LibGuides: Primary Resources Guide: Legal Documents

Legal Documents

The Making of Modern Law: American Civil Liberties Union Papers This link opens in a new window
This online collection includes newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, court files, memorandums, telegrams, minutes, legal case records, and other primary source material relating to the ACLU.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subjects: History, Sociology/Anthropology

The ACLU Papers concern free speech, citizenship, race, discrimination, immigration, labor, radicalism, and related topics and complements the modules in the Making of Modern Law series.

This collection consists of two major collections, The Roger Baldwin Years and the Years of Expansion, with a myriad of sub-series.

- The Roger Baldwin Years, 1912-1950, contains sub-series with clippings and files on academic freedom; censorship; legislation; federal departments and federal legislation; state activities; conscientious objectors; injunctions; and labor and labor organization correspondence.

- Years of Expansion, 1950-1990, encompasses foundation project files on the Amnesty Project, 1964-1980; the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee, 1964-1976; and subject files on freedom of belief, expression, and association; due process of law; equality before the law; international civil liberties; and legal case files, 1933-1990.

Format: Full Text
Dates of Coverage: 1912-1990
Database Distributor: Gale / Cengage
Chatham House Archive, 1920-2008 This link opens in a new window
This online archive represents the collections of Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, which is the leading independent international affairs policy institute.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subjects: History, Political Science

Chatham House Online Archive provides a searchable, browseable research environment that enables users to explore approximately half a million pages and over 90 years of research, analysis and commentary.

Subject-indexed briefing papers, special reports, pamphlets, conference papers and monographs will allow users to quickly retrieve and analyze material relevant to their own research or study.

Users will also have access to the full-text of Chatham House's publications and audio recordings of Chatham House lectures and their fully searchable transcripts.

Format: Full Text
Dates of Coverage: 1920-2008
Update Schedule: Complete Archive
Database Distributor: Gale / Cengage
Legal Collection This link opens in a new window
Collection of respected, scholarly peer-reviewed publications including law journals, documents, and case studies, 1965- .
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: Law

Legal Collection is a collection of respected, scholarly peer-reviewed publications including law journals, documents, and case studies.

Legal Collection offers full text for nearly 250 of the world's most respected, scholarly law journals.

This database provides information centered on the discipline of law and legal topics such as criminal justice, international law, federal law, organized crime, medical, labor & human resource law, ethics, the environment and much more.

This database is a source for information on current issues, studies, thoughts and trends of the legal world.

Format: Index to Journal Articles
Dates of Coverage: 1965 - Present
Update Schedule: Regularly
Database Producer: EBSCO Publishing
Legislative Insight (Proquest) This link opens in a new window
A federal legislative history service containing compilations of digital full-text publications relevant to enacted United States public laws.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subject Areas: Government, History, Political Science, International Studies

ProQuest Legislative Insight is a federal legislative history service that makes available thoroughly researched compilations of digital full-text publications relevant to enacted United States public laws. ProQuest Legislative Insight Major Laws is a subset of ProQuest Legislative Insight with content selected to support entry-level study of U.S. History, Political Science, and Government.

ProQuest legislative histories are comprised of fully searchable PDFs of full-text publications generated in the course of congressional lawmaking. These include the full text of the Public Law itself, all versions of related bills, law-specific Congressional Record excerpts, committee hearings, reports, and prints. Also included are Presidential signing statements, CRS reports, and miscellaneous congressional publications that provide background material to aid in the understanding of issues related to the making of the law.

Format: Full text Resources
Update Schedule: Daily
Database Producer: ProQuest
Making of Modern Law: U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs, 1832-1978 This link opens in a new window
Online archive containing nearly 11 million pages of records and briefs brought before the U.S. Supreme Court between 1832 and 1978.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Subjects: History

Making of the Modern Law: U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs, 1832-1978, contains nearly 11 million pages of primary source material. This resource covers cases brought before the U.S. Supreme court and includes broad coverage of American history and the U.S. judicial system.

Format: Full Text
Dates of Coverage: 1832-1978
Database Distributor: Gale Cengage
History Vault: Slavery and the Law This link opens in a new window
Slavery and the Law offers candid petitions and key legal records on race and slavery from 1775-1867 across ten states and D.C.
Off Campus Access: Authenticate with your MyDenison login.

Slavery and the Law features petitions on race, slavery, and free blacks that were submitted to state legislatures and county courthouses, 1775-1867. The petitions were collected by Loren Schweninger from hundreds of courthouses and historical societies in 10 states and the District of Columbia. The petitions document the realities of slavery at the most immediate local level and with amazing candor. Slavery and the Law also includes the important State Slavery Statutes collection, a record of the laws governing American slavery, 1789-1865.
Subject Coverage: American History, Slavery, Legal History, African American History, Southern History
Part of History Vault: Southern Life, Slavery, and the Civil War

Format: Full Text
Dates of Coverage: 1775-1867
Database Producer: ProQuest

Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy
The Avalon Project will mount digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government.
Historically Significant Court Cases in American History
A selection of important U.S. court cases.
Slaves and the Courts
Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860 contains just over a hundred pamphlets and books (published between 1772 and 1889) concerning the difficult and troubling experiences of African and African-American slaves in the American colonies and the United States.