Academic Legal Writing - Eugene Volokh [54]
a. give you a big picture of the legal rules as they were then understood,
b. point you to cases (both American and English) that you might otherwise have missed, and
c. alert you to what terms were used during that era, so you'll know what to search for electronically.
2. Old English cases
American courts of the early Republic routinely cited English cases. Much of the law of that era (tort law, contract law, property law, criminal law, evidence law, and more) was common law that was based on pre-Revolutionary English common law. English courts often faced the same legal questions that American courts were facing. There often wasn't yet much American law in many of the fields. Many American court decisions weren't published, so English law was sometimes more available than American law. And many influential treatises on common law subjects continued to heavily cite English cases.
So look for English cases as well as American cases. You'll find many cited in the treatises of the era, but you can also search for them in HeinOnline's English Reports database.
3. Modern history books and articles
Read some leading modern books and articles on the legal and political institutions of that era, even if they don't relate closely to your subject. These works can give you a feel for what political, legal, and economic life was like at the time, and a sense of which modern assumptions you need to discard. They can also point you to other sources that are more directly relevant to your work, and that you might not have been able to find through online searches.
4. Online databases
Don't rely just on Lexis and Westlaw searches. Though nearly all reported cases are now on Lexis and Westlaw, many early cases were never formally reported, and treatises and other sources were more important before 1900 than they are now. So talk to your research librarians about the various online databases of historical materials, and figure out how to search them. Some of the key sources are:
a. Pre-1700 English books (not just on law): Chadwyck-Healey's Early English Books Online (EEBO).
b. 1700s English books (not just on law, plus some from outside England): Gale's Eighteenth Century Collections Online.
c. 1700s and 1800s American books and pamphlets (not just on law), plus newspapers (which sometimes reported otherwise unreported legal decisions, jury charges, and the like): Readex's Archive of Americana.
d. 1800s and early 1900s English and American legal treatises and other law books: Gale's Making of Modern Law.
e. 1800s and early 1900s American legal treatises and other law books: HeinOnline's Legal Classics database.
f. 1800s American magazines (not just on law): ProQuest's American Periodical Series Online (1741-1900).
g. Some reports of English and American trials and other legal documents from the 1600s to the early 1900s: Galenet's Making of Modern Law—Trials.
h. English reported court cases from 1220 to 1865 (whether cited to Eng. Rep. or to the individual reporters): HeinOnline's English Reports database.
i. Some early books: Google Books.
5. Reporters that aren't on Westlaw and Lexis
As I mentioned, most American reporter volumes are now on Westlaw and Lexis. But not all: If you really want to thoroughly examine the late 1700s and early 1800s American sources, you should look through the indexes to reporters like Addison's Reports (Pennsylvania), the New York City-Hall Record, Smith's Decisions of the Superior and Supreme Courts of New Hampshire, and Wright's Ohio Reports. At http://volokh.com/writing/research, I've posted a longer list of some American reporter volumes that have not been uploaded to Lexis and Westlaw (though the list is likely incomplete).
There can be some gems in these early sources, as well as in the treatises, monographs, and books in the last