Accessing Secondary Resources Electronically
Both Lexis and Westlaw have electronic versions of the most widely used secondary sources.
You can access them in a searchable form. In Westlaw, use the Search for a Database American Jurisprudence is AMJUR, Corpus Juris Secundum is CJS and American Law Reports
is ALR. In Lexis, you can access them through Find a Source under the Search by Source tab American Jurisprudence is American Jurisprudence 2d and American Law Reports is ALR.
Lexis does not have Corpus Juris Secundum. You must be signed on to Westlaw or Lexis to
access these items. You can also find the text of the resources and the table of contents, which
can be helpful as none of the items have an index in the online versions.
In Westlaw, go to the Directory
Once there, you can access American Jurisprudence, Corpus Juris Secundum and American Law
Reports under the Treatises listing.
Scan down the list of resources in Westlaw to find the ones you want to use.
Once you are in the database in Westlaw, you can either search with appropriate terms or you can
browse the table of contents.
And find the relevant sections (you may have to expand the entries).
In Lexis, look under Secondary Legal in the Search by Source tab. The secondary sources are
under Jurisprudences, ALR & Encyclopedias.
Then scroll through the list to find the resources you want.
Again, once you are in the database, you can either search with appropriate terms or you can
browse the table of contents (right under the search box) and find the relevant sections.