LibGuides: History: Primary Sources: Legal Materials

Legal Materials

For federal court information, see Federal Policy Resources: Court/Agency Decisions. For state court information, see State Policy Resources: Court/Agency Decisions.

English Reports, Full Reprint (1220-1867) This link opens in a new window
More than 100,000 of the most important early English law case.

Great Standard Oil Monopoly Case: United States of America v. Standard Oil Company of New Jersey
Legal records of the 1911 Supreme Court case that found the Standard Oil Company guilty of monopolizing the petroleum industry, forcing it to fragment into thirty-four smaller companies. In forcing the breakup of Standard Oil, this case stands as one of the most famous antitrust cases ever to reach the Supreme Court. The 14,000 pages of testimony and 2,500 pages of briefs and opinions are a valuable source for the study of the rise of the oil industry in America, the early antitrust movement, and the emergence of the Rockefeller oil empire. The records contain witness testimony and exhibits for both the petitioner and defendant, legal briefs, oral arguments, and the written opinion of the Supreme Court.

HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
Legal research database, with numerous libraries covering congressional publications, law publications, treaties, etc.
History of International Law This link opens in a new window
Includes hundreds of titles and more than a million pages dating back to 1690 on International Law subjects such as War & Peace, the Nuremberg Trials, Law of the Sea, International Arbitration, Hague Conferences and Conventions and much more!
House of Commons Parliamentary Papers 18th-21st Centuries This link opens in a new window
Sessional Papers on matters of policy and administration. Includes Hansard, public petitions, House of Commons papers, Command papers, debates, etc. Database Guide
House of Lords Parliamentary Papers This link opens in a new window
Papers resulting from the work of the House of Lords and its committees, command papers, bills and acts, etc. Database Guide

Law and Society since the Civil War: American Legal Manuscripts from the Harvard Law School Library (1861-1976)
This module consists of 11 collections from the Harvard Law School Library, highlighting three Supreme Court Justices, the first Black federal judge, high-profile cases, and insights into developing ideologies and laws, as far back as 1861 with the Papers of Oliver Wendell Holmes, which span from the Civil War to the Great Depression. The Papers of Louis D. Brandeis and Felix Frankfurter provide a behind-the-scenes view of the Supreme Court between 1919 and 1961. The Frankfurter Papers are of special note because they reveal how the Supreme Court approached the Brown v. Board of Education decision, the landmark school desegregation case that is well documented in other History Vault modules.

Legal Classics This link opens in a new window
1,800 works from some of the greatest legal minds in history.
LLMC Digital This link opens in a new window
LLMC, the Law Library Microform Consortium, is a non-profit cooperative of libraries dedicated to the twin goals of, preserving legal titles and government documents, while making copies inexpensively available digitally through its on-line service LLMC-Digital. Includes a wide selection of legal and government titles from all states, as well as some international content. Dates vary based on titles.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
An interdisciplinary, international, full-text database of over 18,000 sources including newspapers, journals, wire services, newsletters, company reports and SEC filings, case law, government documents, transcripts of broadcasts, and selected reference works.

The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913
A fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court.

Selden Society Publications and the History of Early English Law This link opens in a new window
English and American legal history dating back to 1066.
Session Laws Library This link opens in a new window
Session laws (from inception to present) of all 50 U.S. states as well as Canada, Australia, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and the D.C. Register.

Slavery and the Law (1775-1867)
Slavery and the Law features petitions on race, slavery, and free blacks that were submitted to state legislatures and county courthouses between 1775 and 1867. These petitions were collected by Loren Schweninger over a four year period from hundreds of courthouses and historical societies in 10 states and the District of Columbia. The petitions document the realities of slavery at the most immediate local level and with amazing candor. Slavery and the Law also includes the important State Slavery Statutes collection, a comprehensive record of the laws governing American slavery from 1789-1865.

Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law This link opens in a new window
All known legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery, as well as every English-language legal commentary on slavery published before 1920, which includes many essays and articles in obscure, hard-to-find journals in the United States and elsewhere

Trial Pamphlets Collection
From the Cornell University Law Library, the collection consists of pamphlets ranging in date from the late 1600s to the late 1800s. Trial pamphlets are contemporary accounts of trials that involved prominent citizens or that dealt with especially controversial or lurid topics. These pamphlets were produced quickly and inexpensively, and then sold on the street soon after the trial to a mass audience. The paper used to print the pamphlets was of a lower quality (ephemera) and the pamphlets were not bound. Thus, the pamphlets were not meant to survive much past their initial use. The content of the individual pamphlets varies widely. They were sold to an eager public as both a form of entertainment and as cautionary tales. Some include the details and illustrations of scandalous crimes and others include “execution sermons,” which were meant to serve as moral examples to the readers. Most include valuable information not available elsewhere, such as verbatim transcripts of testimony and arguments of counsel, depositions of parties, and illustrations or copies of evidence used in the trial.

World Treaty Library, 1648-present This link opens in a new window
International Treaties, 1648 to the present. Also included are hundreds of related treaty publications, selected scholarly articles, and a bibliography of related publications. Database Guide