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Law Review Articles

Law Review articles can provide all of the information needed for an in-depth analysis of legal issues, including discussion and references to other cases, statutes or reviews on your topic.

Follow these instructions to find Law Review articles in Lexis Nexis:

Use the Enter Search Terms field to search for law review articles related to a particular topic. For example, take the following steps to find information that discusses pollution exclusion clauses and their respective triggering events:

  1. Click the radio button in front of "Terms and Connectors."
  2. Enter pollut! w/10 exclu! w/5 insur! or clause w/25 trigger! in the "Search Terms" field.
    Note: Use the w/N connector to show close proximity between words.
  3. Depending on your interests, and keeping in mind that any given article may appear in more than one source, select "US & Canadian Law Reviews, Combined" or "Insurance Law Review Articles, Combined" or "Environmental Law Review Articles, Combined" from the Select Sources drop-down list.
    Note: Not all sources are available under all LexisNexis® subscriptions. Please contact your LexisNexis Account Representative if you have questions about your subscription.
  4. Click the Search button.

Common Abbreviations

2d

Second series

 

3d

Third series

 

A.

Atlantic Reporter

 

N.E.

Northeast Reporter

 

N.M.

New Mexico Reports

 

N.W.

Northwest Reporter

 

P.

Pacific Reporter

 

S.

Southern Reporter

 

S.E.

Southeastern Reporter

 

S.W.

Southwestern Reporter

 

Cal.Rptr.

California Reporter

 

N.Y.S.

New York Supplement

 

F. Supp.

Federal Supplement

 

F.

Federal Reporter

 

U.S.

U.S. Reports

 

S.Ct.

Supreme Court Reporter

 

L.Ed.

U.S. Reports, Lawyer’s Edition

Citations

Citations for Case Law

                X vs. Y ___a____ ____b____ ____c____ (d)

a.       Volume

b.       Title of publication (see sample abbreviations at left)

c.        Page number

d.       Date in parenthesis

 

Citations for Statutes

                ____a____ ____b____ ____c____

a.       Title number

b.       Title of Publication

c.        Section

 

“Parallel citations” means an entry show two sources

Example: 452 N.M. 383, 822 P.2d 535

(this is the same statute, one entry is in NM Reports and the other in Pacific Reporter)

 

For legal citations to be mentioned in a body of writing: use the “Blue Book”, which is titled A Uniform System of Citation (Ref KF245 U55).

 

Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

Lexis Nexis or Westlaw?

 

LEXIS-NEXIS

WESTLAW

Lexis-Nexis available via the Library’s web page 24/7. Off-campus users accessing the web via an ISP will need to use the proxy server and submit userid (SSN) and password (NMSU PIN)

 

Westlaw is only available at Zuhl on a specific computer. This computer is old and slow. You need to sign up to use Westlaw. You need to show your id.

 

Lexis-News does not have AmJur and the date coverage for law reviews is limited (e.g., 1993-present for New Mexico Law Review)

Westlaw includes the AmJur, state and federal cases and statutes.

 

Lexis-Nexis provides hyperlinks to cases and statutes. IMPORTANT: When searching for specific cases and statutes Lexis-Nexis is very picky  in formatting requirements.

 

Westlaw provides hyperlinks to other state/federal cases or statutes.

 

Lexis-Nexis owns the Shepards therefore you can shepardize a case or a law via Lexis-Nexis

Westlaw has the key cite system so you can trace the concept of a legal decision via this method. The key cite system is similar to Shepard’s and the action known as shepardizing (i.e., tracing a law or a case to see whether it is still good law or if has been overturned, upheld, etc.)

 

Using Lexis Nexis to Find a Statutes and Case Law

TO FIND A LAW (STATUTE)

  1. Go to NMSU Library Homepage http://lib.nmsu.edu/; click on Article Databases.
  2. Select Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe, and click on the Go There button.
  3. Click the tab that says Legal.
  4. Scroll down and click on Federal and State Codes.
  5. Choose a state, e.g. New Mexico, from the drop-down menu labeled Sources; click on the state; you will now be searching for state codes, statutes, constitution, etc. in New Mexico.
  6. Enter a search term in the Keyword box, e.g. “homicide”; in order to narrow (focus) your search, enter additional, more specific terms in the Narrow search box, e.g. “first-degree murder”.
  7. Click on the Search button to see your results.
  8. Read the choices.  Scroll to the part of the code that appears most appropriate.
  9. Click on the statute number to see the statute and the cases that refer to it.

TO FIND A CASE BY CITE OR CASE NAME

  1. Follow steps 1. through 3. above.
  2. Choose Federal and State Cases.
  3. Enter Party Name(s) or Citation and fill in the appropriate information.  Be sure to put a period after the letters in the citation, e.g. 88 N.M. 770.  Click on the Search button.
  4. Click on the case name to see the entire document. 

TO FIND CASE LAW FOR A PARTICULAR SUBJECT

  1. Follow steps 1. through 3. above.
  2. Under Federal and State Cases, choose the state of your choice.
  3. Enter a search term in the Search terms box, e.g. “homicide”; in order to narrow your search, enter additional terms in the Narrow search box, e.g. “first-degree murder”.
  4. You may choose which Courts you wish to search from the drop-down menu.
  5. Be sure to select the number of years that you want to search in the Date box; then click on the Search button.
  6. Your search will probably result in a number of cases.  Click on a case name in order to read the case and determine if it is the case that you need.  If it is not, you can go directly to the next case by clicking on the Next red arrow at the top or bottom of the screen.  To return to your original list of cases, click on the Document List tab; you can now choose another case.
  7. For your class assignment, you will need the name of the case, the case number, and if necessary a summary of the important points of the case.  You may write down this information or use the Print/Save Options or E-mail features available in the dark blue bar near the top of the screen.