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Criminal Law: Primary Sources

A collection of resources held by Kahn Law Library or HPU Smith Library, to supplement the criminal law class for 1Ls.

Statutes

State and federal criminal codes are available in annotated (containing editorial notes and research references) and unannotated (text of the law only) versions. Each federal and state code set has an index. To locate relevant statutes, choose one of the annotated codes and search its index for your keywords.

FEDERAL STATUTES

  • United States Code
    • Official, unannotated version. Title 18 covers federal crimes & criminal procedure; it includes the Federal Sentencing Guidelines & the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. Currently available online only: http://uscode.house.gov/
  • United States Code Annotated (Westlaw)
    • Available on Westlaw Precision with login. Available in print in the library, call number REF KF62.5 .W47.
  • United States Code Service (Lexis)
    • Available on Lexis with login.
  • Cornell's Legal Information Institute

STATE STATUTES

To find statutory codes for individual states, visit Lexis or Westlaw. Current, official, unannotated versions may also be found on state legislatures' websites.

North Carolina code can be found here:

  • North Carolina General Statutes on the NC legislature website: https://www.ncleg.gov/Laws/GeneralStatutes
    • Official, unannotated version.
  • West's North Carolina General Statutes Annotated
    • Available on Westlaw. Also available in print in the library, call number NC REF KFN7428 2000 .W47. Chapter 14 addresses criminal law, and chapters 15 and 15A address criminal procedure.
  • General Statutes of North Carolina Annotated
    • Available on Lexis.

 

Case Law

FEDERAL CASE LAW

Both Westlaw and Lexis provide access to federal case law.

STATE CASE LAW

Resources for all states, including North Carolina, can be found through Westlaw and Lexis.