This guide will help you to getting started with discovering reference and other resources in Law. Use it to find out about printed and online titles, including ebooks, ejournals, databases, and special collections.
In this section you will find help on how to search for and access print and eBooks, with some tips about classification.
Most books held by Luiss, in both physical and electronic formats, can be searched via Luiss Library Discovery. For eBooks you can browse and search also across several collections directly on the provider's website and reach other titles of interest.
If you are in the Library and looking for physical materials, remember to check the related sections in the Monographs Room and in Law Room. Books are on open shelves and located by topic according with the Dewey Decimal Classification.
Browse physical shelves
262 Ecclesiology
262.9 Canon Law
340 Law
340 Law
341 International Law
342 Constitutional & administrative law
343 Military, tax, trade, industrial law
344 Social, labor, welfare, & related law
345 Criminal law
346 Private law
347 Civil procedure & courts
348 Law (Statutes), regulations, cases
349 Law of specific jurisdictions & areas
Remember that in the Law Room a part of the collection is not on open shelves. Items with location “Law Room | Closed stack” may be requested to Library staff during the support hours as follows:
- in person;
- by e-mail at biblioteca@luiss.it for Self-service Pickup.
Books from “Law Room | Closed stack” will be placed and ordered by requester's surname in the A-Z lockers - upon entering the room, on the left-. The self-service is open Monday-Friday after the Library staff's hours.
The platforms that host eJournal collections allow you to browse and search across all ejournals on the publisher's site. Unlike search engines, such as Google, these platforms help to refine searches and explore more references, citations, and related topics.
Below are a few ejournals that Luiss Library subscribes to related to Law and the list of Encyclopedias and Dictionaries providing numerous entries related to different legal fields:
Find journals by Decimal Dewey Classification (main classes)
200 Ecclesiology
262.9 Canon Law
340 Law
340 Law
341 International Law
342 Constitutional & administrative law
343 Military, tax, trade, industrial law
344 Social, labor, welfare, & related law
345 Criminal law
346 Private law
347 Civil procedure & courts
348 Law (Statutes), regulations, cases
349 Law of specific jurisdictions & areas
The query below list subscribed databases related to Law which provide scientific literature, papers, and other academic materials.
Below a detail of the major Italian and international databases for law, jurisprudence, legislation, cases, doctrine:
Italian
- DeJure (Giuffrè Francis Lefebvre)
- Foro Plus: La banca dati de Il Foro Italiano
- GiustAmm.it
- Italgiure Web
- IUS (Giuffrè Francis Lefebvre)
- Lexitalia Premium
- One Fiscale
- One Legale
International
Citation databases are a useful tool for finding scholarly literature in your subject area. This includes journal articles, conference proceedings and books. They are very easy to use and helpful to build a list of references with integrated citation tools.
Use bibliographic fields and/or browse by subject to set your query.
Within the main sources on Law we suggest:
Italian sources (open portals)
International sources (also accessible off-campus)
Europe
- Directories of EU law
- European Union Portal
- European Union Law on EUR-Lex
- Court of Justice of the European Union
- N-Lex - National law of EU countries. For each Member State of the European Union see also the National legislation section
- UE-Open data Portal
- Publications Office of the European Union
- HUDOC, the search engine of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights
Italy
- On the website of the Chamber of Deputies you can find laws from the 13th Parliament on, bills, and a vast range of documentation on parliamentary activity.
- On the website of the Constitutional Court or Consulta Online you can find the full text of judgments, which you can also find on the website of the Corte dei Conti (i.e., Court of Auditors).
- The Corte di Cassazione (i.e. High Court of Appeal) provides the full text of and official maxims for a selection of recent judgments.
- DDL in Senato della Repubblica
- All the numbered legislative acts published in the Official Gazette from 1861 to today, with a focus on Italian regional law Normattiva;
- Parliamentary documentation from 1848 on Portale storico della Camera;
- Decisions, opinions, studies and insights of the State Council and Regional Administrative Courts -TAR- available at Giustizia amministrativa.
International case law
Find below a non-exhaustive list of websites:
- ECHR - European Court on Human Rights
- ICJ - International Court of Justice
- ICC - International Criminal Court
- ITLOS - International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea: a court established by the United Nations Convention on the law of the sea.
- EFTA Court
- JURE
- The World Legal Information Institute
International Law
There are various publicly available information sources on international law. Here is a non-exhaustive list:
- UN Treaty Collection
- UN - Human Rights Law
- Council of Europe - Conventions
- International Maritime Organisation (IMO)
- The International Commission on Civil Status (ICCS)
- World Trade Organization (WTO)
- European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and European Economic Area (EEA)
- The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) - Anti-Bribery Convention
- Electronic information system for international law (EISIL) by the American Law Society
- Guide to international law by HG.org
- Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH)
United States of America
- Federal Court Cases
- Find a Case (PACER) | United States Courts
- Justia US Supreme Court Center
- N-Lex - Legislative websites of non-EU countries
- Supreme Court of the United States
- U.S. Department of Justice Data Inventory
For a complete list of U.S. Free Legal Research Sites visit the page provided by George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School.
Find documents that are freely available on the Internet.
eBooks
- Digital Book Index
- Directory of Open Access Books
- Google Scholar
- Internet Archive
- Many Books
- OAPEN Library
- Open Book Publishers
- Open Textbook Library
eJournals
Access the guide for practical tips on how to start with the Library discovery system.
See the instructions to access our materials when you are not in-campus.
Consult our guidelines on how to format bibliographic citations and discover the features provided by the Reference Management Systems.