Research Databases

Westlaw is my go-to legal research platform. It has easy-to-use features, some of the best treatises, and helpful 50 state surveys. It also offers helpful advanced search options. Also, I love to use Westlaw’s Practical Law because its forms and checklists are helpful starting points. —Lindsay Moore, 3L (Advanced Legal Research)

My favorite database is HeinOnline because you can quickly find Law Journals [in PDF, back to Volume 1 for most Law Reviews!], the Federal Register, historical treatises, and helpful legislative history materials. —3L student (Advanced Legal Research)

No matter what platform I started on, I always jump to FederalRegister.gov when given a link to the Federal Register, especially for rulemaking.  This free database blows away every other platform’s version for ease of use.   The Document Details on the right gives useful summary information, such as deadlines and effective dates, and a link to the pdf if you need an authenticatable copy.  If comments are still be accepted on a proposed rule, there is a direct link to submit your comments to regulations.gov.  The interactive table of contents makes it easy to quickly find the parts of even an incredibly long document that must be analyzed in determining why the rule was written that way.  Public inspection lets you see into the future, and view upcoming regulations even before they have been published.  – Joan Shear, Legal Information Librarian & Lecturer in Law (Environmental Legal Research, INtellectual Property Research, and Advanced Legal Research)

Sophisticated EU legal research portal and it is completely free. On it you can find consolidated versions of EU founding treaties, the most current directory of EU legal acts, which include regulations, directives and decisions, legislative history documents,  interpreting case law to EU legislation, each and every issue of the Official Journal of the European Union and a million other useful materials!  —Sherry Xin Chen, Legal Information Librarian & Lecturer in Law (International Legal Research and Advanced Legal Research)

Practitioner-oriented materials created by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) are incredibly useful and straightforward. Some of their manuals are available on Lexis and Westlaw, but you can find even more on MCLE’s own online platform. There are practical manuals, jury instructions, forms and checklists, and live & on-demand programs. Browse their Practical Portals (Civil Litigation, Criminal Law, Business + Commercial Law, etc.) to find relevant materials for your research project. —Laurel Davis, Legal Information Librarian & Lecturer in Law (Research for Criminal Law Practice and Advanced Legal Research)

AILALink is a comprehensive electronic  library of immigration law resources, including asylum cases organized by topic, U.S. Supreme Court and Circuit Court cases, federal statutes and regulations, Board of Immigration Appeals decisions, USCIS’s Administrative Appeals Office decisions, Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals decisions, policy memoranda and guidance materials for more than 15 federal administrative agencies, and secondary sources published by the American Immigration Lawyers Association, including Kurzban’s Immigration Law Sourcebook which is widely regarded as the bible of immigration law.  —Karen Breda, Legal Information Librarian & Lecturer in Law (Immigration Law Research and Advanced Legal Research)

Intelligize provides access to filings made by public companies with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). Compared to the SEC’s own EDGAR database, Intelligize has advanced search features and expanded search criteria allowing for precise and efficient research that will save you time. Through Intelligize you can also easily locate examples of company by-laws, charters, and material agreements. —Amy Bruce, Legal Information Librarian & Lecturer in Law (Business Law Research and Advanced Legal Research)

Bloomberg Law makes transactional research so easy and painless, especially when looking for sample agreements/contracts. —Melissa Gaglia, 2L (Business Law Research)

Need to find the incarceration rate broken down by ethnicity in the US or another country?   How many Fortune 500 companies are located in each state?  Need a report collecting statistics related to a particular company or industry?  How about litigation spending by large companies? While not a strictly legal research database, Statista is a fantastic resource for tracking down statistics, infographics, reports and facts from around the world on a wide variety of topics.  Use the link from All BC Research Databases to tap into this rich resource.  Try it out, and you will see just what a treasure trove of information Statista is! –Stephanie Farne, Legal Information Librarian & Lecturer in Law

PLI Plus is an extremely helpful resource that I'm glad we have access to through the BC Law Library. Its treatises and handbooks are useful for getting started in an unfamiliar area of law. —Lindsay Moore, 3L (Advanced Legal Research)

This is THE resource for accessing pleadings, motions, briefs, record appendices and dockets for state and federal courts!  In addition, BLAW’s Litigation Intelligence Center includes litigation practical guidance, checklists, toolkits and sample litigation documents, court rules, jury instructions, expert witness profiles and more. —Karen Breda, Legal Information Librarian & Lecturer in Law (Immigration Law Research and Advanced Legal Research)