Find Books, Articles, and Databases

Many of these resources are governed by license agreements that limit use to Scalia Law School students, faculty, staff, and onsite users of Mason Libraries. Some databases are limited to members of the Scalia Law School community only. Off-campus use may require that you enter your Mason userid and password.

Shortcuts to the Most Popular Databases

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

AILALink (American Association of Immigration Lawyers): Provides access to AILA publications (including Kurzban's Immigration Law Sourcebook); immigration-related statutes, regulations, and select case law; agency correspondence and manuals; AILA/government liaison minutes; and immigration forms. Access limited to no more than three simultaneous users.
American Legal Manuscripts from the Harvard Law School Library (ProQuest): 1861-1976. Consists of 11 collections from the Harvard Law School Library, highlighting three Supreme Court Justices, the first Black federal judge, high-profile cases, and insights into developing ideologies and laws, as far back as 1861 with the Papers of Oliver Wendell Holmes, which span from the Civil War to the Great Depression. The Papers of Louis D. Brandeis and Felix Frankfurter provide a behind-the-scenes view of the Supreme Court between 1919 and 1961. The Frankfurter Papers are of special note because they reveal how the Supreme Court approached the Brown v. Board of Education decision, the landmark school desegregation case.
Bloomberg Law: Provides access to Dockets, Company/Market Info, News, Legislative Watch, Regulatory Watch, DealMaker and Bloomberg Law Reports. For User Name and Password see the Reference Office.
BNA Libraries (Bloomberg): 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. Access is limited to GMU Law School students, faculty and staff. To obtain the password to download CALI lessons, contact the Law Library Reference Office, Room 146.
Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations: Allows you to search for the meaning of an abbreviation by abbreviation or by the full title. Use the Index to decipher an unknown citation or to learn the common abbreviation for legal sources from around the world. Focuses on English language legal publications from the UK, the Commonwealth, and the United States, including those covering international and comparative law. Some major foreign law publications are also included.
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: The database requires you to register with your Mason email address to access the site. Library visitors who are not a current law faculty, staff, or student can see a librarian to be logged in.
Congress.gov: A free service of the Library of Congress. Congress.gov is the official website for U.S. federal legislative information. Examples of information that can be obtained here are committee hearings (2012-), committee reports (1995-), Congressional Record (1995-), bills (1989-), bill status (1973-), executive communications (1979-), treaty documents (1995-), and more.
CQ Press Library: CQ Press Library integrates various reference titles on government and politics, including CQ Almanac, CQ Researcher, CQ Weekly, the Supreme Court Collection, the Voting and Elections Collection, and more, into a user-friendly, electronic format. Users have the ability to cross-search resources within the CQ Press Library.
Data-Planet Statistical Datasets: Provides access to statistical data produced by U.S. Federal agencies, States, private organizations, and major intergovernmental organizations. Charts, maps, views, rankings, time series and tables are available for use in the Data-Planet repository. Data-Planet Statistical Datasets offers capabilities to compare & contrast multiple data series, perform statistical calculations on the data, and customize output views.
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 journals, working papers, dissertations, and books. EconLit is produced by the American Economic Association, is an expanded version of the Journal of Economic Literature, and covers both economic theory and application. [ProQuest]
Economist Historical Archive: 1843-2009. The Economist Historical Archive is a searchable copy of every issue of The Economist from 1843 to 2009. Full-color images, multiple search indexes, exportable financial tables and a gallery of front covers highlight a key topic of each week, all combine to offer a primary source of research covering the 19th and 20th centuries.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online - Law (Gale): 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). Provides international business and news coverage from more than 8,000 sources including newspapers, newswires, magazines, trade journals, radio and television transcripts, and websites. Owned by Dow Jones.
Foreign Law Guide: Online guide to current codes and legislation in 178 foreign jurisdictions. For each country there is a brief introduction to the legal system and legal history, a list of codifications and other legal documents, followed by a subject listing of sources of law. The guide identifies available English translations and is updated frequently.
Gartner: Gartner is a daily resource for news and in-depth analysis on virtually all aspects of technology, including security solutions, storage, infrastructure support, mobile and wireless communications, IT management, network services, and regulatory compliance. Media featured on the site include Webcasts, podcasts, and blogs.
GPO's Federal Digital System (FDsys): GPO's Federal Digital System (FDsys) provides public access to Government information submitted by Congress and Federal agencies and preserved as technology changes.
HeinOnline: A constantly growing collection of legal periodicals that currently includes over 2000 full-text journals. Also includes, among others, the following collections: American Indian Law, ALI Library, CFR, Early American Case Law, English Reports, Federal Register, Foreign & International Law Resources, Index to Foreign Periodicals, Intellectual Property Law Collection, Legal Classics (more than 2,500 legal treatises), National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, National Moot Court Competition, Pentagon Papers, Philip C. Jessup Library, State Attorney General Reports and Opinions, State Session Laws, United Nations Law Collection, U.S. Attorney General & Department of Justice Collection, U.S. Code, U.S. Congressional Documents, U.S. Federal Agency Documents and Decisions, U.S. Presidential Library, U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Treaties and Agreements, Virginia Supreme Court Briefs, World Constitutions Illustrated, World Treaty Library, and World Trials Library.
Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals: 1985-present. Provides access to legal literature worldwide, covering all forms of foreign (non-Anglo-American) law. This includes comparative law and legal systems, such as Islamic law; socialist law; public and private international law; and transnational commercial law. The types of documents covered include journal articles, congress reports, essay collections, yearbooks, and book reviews. Produced at the Berkeley Law Library, University of California Berkeley for the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL).
Index to Legal Periodicals & Books: This archival database indexes legal periodicals published between 1908 and 1981 in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, as well as annual surveys of jurisdictional laws and federal courts, annual institutes, and annual reviews of work on specific topics.
JSTOR: Coverage varies. The complete text (full back runs) of core scholarly journals in Anthropology, Asian Studies, Ecology, Economics, Education, Finance, History, Mathematics, Philosophy, Political Science, Population Studies and Sociology.
Kluwer Arbitration: An online resource for international arbitration research that contains the full text of almost 1,700 Bilateral Investment Treaties; over 5,400 court decisions and 1,800 arbitral awards; Kluwer Law International arbitration materials, both books and journals, and over 600 laws for key jurisdictions. Please note: Kluwer Arbitration is nestled under International Securities & Business on the content tree. Also note: The database requires you to register to access the site using your Mason email. Library visitors who are not a current law faculty, staff, or student can see a librarian to be logged in.
Law360: Law360 is a resource from LexisNexis that provides current news and expert analysis of major litigation developments in U.S. federal district courts, the most important lawsuits filed by the world’s top companies, transactions involving the top 250 U.S. law firms, and major initiatives of state, federal, and international legislatures. Its information is searchable by industry, state, region, subject, and in other ways by using an advanced search. Track developing legal stories in specific practice areas and industries, retrieve relevant full-text documents, and receive daily email updates customized to the topics, companies, and firms you select. Create your own account for email updates with your gmu.edu email address.
Leadership Connect (Yellow Books): Information on leaders in business, government, nonprofits, and news media in the United States. Search by type, industry, job function, geographic location, size, or keyword. Includes content from 14 Leadership Directories yellow books, including Congressional, Federal, State, and Corporate.
Legal Collection (EBSCO): 1965-present. Legal Collection from EBSCO is a collection of scholarly publications including law journals, documents, and case studies, including over 250 full-text journals. This database provides information centered on the discipline of law and legal topics such as criminal justice, international law, federal law, organized crime, and ethics. Indexing and abstracts are provided for all journals in the collection.
LexisNexis: A full-text online legal research system available to GMU Law School students, faculty and staff 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.
LexisNexis Academic: Provides access to a wide range of news, business, government, and legal information. Legal information includes all primary state and federal authority, a selection of law review articles, the Shepard's citation checking system, and more.
LLMC Digital: Full text, PDF access to the Law Library Microform Consortium collection of legal and government documents. The collection includes historical U.S. state and federal primary documents from the executive, judicial, and legislative branches. In addition, there is a growing collection of foreign and international legal materials, which is particularly strong for Canada and the United Kingdom. LLMC Digital also has a unique collection of Haitian legal materials.
Loeb Classical Library: A digital version of the Loeb Classical Library, founded by James Loeb in 1911. The collection represents our Greek and Latin Classical heritage with up-to-date texts and accurate English translations. Contains more than 520 volumes of Latin, Greek, and English texts in a modern interface that allows readers to browse, search, bookmark, annotate, and share content.
Making of Modern Law: Foreign, Comparative and International Law (Gale): 1600-1926 . Provides full-text access to international and foreign law primary source materials, including monographs on the laws of foreign jurisdictions covering dozens of countries. Coverage is primarily from the 19th and early 20th century, but there are also several hundred classics in European international law since the 17th century. Also, provides comparisons to multiple legal systems, including Ancient Law, Roman Law, Jewish Law, and Islamic Law.
Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises (Gale): 1800-1926. Provides digital images on every page of 22,000 legal treatises on U.S. and British law published from 1800 through 1926. Full-text searching on more than 10 million pages provides researchers access to legal history.
Making of Modern Law: Primary Sources (Gale): Series I: 1620-1926; Series II: 1763—1970. Series I contains a fully searchable digital archive of the published records of the American colonies, documents published by state constitutional conventions, state codes, city charters, law dictionaries, digests and more. The second series consists of United States state and territorial codes, municipal codes, and constitutional convention and compilations that researchers will find invaluable for tracing major legal topics across all states and territories.
Making of Modern Law: Trials (Gale): 1600-1926. This fully searchable digital collection is comprised primarily of holdings of the Harvard and Yale law libraries and includes unofficially published accounts of trials; official trial documents, briefs and arguments; and official records of legislative proceedings, administrative proceedings and arbitrations. The overall archive – comprising more than 10,000 titles – also contains unique documents from the Library of the Bar of the City of New York.
Mergent Online: Offers an integrated solution for private and public company information covering 10,000 public companies and their SEC filings and current and historical annual reports. Provides up to 4 years of key financial information on over 400,000 global private companies with integrated screening and searching for public and private companies. Full company reports in printable PDF file format and ability to view competitors on both private and public companies.
Oxford Scholarship Online (Law): The Oxford Scholarship Online-Law Collection is a large portion of Oxford's legal treatise collection, including new titles from the series: Oxford Studies in European Law, Oxford Monographs in International Law, Oxford Monographs in Criminal Law and Justice, Clarendon Studies in Criminology, Oxford Monographs in Labour Law, Oxford Studies in Modern Legal History, Oxford Studies in International Economic Law, and the International Courts and Tribunals series, alongside many others.
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.
PLI Plus: This fully searchable database contains all PLI published materials, including treatises, course handbooks, and answer books. In addition, there are searchable and downloadable legal forms, as well as program transcripts from their continuing legal education seminars.
ProQuest Colonial State Papers: 1574 - 1757. Provides access to thousands of papers that were presented to the Privy Council and the Board of Trade between the 16th and 18th centuries, and that relate to the governance of, and activities in, the American, Canadian and West Indian colonies of England. Also includes the Calendar of State Papers Colonial — an advanced bibliographic search tool providing over 40,000 records of bibliographic description.
ProQuest Congressional: Provides the full text of Congressional and Executive publications in searchable PDF format including Executive Orders and Presidential Proclamations (1789-present); Executive Branch Documents (1789-1939); Committee Prints (1817-present); Congressional Record (1789-2005 Permanent, 1985-present daily); House and Senate Published Hearings (1824-present); Unpublished Hearings (House 1973-1982, Senate 1985-1992); House and Senate Documents and Reports (1817-present); Bills (1789-2015); Statutes at Large (1789-present); Legislative Histories (1969-present); CRS Reports (1916-present); Vote Reports (1987-present); and the Serial Set (1789-present, including Serial Set Maps).
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Full text of the Atlanta Constitution 1868-1945; Boston Globe 1872-1981; Chicago Defender 1910-1975, Chicago Tribune 1849-1988; Christian Science Monitor 1908-1998; Los Angeles Times 1881-1989; New York Times 1851-2009; Wall Street Journal 1889-1995; and Washington Post 1877-1996.
ProQuest Legislative Insight: Provides compiled federal legislative histories for more than 27,000 laws from 1789-2015 (coverage includes major laws and additional select laws). The service includes bills (all versions), reports, documents, CRS reports, committee prints, speeches in the Congressional Record and presidential signing statements. Patrons should use the Proquest Congressional database for comprehensive coverage of congressional documents, including those not included as part of a compiled legislative history.
ProQuest Regulatory Insight: Regulatory Insight provides regulatory histories for individual federal statutes and Executive Orders by compiling pertinent Federal Register articles into a research-friendly workspace similar to Legislative Insight. The database aims to cover 1936 to the present. For current coverage, see http://proquest.libguides.com/reginsight/about.
ProQuest Research Library: The database includes more than 5,000 titles - over 3,500 in full text - from 1971 forward. It features a highly-respected, diversified mix of scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, and newspapers.
ProQuest Supreme Court Insight: Supreme Court Insight is an online collection of content from Supreme Court argued cases, including decisions, dockets, oral arguments, joint appendices and amicus briefs. The database will be complete by the end of 2017, and will contain materials from 1975 to the present.
ScienceDirect: 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. (Elsevier)
Social Science Research Network (SSRN): SSRN is a world wide collaborative of over 285,700 authors and more than 1.7 million users that is devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of social science research. SSRN's email abstract eJournals cover over 1,000 different subject areas. The Abstract Database contains information on well over 618,500 scholarly working papers and forthcoming papers. The eLibrary currently contains over 515,000 downloadable electronic documents in PDF format.
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]
State Capital (LexisNexis): 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.
Statistical Insight (ProQuest): Abstracts, 1973-present. Provides fast and easy access to statistical information produced by U.S. Federal agencies, States, private organizations, and major intergovernmental organizations. Includes the ability to search nearly a million tables, many are available as downloadable spreadsheets.
Thomson Reuters Checkpoint (Formerly RIA Checkpoint): Contains a substantial collection of primary tax materials, including tax legislation and IRS materials. In addition, Thomson Reuters Checkpoint provides full-text access to several journals from WG&L and Thomson Reuters, as well as current news about tax legislation and caselaw.
U.N.'s Official Document System: The official search and access system for U.N. Documents such as resolutions of the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, and Trusteeship Council. Documents are comprehensive from 1993 onwards and are being added on an ongoing basis for pre-1993. To search for a document by document symbol, click on "previous ODS search page" from the main page.
U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs (Gale): 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. Part of the Making of Modern Law series.
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).
Virginia Legal Forms Library (Gale): Virginia Legal Forms Library contains a comprehensive collection of several thousand legal forms, including business, personal, litigation and federal forms. Forms are officially approved forms actually used by law firms. Completed sample forms are also included.
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.
West Online Study Aids: An online subscription-based service that provides electronic access to over 350 study aids from West, Foundation Press and Gilberts, including Nutshells, Concise Hornbooks, Sum and Substance, and Gilbert Law Summaries. GMU law students may access these materials through their Westlaw account.
Westlaw/TWEN: A full-text online legal research system available to GMU Law School students, faculty and staff for educational research purposes. Includes the full text of judicial opinions, statutory material, administrative regulations and decisions, and other legal and nonlegal resource materials. TWEN (The West Education Network) is used by many law faculty to post class materials. For more information, contact the Law Library Reference Office, Room 141.
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.

Find Books, Articles, and Databases

Law-Related Databases