This guide provides information on choosing your topic, electronic resources and starting points that may be helpful to you, where to find pdfs for spading, and how to find books and articles. Several of these topics are covered in the PPT slides from your orientation session -- these are posted in the righthand column under 2025 Orientation Presentation. Additional information is provided in the sections of this Guide in the lefthand column ("Using the MacMillan Library", "Spading", "Preemption Checks.").
Another Guide that may be useful to you is our Summer RA 2025 Workshop -- this Guide covers Bluebooking, Research Strategies, Finding Articles, Circulation information, and other topics that will be relevant to your work for ELJ.
The Emory Law Journal has an editorial scope that is limited "only by the limits of legal scholarship and interest." Because of this, you will find yourself writing and spading across a wide variety of legal topics. For more information on checking whether your topic has been preempted, see the Preemption Checks page of this guide.
Legal news and current awareness tools are a good source for identifying developing areas of law ripe for new or prospective scholarship. Similarly, the resources on circuit splits provided below may also provide you with novel topics that may be worth writing about.
Next, there are tools that are generally useful for "legal topics," but there are also many subject-specific or specialized blogs and current awareness materials available.
Current Awareness
For general current awareness, including legal topics:
Legal News
Legal Blogs
Circuit Splits
In this section, we've suggested a number of general law resources where you can begin your research. These resources are both relevant to legal research and to research at the intersection of law and other disciplines, including public health, technology, history, and more.
Finding Guides by Subject:
You can limit your database search by title, subject, or most popular databases. Some of the databases you may want to use are available to you through the Law Library; other databases will be available to you through Emory Libraries. Explore available databases here:
Finding Treatises:
Study Aids and Introductory Sources:
Interdisciplinary Resources:
For more information, see the Spading page of this guide. See also the Citation Assistance page for information on how to cite sources.
For video tutorials on how to find books and articles, whether through Emory's collections or through interlibrary loan, see the Using the MacMillan Law Library page of this guide.
Finding an item at Emory:
Finding an item NOT at Emory (interlibrary loan):
What if I don't need the whole thing? (interlibrary loan):
Academic and Journal Writing:
Basic Legal Research:
Multidisciplinary Research:
Emory Subject Guides
Guides Outside of Emory
Not finding a guide at Emory? Try outside universities and law schools!
Faculty Research Question?
Please submit a Faculty Request form.
Student Research Question?
Please submit a Student Research Question form.
Still have questions?
Stop by our Reference Desk to chat with us in person.
MacMillan Library Hybrid Research Services:
Monday - Friday: 9am - 5pm
Saturday - Sunday: Closed
MacMillan Library Building Hours (August 18, 2025 - November 2, 2025)*:
Monday - Thursday: 8am - 12am
Friday: 8am - 8pm
Saturday: 10am - 6pm
Sunday: 12pm - 12am
*Extended hours begin Monday, November 3, 2025.
Reference Desk (August 18, 2025 - December 11, 2025):
Monday: 10am - 4pm
Tuesday: 10am - 4pm
Wednesday: 10am - 1pm, 2:30pm - 4pm
Thursday: 10am - 4pm
Friday: 10am - 4pm
Saturday and Sunday: Closed
IT Help Desk:
Monday - Friday:
Saturday - Sunday: Closed
Emory Law Archives:
Physical archives: By appointment only.
Digital archives: More information available here.
Limited remote services are available on a case-by-case basis.
Questions? Email Anna Sturgill, Law Librarian for Archives and Assessment Services
