Subscription Databases

The Law Library subscribes to several online databases that are useful in conducting legal research. Access to some databases is limited to Baylor Law School students and faculty. Unless otherwise noted below, the databases must be accessed through computers at the law school. For further assistance with these databases, please contact the Reference Librarian at 254.710.4587 or the circulation desk at 254.710.2168.

The American Bench

A directory with biographical information for more than 20,000 judges in all levels of federal, state, and local courts. Also includes a Gender Diversity Survey, Court Profiles, and over 100 Federal & State Judicial Boundary Maps.

Bloomberg Law

This resource contains federal and state primary materials as well as selected docket information, information services and reports on various legal, regulatory, economic, and international subjects, including bankruptcy law, criminal law, international trade, health law, employment law, labor relations, taxation, and intellectual property.

*Access limited to law school students and faculty.

Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI)

This site provides online exercises intended to assist law students with their coursework. Lessons cover first-year and advanced topics, including Civil Procedure, Contracts, Intellectual Property, Sales, and International Law. To access CALI, users must create their own CALI accounts. In order to complete the account registration process, please contact the circulation desk to obtain the Law School Authorization Code.

For more information, please visit our dedicated CALI Resources page.

*Database is accessible off-campus (limited to law school students and faculty).

CQ Press Political Reference Suite

This database contains articles from the CQ (Congressional Quarterly) Almanac, the Political Handbook of the World, the Supreme Court Yearbook, CQ's Historic Documents Series, and other related publications.

*Database is accessible off-campus to all Baylor students and faculty through Baylor University Libraries.

Current Index to Legal Periodicals

This database contains indexes for hundreds of recent articles appearing in law reviews, law journals, and other periodicals.

*Database is accessible to all Baylor students and faculty on the Baylor University campus through Baylor University Libraries.

Foreign Law Guide

This database contains foreign law information, including codes and legislation for various countries.

*Access limited to law school students and faculty.

*Database is accessible off-campus to all Baylor students and faculty.

Health Affairs

Health Affairs is a leading peer-reviewed journal on health policy and research.

*Database is accessible to all Baylor students and faculty. Access limited to Baylor University Campus.

HeinOnline

This database contains PDF images of law journals, bar journals, federal government documents, state session laws, treaties, and other historical legal materials. The HeinOnline Law Journal Library contains full sets of journals dating back to their inception.

*Database is accessible off-campus to all Baylor students and faculty through Baylor University Libraries.

*Baylor Law School alumni may click here to create an alumni account and to access Hein Online's Law Journal Library.

Hotshot Accounting & Finance

Hotshot is an electronic resource that provides short, practical videos covering legal and business skills as well as related materials including interactive quizzes and downloadable outlines. Users must first create an account with their Baylor email address via the account setup page.

*Access is limited to law school students and faculty. Authorized users may access upon registering on the site.

Law.com

Provides access to a suite of over a dozen Law.com electronic legal publications delivering news, rankings, reports, and strategy, including Texas Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, National Law Journal, Supreme Court Brief, and Litigation Daily.

*Off-campus access is also available to all Baylor Law School students and faculty.

Legal Researcher's Desk Reference (formerly Internet Guide for the Legal Researcher)

This database contains legal research reference guides and resources. To access this database, please contact the circulation desk to obtain a username and password.

*Database is accessible to all Baylor students and faculty.

Law Library Microform Consortium

The Law Library Microform Consortium contains a digitized collection of historical legislative materials, federal cases, and administrative decisions.

*Database is accessible off-campus to all Baylor students and faculty.

LawTRIO

LawTRIO is a searchable database of various bibliographic guides, including Legal Looseleafs in Print, Legal Newsletters in Print, and the Directory of Law-Related CD-ROMs.

*Access is limited to law school students and faculty.

Legal Scholarship Network (SSRN)

This website is designed to improve the distribution of research, particularly at the prepublication stage. It includes abstracts, working papers, and accepted papers from more than 40 journals covering major areas of law. Users may register by selecting "Subscribe to Networks and Journals." When registering, please enter your personal information and list "Baylor University - Law School" as the organization.

*Database is accessible off-campus to all Baylor students and faculty.

LegalTrac

LegalTrac is an online index of legal periodicals published since 1980. The articles indexed in LegalTrac are identical to those in the Current Law Index, which is shelved on the third floor of the Law Library.

*Database is accessible off-campus to all Baylor students and faculty through Baylor University Libraries.

LexisNexis

*Database is accessible off-campus (limited to law school students and faculty).

LexisNexis Courtroom Cast (Courtroom View Network)

This database offers downloadable MP3 files of court opinions as well as streaming trial videos. Coverage includes cases on product liability, commercial law, and mergers and acquisitions. To register for the database, go to the registration link and select "a member" in step one and "school" in step two. Then select Baylor from the list and complete the form. Database users must register with their law school email addresses.

*Database limited to law school students and faculty. Authorized users may access upon registering on the site.

Making of Modern Law: Foreign, Comparative, and International Law, 1600 - 1926

This database contains treatises and related materials concerning Roman Law, Islamic Law, Jewish Law, Ancient Law, and international, foreign, and comparative law.

*Access is limited to law school students and faculty.

Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises 1800 - 1926

This database provides digital PDF images of 22,000 legal treatises on US and British law published from 1800 through 1926.

*Database is accessible off-campus to all Baylor students and faculty through Baylor University Libraries.

Making of Modern Law: Landmark Records and Briefs from the U.S. Courts of Appeals

This database contains selected records and briefs from the United States Courts of Appeals from 1891-1980.

*Access is limited to law school students and faculty.

Making of Modern Law: Primary Sources 1620-1926, 1763-1970

This database contains U.S. constitutional conventions and compilations, city charters, state codes, state administrative decisions, law dictionaries, and various published records of the original American Colonies.

*Access is limited to law school students and faculty.

Making of Modern Law: Trials 1600 - 1926

This database is a collection of court transcripts and trial accounts based on the holdings of the law libraries of Harvard, Yale, and the Library of the Bar of the City of New York.

*Database is accessible off-campus to all Baylor students and faculty through Baylor University Libraries.

National Consumer Law Center (NCLC)

This database provides access to companion materials for various manuals published by the NCLC. Topics covered in the materials include bankruptcy, credit discrimination, fair debt collection, and foreclosures.

*Access limited to law school students and faculty.

Oxford Constitutions of the World

This resource provides access to full-text versions of the constitutions of more than 200 countries, and an additional 200 subnational jurisdictions, which have been translated into English.

*Database is accessible off-campus to all Baylor students and faculty through Baylor University Libraries

ProQuest Congressional

This database contains the full text of historical and current Congressional documents. Portions of the database have the same information as what is found in the Congressional Information Service legislative histories.

*Database is accessible off-campus to all Baylor students and faculty through Baylor University Libraries.

RIA Checkpoint

This database provides electronic access to titles produced by the Research Institute of America, including various tax and business publications.

*Access is limited to law school students and faculty.

The Texas Lawbook

An electronic publication focusing on lawyers who represent businesses in litigation, transactional, and regulatory matters in Texas.

*Access is limited to law school students and faculty

U.S. Supreme Court Records & Briefs

This database contains records and briefs from cases brought before the U.S. Supreme Court from 1832-1978.

*Access is limited to law school students and faculty.

VitalLaw (formerly Cheetah) (Wolters Kluwer)

VitalLaw provides access to the Wolters Kluwer Academic Legal Professional Library, which includes various Commerce Clearing House (CCH) publications that cover topics such as bankruptcy, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, securities law, and tax law.

Westlaw (Thomson Reuters)

*Database is accessible off-campus (limited to law school students and faculty).

*Law students seeking information concerning summer access to Westlaw should contact Baylor Law School's Westlaw (Thomson Reuters) representative. Contact information for our representative can be found on the database’s opening pages.

Legal Research Websites

Texas State Government Resources

For federal government resources, please see the Government Documents page.

Selected Legal Research Guides

Self-Help Resources and Legal Assistance Programs

Baylor Law School Immigration Clinic
Baylor Law School Intellectual Property Law Clinic
Baylor Law School Veterans Clinic
Disability Rights Texas
Family Abuse Center
Lawyer Referral Information Service (State Bar of Texas)
Lone Star Legal Aid
Texas Law Help - A comprehensive self-help resource covering many areas of Texas law.

U.S. Government Resources

Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP)
CONGRESS.gov (formerly THOMAS) (U.S. Congressional and Legislative Information)
Congressional Research Service (Selected Congressional Research Service Reports)
Copyright.gov (Copyright information and laws)
DATA.gov (Home of the U.S. Government's open data)
Disability Resources (Access to information on disability-related programs, services, policies, laws, and regulations.)
eBenefits (Benefit information for U.S. veterans)
Federal Courts
Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED)
FedStats (Statistics from over 100 federal government agencies)
FOIA.gov (Website containing information about how to file a Freedom of Information Act request)
govinfo (Free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government)
GPO Metalib (Federated search engine for U.S. Government databases)
HealthCare.gov (Health insurance information)
IdentityTheft.gov (Free, one stop resource to help people fix problems caused by identity theft)
Historical Congressional Documents (Library of Congress)
Medicare.gov (Official online resource for Medicare)
MedlinePlus (National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health)
National Criminal Justice Reference Service
National Technical Information Service (NTIS) (Government reports and information)
Office of Justice Programs (USDOJ)
Oversight.gov (Federal Inspector General Reports)
Regulations.gov
Science.gov (Authoritative U.S. government science information)
Supreme Court of the United States
United States Courts Opinions
U.S. Energy Information Administration
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
USA.gov

Additional Online Resources:

UNT Digital Library Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports Database (Comprehensive collection of over 40,000 reports)
Government Information Online (Free online information service supported by the Federal Depository Library Program and member libraries)

The Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI) website hosts more than 900 Lessons in 30 legal topic areas. Lessons are authored by experienced law faculty and law librarians who teach in the subject area in which they write lessons.

CALI's eLangdell® Press publishes free, open eBooks for legal education.

The casebooks are compatible with devices like smartphones and e-readers, as well as print.
Educators can adopt and edit eLangdell's Creative Commons licensed casebooks, for free.
Students and faculty can use eLangdell casebooks for free.

How to access CALI

Baylor Law students who wish to use the CALI resources on the web will need to register and enter the school's authorization code. Email BaylorLawIT@baylor.edu if you are a Baylor Law School student and need the authorization code.

During the registration process, you will create a password. In subsequent visits, you will only need to enter your email address and password.

To register, go to the CALI website and click on the "create new account" link.

Find more information about registering for CALI lessons in this CALI FAQ: How Can I Get Access to CALI Lessons and Other Resources?

Hein Online Access for Baylor Law School Alumni

Baylor Lawyers enjoy free access to Hein Online’s Law Journal Library. Use the links below to sign in, or to create your Alumni ID and password

Retrieve a lost username/password or Create an Alumni ID

Note: You will need to select the "Login Type" of AlumniID before logging in.