UCF Research Guides: Legal Studies Databases: Legal Studies

Best Bets

Nexis Uni - Legal Sources
Searching Cases -- Searching Law Reviews -- Searching Statutes & Admin Codes -- Encyclopedias & Dictionaries
ProQuest Congressional (1789+)
access to vast and varied information published by and about Congress, including full text of almost all Committee Reports from 1990 forward and Congressional testimony from 1988 forward.

formerly called "LexisNexis Congressional"
Contents include:
- Legislative Histories, 1969+
- Bills & Laws, 1987+
- Committee Prints & Misc. Publications, 1789+
- Congressional Record & Predecessors, 1789+
- CRS Reports, 1916+
- Hearings, 1824+
- House & Senate Documents, 1789+
- House & Senate Reports, 1789+
- Executive Branch Documents, 1789-1939
VitalLaw
As of November 2021, Cheetah has been renamed "VitalLaw"

The link to create an account to save searches is currently not working and "under repair" by Wolters Kluwer.
Please use this link to create an account and then proceed to the database.

-Information about the law of business and finance, plus federal and state tax laws, rules, regulations, cases and forms.
-All content has migrated from Intelliconnect to Cheetah. Intelliconnect is no longer available.

- Tax News, Journals, & Newsletters
- Federal Tax, including Primary Sources, Legislation, and Federal Tax Archive (1913, 1939, 1954, 1978+)
- State Tax, including (1) Tax Reporters for each State, and (2) Multistate Tax Guides: business formation & qualification; franchise or capital stock taxes; corporate income taxes; personal income taxes; property; miscellaneous taxes; motor fuels; cigarettes, tobacco products; sales & use; public utilities; practice & procedure
- International Tax: Tax Treaties
- Accounting & Audit
- Advertising Law
- Antitrust & Trade Regulation
- Banking (Federal & State)
- Bankruptcy Law
- Commercial: Uniform Commercial Code (UCC)
- Commodities & Derivatives
- Consumer Financial Services
- Corporate Governance
- Energy & Natural Resources
- European Union Financial Services
- Exchanges & SROs
- Financial & Estate Planning
- Franchising & Distribution
- Government Contracts
- Health Care Compliance & Reimbursement
- Insurance Coverage Litigation
- Intellectual Property (Patents, Trademarks & Copyrights)
- International Securities & Business
- Investment Management
- Labor & Employment Law, including Case Law, Disabilities Management, EEOC Compliance, Employment Practices, Labor Arbitration Awards, Labor Relations, NLRB Case Handling, OFCCP Compliance, Wages-Hours
- Labor & Employment Law (State)
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Privacy Law
- Products Liability & Safety
- Secured Transactions
- Securities (Federal & State)
- Transportation Law
Westlaw Campus (access expired June 30, 2024)
UCF access to Westlaw ended as of June, 30 2024. Consider using Nexis Uni for legal research.

Other Resources

General Databases

Index to Legal Periodicals & Books Full Text (H.W. Wilson)* (print only)
-UCF online access ended on Dec. 31, 2018 due to funding.
-Print index UCF Main Library Reference Collection K 9 .N75 (1926-1994)
-Print index UCF Main Library Reference Collection K 9 .N75 (1994-2004)
JSTOR
Full text of research journals and eBooks from numerous publishers. For most of the journal content, we can access all but the 3 to 5 most recent years of the journal.
Law Commons (Digital Commons)
"brings together free, full-text scholarly articles from hundreds of universities and colleges worldwide."
Sub-Disciplines include: Criminal Law -- Constitutional Law -- International Law -- Administrative Law -- Environmental Law -- Intellectual Property -- Civil Rights & Discrimination -- Legal Education -- Courts -- Legal History, Theory & Process -- Legislation -- Health Law -- Human Rights Law -- Law & Society -- Jurisprudence -- Labor & Employment Law -- Corporation & Enterprise Law -- Legal Profession -- Criminal Procedure -- Law & Economics -- Comparative & Foreign Law -- Commercial Law -- Torts -- Family Law -- Property Law & Real Estate -- Contracts -- State & Local Government Law -- Dispute Resolution & Arbitration -- Science & Technology -- Judges -- Ethics & Professional Responsibility -- Antitrust & Trade Regulation -- Litigation -- Civil Procedure -- Tax Law -- Politics -- Internet Law -- Banking & Finance -- Women -- First Amendment -- International Trade -- Securities Law -- Consumer Protection Law -- Evidence -- Entertainment & Sports Law -- Education Law -- Public Law & Legal Theory -- Legal Writing & Research -- Computer Law -- Religion Law -- Land Use Planning -- Foreign Law -- Natural Resources Law -- Law Enforcement & Corrections -- Other Law
LegalTrac (Gale OneFile) (1980+)
provides articles from major law reviews, law journals, specialty law and bar association journals, and legal newspapers on Federal and State Cases, Laws and Government Regulations, Legal Practice, and legal subjects such as Taxation and International Law. British Commonwealth and European Union cases and law are also included.
Nexis Uni - Law Reviews (1982+)
"Combined United States Law Reviews and Bar Journals contains the full text of documents which are dedicated to the scholarly review of a variety of legal topics and developments and are of importance to students, practitioners and academics."

A very small selection of older law review articles are also included, e.g., 1910-1930 = 54 articles; 1969-1981 = 3,185 articles
ProQuest Legislative Insight
"The Legislative Insight Collection is a Federal legislative history service that makes available thoroughly researched compilations of digital full text publications created by Congress during the process leading up to the enactment of U.S. Public Laws. It includes only documents related to the passage of a law, so hearings, reports, bills, etc., that are not part of a legislative history are not included in the database. For those other materials, please use ProQuest Congressional."
Westlaw Campus (access expired June 30, 2024)
UCF access to Westlaw ended as of June, 30 2024. Consider using Nexis Uni for legal research.

Government Resources

Congress.gov
the official website for U.S. federal legislative information

- Congressional Committee Profiles feature an interactive list of legislation and reports, and general information by and about a committee
- Committee reports (1995+) usually are one of these types: (1) reports that accompany a legislative measure when it is reported for chamber action; (2) reports resulting from oversight or investigative activities; (3) reports of conference committees; and (4) committee activity reports, published at the conclusion of a Congress.
- Congressional Record: 104th Congress (1995)+
- Legislation: Every legislative measure introduced in the U.S. Congress since 1973 has a bill record
- Member profiles for Representatives and Senators who have served since 1973 (93rd Congress)
- Presidential nomination records are available on Congress.gov for the 97th Congress (1981-1982) forward.
Florida Supreme Court Briefs & Opinions
"The Florida State University College of Law Research Center Briefs and Opinions page includes opinions issued by the Florida Supreme Court since August 1984 and the briefs filed in those cases. New cases are added at the end of each week the Court is in session."
govinfo
"govinfo provides free public access to more than a million official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government."

Among the publications on govinfo, you will find the following:
•Legislative, Executive, and Judicial content:
◦Bills and Statutes, congressional committee materials, and proceedings of Congress
◦Presidential and regulatory materials
◦Opinions from more than 100 U.S. courts
•New content daily- Congressional Record, Federal Register, House and Senate Calendars
•Multiple file formats- PDF documents, audio, photos, XML
•Curated collections- Nancy Reagan tribute, documents related to the sinking of the Titanic
•Digitized historical content- oldest dates back to 1776
•High-profile publications- 9-11 Report, Post JFK Assassination Audio, Warren Commission Report and Hearings, Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, Nixon’s Watergate Grand Jury Testimony, and landmark legislation: Civil Rights Act and Obamacare
Legislative Explorer (1973+)
- "Compare the bills and resolutions introduced by Senators and Representatives and follow their progress from the beginning to the end of a two year Congress."
- "Filter by topic, type of legislation, chamber, party, member, or even search for a specific bill."
Municipal Code Corporation
provides searchable regulations of over 2,000 local governments (including 50+ Florida counties and 250+ Florida cities) - most in AL, CA, CO, FL, GA, IL, LA, MI, MN, MO, NC, SC, TX, VA & WI
Other Local Government Codes & Ordinances
Online Sunshine (Florida Legislature)
separate sites for House and Senate
bill numbers:
* odd = House
* even = Senate
See also Florida Legislative History

- Bill Citator (1998+)
- Florida Statutes (1997+)
- Legislative Lobbyists (2006+)
- Lobbying Firm Compensation Reports (2007+)
OpenCongress
"OpenCongress allows anyone to follow legislation in Congress, from bill introduction to floor vote. Learn more about issues you care about and connect with others who share similar views."

- Bills: Use the tabs to review legislation from the current Congress. Perform an advanced search to find bills from previous sessions.
- Senators & Representatives: Find information about the lawmakers currently serving in the U.S. Senate & House of Representatives and explore their profiles on OpenCongress.
- Votes: Review all roll call votes to date in the 113th U.S. Congress.
- Issues: Find bills by more than 4,000 issue areas using the classification system designed by the Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan think tank of Congress.
- Committees: Select a House or Senate committee to see membership related bills, and to track it on OpenCongress.
- Groups: Find Groups by searching for keyword, browsing by issue area, or by popularity.
OPPAGA - Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability (Florida Legislature)
Government Program Summaries provide legislators and the public with summaries of state government agencies and programs. Generally, summaries provide the following information about programs:
- why Florida provides the program,
- how the program is funded,
- current issues facing the program, and
- references to other sources of program information and assessments.

OPPAGA Reports
- Policy Analysis and Performance Reviews
- List of Legislative Recommendations
- Privatization
- Sunset Reviews
- Performance-Based Program Budgeting (PB²)
PolicyNotes is a free electronic newsletter highlighting OPPAGA publications and other reports from the Legislature, state and federal government reports, think tank research, website resources, and other sources for policy research and program evaluation. OPPAGA provides this weekly publication as an information service to bring attention to issues of interest to Florida policy makers.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set (NewsBank/Readex) (1817-1980)
Reports, Documents, and Journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, constituting a rich source of primary material on all aspects of American history.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set (ProQuest) (1789-2003)
Reports, Documents, and Journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, constituting a rich source of primary material on all aspects of American history.

Primary Librarian

Corinne Bishop, EdD

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Contact:

John C. Hitt Library (Main)
& Downtown Campus Library

407-823-2584