Electronic Resources
Find databases on United States law (current, historical, and by topic), foreign and international law, Congress and legislative history, computer-based legal education resources and legal materials on CD-ROM.
Find indexing, abstracting and full-text databases for legal literature, as well as links to University of Chicago databases for non-legal journals.
LexisNexis and Westlaw
LexisNexis and Westlaw are the two largest legal research databases, containing federal and state laws, rules and regulations, as well as secondary sources, international law and business and news resources.
Access to LexisNexis is password-protected, available to Law School faculty, staff and students only. LexisNexis Academic, which includes many of the legal resources contained in LexisNexis, is available to the University of Chicago community or other D'Angelo Law Library researchers. See the Law Databases page or Quick Links from the Law Library home page.
Access to Westlaw is password-protected, available to Law faculty, staff and students only. Westlaw Patron Access, including primary law and major secondary source materials, is available on computers located in the Wilson Reading Room for use by the University of Chicago community or other D'Angelo Law Library researchers.
For a chart comparing the resources available on Westlaw Patron Access and LexisNexis Academic Universe, click here.
The University of Chicago Library subscribes to databases of journal articles in all disciplines. This list contains direct links to those that may be most relevant to law-related topics. For wider subject areas, consult the Database Finder
Use the e-journals list to find all electronic versions of a journal, with dates of coverage.
Use database finder to find databases in disciplines other than law. Search by title (Title Search/Browse), by keyword (Advanced Search) or look at lists of databases arranged by discipline (Subject Browse). In Subject Browse, look for the bibliographer's Subject Guides, created by subject specialists to aid researchers.
Use CrossSearch to search more than one database at a time.
- Identify the databases you would like to search by using the subject categories (not all databases in each subject area permit cross-searching).
- Search several databases at the same time to explore a topic and to identify databases with the most relevant resources for your topic.
- Each database offers searching features that may not be available in a cross-search.
- Databases that are not cross-searchable may be the primary research tools in a particular field.