Finding Laws - Law - United States, General - Research Guides at University of Oregon Libraries

Finding Primary Sources

Primary Sources are the actual laws made by legislatures (statutes), courts (cases), and administrative agencies (rules/regulations).

Finding laws will be easiest using secondary sources, which often cite, link to, and even analyze law(s). For laws not hyperlinked from within secondary sources, try entering the citation in the search bar of Westlaw, linked below.

e.g., 111 F.Supp.3d 815 or 52 Or. App. 299 (case cites)

e.g., 42 U.S.C. 2000e or ORS 321.257 (statute cites)

e.g., 16 C.F.R. 3.13 or OAR 291-131-0010 (regulation cites)

Thomson Reuters Westlaw

If you do not have a particular primary source already in mind, try searching as follows:

Statutes

Use the main menu to select "Statutes & Court Rules," then jurisdiction (e.g. United States Code Annotated for federal, or Oregon for Oregon statutes). Once you've entered a particular statutes database, you may find a link to an index, which may be easier than keyword searching.

Cases

To browse cases on Westlaw, use the main menu to select "Cases," then select the relevant jurisdiction or topic.

If you are looking for cases involving a specific party, try the following steps:

Select "Cases" in the "All Content" menu.
Select "Words & Phrases" under Tools & Resources on the right-hand side of your screen.
Use the "Party Name" field to search for the relevant party.

Once you find a relevant case, you can find other related cases by reviewing the cases the court cited in the decision under the "Table of Authorities" tab. You can also see how the relevant legal issues have been interpreted since that court decision by using the "Citing Reference" tab. You can filter to look for other cases citing to the case you found.

Regulations

Use the main menu to select "Regulations," then jurisdiction. You can also find references to regulations by clicking on the "Citing References" tab after retrieving a statute.