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Canadian Legal Research Manual

This reference work was created by the Lederman Law Library to support Queen’s students learning legal research skills.

American Law

This section of the Legal Research Manual provides a brief introduction to American legal research.

It is not meant to be comprehensive, but rather to serve as a starting point for Canadian researchers looking into American law. Researchers are highly recommended to seek other guidance on American legal research by consulting authoritative textbooks or research guides on the subject. 

Accessing US Content on Westlaw and Lexis

Some of the steps described in the following chapter require you to use the US versions of Westlaw and Lexis. The following describes how to navigate to American content on both services. 

Resources

Further Reading

The following texts provide a good introduction to researching American law: