With legal documents such as court cases, statutes, restatements of the law and many law review articles, you can efficiently obtain materials if you know the proper citation. For over a century, those in need of cited and published legal resources have been able to find them in settings such as a law library by consulting printed case reporters, statutes, codes and other volumes of legal information. In the world of electronic legal resources, this task is made even easier through the use of database services such Lexis and Westlaw.
Below, you will find information on how you can obtain materials on Lexis and Westlaw, when you know the correct citation. These materials are provided by Lexis and Westlaw for use by students here at George Mason University School of Law.
Once you have obtained a case, statute or other document on Lexis or Westlaw, you can download it, print it or copy selections of text in electronic format to incorporate into your personal notes.
The materials found on this page are intended to demystify the basic process of obtaining many types of documents when you know the correct citation. It is anticipated that you will know the citation primarily through text that is excerpted in a casebook for the subject that you are studying.
First-year students should note: Lexis and Westlaw IDs initially provide limited access to each service. You can obtain a document if you know the correct citation, but you will not be able to perform substantive electronic research in other databases.
For the time being, it is not important to understand all of the nuances of legal citations and resources. The process of locating relevant and useful legal authorities can be complicated and involved. During the first year of law school, the GMU law library will provide instruction to help you with the process of "finding the law". Initially, these instructional sessions will focus on traditional printed materials, so that students can better appreciate the genesis of published legal authorities in the United States. Some of this instruction will cover materials such as those found in our law library research guides: Case Finding and How to Find a Case By Name. Later in the first year of study, the GMU law library will also provide instruction in how to use electronic research tools such as Lexis, Westlaw, the Internet and related database services.
Materials in this guide have been developed by the Reference Department at George Mason University School of Law Library.
