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Legal Classics: From the Minds of Key Historical Scholars to HeinOnline
This article is republished with permission by W.S. Hein. View the original article here.
Last month, HeinOnline’s Legal Classics database reached another milestone: it now contains more than 11,000 titles!
Last year, we blogged about the incredible collection of books contained in HeinOnline in its entirety. In total, there are nearly 50,000 books in HeinOnline.* Many HeinOnline databases contain books, including:
- Legal Classics (nearly 11,500)
- World Constitutions Illustrated (more than 15,000)
- World Trials Library (more than 4,200)
- Taxation & Economic Reform in America Parts I & II (more than 4,000)
- Religion and the Law (more than 2,500)
- Spinelli’s Law Library Reference Shelf (more than 2,000)
- Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law (more than 1,800)
- Many more!
*Subscribers of the U.S. Congressional Documents will notice a higher number of books, because congressional hearings are technically categorized as books; these hearings were not counted as traditional books for the purpose of this post.
For the remainder of this post, the focus is exclusively on Legal Classics.
Incredible Growth and Content
In March of 2005, Legal Classics was launched with just 100 titles and 300,000 pages. Since then, it’s grown to include nearly 11,500 titles, with more than 200 titles added in the February 2018 content release alone.
Content in this database is authored by some of the world’s most well-known and celebrated legal scholars, including:
Joseph Story, an American lawyer, served on the United States Supreme Court from 1811 to 1845. He authored Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, a comprehensive treatise on United States constitutional provisions, which was first published in 1833. Story is also known for his opinions in two major Supreme Court cases: Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee (14 U.S. 304) and United States v. The Amistad (40 U.S. 518). Many additional books and articles by Joseph Story are available in HeinOnline.
Jeremy Bentham was an English philosopher, jurist, and early promoter of the idea of utilitarianism, a tradition which posits that an action is right if it tends to promote happiness and wrong if it produces the reverse. His first book, Fragment on Government: Being an Examination of What is Delivered on the Subject of Government in General, in the Introduction to Sir William Blackstone’s Commentaries, was published in 1776. He was an early advocate of equality between the sexes and the decriminalization of homosexuality. Check out other books and articles written by Bentham in various HeinOnline databases.
Benjamin Cardozo served as Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals before being appointed to the Supreme Court by President Herbert Hoover in 1932. He was a supporter of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal program and known for his gentle nature. He wrote Nature of the Judicial Process, which was published in 1921, in addition to these other books and articles available in HeinOnline.
Research Historical and Legal Issues
In addition to the pure wealth of content in Legal Classics, HeinOnline’s rich metadata and handy tools provide a pleasant and efficient research experience. Use the main search bar to perform a simple search, or take advantage of pre-selected search fields using the Advanced Search option. For instance, perform a general search for the phrase “right to vote”. Matching text is highlighted in yellow throughout the results. Bookmark results to a MyHein personal research account, sort results by relevance, date, and more, or refine results using the facets on the left side of the page. For instance, select Constitutional law to refine results to that specific subject.
Browse Legal Classics content by title, author, date, or subject. To quickly navigate to books by Benjamin Cardozo, select Browse by: Author, choose C, and scroll through the alphabetical list of names.
To view titles by subject, select Browse by Subject. Title counts will appear next to each subject. Unsurprisingly, among the subjects with the most corresponding titles are lawyers and constitutional law!
The Legal Classics database will continue to grow. Be sure to follow HeinOnline on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to stay on top of milestone, content, and feature announcements.
