{"id":36554,"date":"2025-04-08T12:00:21","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T17:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/?p=36554"},"modified":"2025-04-09T11:33:36","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T16:33:36","slug":"mu-law-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/resources-and-services\/mu-law-library","title":{"rendered":"Peer Navigator Corner: MU Law Library"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Written by: Josiah Abbot<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">While you may be aware of the many books and resources available through Ellis Library, if you are looking to do any legal research, turn no further than our Law Library. For example, if you are a social work student looking at policy or a political science major researching law. Reference services are available from 10 am to 4 pm on weekdays, but the library is open to all students from 7:30 am to 5 pm on weekdays, with shorter hours on the weekend. Due to space constraints, non-law students cannot use the library for general study. However, you can access resources through the Reference Alcove after checking in at their front desk. This space offers access to Westlaw software, a powerful legal database. Within this database, you can find numerous documents ranging from case law to statutes to secondary law sources. You can email yourself several of these sources a day and the limit resets each day. Within the Alcove you will also find a \u201cReference Student,\u201d similar to the Ellis Peer Navigators. If you are unsure of what you are looking for or where best to find it, they can help point you in the right direction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you would rather research from home, you can still access some of the Law Library\u2019s online databases. When you navigate to their <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/law.missouri.edu\/law-library\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">webpage<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, click on the \u201cLaw Library\u201d drop-down menu and then select student resources.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-36555 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2025\/03\/law.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1229\" height=\"666\" srcset=\"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2025\/03\/law.png 1229w, https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2025\/03\/law-300x163.png 300w, https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2025\/03\/law-1024x555.png 1024w, https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2025\/03\/law-768x416.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1229px) 100vw, 1229px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Under the \u201cLegal Research\u201d subsection you can find a link to their <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/libraryguides.missouri.edu\/LawEResources\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">database list<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> &#8211; any databases with an MU logo are open to any MU students, while the rest you would need to be in the Law Library to access.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-36556 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2025\/03\/law2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1344\" height=\"698\" srcset=\"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2025\/03\/law2.png 1344w, https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2025\/03\/law2-300x156.png 300w, https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2025\/03\/law2-1024x532.png 1024w, https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2025\/03\/law2-768x399.png 768w, https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2025\/03\/law2-1320x686.png 1320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1344px) 100vw, 1344px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-36557 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2025\/03\/law3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1167\" height=\"602\" srcset=\"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2025\/03\/law3.png 1167w, https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2025\/03\/law3-300x155.png 300w, https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2025\/03\/law3-1024x528.png 1024w, https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2025\/03\/law3-768x396.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1167px) 100vw, 1167px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">One great resource they recommend is HeinOnline, a comprehensive source of treaties and international agreements that the United States is part of. It also has law and law-related periodicals. One reason students often choose HeinOnline is that its sources have a PDF structure, making it easy to transfer documents and cite your information.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another useful resource available to all students is their databases on intellectual property. The \u201cIntellectual Property Law Collection\u201d will allow you to access cases relating to patent law. For more on patent issuances and treatises (these can be anything from the design of your Starbucks cup to NASA spaceships and Phantom of the Opera\u2019s stage!), you can access a different database through VitalLaw (titled \u201cIntellectual Property\u201d within their database list). VitalLaw allows you to find Patent and Trademark Office documents for things like Pfizer rulings from the PTO.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If online databases are not your style and you prefer physical copies of resources, you can always take a look at print materials. Similarly to how you would search for books from Ellis, their books, periodicals, and journals can be found through the Libraries Discover layer. Once you\u2019ve started a search, on the side panel under location, you can filter down to only resources from the Law Library. Journals can be reviewed onsite, and when you checkout books you can choose from any pickup location as you would normally be able to.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Altogether, the Law Library is a great resource for students. If you are in a class and need to research a project that is closely related to law, accessing their resources could greatly benefit you. Even if you don\u2019t have a project, they have a variety of specific resources that are interesting to check out.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Written by: Josiah Abbot While you may be aware of the many books and resources available through Ellis Library, if you are looking to do any legal research, turn no further than our Law Library. For example, if you are a social work student looking at policy or a political science major researching law. Reference &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":36577,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[496],"tags":[1057],"class_list":["post-36554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-resources-and-services","tag-peer-navigator"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2025\/04\/MU-Law-Library.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-12 10:56:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"private","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36554"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36578,"href":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36554\/revisions\/36578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.missouri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}