InfoTrac OneFile includes articles from LegalTrac. A cluster of databases including: Books in Print; Computer Database; Expanded Academic ASAP; General BusinessFile; Associations Unlimited; and InfoTrac OneFile.

JSTOR

coverage varies. The complete text (full backruns) of core scholarly journals in Anthropology, Asian Studies, Ecology, Economics, Education, Finance, History, Mathematics, Philosophy, Political Science, Population Studies and Sociology.

LegalTrac

LegalTrac is part of the InfoTrac database. It offers indexing for all major law reviews, seven legal newspapers, law specialty publications, and bar association journals.

Lexis/Nexis

A full-text online legal research system available to law students and faculty for educational research purposes. Includes the full text of judicial opinions, statutory material, administrative regulations and decisions, and other legal and nonlegal resource materials. For more information, contact the Law Library Reference Office, Room 141.

LLMC Digital

Online access to the full text of the Law Library Microform Consortium collection of legal and government documents material. Collection includes historical U.S. primary documents from the executive, judicial and legislative branches. In addition there are selected Canadian legal materials. The historical collection is constantly growing.

Loislaw

Publishes case law, statutory law, constitutions, administrative law, court rules, and other authority for all 50 states and D.C. plus the 18 most important Federal law libraries. Available to full-time law school students and faculty only. To start your subscription, contact the Law Library Reference Office, Room 141.

Making of Modern Law

Legal Treatises 1800-1926. Provides digital images on every page of 22,000 legal treatises on US and British law published from 1800 through 1926. Full-text searching on more than 10 million pages provides researchers access to legal history.

Oxford University Press Journals

Over 100 periodical titles in the fields of the humanities, social studies and the sciences. Full text is generally available for the past several years, though abstracts of articles date back additional years.

Patents - U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)

1976-present. Full-text of U.S. patents issued by the USPTO since 1976. Displaying and printing of full images requires a TIFF browser plug-in.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers

Full-text of the: Atlanta Constitution 1868-1925, Boston Globe 1972-1901, Chicago Tribune 1890-1984, Christian Science Monitor 1908-1991, Los Angeles Times 1881-1976, NY Times 1851-2001, Wall Street Journal 1889-1987, Washington Post 1877-1988.

ProQuest Research Library

Covers more than 1,800 periodicals on a wide variety of topics, plus current coverage of articles from newspapers.

RIA Checkpoint

Contains a substantial collection of primary tax materials, including tax legislation and IRS materials.  In addition, RIA Checkpoint provides full-text access to several journals from WG&L and RIA, as well as current news about tax legislation and caselaw.

ScienceDirect

(Elsevier). Provides online access to over 600 journals published by Elsevier and its partners. Journals are available for most disciplines, including science, medicine, economics and the social sciences.

Social Sciences Citation Index

Abstracts, 1980-present, over 2.8 million articles. A multidisciplinary database, with searchable author abstracts for over 60% of the articles, covering the journal literature of the social sciences. [Web of Science - ISI]

Social Sciences Research Network (SSRN)

Abstracts of over 37,500 scholarly working papers; 19,700 full text documents. Consists of two parts: an Abstract Database containing abstracts of over 37,500 scholarly working papers and forthcoming papers and an Electronic Paper Collection currently containing over 19,700 downloadable full text documents in Adobe Acrobat pdf format.

State Capital Universe

Access to state government information including state bills and laws, constitutions, proposed and enacted regulations, newspapers of record, articles about legislative issues affecting the states, and legislature membership.[CIS]

Statistical Universe

Abstracts 1973-present Full text docs offered in GIF, PDF, XLS and CSV formats. Find all statistics issued by the US government since 1973; 1000 of the best statistical publications of private and state government sources and approximately 2000 titles from international agencies. Includes Statistical Abstract of the US.

THOMAS

Current and Historical; A free service of the Library of Congress. THOMAS puts Federal Legislative information on the internet. Databases in the THOMAS system include: Congress Now (floor actions), Bills, Congressional Record, Committee information & more. Also includes a historical section.

TWEN

Many law faculty use TWEN (The West Education Network) to post class materials and to host web-based discussions in their classes. For password information, contact the Reference Office, Room 141

U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs

1832-1978. Features a fully searchable database of approximately 150,000 Supreme Court cases from the generation before the American Civil War to the decade of the Vietnam War and Watergate. Document types include Appellant's Brief, Appellee's Brief, Oral Transcript, Petition, Petition for Rehearing, Petition for Writ of Certiorari, among other sources

United Nations Treaty Collection

Multilateral Treaties deposited with the Secretary-General, and the United Nations Treaty Series (UNTS). Over 40,000 bilateral and multilateral treaties.

United States Treaties

The U.S. Department of State publishes Treaties in Force (TIF), which details the over 10,000 U.S. treaties and international agreements in force as of January 1 of each year, and Treaties and Other International Acts Series (TIAS).

VIVA

VIVA is a consortium of state and private academic libraries in Virginia that provides online library resources to its students and faculty including access to almost 200 databases, 10,000 full-text journals and newspapers, and more than 750,000 additional full-text materials.

Westlaw

A full-text online legal research system available to law students and law faculty for educational research purposes. Includes the full text of judicial opinions, statutory material, administrative regulations and decisions, and other legal and nonlegal resource materials. For more information, contact the Law Library Reference Office, Room 141.

World Arbitration Reporter (WAR)

The World Arbitration Reporter (WAR)is an integrated reference work containing international treaties and national legislation from more than 135 countries as well as annotated rules of procedure of international and national arbitral institutions. WAR provides not only introductions to all source materials that describe the context in which they originated but also detailed analytical commentaries and comprehensive bibliographies and indexes. Acess is available to GMU Law School students and faculty only. Please see the Reference Office for username and password.

WorldCat

Records of any type of material cataloged by OCLC member libraries. Includes manuscripts written as early as the 12th century.

WRLC Libraries Catalog ALADIN

Union catalog of nine WRLC member libraries (incl. American, Catholic, Gallaudet, George Washington, Georgetown, Marymount, Mason, Trinity and UDC). For current GMU materials, use Mason catalog.

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GMU Electronic Journals

Use the boxes below to check if a full-text, electronic copy of a journal is available. When possible, the link will take you directly to the journal title. In some cases you may have to navigate further once you reach the web site hosting the journal's content.

 Browse full list of journal providers (e.g. JSTOR or Hein Online)

GMU Databases

You may browse or search a collection of university-wide databases with the following tools:

Select Database by First Letter of Name
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z all