Law and Literature Seminar

You may contact Bill Sleeman, the course liaison, for research-related questions at bsleeman@law.umaryland.edu.

Getting Started | Journals and Law Reviews | Databases | Select Bibliography | Primary Authorities | Secondary Authorities | Additional Electronic Resources |

Getting Started

As in all projects, unless you are already knowledgeable about the topic area, it is best to start with introductory resources and then to consult more focused works; moving from secondary to primary resources.

Articles and books can provide you with an overview of your topic and help you think of search terms that you might not have thought of otherwise. They will also cite primary authorities such as statutes and case law. You can then use the primary sources cited in the secondary sources as a jumping off point to find other primary sources.

Journals and Law Reviews

The two main indexes to law journals are LegalTrac and Index to Legal Periodicals & Books (which includes books as well). These indexes include references to many journals not included in Westlaw or Lexis databases and in some cases provide access to the full text electronically. Each of these two online indexes has a parallel print version: the Current Law Index (K33 .C87), and the Index to Legal Periodicals (K9 .N32) are shelved near the print journals on level 1. The Index to Legal Periodicals is particularly helpful if you need to find articles published prior to 1980.

Additionally, many journals not subscribed to directly in a print version are available in electronic form via one of the library's databases. The list below of subscription databases should help you get started in locating these resources.

Most print journals are shelved on level 1 of the library, in alphabetical order by journal title. Many of these titles also have an electronic version. To find out if the library has a particular journal title in electronic format, first check the Full Text Citation Linker (be aware that the Linker does not offer full coverage of all online full text at the library, and requires a Blackboard login, journal title, and year), or ask a librarian for help.

Databases

  • Academic Search Premier. A general academic tool offering indexing and abstracts for more than 4,500 journals, including access to the full text of more than 3,600 journals.
  • HeinOnline. Full-text, image-based collection of more than 700 legal periodical titles. Coverage for each journal starts at its inception and continues to the most current volume allowed under contract between Hein and the journal. Hein-On-Line also includes coverage of the Federal Register from 1936 to 1980.
  • LEXIS. Database of legal and nonlegal information. Requires valid Lexis password.
  • U.S. Law Week/Supreme Court Today (Tracks every Supreme Court petition and case on the docket, from filing to final disposition and highlights important federal and state legal developments, non-decisional and pre-decisional, across specialized fields).
  • Westlaw. Database of legal and nonlegal information. Requires valid Westlaw password.

Select Bibliography:

The following is a partial list of the Law and Literature Seminar related materials available in the Thurgood Marshall Law Library or through one of the several databases available in ResearchPort. You will find additional material in the library catalog by doing a subject words search for literature and law or popular culture and law.

Between Law and Culture: Relocating Legal Studies. David Theo Goldberg, et al., editors. Minneapolis, MN: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2001. General: K487.C8 B48 2001

Beyond Otonomy, or Beyond the Law of Law's Ear. Julia H. Chryssostalis. 31 Journal of Law & Society 149 (2004).

Cultural Analysis, Cultural Studies and the Law: Moving beyond Legal Realism. Austin Sarat and Jonathan Simon, editors. Durham, NC: Duke University, 2003. General: K487.C8 C85 2003

Cultural Life of Capital Punishment: Responsibility and Representation in Dead Man Walking and Last Dance. Austin Sarat. 11 Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities 153 (1999).

Exploring the Hidden Domains of Civil Justice: "Naming, Blaming and Claiming" in Popular Culture. Austin Sarat. 50 DePaul Law Review (2000).

Feminist Utopias and Questions of Liberty: Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale as critique of second wave Feminism. Fiona Tolan. 16 Women 18 (2005).

International Guide to Law and Literature Studies. Christine Alice Corcos. Buffalo, NY: W.S. Hein, 2000. General: Z6513.L38 C67 2000

Law and Culture: Symposium Issue of Ave Maria Law Review. Ann Arbor, MI: Ave Marie School of Law, 2003. General: K487.C8 L2 2003

Law and letters in American culture / Robert A. Ferguson. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1984. General : PS217.L37 F47 1984

Law and Literature: A Misunderstood Relation. Richard Posner. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1988.General K290 .P67 1988

Law in the Domains of Culture. Austin Sarat and Thomas Kearns, editors. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1998. General : K487.C8 L394 1998

Law, Literature, and the Vanishing Real: On the Future of an Interdisciplinary Illusion. Julie Stone Peters. 120 PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Assoc. 442 (2005).

Law’s interior : legal and literary constructions of the self / Kevin M. Crotty. Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press, 2001. General : K230.C76 A35 2001

The Lawyer and Popular Culture: Proceedings of a Conference, Jan. 7-8, 1992. David L. Gunn, editor. Littleton, CO: Rothman, 1993. General: KF300.L297 1993

Literature in the Dock: The Trials of Oscar Wilde. Morris B. Kaplan. 31 Journal of Law and Society 113 (2004).

Literary Criticisms of Law. Guyora Binder and Robert Weisberg. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 2000. General: K487.C8 B56 2000

Lowering the bar : lawyer jokes and legal culture. Marc Galanter. Madison, Wis. : University of Wisconsin Press, c2005. General K184 .G35 2005

On Interpretation: Studies in Culture, Law and the Sacred. Andrew D. Weiner and Leonard V. Kaplan, editors. Madison, WI: Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 2002. General: K487.C8 G73 v.5

Popular Culture, Crime and Justice. Frankie Bailey and Donna Hale, editors. Belmont: Wadsworth Pub., 1998. General : HV6789 .B25 1998

Practicing Law and Literature in Early Modern Studies. Bradin Cormack. 101 Modern Philology 79 (2003).

Talking trash, talking back: Resistance to Stereotypes in Dorothy Allison's "Bastard out of Carolina." 26 Women's Studies Quarterly 15 (1998)

Troubling confessions : speaking guilt in law & literature / Peter Brooks. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, c2000. General : PN56.C67 B76 2000

When the Law Goes Pop: The Vanishing Line Between Law and Popular Culture. Richard K Sherwin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000). General : KF300 .S48 2000

Primary Authorities

"Primary authorities are authorized statements of the law by governmental institutions. Such documents include the written opinions of courts (case law); constitutions; legislation; rules of court and the rules, regulations and opinions of administrative agencies." An Introduction to Legal Research. Jacobsten, Merskey and Dunn (1998).

Legislative Materials

Administrative Materials

Judicial Materials

NOTE: for both more comprehensive and more precise case law searches be sure to check either Lexis or Westlaw.

Lexis Tip: If you find one good case on Lexis, you may be able to find others by identifying the headnote that best describes the issue of interest to you, then clicking "More Like This Headnote," or by Shepardizing the case to find other cases that have cited it for the issue represented by the headnote.

Westlaw Tip: If you find one good case on Westlaw, you may be able to find others by identifying the headnote(s) that best describes the issue of interest to you, then clicking "Most Cited Cases" for that headnote. You could also try clicking "KeyCite Notes" to fine other cases that have cited your case for the issue represented by that headnote.

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Secondary Authorities

"Secondary authority is anything other than primary authority [law] that a court could use as a basis for decision, should the matter you are researching come before a court...Secondary authority includes commentary sources...treatises, periodicals, dictionaries, and encyclopedias of various sorts." The Process of Legal Research: Successful Strategies. Kunz, Schmedemann, et al. (1992).

Legal Encyclopedias

Legal encyclopedias are a secondary source for understanding the law. They are an excellent resource for starting research particularly in an unfamiliar area of the law. Usually arranged alphabetically by subject the brief articles will contain citations to case law and statutes relevant to the topic.

  • West's Maryland Law Encyclopedia (KFM1265.W3)

Two other, more general, legal encyclopedias are:

  • Corpus Juris Secundum [commonly referred to as CJS] ( KF154 .C57)
  • American Jurisprudence [commonly referred to as AMJUR] (KF154 .A51)

Commentaries

Like legal encyclopedias commentaries are a secondary source that can provide valuable background when approaching a topic area that may be new to the researcher. There are a number of commentary types available although almost all share some basic features - detailed analysis of the issues represented by a particular case or series of cases; annotations to case law and relevant statutes; and some type of internal finding aid or index. The American Law Reports is one of the most frequently consulted type of commentary.

  • ALR (American Law Reports) (REF KF132.L2)

Additional sources of secondary material: hornbooks, nutshells, treatises, and restatements can be located by using the library's catalog.

Additional Electronic Resources

  • The American Center for Law and Justice
  • American Studies Association - Crossroads
  • H-Law: American Society for Legal History
  • Law and the Humanities
  • Law in Popular Collection at the University of Texas
  • Modern Language Association
  • Vanderbilt University Research Guide on Law and Literature

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