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Free Legal Research Resources

This guide offers recommendations for reliable free legal research tools.

Quick Research

Wex Legal Encyclopedia
Provides term definitions and background information for hundreds of legal topics.
Nolo Legal Encyclopedia
Thousands of legal articles on practical topics with citations to state statutes and regulations.

Journal Articles

Law Commons (bepress) This link opens in a new window
An open access site for law faculty papers and a growing number of law school journals.

ABA Free Full-Text Online Law Review/Journal Search
A free full-text search of over 400 online law journals, as well as academic papers and reports.
Google Scholar
Provides a simple way to broadly search across journal articles from law and other disciplines.

Legal Scholarship Network (SSRN) This link opens in a new window
You can limit your search to the legal scholarship network, or search across all 24 disciplines.

Legal News