Topical Legal Sites
by Paul Axel-Lute
last revised November 19th, 2009
last revised November 19th, 2009
(For links to other topically arranged guides, see below.)
Contents
Accounting
- FASB Pronouncements and EITF Abstracts (Financial Accounting Standards Board). Includes Statements of Financial Accounting Standards, Statements of Financial Accounting Concepts, and FASB Interpretations, Staff Positions andTechnical Bulletins. (EITF stands for Emerging Issues Task Force).
Alternative Dispute Resolution
- ADR Resources / Stephen R. Marsh
- American Arbitration Association Site includes texts of federal and state statutes providing for ADR.
- Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School
- WWW Virtual Library: Arbitration
Animal Law
- Animal Rights; The Abolitionist Approach / Professor Gary L. Francione (Rutgers Univ. School of Law, Newark)
- Animal Legal & Historical Web Center (Michigan State University College of Law)
- Animal Legal Defense Fund
- Dog Bite Law / Kenneth Phillips, Esq.
- The Domestic Cat and the Law / Stephen Young (on LLRX) (includes links on animal law in general)
- Equine Law (Miller, Griffin & Marks, P.S.C., Lexington, KY)
Antitrust
Appellate Practice
Banking & Finance Law
- Financial Stability.gov, web site of the Financial Stability Oversight Board, with information on the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) and related matters.
- Global Banking Law Database
- Laws & Regulations (at Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.)
- New Jersey Financial Tools (on the N.J. State Library's "Get Help" page)
Bankruptcy
- Bankruptcy Basics (U.S. Administrative Office of the Courts)
- Enron Case Documents
- Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure (see also Bankruptcy Court for District of New Jersey, Local Rules)
- Filing Without an Attorney (U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of New Jersey). Includes Debtor Assistance Resource Guides How to File a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Case and How to File a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Case.
- Web BRD: A Window on the World of Big Case Bankruptcy, Bankruptcy Research Database by Prof. Lynn M. LoPucki.
- National Bankruptcy Review Commission Report (1997)
- Official Bankruptcy Forms
Business Associations
- Business Law Prof Blog
- Delaware Corporation Law Revision Committee documents (at Widener Univ. School of Law Library)
- Limited Liability Company Reporter archive
- Unincorporated Business Law Prof Blog
Civil Liberties & Homeland Security
- Managing Terrorism's Consequences: Legal Issues / Barry Kellman (National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism)
- Preserving Life & Liberty (U.S. Department of Justice site on the U S A Patriot Act)
- The U S A PATRIOT Act (at Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC))
Constitutional Law
- Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse (Washington Univ. in St.Louis, School of Law)
- Constitution Unit (University College London)
- Constitutional Law I: Interactive Timeline / Prof. Wilson Parker & Prof. Michael Curtis (Wake Forest Univ.). References to important cases in context of historical events.
- The Federalist Papers (at The Avalon Project, Yale Law School)
- First Amendment Center Includes many publications in PDF.
- The Founders' Constitution (at Univ. of Chicago Press) A major collection of the writings of the Founders, arranged under the relevant clauses of the Constitution.
- Idiot Legal Arguments: A Casebook for Dealing with Extremist Legal Arguments by Bernard J. Sussman
- International Association of Constitutional Law
- Landmark Supreme Court Cases (Street Law,Inc. and Supreme Court Historical Society). Site gives resources and educational activities related to key cases.
- Liberty Library of Constitutional Classics (The Constitution Society)
- National Constitution Center Layperson-oriented resources on the Constitution.
- Pennsylvania Constitution Web Page (Duquesne Univ. School of Law) includes extensive primary and secondary material on Pennsylvania constitutional law.
- The U.S. Constitution Online. Layperson-oriented explanations of the Constitution, and historical information. Includes constitutions of the Confederate States of America and the Republic of China.
Contracts
- Contracts Prof Blog
- CORI - Contracting & Organizing Research Initiative (Univ. of Missouri). Includes digital collection of contracts filed with U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission.
- Principles of European Contract Law
Criminal Law
- Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers--New Jersey, "Latest Legal Developments/Alerts" page includes six-month compilations of "Appellate Highlights" and criminal cases pending in the Supreme Court--each organized by topics.
- Buffalo Criminal Law Center (SUNY Buffalo) Includes Criminal Law Resources on the Internet and Penal Law: A Web, by Prof. Markus Dirk Dubber.
- Criminal Law / Droit pénal (François Lareau) - Site includes a digital library on Canadian Criminal Law that includes sources on the history of criminal law in England.
- Defender Resources (Natinal Legal Aid & Defender Association). Includes: standards for indigent defense systems; right to counsel resource kit; forensics library.
- Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure
- Innocence Institute of Point Park University. Includes state statutes on post-conviction DNA testing, compensation of exonerates, preservation of evidence, interrogation and eyewitness procedures.
- International Criminal Law (ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources) / by Gail Partin.
- New Jersey Commission to Review Criminal Sentencing. Site includes an extensive document library.
- New Jersey Model Jury Charges-- Criminal
- Sentencing Law and Policy blog by Prof. Douglas Berman
- United States Attorneys' Manual, Title 9: Criminal Division
Disabilities Law
- The Access Board
- Americans with Disabilities Act: Settlement Agreements, Technical Assistance Letters, Core Letters, Letters of Finding
- DisabilityInfo.gov, includes links to federal, state and local resources.
Domestic Violence
- Commission on Domestic Violence (American Bar Association). Site includes downloadable publications.
Education Law
- Council on Law in Higher Education
- Education Law Center (Newark, NJ). Includes substantial information about the Abbott v. Burke school funding litigation.
- Institute on Education Law & Policy (Rutgers School of Law, Newark)
- Internet Legal Resources about Special Education & Disabilities (Univ.of Virginia, Curry School of Education)
- New Jersey School Law Decisions (1997--)
- Rutgers Special Education Clinic site includes forms for requests to school boards, and links to laws, regulations, and decisions.
Elder Law
Election Law
- The Campaign Legal Center
- Election Law @ Moritz
- Verifiedvoting.org site includes information on legislation and litigation.
Eminent Domain
- New Jersey Eminent Domain Law Blog (Carlin & Ward)
- Reforming Eminent Domain (N.J. Dep't of the Public Advocate) Includes reports, legal briefs, and court decisions.
Empirical Legal Studies
- ELS Bibliography (UCLA Law School) Searchable database of article citations.
Employment Law
- Employment Law Guide (Employment Standards Administration)
- Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
- Labor and Employment Law Blog (WME Books)
- Merit Systems Protection Board
- National Labor Relations Board
- Summary of Employment Laws of the U.S. Federal Government (Matthies Law Firm)
- Workplace Prof Blog
Environmental Law
- Avosetta Group. A group of lawyers " whose main purpose is to further the development of environmental law in the European Union and Member States." Site includes their proceedings and discussion papers.
- Climate Justice Programme, includes documents on enforcement of laws to combat climate change.
- Commission for Environmental Cooperation: Laws, Treaties, and Agreements - includes relevant agreements from throughout the Americas, and Summary of Environmental Law in North America, a detailed compilation of information on United States, Canadian, and Mexican environmental laws.
- Environmental Law (Rutgers Univ. Libraries)
- Environmental Law Net / David S. Blackmar, Esq. Links to federal and state laws and regulations, foreign laws, tribal law, federal and state agency documents and databases, compliance checklists, enforcement policies.
- Center for International Environmental Law A public-interest law firm. The site offers many discussion papers, working papers, and reports in PDF.
- ECOLEX Databases of references to treaties, softlaw documents, national legislation, court decisions, and secondary literature, searchable and browsable by subject, keyword, jurisdiction, date, and author. The legal instruments are also indexed by species and higher taxonomic groupings of fauna and flora. Site also includes extensive key to UN acronyms.
- Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (E-LAW Includes texts of or links to selected national court opinions.
- IISD Linkages (International Institute for Sustainable Development). Includes the current issues and archives of Earth Negotiations Bulletin, a daily reporting service on environment and development negotiations, and links to official documents.
- United Nations Environment Programme (Geneva office)
Estate Planning
- Crash Course in Wills and Trusts / Michael T. Palermo, Esq.
- EstatePlanningLinks.com / Dennis Toman, Esq.
- Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog
Expert Testimony
- Daubert on the Web / by Peter Nordberg
Family Law
- Family Law Prof Blog
- FamLawLit / Laura W. Morgan. Monthly survey of periodical literature on family law issues.
- New Jersey Child Support Guidelines
- NJ Domestic Partnership (Stephen J. Hyland, Esq.)
- Tables Summarizing the Law in the 50 States (ABA)
Government Information
- Freedom of Information, Privacy Act & Web Inventories (at FirstGov). Federal Freedom of Information and Privacy Acts and related material.
- Open Government Guide (Reporter's Committee on Freedom of the Press). State open records and open meetings laws.
Health Law
- Center for Law and the Public's Health (Johns Hopkins Univ. & Georgetown Univ.)
- Health Law Perspectives (Univ. of Houston, Health Law & Policy Institute)
Housing Law
- Making Home Affordable.gov, U.S. government site with information about the Home Affordable Refinance Program and the Home Affordable Modification Program.
- New Jersey Affordable Housing Law Resources (at Rutgers-Newark Law Library). Includes the Mt. Laurel documents archive and decisions of the Council on Affordable Housing.
- New Jersey Housing Tools (at the N.J. State Library's "Get Help" page)
Immigration Law
- American Immigration Council, Legal Action Center, Litigation Clearinghouse includes newsletter and issue pages.
- Immigration Prof Blog
- Immigration Reform Law Institute resources promoting enforcement against undocumented aliens,
- U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services, site includes a "Laws & Regulations" section.
Intellectual Property
- Authors Guild v. Google Settlement Resources Page
- Bulk.resource.org: raw data from U.S. Copyright Office.
- Collection of National Copyright Laws (UNESCO)
- Copyright & Fair Use (Stanford Univ. Libraries)
- Copyright@AALL
- Copyright Information / Jeanne Boyle (Rutgers Univ. Libraries)
- The Copyright Website / Benedict O'Mahoney
- Crash Course on Copyright (Univ.of Texas)
- Creative Commons Licenses
- Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy (NYU School of Law)
- European Federation of Intellectual Property (includes searchable patent database)
- Free Culture: how big media uses technology and the law to lock down culture and control creativity / by Lawrence Lessig (2004)
- Generic Top Level Domain Name (gTLD) Decisions (at World Legal Information Institute)
- Information Policies: A Compilation of Position Statements, Principles,Statutes, and Other Pertinent Statements (at Coalition for Networked Infomation)
- James Boyle's I.P. Links
- NIPLI (National Intellectual Property Law Institute)
- OSLA Arts & Law Home Page (Ocean State Lawyers for the Arts)
- Patents, Trademarks & Standards / Ka-Neng Au & Helen Hoffman (Rutgers Univ. Libraries)
- The Patry Copyright Blog (William Patry)
- The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind by James Boyle. (Book available for free download.)
- The TEACH Act Toolkit (NCSU Libraries): resources on the Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act of 2002.
- United States Patent and Trademark Office See especially the Search Collections page, which includes searchable databases of patents and trademarks, as well as the Manual of Patent Classification, the Manual of Patent Examing Procedure, and the Trademark Manual of Goods and Services; and the Office of General Counsel page, which includes links to decisions of the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences and the Trademark Trial and Appeals Board.
- University of North Texas Libraries, subject guides on Copyright, Patents, and Trademarks
- Who Owns Native Culture? Prof. Michael F. Brown's supplemental materials to his book.
- World Intellectual Property Organization Their Collection of Laws for Electronic Access includes treaties and national laws.
Internet Law
- Internet Library of Law and Court Decisions (Martin H. Samson)
- Legal Guide for Bloggers (Electronic Frontier Foundation)
- UCLA Online Institute for Cyberspace Law & Policy
Jurisprudence / Legal Theory / Philosophy of Law
- The Bentham Project (University College London), includes links to Bentham texts online.
- Critical Legal Studies (American Society of Criminology, Division on Critical Criminology)
- CuLT (Current Legal Theory), a bibliographic database.
- Historic Reference Works (Laws of Nature and of Nature's God): a collection of "significant writings in the natural law tradition."
- Legal Theory Blog (Lawrence Solum)
- Nomic: A Game of Self-Amendment (Peter Suber)
- Philosophy of Law (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- Philosophy of Law (Paideia Archive)
- Roberto Unger Websource (by James DeRossitt)
Land Use, Property & Zoning
- Law of the Land: a blog on land use law and zoning (Prof. Patricia Salkin, Albany Law School)
- New Jersey Zoning and Land Use Law, blog by Christopher H. DeGrezia (Drinker, Biddle & Reath LLP)
- PropertyProf Blog
Law and Economics
- Center for the Study of Law and Economics.
- Encyclopedia of Law & Economics
- Wolfram Demonstrations Project
Legal Education
(see also our Law Schools and Lawyers page.)
- Association of American Law Schools
- Law School Admission Council
- Law School 2.0 (Prof. David I. C. Thomson)
- A Legal Education Renaissance (Prof. John Sonsteng)
- Society of American Law Teachers
- UK Centre for Legal Education
Legal Ethics & Legal Profession
(see also our Law Schools and Lawyers page.)
- American Bar Association Center for Professional Respo9nsibility. Includes Ethics 2000 Commission Report and summaries of recent ethics opinions.
- American Legal Ethics Library (Cornell)
- Criminal Justice Ethics Sources on the Internet by Ken Strutin (on LLRX)
- ELIXIR (European Lawyers' Information eXchange & Internet Resource)
- National Organization of Bar Counsel Includes summaries of recent decisions in attorney disciplinary cases.
- N.J. Rules of Professional Conduct (rule text & comments) (N.J. Law Network)
- Opinions of the N.J.Supreme Court's Ethics Committees (at Rutgers-Camden Law Library)
- Setting the Record Straight: Page about dispute over N.J. Committee on Attorney Advertising Opinion 39 regarding "Superlawyers" and "Best Lawyers in America."
Legal History
(See also our Legal History Pathfinder)
General & Miscellaneous
- The Avalon Project (at Yale): historic legal documents from ancient times to the 20th century
- Famous Trials (Doug Linder)
- Legal Classics Library (Hein Online) (Rutgers-restricted access) A searchable and browsable collection of about 1,500 works. The majority relate to Anglo-American law, but some works on ancient law and other legal systems are included.
- Medieval Legal History, in the Internet History Sourcebooks Project, Fordham Univ. (Paul Halsall, editor). Includes late Roman law, canon law, European and English law.
Ancient Law
- Ancient Greek Laws in the World Wide Web (Ilias N. Arnaoutoglou)
- Ancient Legal History in the Internet History Sourcebooks Project, Fordham Univ. (Paul Halsall, editor).
- Annotated Justinian Code by Fred H. Blume
- Roman Law Library: a collection of Latin texts
- Roman Law Resources (Ernest Metzger, Univ. of Glasgow).
Common Law
- Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) - Law Module (Thomson Gale) (Rutgers-restricted access).
- Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises 1800-1926 (Thomson Gale)(Rutgers Law School restricted access) (supported by Rutgers Law School Alumni Association)
- World Trials (Hein Online)(Rutgers Law School restricted access)
British Legal History
- The Anglo-American Legal Tradition: Documents from Medieval and Early Modern England from the National Archives in London (Univ. of Houston, O'Quinn Law Library). Includes English Legal History: A Statistical Overview by Prof. Robert C. Palmer.
- Bibliography on British and Irish Legal History (University of Wales Aberystwyth). Searchable (but not browsable) cumulation, to the late 1990's, of the bibliographies published in the Cambrian Law Review.
- Bracton Online: De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae (On The Laws and Customs of England) (13th century)(at Harvard Law School Library)
- British History Online: Administrative and legal history. Includes Statutes of the Realm volumes 5 to 7; Acts & Ordinances of the Interregnum; various court records.
- English Legal History Materials by Prof. Robert C. Palmer, Univ.of Houston. (Note: these pages will eventually migrate to the Anglo-American Legal Tradition site listed supra.)
- English Medieval Legal Documents, AD 600 - AD 1535: A Compilation of Published Sources (by Hazel Lord, Univ. of Southern California Law Library) An extensive bibliography on all sources of medieval English law, including information on their online availability.
- English Reports Full Reprint (1220-1865) (Hein Online) (Rutgers restricted access)
- Equity Pleadings Database (National Archives, UK)
- Finding English Statutes & Cases & selected "books of authority" at the Rutgers-Newark Law Library
- Legal History: The Yearbooks, " Medieval English Legal History, An Index and Paraphrase of Printed Year Book Reports, 1268 - 1535, compiled by David J. Seipp (Seipp's Abridgement)"
- Magna Carta (at National Archives & Records Admin.) (includes translation & image of original)
- Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, 1275-1504 (Rutgers-restricted access)
- The Proceedings of the Old Bailey London, 1674 to 1834. Sometimes cited as the Old Bailey Sessions Papers (OBSP), these are accounts of criminal trials. The online version is elaborately indexed and fully searchable; the site includes an extensive bibliography.
American Legal History
- American Memory: A Century of Law-Making for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875
- American State Papers, 1789-1838 (Readex) (Rutgers restricted access)
- Documents for American Legal History (Robert C. Palmer)
- Historical Society of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey
- History of the Federal Judiciary (at Federal Judicial Center)
- The Law of Slavery in New Jersey (Paul Axel-Lute) Annotated bibliography with collection of texts of statutes and cases.
- New Jersey Law 1790s-1920s (Prof. Paul Clemens, History Department, Rutgers Univ.) A collection of statutes and cases on abortion, divorce law, water rights & other economic disputes, criminal responsibility, and slavery.
- Supreme Court Historical Society: includes biographies of current Justices and historical table of nominees.
- U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1980 (Readex) (Rutgers restricted access)
- Women's Legal History Biography Project (Stanford Univ.)
Military Law
- (See also Law of War on our International Law page.)
- Judge Advocate General's Corps.
- Operational Law Handbook (2004) (Judge Advocate General's Legal Center & School)
- U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps Click on "Reading Room." Includes Manual for Courts-Martial, United States (2000 edition).
Native American Law
- National Indian Law Library (Native American Rights Fund).
- National Tribal Justice Resource Center (National American Indian Court Judges Association)
- Native American Legal Resources (Univ.of Oklahoma)
Nonprofit Organizations
- Publications and Frequently Asked Questions (Pro Bono Partnership)
Parliamentary Procedure
- Cagle's Parliamentary Procedure (Dr. John A. Cagle, Calif. State Univ., Fresno)
- Parliamentary Basics (National Association of Parliamentarians)
- The Official Robert's Rules of Order Website
Privacy
- PrivacyLaw.net (by Keith P. Enright, Esq.). Includes material on Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Graham-Leach-Bliley Act.
- The Right to Privacy by Samuel Warren and Louis D. Brandeis, originally published at 4 Harvard Law Review 193 (1890).
Products Liability
Religion & Law
- Religion and the Law (The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life)
- The RJ&L Religious Liberty Archive (Rothberger Johnson & Lyons LLP)
- RLUIPA.com: An Internet Resource on the Religious Land Use & Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (sponsored by the Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty).
- Rutgers Journal of Law & Religion
Canon Law
Islamic Law
- Advanced Legal Studies Institute (includes Islamic Law Infobase)
- Al-Islam Subject Index (see heading "Jurisprudence")
- Islamic & Middle Eastern Law Materials on the Net, at Center of Islamic & Middle Eastern Law (CIMEL)
- The Sunnah: Practice and Law, with links on Islamic law and jurisprudence (Professor Alan Godlas, Department of Religion, University of Georgia)
- Workshop on Islamic Law (Association of American Law Schools, Annual Meeting 2004). Workshop materials, including bibliography and glossary.
Jewish Law
- Jewish Law, "examining Halacha, Jewish issues, & secular law."
- Jewish Law Materials: A Bibliography of Resources in Nova Southeastern Universities Libraries, prepared by Rhonda Gold, Sept. 2003 (in MS Word)
- Jewish Law Report (Institute of Jewish Law, Touro College)
- Jewish Legal Heritage Society
Securities Law
- Securities Lawyer's Deskbook (Center for Corporate Law, Univ. of Cincinnati). Texts of acts and regulations.
- SOX-Online: The Vendor-Neutral Sarbanes-Oxley Site. Materials on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
- Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse Database of securities fraud class action complaints under Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Sexuality & Law
- Casebook on Sexual Orientation and the Law "150 Edited American Appellate Cases Adjudicating Lesbian and Gay Rights Claims; Arranged by: Case Name, Court, Subject Matter, Year" (by Prof. Dan Pinello, John Jay College of Criminal Justice)
- GayLawNet An elaborate site, based in Australia but with coverage of USA, UK, Canada, and elsewhere. Includes FAQ, GayLawNews archive, attorney listings, many links to gay rights groups.
- Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund Includes national maps linked to state-by-state information on laws and bills about marriage and partnership, discrimination, and sodomy.
- Queer Legal Resources Includes case archives, state laws, & archive of Lesbian/Gay Law Notes.
- Same Sex Marriage: A Selective Bibliography of the Legal Literature compiled by Paul Axel-Lute
- The Williams Project (UCLA School of Law) "The Charles R. Williams Project on Sexual Orientation Law is the nation's first think tank dedicated to the field of sexual orientation law and public policy."
Social Security
- LII's Social Security page including Martin on Social Security
Sports Law
- The Business of Baseball: Documents Includes court decisions, hearings testimony, the current agreement between the major league clubs and the players' association, and historical agreements.
- Court of Arbitration for Sport
- Inside the Major League Rules by Doug Pappas. Information on provisions from the 1999 versions of Major League Baseball's governing documents.
- Mark's Sportslaw News (Prof. Mark Conrad). Includes news and case archives.
- SportsLinksCentral.com: Sports Law Includes law firms with sports law practices, sports sections of bar associations, sports law institutes and journals.
Tax Law
- CCH Internet Tax Research Network (Rutgers restricted access)
- Deloitte International Tax Source, includes tax rates and International Tax and Business Guides.
- Legalbitstream, free site with searchable databases of tax case law and IRS materials, including private letter rulings.
- RIA Checkpoint (Rutgers restricted access)
- Tax and Accounting Sites Directory / Dennis Schmidt
- Tax.com, "The Tax Daily for the Citizen Taxpayer." (Tax Analysts)
- Tax History Project (Tax Analysts)
- Tax Policy Center (Urban Institute & Brookings Institution). Includes many publications in PDF.
- Tax Prof Blog, edited by Prof. Paul L. Caron, Univ. of Cincinnati College of Law.
- U.S. Internal Revenue Service
Traffic Laws
- State Traffic and Speed Laws (John Carr)
Transnational Business Law
- CISG (Convention on Contracts for International Sale of Goods), annotated library (Pace Univ. School Law, Institute of International Commercial Law)
- Incoterms (International Chamber of Commerce). Includes Incoterms preambles and wall chart.
- Juris International ; includes international trade instruments; model contracts; WTO and OHADA material.
- LexMercatoria.org. Extensive site covering international trade and commercial law. (Includes advertising for Cameron May publications.)
- Transnational Law Database (University of Cologne)
Other Topical Guides:
- Hieros Gamos:Areas of Practice
- Jurist LawGuides (includes book reviews & links to law school coursepages)
- Learn About the Law (Findlaw)
- SocialScience Information Gateway: Law by Subject Area
- Understanding Your Legal Issue (Lawyers.Com)
- Wex, a collaboratively built legal dictionary and encyclopedia at the Cornell Legal Information Institute.