Collections & Holdings
The Law Library of Louisiana provides services and resources to the judiciary, the bar, and the public. Located in the Louisiana Supreme Court building, the Law Library contains nearly 150,000 volumes in print and microform. The library’s collection development policy is based on the needs of all users, with a heavy emphasis on Louisiana practice materials in civil and criminal law. The library is also a depository of both U.S. and Louisiana documents.
The strength of the library’s print collection is enhanced by its legal information resources available online. Westlaw Edge and Lexis offer access to state statutes and codes, cases, jury instructions, Louisiana treatises, and forms. HeinOnline is an ever-expanding resource offering full-text law review articles, current and historical Louisiana acts, session laws of all 50 states, federal regulations and Congressional documents, and international treaties. Gale Legal forms provides a searchable database of Louisiana-specific and general forms.
United States Law
The Law Library collects practice materials and treatises for most areas of United States law, including:
- state statutes and codes
- Southern Reporter, historical and current
- Federal Reporter, historical and current
- looseleaf services
- current and classic treatises
- Corpus Juris Secundum
- American Jurisprudence
Louisiana Legal Materials
The Law Library’s holdings in Louisiana law are comprehensive and rich. Holdings include:
- Current statutes and superseded Louisiana statute volumes since the mid-1970s, including superseded pocket parts
- Current and historical digests
- Louisiana practice materials
- All historical pamphlet versions of the Civil Code, Code of Civil Procedure, Statutory Criminal Law and Procedure, and state and federal court rules
- Current and historical Louisiana Supreme Court reports
- Historical Louisiana legal treatises
Special Collections
The Law Library’s Special Collections include a variety of legal and historical materials. The Law Library has a comprehensive collection of historical Louisiana acts and Louisiana Supreme Court reports. Many of the volumes in Special Collections have been held by the library for over a century. Highlights include:
- Editions of the Siete Partidas (the oldest version is from 1587)
- Recopilación de leyes de los reynos de las Indias (1680)
- All Louisiana acts from 1804-1899
- Copies of the earliest Louisiana Civil Code editions
- Copies of the reproduction of the De La Vergne volume
- Code Civil, 1804
- New Orleans city ordinances from 1817-1995
- Rare Louisiana and New Orleans history volumes
- Set of the American State Papers
- Pothier’s Treatise on Obligations
- Schmidt’s Civil Laws of Spain and Mexico
- Briefs in the Myra Clark Gaines case
- Earliest reports of the Louisiana Supreme Court
- 1820 translation of the Siete Partidas
- Blackstone’s Commentaries (1765)
- Jacob’s Law Dictionary (1811)
- Livingston’s Penal Code
- Projets of the Code Civil
- Febrero Adicionado (1806)
- Green Bag 1st series
- Southern Review
- De Bow’s Review
- Diderot Encyclopedia (1760s)
- Robinson’s Street Atlas of New Orleans (1883)
- Early laws of selected states
Foreign Law
The Law Library has extensive holdings in Roman civil law, French commentaries on the civil law, Spanish civil law, and English law. Highlights include:
- Teatro de la legislación universal de España é Indias
- Corpus Juris Civilis – Institutes, Pandects, and Code of Justinian
- Oeuvres de Pothier
- Planiol’s Treatise on the Civil Law
- Civil Law in its Natural Order – Domat
- Cours de Code Napoléon – Demolombe
- Principes de droit civil français – Laurent
- Traité théorique et practique de droit civil – Baudry-Lacantinerie
- Code civil : annoté et expliqué – Dalloz
- Le droit civil français – Toullier
- Explication du code civil – Bousquet
Microforms
The Law Library’s microforms holdings include:
- Times-Picayune collection, 1837-2014
- New Orleans City Directories, 1805-1961
- State session laws and attorney general opinions (Louisiana 1854-2004)
- U.S. Supreme Court records and briefs, 1967-2010
- Le Courrier de la Louisiane, scattered 1810-1837
- New Orleans Bee, 1827-1923
- Congressional Record, 1985-current
