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How to Prepare Your Note, Cert. or Seminar Paper:
Conducting a Preemption Check

Before you get too far into your research, you must determine whether your topic has been covered by a substantial article. This process is called a "preemption check".

Preemption checks look for substantial treatment only, so an article on your topic in a legal newspaper or bar journal is not prohibitive. Even if a topic has been examined by other authors it may be a valid choice if you differentiate your paper by, for example, taking a different position on an issue.

To determine what sort of coverage your chosen topic has received in the past, you should conduct a thorough search of available legal publications.

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Search law review and journal articles

Search for your topic using several different searches in the full-text law review databases. Full-text law review databases generally cover issues from the late 1980s to the present.

• Westlaw's JLR database
• LexisNexis Law Reviews, Combined
• HeinOnline's Law Journal Library
• Update your search in the Current Index to Legal Periodicals available on Westlaw and the Web

To search law reviews back to 1981, use the Index to Legal Periodicals [Law Indexes KF 8 .I53] and online.

• Web Legal Periodicals & Books
• LexisNexis Index to Legal Periodicals
• Westlaw's Index to Legal Periodicals

Articles back to 1980 are indexed in the Current Law Index [Law Indexes K 33 .C87], and online by various names.

• Web Legal Trac
• Westlaw's Legal Resource Index
• LexisNexis Legal Resource Index

For law review and law journal articles prior to 1980, use Index to Legal Periodicals [Law Indexes KF 8 .I53], 1886 to present or

• Web Legal Periodicals Retro
• The HeinOnline Law Journal Library offers limited searchability of legal articles, with many of the journals going back to their first volume.

Search the American Law Reports (ALR)

American Law Reports annotations select a narrow issue of law and examine the treatment of that issue by every state (or federal courts, in the case of ALR Federal) which has considered it. ALR is available in three formats. See Finding Cases in the American Law Reports for a detailed guide on how to use the ALR

• Westlaw
• LexisNexis
• Print [Law Pappas, lower]
  • check main volumes as well as supplements (pocket parts and pamphlets) which contain the more recent material
  • there are seven series of ALR, however, a single index covers the 2d, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and federal series
  • you may also start your research using the ALR Digest.

If you have any questions about your preemption check, please consult a reference librarian by making an appointment or stopping by the reference desk in the Pappas Law Library Reading Room.

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Page maintained by Raquel Ortiz
Last updated: April 2007