Legal Periodicals Law Reviews and Journals, Bar Journals, and Others

Legal periodicals are published by many sources. There are –Law School Reviews and Journals –Bar Association Journals –Legal Newspapers –Topical and Special Interest Periodicals –Newsletters

Law Reviews and Journals are published by student-editors at law schools can be general or focus on a specific area of the law number of issues published per year varies by publication often solicit lead articles from legal experts, generally law professors, which usually address narrow legal issues are often heavily footnoted

Law Reviews and Journals (continued) Notes and Comments are written by student members of the law review –Notes usually are critical analysis of recent court cases or new statutes. –Comments are usually critiques on issues of current interest. Book reviews are included in some law review and journal publications. All law reviews and journals are included in the JLR (Journals and Law Reviews) database on Westlaw. Each publication also has a separate database.

Bar Association Periodicals National, state, and local associations publish journals. ABA Journal is a leading bar journal. Bar association publications tend to emphasize more practical aspects of the law and do not crusade to change or criticize the law. These publications usually comment on recent legislation and court cases. Legal Newspapers These periodicals can be local, state or national in scope. The best-known weekly newspapers are the National Law Journal and Legal Times. American Lawyer is published monthly.

Newsletters –are published mainly by commercial organizations and public interest groups –usually focus on a narrow area of the law brief reviews of current cases and legislative and agency actions –tend to be highly practical and technical –are valued because of their currency –are often the only publications that discusses a new and narrow topic Database: LEGNEWSL Search: “social host” /s liab!

Online Access to Legal Periodicals Westlaw databases include –LEGALNP –Legal Newspapers –LEGNEWSL – Legal Newsletters Multi-base –JLR – law school law reviews and journals –TP-ALL – all law reviews and journals, bar journals, other periodicals, texts, and treatises –Each periodical also has a separate database that can be individually searched. –Database: TP-ALL Query: ti(“social host” /s liab!) retrieves 53 articles, most with helpful text and cross- references.

Finding Legal Periodicals Index to Legal Periodicals & Books (ILP) Originated in 1908 Indexes approximately 600 English-language periodicals Access –Author/Subject Index –Table of Cases –Table of Statutes –Book Review Index ILP database on Westlaw (cannot be accessed by all law schools) –can be searched using Terms & Connectors, Natural Language, or Fields. Database: ILP Query: ti(“social host” /s liab!)

Finding Legal Periodicals Current Law Index (CLI) Coverage begins in 1980 Indexes approximately 850 worldwide legal periodicals, including practice-oriented periodicals Titles are indexed in English Issued monthly, with quarterly and annual cumulative issues Access –Subject/Proper Name Index –Author/Title Index –Table of Cases –Table of Statutes

Legal Resource Index (LRI) and Current Index to Legal Periodicals (CILP) LRI is the online counterpart of CLI. –Updated daily –Contains law related newspapers and articles selected from non-legal periodicals that are law related LRI database on Westlaw (cannot be accessed at all law schools) –Can be searched using Terms & Connectors, Natural Language, and Fields. CILP database contains the eight most recent weeks of the Current Index to Legal Periodicals.

Using KeyCite to Locate Periodicals KeyCite is Westlaw’s citation research service. KeyCite Citing References will list the periodical articles that have cited a case, statute, federal regulation, or federal administrative decision. You can jump directly to these periodicals from KeyCite. A portion of the Citing References for a Supreme Court case, showing references to citing periodicals.