Looking for Law in All the Wrong Places? Try WestlawNext

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Janet Clarke

Stony Brook University Libraries are now offering access to the WestlawNext legal research system from two dedicated terminals in the Central Reading Room of the Melville Library. Fulltext primary law coverage includes state and federal caselaw, statutes and regulations. West’s KeyCite feature provides history and citing references to help determine whether a decision, statute, or regulation is still “good law.” Additionally, West’s proprietary Key Number System indexes caselaw by topics for easier and more comprehensive research.

SBU Libraries’ WestlawNext subscription also includes important secondary legal sources such as American Jurisprudence 2d, American Law Reports Federal 2d, Corpus Juris Secundum, Black’s Law Dictionary, and Restatements & Principles of the Law. Including legal encyclopedias, dictionaries, and annotations, secondary sources provide valuable analysis of and commentaries on the law.

If you need assistance with your legal research, you may contact subject specialist Sally Stieglitz or consult the SBU Libraries’ subject guide for government documents and law.