State Legal Research

U.S. State Legal Research

The first three topics in this subset highlight key sources in researching the laws of popular states. The last of this set provides general advice about researching the law of any state, including key sources of information for all fifty states (D.C. and U.S. territories are often included as well). For more specific content on researching in these areas, see the labels about legal research here.

• California Legal Research
• Massachusetts Legal Research
• New York Legal Research
• General State Legal Research (see below)

U.S. Multi-State Legal Research

This guide provides resources to legal matters across all fifty U.S. state jurisdictions. Resources are listed by format and by topic.

Online Resources

• All state homepages can be accessed by using the URL www.state.XX.us where XX is the postal abbreviation for the state. Many states have formally adopted their state name as a URL, but this formula still works. There is also a site for state and local government homepages.
• General Legal Meta-sites: The Washlaw web site provides a breakdown by state of legal information. Cornell has a similar site. Both places begin with the state name and provide legal resources by topics.
• Nonprofit Interest Groups (see below)

The Nonprofit Interest Groups include:

• The Council of State Governments web site is a nonprofit group which is the premier multi branch organization forecasting policy trends for the community of states, commonwealths and territories on a national and regional basis. CSG alerts state elected and appointed officials to emerging social, economic and political trends; offers innovative state policy responses to rapidly changing conditions; and advocates multi state problem-solving to maximize resources and competitiveness.
• The National Association of Secretaries of State web site provides links to their members and useful information. Most secretaries of state oversee elections within a state.
• The National Center for State Courts is another nonprofit group that seeks to improve the administration of justice through leadership and service to state courts, and courts around the world.
• The National Conference of State Legislators is a bipartisan organization that serves the legislators and staffs of the nation’s 50 states, its commonwealths and territories. NCSL provides research, technical assistance and opportunities for policymakers to exchange ideas on the most pressing state issues.
• The National District Attorneys’ Association is another national organization that has a web site with information and publications.

LexisNexis and Westlaw

Both Westlaw and LexisNexis offer cross-jurisdictional searching capabilities as part of their online databases. Each service provides searching through cases, statutes, and regulations for all fifty states at once. Additionally, Westlaw provides 50 State Surveys, a section of their database divided into subject topics based on the print version of National Survey of State Laws and Multijurisdictional Surveys. Additionally, both LexisNexis and Westlaw can be searched for news by state. For Harvard affiliates without full access to LexisNexis and Westlaw, you can use LexisNexis State Capital and get cross-jurisdictional bills, statutes, and regulations.

U.S. Print Resources

There are several print resources that provide cross-jurisdictional state information.

• The Book of the States is published annually, beginning in 1935, by The Council of State Governments. A good place to start for multi-state statistical information as well as many other types of cross-jurisdictional information.
• Subject Compilations of State Laws: An Annotated Bibliography by Cheryl Rae Nyberg is published annually, beginning in 1960 and current through 2004/5. This work is divided into legal topics such as abortion, labor law, and taxation and provides citations to legal publications where multi-state information can be found. This book can be a real time saver if you need all the state laws on subjects ranging from state overtime rules to corporate tax rates.
• National Survey of State Laws [latest edition 5th, 2005]. Published every three years (1st edition in 1993), this work is divided into topics such as marriage age requirements or protective orders and summarizes the law for each of the fifty states including citations to the state’s code.
• State Yellow Book: Who’s Who in the executive and legislative branches of the 50 state governments. Published quarterly. The most complete and current listing of all state governmental officials with titles, phone numbers, addresses, etc.
• Thomson BNA’s Directory of State and Federal Courts, Judges, and Clerks by Catherine A. Kitchell. Published annually.
• State Legislative Sourcebook: A Resource Guide to Legislative Information in the Fifty States by Lynn Hellebust (Lang Ref JK2495.S689). Published annually.
• State Constitutions of the United States by Robert L. Maddex (2d ed., 2006) lists all fifty state constitutions as well as the territorial constitutions of American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands and Puerto Rico. A related work is The Constitutions of the States: A State by State Guide and Bibliography to Current Scholarly Research by Reams and Yoak. Although published in 1988, it is still a great resource on secondary literature published previous to that date on each of the states’ constitutions.
• Martindale-Hubbell Law Digest provides a state-by-state subject digest of the laws of the fifty states.
• Annuals and Surveys Appearing in Legal Periodicals: An Annotated Listing by Catherine L. Kerr. Last published in 1996, but updated through 2006 by supplements, this work lists cross-jurisdictional works such as “family law in the fifty states” that appear in law reviews or legal newspapers.
• Searching the Laws–The States by Francis R. Doyle (4th ed., 2003). This two-volume set is broken down by state and further into legal subject areas. The author then presents a list of treatises and practice guides for that subject area for that state.
• The Library of Congress subject headings for multi-state legal works are formulated in this manner: Legal Topic–United States–States, where legal topic is anything from criminal law to torts. Another quick search is using the keyword “state-by-state survey” where you need to use the hyphens.