Legal History

This guide outlines resources useful for research on legal history, with a focus on American legal history. It is intended to help researchers explore and study events and people in the law in the context of their place and time. Since legal history research often draws primarily from original sources, this guide emphasizes resources that provide access to original sources. Researchers should also keep in mind that the development of the law can be affected by a wide range of factors, so it might be useful to consult databases in other subject areas.For a complete list of university databases by subject, see Mason's University Libraries Database Portal.

Many of these resources are governed by license agreements that limit use to Mason Law students, faculty, staff, and on-site users of Mason Libraries. Some databases are limited to members of the Mason Law community only. Off-campus access to databases requires that you enter your Mason email username and password.