This page aims to offer a guidance on where you can locate sources of United States cases with various categories of resources, including:
*Since there are large number of courts under each state and various under the Federal, only key materials will be mentioned in this page.
To look for law reports in FIND@HKUL, you may search with their titles with “Books+” search scope.
Alternatively, you may also change to Advance Search and enter the following search term for all available law reports within the HKUL Collection:
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This platform focuses on legal materials in the United States with an extensive collection of legal resources of federal and states cases. Searches can be done by choosing different courts, jurisdictions, or subject of law.
Other than federal cases, selective states cases are available in Lexis Advance Hong Kong. Viewing of contents would mainly rely on searching with keywords, instead of browsing by judgment or publication year.
This platform contains wide range of resources on U.S. federal and states case law, from historical archives to analysis of present cases. Some useful databases within are: Early American Case Law, FastCase, Preview of U.S. Supreme Court Cases, and U.S. Supreme Court Library. Once you have selected the database from the platform, you may search by keywords or browse by title, author, date and subject.
Below will highlight some official law reports issued by different courts. Due to large number of courts in the country, listing will not be shown here one by one. You may make use of databases subscribed by the HKU Libraries, which are noted under the key databases tab, for accessing cases of different courts.
Federal Official Law Reports
United States Reports [US]
Electronic:
Vols. 1-575 (1754 – 2015) (via U.S. Supreme Court Library, HeinOnline)
Vols. 1 (1882) - present (via Westlaw Classic - Parallel citation: Supreme Court Reporter [S Ct])
Federal Reporter [F.2d/ F.3d] (Federal Court of Appeal)
Electronic: 1940s - present (via Westlaw Classic)
*coverage of specific court may differ, please refer to coverage information indicated below (with example of the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals):
Federal Supplement [F. Supp./ F. Supp. 2d] (Federal District Courts)
Electronic: 1700s - present (via Westlaw Classic)
*coverage of specific court may differ, please refer to coverage information indicated below (with example of New York):
States' Official Law Reports
In general, most states ought to have their own official reporters. Yet, seven Regional Reporters are published by the West Publishing, with each covers several states. This map, created by Westlaw, showcases the coverage of each Regional Reporter.
To search for cases issued by different courts of each state, you may make use of Westlaw Classic with the below access path:
The Federal Courts (click to visit)
In general, three divisions of court are listed under the federal court as shown below. To access contents of federal court records, public are to be accessed via the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER). Since HKUL has no subscription to this platform, you are suggested to register for a personal account for the access, with charges be made for USD $0.10 per page.
*Useful webpages: Comparing between Federal & State Courts & Court Website Links
The Supreme Court of United States (click to visit)
Opinions of the U.S Supreme Court are published in a set of casebooks, namely the United States Reports, and is available from the official website. “Slip” opinions are posted on this site individually until opinions for the entire Term are published in the bound volume of the United States Reports. The earliest volume of Reports available is volume 502, 1991. Other materials related to the Supreme Court, such as arguments transcripts, dockets and orders of the court, can also be found and accessed.
United States Courts of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (click to visit)
There are 13 circuit courts under the U.S. Courts of Appeals. All opinions and legal documents published by the Federal Circuit is issued online. For Opinions and selected orders from October 1, 2004 to February 29, 2012, they are available for public access via the stated site. Search can be conducted by release date, origin (i.e. jurisdiction), status, appeal number and case name. For documents used after March 1, 2012, access is required via PACER with a personal registered account. Case records prior to the above date are to be viewed upon request.
United States District Courts
94 district courts can be found in the country, with each district court is under the jurisdiction of one of the circuit courts. Due to large number of courts, listing will not be shown here one by one. To obtain information of individual court, you may visit the United States Courts website for directory.
*This map, retrieved from United States Courts website, shows the distribution of circuit courts and district courts in the country (accessed on 28 October 2022).
United States’ State Court
The state court deals with disputes and matters within its own jurisdiction. Under the court system of each state, there will generally be the trial court of general jurisdiction, intermediate appellate court (e.g. Court of Appeal), and the Supreme Court. Due to large number of states and courts, listing will not be shown here one by one. You may visit the below resources for accessing to cases issued under each state court, or make use of Google to search for the official website of each state:
Cornell Legal Information Institute (LII) (click to visit)
Supporting the free access of legal information, the LII, supported by the Cornell Law School, offers an extensive collection of materials. Decisions archived on this site focuses on those issued by the Supreme Court, dated back to 1990s to present.
The Library of Congress (click to visit)
Maintained by the Library of Congress, their digital collection on U.S. Reports covers the official opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1754 to 2012, volumes 1 to 570. Useful resources are also available via this site with Research Guide to U.S. Case Law and How to Find Free Law Online.
Justia (click to visit)
Free public access is available via Justia to decisions made by federal and state courts. You may browse by courts and year of decisions, in which the earliest year of availability might differ among jurisdictions (i.e. depends on different states).
The Case Law Access Project (CAP) (click to visit)
The CAP, maintained by the Harvard Law School Library, aims to provide public access to all official and published U.S. court decisions. Cases available dated from 1658 to 2020, with searching available in different format, such as keywords search, display in trends and timeline, and browse by jurisdictions.
The Judicial Learning Center (click to visit)
Founded in 2009 and supported by a legal professions in the States, the Judicial Learning Center aims to promote public understanding of the function and value of judicial branches of the U.S. Government, with emphasis on the federal court in particular. Resources from this site serves as a foundational reference for you to develop in-depth understanding of different courts. Selected resources are: