DuFour Law Library Blog

In response to last semester's Student Survey, the Law Library has now made available a number of new student spaces.  This includes three new drop-in study rooms (Rooms 323, 324 and 427) which are intended for short study periods.  These rooms are located across from the restrooms on the 3rd and 4th floors respectively and can not be reserved.

The Law Library has also added a student “Zoom Room” (Room 227). The “Zoom Room,” located in the hallway on the second floor, must be reserved and is intended for students who need to conduct a virtual interview or videoconference.  The room comes equipped with a desktop computer, speakers, and a camera, however students may use their own devices.

The University's new printing program, Cardinal Printing, provides a number of options for printing. To get started:

• Login to printing.catholic.edu using your CUA credentials.
• Retrieve your PIN from your Dashboard under Identities.
• Click Start Printing to select options for printing.
• Visit Cardinal Printing How To for further information.

The Law Library's Cardinal Printing machines are named:

• CLS-228-6855 (Floor 2)
• CLS-426-4925 (Floor 4)

Questions? Email CSL-tech@cua.edu. 

As part of the Law Library's welcome for all our new law students (J.D., M.L.S, LL.M) we have published a Survival Guide to help you navigate your first days and weeks at Catholic Law. This guide contains essential library information to assist you in getting off to a good start in your legal education; from how to print from your laptop, to which study guides are available electronically.

In order to improve access, we are working on the links to our databases.  Effective June 17th you may experience issues with database links. If so, please contact csl-ref@cua.edu. 

We are currently in the process of migrating to OpenAthens in place of EZproxy to manage off campus access to e-resources (e-books, e-journals, databases).  During this switch, on campus users should not notice any differences. Off campus users may encounter a temporary access issue with some of the online resources.

Students wondering whether they will have access to the major legal research databases as well as other databases during the summer or post-graduation can find out more information in our Guide to Summer & Post Graduation Access.

The Law Library will be open extended hours during the exam period.

• Monday April 29th - Wednesday May 8th: 8am - Midnight
• Thursday May 9th: 8am - 7pm
• Friday May 10th: 10am - 6pm
• Saturday May 11th - Sunday May 12th: CLOSED

The US News & World Report Law School rankings began publication in 1987, although for the first few years only the top 20-25 law schools were included. Beginning in 1993, and running through 2002, Catholic Law was not assigned a numerical ranking and instead was assigned to a quartile or tier. Starting in 2003, the top 100 law schools were ranked, and more recently the top 176 schools have been ranked. The dates below refer to the publication year of the ranking not the edition.

Thank you to everyone who completed the Law Library’s student survey.  We received valuable feedback, which will help guide future projects. We’ve analyzed the results and read every comment submitted. Over the coming weeks and months we’ll use the survey results to help us improve the services and resources that you have identified as being important to you.

In the meantime you can view the raw data from the survey together with our analysis here. 

Each year the staff of the Kathryn J. DuFour Law Library compile the written scholarship of the Law School's faculty and students from the previous year in the form of a retrospective brochure.  The brochure for 2023 has recently been released and includes faculty presentations made throughout the year.

Past editions of the brochure are available on the Law Library Publications guide.

Congratulations to this year's team from Catholic Law for winning the 74th Annual Seigenthaler-Sutherland Moot Court competition!  The competition is one of the oldest national moot court competitions in the United States and originated in 1950 at Catholic Law when the competition was called the Sutherland Cup.

For more information on the history of the tournament, together with a list of past winners and associated ephemera, please visit our guide on the Seigenthaler-Sutherland Moot Court competition.