Constitutional Law Research: Starting Points

Subscription:

Brill: Foreign Law Guide (Marci Hoffman, general ed.) - In each jurisdiction's entry, topic: Constitution & Politics identifies/might link to primary sources + provides cites to secondary sources. 

• Tip: In Foreign Law Guide's search box, type: country name + word: constitution, e.g., Mexico constitution

HeinOnline: World Constitutions Illustrated - Seeks to provide constitutions for every country of the world in the original language(s) + English translations of constitutions. Also includes commentary.  Browse by country.  

The two sources above are accessible on campus, in BLS housing, and elsewhere off campus if one has implemented the proxy server instructions. 

Publicly Accessible:

Comparative Constitutions Project, Constitute: The World's Constitutions To Read, Search and Compare 

International Constitutional Law Project, Countries

U.S. Library of Congress, Guide to Law Online: Nations of the World - Choose a jurisdiction's guide > click guide tab: Constitution.

Focus: Analysis:

WORLD Policy Analysis Center, Constitutions

Focus: Constitutional Compliance:

Comparative Constitutional Compliance Database v. 2.0 

Related open-access article: Jerg Gutmann, Katarzyna Metelska-Szaniawska & Stefan Voigt, The Comparative Constitutional Compliance Database, The Review of International Organizations (published May 25, 2023).

Subscription:

Westlaw: Constitution of the United States as published in United States Code Annotated - Includes notes of decisions.

Westlaw: U.S. Constitution Find Template - Enter an article or amendment of the United States Constitution.  Retrieve the amendment or article in United States Code Annotated. 

Lexis+: Constitution of the United States as published in United States Code Service - Includes notes to decisions. Tip: Log in to your Lexis+ account, then click the recommended link.

Publicly Accessible:

Focus: Text + Analysis:

GovInfo - Includes Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation. [Provider of analysis: Congressional Research Service (CRS) at the Library of Congress.] 

U.S. Library of Congress: Constitution Annotated - Includes recent Congressional Research Service documents, historical documents about the U.S. Constitution and the text: Constitution Annotated. 

Interactive Constitution (from the Center for the Constitution at Georgetown) - An interactive database that “categorizes and summarizes more than 1500 law review articles, essays, and other scholarship related to the original meaning of each constitutional provision”

Focus: Historical Research:

Liberty Fund, The American Revolution and Constitution - Provides digital access to texts in the public domain, such as: The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, ed. Max Farrand (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1911). 3 vols (Click a vol. at the bottom of this web page.)

The Library of Congress has research guides related to the history of the Constitution.

• Bill of Rights: Primary Documents in American History

• Constitution of the United States: Primary Documents in American History

• Framing of the United States Constitution: A Beginner’s Guide

Subscription:

Westlaw: Statutes and Court Rules > Click a U.S. state.  Provides the state's constitution. Click on a section of the state's constitution.  There often will be notes of decisions. 

Lexis+: Constitutions > Click a U.S. state.  Provides the state's constitution. Click on a section of the state's constitution.  There often will be notes to decisions. [Provider: Lexis+.]  Tip: Log in to your Lexis+ account, then click the recommended link.

HeinOnline: State Constitutions Illustrated - Offers constitutions of the 50 U.S. states and "related documents and resources." Includes original, consolidated and current versions. Links to related scholarly articles.

Example: State Constitutions: New York - Offers multiple sources of a state constitution's original text, amendments, and consolidated texts. Includes "editorialized annotations only found in this collection."

Publicly Accessible:

U.S. Library of Congress, Guide to Law Online: U.S. States and Territories - Choose a state guide > click guide tab: Constitution.

• Another option from the Library of Congress - Locating a State Constitution: A Beginner's Guide

Prof. John Joseph Wallis, NBER/University of Maryland State Constitutions Project - Supports searching by state, version of a state constitution, article number, section number and amendment number.

Focus: New York

Historical Society of the New York Courts, Common Law, Charters & Constitutions - Provides "various charters that were in force in the colony of New York, the constitutions adopted by the people of the State of New York since the Revolution, and the federal constitution and its Bill of Rights."

Lexis+ Browse for Topic Information: Constitutional Law - Covers topics ranging from the Bill of Rights to the Presidency. Tip: Log in to your Lexis+ account, then click the recommended link.

Tip: Choose a topic above and view available materials filtered by type.

Lexis+ Practice Area: Constitutional Law - Includes: constitutional law cases: case-related materials; the U.S. and state constitutions (tip: click: Statutes and Legislation > run a search, for example: New York Constitution article 1); selected treatises; selected legal journals; news; and legal news.  Tip: Log in to your Lexis+ account, then click the recommended link.

Westlaw does not provide a "practice area" page of constitutional law sources on its home screen.  Below are some starting points:

Westlaw: American Jurisprudence: Constitutional Law (= topic in a legal encyclopedia)

Westlaw: Corpus Juris Secundum: Constitutional Law (= topic in a legal encyclopedia)

Westlaw: American Law Reports Index (to annotations on points of law) > link: Index Contents > "C" - Includes links to ALR annotations under topic: Constitutional Law. 

Westlaw: Civil Rights Legal Materials & News

Westlaw: Constitutional Law Legal Newspapers & Newsletters + Constitutional Law Texts & Treatises