The Law Library

The Law Library houses one of the world’s most outstanding collections of research materials. With nearly one million volumes,it is a center for legal research for faculty, students, lawyers, judges, and scholars from around the world. International students and visitors often discover that materials on their native countries are more accessible and complete than at home.

Michigan’s Law Library consists of three distinct parts: the “stacks”—several extensive floors of richly filled bookshelves;the beautiful neogothic Reading Room, with 50 foot ceilings and stained glass windows, which can comfortably seat hundreds of students; and the modern, light and airy underground library floors, called the Allan F. and Alene Smith Library. This part of the Law School was completed in 1981 to complement the existing legal research facilities and received numerous awards for superb architectural design. It provides open stacks for the portion of the collection most used by Michigan Law students, a large number of student carrels, and special facilities for computers and microforms. The Smith addition is also where the Library staff work and where Michigan Law students and scholars can find our reference librarians for help with research. The Jackier Rare Book Room, located here as well, houses more than 5,000 rare books and manuscripts and offers its own research space.

The Law Library’s collection includes reports of the American federal and state courts, the court reports of Great Britain and the Commonwealth, and those of most European, Asian,and South American countries. The constitutions, codes, and statutes of most foreign countries, as well as of the American states, are kept retrospectively and up-to-date. Legal documents for the United Nations, the European Community, and other supra-national authorities represent a particular strength of the collection. In addition, there are extensive special collections in the fields of Roman, comparative, and international law, and documents of inter-governmental organizations such as the UN, EU, and WTO.

Moreover, international students and lawyers may find interest in the other University libraries on central campus which include special collections devoted to Asian studies, international relations, sociology, economics, history, and government.

With wireless and wired access to the Internet, LexisNexis, and Westlaw, the Law Library provides domestic and international legal materials free of charge to law students and faculty. Furthermore, home access is also available for all electronic resources. The Law Library’s own invaluable website contains information about how to use the library, research guides written by our staff, both alphabetical and categorized lists of e-resources, huge collections of digitized material including all U.S. law reviews back to volume one (HeinOnLine); and English and U.S. books about law from 1800 to 1923 (Making of Modern Law).

The “non-virtual” Law Library offers generous hours of operation and invaluable assistance from collections staff and from reference librarians who hold J.D. degrees in addition to graduate degrees in library science.