Michigan Law

We focus heavily on sources of Michigan law. Among our most important holdings are constitutional convention materials from 1835 forward.

Legislative materials include bill analyses from 1969/70 to date, Senate and House Journals from 1835 to date, slip bills from the latest four years, the Public and Local Acts and all earlier session laws, the Michigan Compiled Laws and earlier official compilations, the Michigan Compiled Laws Annotated, the Michigan Compiled Laws Service and all annual pocket parts from the annotated statutes. In addition, the law library maintains a collection of the current constitutions and codes of Michigan's Indian tribes.

We have all the published Supreme Court and Court of Appeals opinions, as well as Supreme Court records and briefs from 1870 to date.

Our collection of Michigan administrative law includes the administrative rules from 1944 to date, and the opinions of some executive agencies.

Treatises and other works provide historical perspective and analysis of the law.

Law of Other States

For all other states we have session laws, statutory codes and case law, and for many states we have attorney general opinions up to 1980.

Federal Law

Our federal collection includes the complete United States Statutes at Large, the official United States Code and its earlier editions, the United States Code Annotated, all published opinions of the federal courts, Supreme Court records and briefs dating from the 1830s, the Federal Register (1936 to date), the Code of Federal Regulations (1938 to date) and the decisions of many executive agencies.

Foreign Law

We have extensive retrospective holdings in Canadian and English statutes and case law, as well as in the law of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Rare Books

A significant part of the law collection consists of very early English and American statutes and case law housed in the Rare Book Room at the Library of Michigan.

Periodicals

The law library subscribes to over five hundred law reviews, state bar journals and legal newspapers, as well as legal periodical indexes to aid in their use.

Databases

The law library's book collection is complemented by online databases which provide full-text access to primary and secondary sources of law nationwide. For monitoring current Michigan statutes and bills, we rely on the Internet site for Michigan legislative information at www.michiganlegislature.org.

The law library has access to many other sources of information via the Internet, including the online catalogs of law libraries throughout the United States.

Updated 06/24/2009