LibGuides: Note Resources: Preemption Checks

What are Preemption Checks?

What is a preemption check and why is it necessary? A preemption check is a fairly thorough review of the published material on your topic to help you a) confirm that your note will cover new ground and b) verify that there are no impending changes in the law that would render your argument meaningless.

How do I get started? You want to search for published books, scholarly articles, and works in progress. You also want to use current awareness tools that idenitfy developments in the law. In addition to the resources listed on this page, we advise that you also make use of the resources on the Locating Sources, Current Awareness, and Other Sources tabs within this guide.

Heather Meeker, Stalking the Golden Topic: A Guide to Locating and Selecting Topics for Legal Research Papers, 1996 Utah L. Rev. 917.
Meeker's article suggests ways to identify a good topic and then offers a preemption check process.

Changes in Law

In addition to the law-related current awareness information on the Current Awareness page, the following resources can help you assess whether your topic risks legal action that would render it meaningless.

United States Law Week (Bloomberg Law) This link opens in a new window
Analyzes federal and state court and administrative cases that "establish new precedent, address new statutes, contribute to emerging legal doctrines, tackle current controversies, or further splits in the Circuits." It also tracks Supreme Court petitions and cases on the docket.
Congress.gov This link opens in a new window
Official website for U.S. federal legislative information.

Supreme Court of the United States
The court's official site includes its docket and orders. Search both sections by party name to see if a certiorari petition has recently been filed, granted, or denied.

SuperSearch

Find articles, books, and more. Help guide

(Note: additional content available in other databases.)

SuperSearch provides access to many full-text online materials and all of the Drake libraries print holdings. For print materials, SuperSearch indicates whether Law or Cowles owns an item, its location and call number, and if it is checked out or on the shelf.

Search for journal articles from the main or advanced interface or by clicking the Journal Finder link.

See the library's SuperSearch guide for instructions and tips, including how to find an article by citation.

Periodical Indexes

An index will give you citation information (and sometimes an abstract, which is a brief summary of the article's content) but typically will not contain the full-text of articles. If you find an article citation through an index, check the Law Library's Journal Finder within the catalog to access the journal.

Index to Legal Periodicals and Retrospective (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Legal Periodicals indexes 1000+ journals from 1981-date. Legal Periodicals Retrospective provides index coverage from 1908-1981 to more than 750 journals. (Partial SuperSearch coverage.)
EBSCO Help Guides
LegalTrac This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing for more than 1,200 major law reviews, legal newspapers, specialty publications, Bar Association journals, and international legal journals, including more than 200 titles in full text.

Full Text Databases

Law Journal Library This link opens in a new window
Provides access to PDF images of the articles. Coverage typically begins with the first issue of the title ever published and extends through some point in the last year.

Law Reviews and Journals
Coverage varies by title but typically begins in the 1980s.
Journals and Law Reviews
Coverage varies by title but typically begins in the 1980s.

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Complete back issues in PDF format of scholarly journals covering a variety of subjects. It includes some law journals. A good option for older journals not included in HeinOnline.
Project Muse This link opens in a new window
Offers full text, PDF access to scholarly journals published by Johns Hopkins University and other university presses. Includes some law journals.
Social Science Research Network (SSRN) This link opens in a new window
Open access repository for academic research papers and journals.
SSRN Help Guide

Google Scholar
Allows you to search against the scholarly literature of a wide variety of disciplines. It includes sources such as articles, working papers, theses, books, abstracts, and court opinions. Click on more to see how Drake library holdings and Google Scholar records can be linked.
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If you’re on campus, Google Scholar should automatically show you “Full Text @ Drake” links for our holdings. If you’re off campus, you can go into Google Scholar settings and select Drake University as one of your Library Links, which will set a cookie that will automatically show you the links no matter where you are.

After you click on settings at Google Scholar, click library links on the left and select Drake.

Remember that this will give you direct links to many things we have, but not everything. One of the biggest sources that will be missing is Lexis. If you find a cite that is not linked, feel free to ask a librarian if we have it in full text.

Multi-Disciplinary and Non-Legal Databases

See Cowles Library for relevant sources beyond the discipline of law.

Cowles Library Databases This link opens in a new window
Databases available to all Drake University students/faculty/staff.

Cowles Library Research Guides
Find research guides in a variety of non-law disciplines that point to databases and other key resources.

A few notable sources include both full-text and indexed databases:

Academic Search Ultimate (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Scholarly, multidisciplinary full-text database, with more than 6,000 full-text periodicals, including more than 2,800 peer-reviewed journals. (Partial SuperSearch coverage.)
Business Source Premier (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Includes full-text coverage of nearly 1,900 business and trade journals. (Partial SuperSearch coverage.)
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
The electronic interface for the Science Citation Index and BIOSIS. See these detailed resources and tutorials for using Web of Science.

Note Resources: Preemption Checks