These original sources include law reports, statutes, digests, abridgments, dictionaries and contemporary commentaries on the pleas of the crown, nisi prius, criminal law and trials, and jury trials. There are just a few listed here. For more assistance on doing research using original materials, please consult the Legal History Guide on English and American Law, which goes into greater detail on these materials, or consult the Special Collections Librarian.
When researching contemporary original materials, please keep in mind that the language of the law changes over time, as does the language used, shifting from Latin to Norman French, including Law-French. Some materials may be in the original language of the time, and never translated.
Plea Rolls, Year Books & Nominatives (Law Reports)
Cases in England were reported in a variety of formats, plea rolls, then year books, and finally in nominatives, reports of cases created from the notes of individually named reporters. Plea rolls are still mostly only available in original manuscript format, but some have been published or digitally reproduced on the Internet. Year books have been printed and reprinted, and can be found under the year of the king, i.e., Richard II, Edward I, etc.
Nominatives have been printed, and though some remain in manuscript form, most are available in original editions as part of the English Reports or online through HeinOnline, or LLMC. A Guide to the Nominatives, the named reporters, their abbreviations, courts and years covered is available in Special Collections.
Plea Rolls
These are very early records, called rolls because they were sheets of vellum or paper, rolled up in scrolls. Short and scant in details, they are often the only records of any case. Many of the rolls are still in their original manuscript formats, many at the British Museum or the Public Records Office in London, but some have been printed and reprinted, and a few have been translated. A few are listed below. Some Parliamentary Rolls are available on the Internet. For more information on getting access to some of these obscure but valuable sources of information, contact the Special Collections Librarian.
Year Books
These are the early law reports for medieval England, dating to around 1268 through 1535, overlapping the earliest Nominatives. Though many of the Year Books have been reprinted, and even translated, some remain in original manuscript formats. Some of the first printed editions have now become rare and difficult to find, or have themselves been reprinted. A few are listed below. The Selden Society and the Ames Foundation have reprinted a good number of them.
Nominatives
The Nominatives, or named reports, are a large and eclectic collection of cases reported in various English courts, and have never been considered authoritative. They were reprinted several times as a collection, and microfilmed, and finally digitized by HeinOnline and LLMC. Special Collections recommends using the HeinOnline version, as it is far more user friendly, and searchable in a variety of ways.
There still is no official publication for English statutes, such as found with the American Statutes at Large. For the earliest laws of England, The Statutes at Large by Ruffhead (to 1799) and The Statutes of the Realm (to 1713) are the best sources. Pickering's Statutes at Large go beyond, into the 19th century. Other sets of statutes cover the 19th century into the modern era. Some of the publications of statutes are listed below in order by period covered. English statutes are cited by the year of the reign of the sovereign (king or queen), followed by a chapter and/or section; thus: 10 W. & M. c.3 is the 10th year of the reign of William & Mary, chapter 3. A conversion for regnal years is available in Special Collections.
Abridgments & Digests, Dictionaries & Legal Thesauri
These are useful tools in assisting the researching in analyzing and finding the statutes, cases, and often history of terms used in the law over time. Some of these materials are better than others, and organized the terms in a variety of ways. They should be used in tandem with the statutes and law reports.
Abridgments & Digests
There are numerous digests of the laws of England, and most organize the legal terms in alphabetical order by subject. The three most useful digests and abridgements are listed here. There are many editions to each of them and beware the changes in language use over time. One digest compiler may list ,family law under ,husband and wife, while another compiler will list it under ,baron and femme. Use a variety of synonyms and check for misspellings: The earlier the print, the further away from modern English you are, and there are always printing mistakes in early printed materials.
Dictionaries & Thesauri
Listed here are just a few dictionaries and legal thesauri, which may be useful when using antiquated materials, especially those before the 18th century. Modern dictionaries are helpful only if they give a root explanation to a particular term or if they trace the term's history. Other dictionaries listed here are especially useful for Law French or Latin translations. A list of legal dictionaries in the Library and in Special Collections is available from the Special Collections Librarian. Also check the Online Guide for Legal History Research for additional Internet sites for legal dictionaries.
Contemporary Writings, Commentaries & Institutes on the Law
Contemporary commentaries, institutes, criticism and writings are a vast resource often overlooked in legal history research. A few specific to jury and criminal trials are listed here.
Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England
There are over 80 editions of Blackstone's Commentaries in the law library. Most often, it is the first English edition, the first American edition, or Tucker's edition (see below) that is needed. Some American editions are important to use for the annotations from commentators. Pre-1900 Commentaries are housed in Special Collections; post-1901 Commentaries are housed in INTL or Williams stacks, according to their call numbers. There is a finding aid to all the editions (reprints, microfiche or original) of Blackstone's Commentaries available in Special Collections. A few editions are available in full print and keyword searchable on the web.
Coke's Institutes of the Laws of England
Coke's Institutes are in four parts, and known equally well as ,Coke's Institutes or ,First Part of the Institutes, Second Part of the Institutes, etc. Cites to Coke's Institutes are usually in the following form: 2 Inst., 1 Inst., etc. The First part of Coke's Institutes is also known as Coke on Littleton, or Littleton's Tenures. Listed here are some reprints and original editions available in the Library and Special Collections. Microfiche editions are also available in Media.
Early Federal Law Reports & Digests
Some of these materials researchers will be very familiar with; others you will not have seen since your first year in law school, if at all. They are all important primary resources that should not be overlooked. Most are now available on the Internet, through Lexis-Nexis, Westlaw, HeinOnline or govinfo. As with the English reports, the early law reports of cases in the United States were often known by the name of the reporter. These reports were later reprinted in the official U.S. Reports, but they are often cited in the old way. Researchers need to know both.
The U.S. Supreme Court was created in 1789 by the Judiciary Act of September 24, 1789 (1 Stat.73), and organized in 1790. The first U.S. Reports, however, were reports of cases in the courts of Pennsylvania and ,the several courts of the U.S.,Š and did not become the reports of the Supreme Court until 1804. The first 90 volumes are named reports, from 1790 to 1874; they were reported by specific individuals, and are often called by the name of the reporter: 1 Cranch, or 4 Dallas. Here is a list of the first 90 volumes and their corresponding named reports:
1-4 Dallas 1-4 U.S. Reports
1-9 Cranch 5-13 U.S. Reports
1-12 Wheaton 14-25 U.S. Reports
1-41 Peters 26-41 U.S. Reports
1-24 Howard 42-65 U.S. Reports
1-2 Black 66-67 U.S. Reports
1-23 Wallace 68-90 U.S. Reports
Early American Federal Statutes
The Statutes at Large is the official source of laws and resolutions passed by the U.S. Congress since 1789. It is a compilation of statutes, by date of passage; these statutes are later codified in the United States Code. It also includes the text of amendments to the Constitution, and of presidential proclamations, and all treaties and international agreements approved by the U.S. Senate, up to 1948.
Colonial & Early State Law Reports & Digests
The original 13 American colonies reported court cases unofficially in a variety of ways, depending on the time period and the colonial governments of each area. For original colonial cases, early newspapers are often the only available sources. Some colonies established early case reporting, but none of it is official or printed in any consistent fashion. After the American Revolution, each state published its reports of cases individually, and often reprinted earlier case reports. Many of the early ,reporters were also reporters for the early Federal reports. For a list of the earliest colonial and state case reports, consult the Finding Aid to Early American Court Reporters, available in Special Collections. The library has almost all the early state reports, either reprinted or in original form, in Special Collections.
Until the American Revolution, the original 13 American colonies were governed by the laws of England. Consult the English statutes for more information. There were colonial laws enacted by some of the local legislatures, more and more so with the approach of the American Revolution. Many were not printed or published officially, but they were often announced in the local newspapers, such as the Maryland Gazette, or the Virginia Gazette. Debates surrounding these local laws were also printed in the local newspapers, so colonial newspapers are often excellent sources of information regarding colonial laws in the making.
The law library does have some early American newspapers on microfilm in the Media section of the Library, but it is an incomplete set. Complete sets of early American newspapers on microfilm, often with indexes are available for research at the Library of Congress Periodical Reading Room in the Madison Building, and also at local universities and state archives.
Session laws were published more regularly, but each colony and then state varied how and when it issued them. After the Revolution, each state continued this sporadic printing of state statutes, and many states did not start to codify their laws until well into the 19th century.
All early printed state statutes published before 1840 are housed in Special Collections, and must be used there. State statutes published after 1840 and are superseded, are housed in the Historic Code Collection, in closed compact stacks. Check the library catalog for call numbers and locations. Contact a staff member at the Circulation Desk, in Access Services for access to the historic statutes in the compact stacks.
Early Congressional Records
Most early congressional records have been made available online at the Century of Lawmaking in the American Memory section of the Library of Congress' web site. The library has original and reprint sets of these as well.
Kent's Commentaries
There are over 40 different editions of Kent's Commentaries, many of them available online.