Macdonald-Kelce Library: Law &amp; Legal Studies: Specialized Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, Reference

Specialized Information

Sometimes you need a definition, or statistic, or basic fact for you paper that you can't find in a scholarly article. What can make this doubly frustrating is that sometimes you can find the fact in Wikipedia, but you cannot use Wikipedia in your paper. (See Using Wikipedia for more on how to use this popular resource effectively.)

You can find specialized encyclopedia and dictionaries in:

Brittanica Academic This link opens in a new window
Offers the complete Encyclopedia Britannica online as well as Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus.
Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window
Comprises a wide variety of ebooks on topics such as the arts, education, law, medicine, and religion.
Oxford Reference This link opens in a new window
Access all Oxford's dictionaries, companions, and encyclopedias in one place.
Oxford Reference is a multi-disciplinary database that features a range of short entries, timelines, quotations, and lengthy in-depth reference articles on all topics. Browse by subject or enter a keyword in the search box.
Westlaw Campus Research This link opens in a new window
Under the link for Secondary Sources you can find a link to Black's Law Dictionary (as well as the Corpus Juris Secundum).
There is also a large body of content for news that is organized by geographical location and by topic all gathered from the vast Reuters news organization.

Reference Books

Sometimes your best bet is the library's reference section.

A Cultural History of Law by Gary Watt (Editor)
Call Number: K150 .C85 2019, REFERENCE
ISBN: 9781474212854
Publication Date: 2019-02-21
How have legal ideas and institutions affected Western culture? And how has the law itself been shaped by its cultural context?In a work spanning 4,500 years, these questions are addressed by 57 experts, each contributing an authoritative study of a theme applied to a period in history.
Legal Writing Citation in a Nutshell by Larry L. Teply
Call Number: KF245 .T47 2008, Temporarily Shelved at Reserve Desk
ISBN: 9780314169389
Publication Date: 2008-02-20
Learning legal citation is one of the difficult (and sometimes admittedly annoying) tasks that students new to the law face. This book is designed to ease that task. It initially focuses on conventions that underlie all accepted forms and systems of legal citation.
The Redbook by Bryan A. Garner
Call Number: KF250 .G375 2006, Temporarily Shelved at Reserve Desk
ISBN: 9780314168917
Publication Date: 2006-07-01
This book provides a comprehensive guide to the essential rules of legal writing. Unlike most style or grammar guides, it focuses on the special needs of legal writers, answering a wide spectrum of questions about grammar and style -- both rules and exceptions. It also gives detailed, authoritative advice on punctuation, capitalization, spelling, footnotes, and citations, with illustrations in legal context.