Administrative Law Research Guide

Unlike proposed and final regulations, and there is no one place where all administrative decisions are published. In fact, some agencies do not publish their decisions. Administrative decisions may be available through agency websites, subscription databases, looseleaf services, or official reports of decisions.

Administrative decisions are often available on agency websites. In general, decisions that are available online are from recent years.

Some agencies publish official reports of their decisions. The Bluebook lists official administrative publications in Table 1.2. Once you have the reporter's title, search for it in the library’s collection.

Most looseleaf services (also known as topical reporters) publish administrative decisions in their subject areas. For older administrative decisions, looseleafs are often the only source. The Bluebook lists major looseleaf services in Table 15. 

Once you have the service's title, find it in the below chart of topical reporters, which includes links to our catalog record for a publication's print edition and access to the publication's digital formats. If a looseleaf service is not listed there, search the Law Library's catalog or check the resources listed below for specific publishers and subject areas.

For looseleafs published by Commerce Clearing House (CCH), check VitalLaw.

VitalLaw (formerly Cheetah) is a searchable database of forms, articles, tables, legal decisions and laws pertaining to human resources, labor and employment law, payroll, pensions and benefits, employee safety, workers' compensation, health law, food and drug regulations, unemployment, and social security.

For looseleafs published by Bloomberg BNA, check Bloomberg Law. 

For information about looseleaf services in specific subject areas, check our Research Guides on those subject areas (such as tax).

Citator services (KeyCite on Westlaw or Shepard's on Lexis) will provide reports for some federal administrative decisions. However, not all federal administrative decisions have comprehensive reports or reports at all. Supplement reports from citator services by searching for references to administrative decisions in administrative materials and case law.