Research Guides: Human Resources: Employment Law

Quick Tips!

Secondary sources, such as encyclopedias and legal treatises, are great places to start because they provide overviews and help to identify appropriate index terms. Consult an encyclopedia especially if you are interested in historical law, because the language used has changed!
If searching topically, start with a narrow term and broaden until you find enough resources.
The three major types of law are:
- Common law (case law): created by a judicial body
- Statutory law: created by a legislative body
- Regulatory law: created by an administrative body
Each type of law can be created on any of the different jurisdictional units: federal, state, regional, county, city.

Legal Research Methodology. (n.d.) Law Library of Congress. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/awlaw3/legal.html

Case Law and Legal Documents

Westlaw This link opens in a new window
WestlawNext Campus Research is a comprehensive legal research database, providing access to:

*The complete laws and statutes of the federal government and all 50 states, as published in the United States Code Annotated
*All federal regulations published in the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations
*All precedent-setting court decisions of the federal and state courts, as presented in the National Reporter System
*KeyCite, an integrated tool that shows whether any case, statute, or regulation is still good law
*American Law Reports, a unique research tool that collects and analyzes every court case decided on a particular point of law
*American Jurisprudence, a comprehensive encyclopedia of state and federal law
*Current and archived articles from hundreds of leading law reviews and journals
Lexis Nexis - Now Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Click the red star for a a short video that will address using boolean connectors and filtering options when conducting a search in Nexis Uni. Nexis Uni, the successor of LexisNexis Academic, provides full-text access to over 15,000 news, business, and legal sources. The news coverage includes deep archives and up-to-the-minute stories in national and regional newspapers, wire services, broadcast transcripts, international news, and non-English language news services. Use the Company Dossier module to retrieve detailed company information and financial performance measures or identify and compare companies matching specific criteria. This product also provides access to the renowned Shepard's Citations service for all federal and state court cases 1789-present.

Google Scholar
Select "Case Law" and do a keyword search to find legal documents by name. Note: Google Scholar does not provide an effective citator, so there is no note if the ruling has been overruled or revoked.

Federal Agencies' Rulings

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Rulings, compliance manual, enforcement guides, fact sheets, best practices, etc.
National Labor Relations Board
Board decisions, advice memos, research tools.
United States Department of Labor
Compliance Assistance, Enforcement Data, Enforcement policies, hot topics.

Helpful Websites

Legal Reference

Wex - A free online legal dictionary and encyclopedia hosted by the Legal Information Institute at Cornell University.

Introduction to Legal Citation

Employment Law Blogs

Resources for Attorney Practice

ABA Model Rules for Professional Conduct

Cases for Prof. Zumas' HR320

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