U.S. Legal System Overview
The United States is a common law jurisdiction, meaning that case law is a critical component of legal analysis. There are some areas of the law (e.g., contracts) that are governed entirely by common law as opposed to statutes. The United States legal system is also unique even among common law jurisdictions due to the existence of the U.S. Constitution as the supreme law of the land and the power of the judiciary to examine the actions of the legislative, executive, and administrative arms of the government to ensure that they are consistent with the U.S. Constitution. Andrew D.E. Lewis, Comparisons of Modern English, American, and Commonwealth Law Encyclopædia Britannica (2022).
Given these unique features of the United States legal system. It is imperative to understand what the sources of law are, how to read the law, and how to find the law. This guide goes over these concepts.
The two documents below provide a brief overview of the United States legal system, as well as sample citations.
- Sample Legal CitationsHow to read citations for cases, statutes and law reviews
Major Legal Research Tools
- Westlaw Edge This link opens in a new windowFrom Thomson Reuters, Westlaw Edge contains a wide range of U.S., foreign and international law primary and secondary sources. Accessible by username and password only. Passwords may be obtained by Law School students, staff and faculty.
- Lexis+ This link opens in a new windowLexis+ contains U.S., foreign and international law primary and secondary sources and is also accessible by password, available to Law School students, staff, and faculty.
- Bloomberg Law (BLAW) This link opens in a new windowBloomberg Law combines primary law of the U.S with much of the business content and current awareness content that Bloomberg is known for.
- HeinOnline This link opens in a new windowHeinOnline contains a wide range of primary and secondary law, including PDF files of all U.S. law reviews back to the first date of publication.
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new windowNexisUni contains primary sources for U.S. law and some foreign and international jurisdictions and law reviews. It is available to all members of the University of Chicago community.
