Research Guides: Law: Legal Reference

Legal Reference

Gale Encyclopedia of American Law
3rd edition (2nd edition called West's Encyclopedia of American Law) provides current information on more than 5,000 legal topics. Includes completely revised articles covering important issues, biographies, definitions of legal terms and more.
Oxford Reference Online
Includes: The Oxford Companion to American Law, A Dictionary of Law, The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States and The Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions. UM users only.

Legal Reference Books

BOOKS

Black's Law Dictionary, This well-known dictionary gives easy to understand definitions of legal terms.

This book is in the Clark Library, the call number is KF156 .B531 1996.

Legal Research in a Nutshell, A concise guide to the legal research process and sources of law.

This book is in the Clark Library, the call number is KF240 C54 2000.

The Blue Book: A Uniform System of Citation, Legal citation guide. The Bluebook is useful as a guide for locating sources for state, foreign and international law.

The 19th edition (2010) of this book is in the Clark Library, the call number is KF245 .U55 2010.

Legal Self-Help

Legal Information Reference Center
Database containing hundreds of legal self-help and reference books from publishers like NOLO. Includes downloadable forms for all 50 states.
Michigan Legal Help
The Michigan Legal Help website was created to help people who have to handle simple civil legal problems without a lawyer. There are articles you can read to learn about a specific area of the law and toolkits to help you prepare to represent yourself in court. Some forms are completed automatically once you answer simple questions.