Winning Research Skills - Westlaw

Chapter 11
Searching Legislative and
Regulatory Databases on Westlaw
Law students spend most of their time studying cases, but many practicing attorneys use legislative
and regulatory materials more often than case law. If you learn how to research statutes and
regulations while you are a law student, you will have an advantage when you begin your legal
career.
This chapter explains how you can use Westlaw to research a wide variety of federal and state
legislative and regulatory databases. Westlaw also offers municipal materials from selected U.S. cities
and an expanding array of statutory and regulatory materials from the European Union, the United
Kingdom, Canada, and other countries.
Retrieving a Statute or Regulation When You Know Its Citation
Retrieving Current Materials
When you want to retrieve a current statute or regulation and you know its citation, use the Find
service. Remember that when you retrieve a statute using Find, you retrieve the annotated document,
where available. For more information on using Find, refer to Chapter 7.
Retrieving Historical Materials
When you want to retrieve an historical statute or regulation and you know its citation, access the
appropriate database and search in the citation field. For example, if you want to retrieve the 1990
version of 20 U.S.C.A. § 1136, access the United States Code Annotated 1990 database (USCA90)
and type the following Terms and Connectors query:
ci(20 +5 1136)
The +5 instructs Westlaw to retrieve documents in which 20 precedes 1136 by five terms or fewer.
Tips for Searching Legislative and Regulatory Materials Databases
■ Most Westlaw databases containing legislative and regulatory materials can be searched using
either the Terms and Connectors or the Natural Language search method. For a complete, current
list of Westlaw databases, refer to the Westlaw Directory.
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