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Law: Home

This guide is designed to help you navigate Library-licensed and open access research sources beyond what you might easily find in UC Library Search.

  • Use the front page to find quick links to frequently requested resources and tools.
  • Explore the tabs on the left to find curated links to specialized resources for different subfields, methodologies, and research questions.

If you are located on-campus, make sure that you are connected to the UCSD-Protected wifi.

If you are located off-campus, start by setting up VPN AnyConnect on your device.


The UC San Diego Health and Health Science VPN also provides off campus access to resources the Library provides. Instructions and assistance for UC San Diego Health and Health Science VPN users can be found in the Pulse intranet.

Best Bets for Legal Research

Just learning about a topic? Start with secondary sources like books or law review articles. Law review articles are the scholarly journal of the legal world and often contain citations to relevant cases and legislation on the topic at hand. Reading law review articles on your research topic can save you lots time.

Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic), WestlawNext, and HeinOnline contain the full text of law review articles and other research tools including legal encyclopedias and other reference books. These databases also include the full text of federal and state case law (published court opinions), regulations, and statutes

For lower-level court transcripts, you will generally need to contact the original court for availability and ordering instructions. (Expect to pay a fee.)
►Search tip: See newspapers/media coverage for additional information on cases that never made it to the appellate courts or were otherwise never published.

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