Ross-Blakley Law Library Blog

Legislative history research got you down? Here are some great resources to help you navigate the waters.

Research Guides:

• Law Library of Congress Federal Legislative History
• Law Library Federal Legislative History
• Law Library Electronic Sources for Federal Legislative History
• Law Library Arizona Legislative History

CALI lessons:

• Researching Federal Legislative History
• Federal Legislative History Research – Compiled Legislative History

Tutorials:

• LexisNexis legislative history tutorial (and the Law Library’s research guide on finding legislative information using LexisNexis Congressional ).
• HeinOnline’s quick tutorial video to search the HeinOnline Legislative History Library

• Tuesday, September 20, 2011, 3:00 PM EDT
• Tuesday, September 27, 2011, 3:00 PM EDT
• Tuesday, October 11, 2011 3:00 PM EDT
• Tuesday, November 8, 2011, 9:30 am EDT

These webinars aim to help you:

1. Develop an understanding of the legislative process both:

a. Procedurally – How did the language read as first proposed, what committees considered the proposal, when were amendments made and where was the proposal when it was amended;
b. As an adversarial process – who was lobbying in support of the proposal and what were they trying to accomplish, who was active in opposition what were their objections, who was responsible for amendments to the proposal;2. Become familiar with the documents available pertinent to your issue;3. Identify where in the process the changes you care about occurred – this provides a mechanism to narrow the scope of your search for explanations for why the language was changed;4. Learn how to identify both direct and circumstantial evidence of intent.