Following is a selective presentation of our library holdings and a brief introduction to how you would use our print and electronic resources to answer various questions related to municipal (local government) law. For additional help, you may ask any Reference Librarian for assistance.
1. Catalogs, Indexes and other Databases
· Use the Diamond Law Library’s catalog, PEGASUS. Also use the University Libraries’ catalog, CLIO (go to PEGASUS and choose it from the drop down menu CATALOGS mentioned there), to find resources at other Columbia libraries. You may also use WorldCat (go to PEGASUS and choose it from the drop down menu under CATALOGS) to find books beyond the Columbia system.
· To find law journal articles that may contain articles on domestic municipal law, use Wilson’s Index to Legal Periodicals. You may access it from PEGASUS (the 5th entry under the E-RESOURCES drop down menu).
· To find full text journals try our HeinOnline collection of electronic journals. You may access it from PEGASUS (the 1st and 2nd entries under the E-Resources drop down menu).
· To find journal articles in non-legal fields, use JSTOR, Project Muse, or any of the other databases, such as ProQuest Direct or ProQuest Historical. They can be accessed from the same Columbia University Libraries’ Web Page.
Municipal law sources are usually classified using the Library of Congress classification system (LC). Here are some of the LC call numbers you may want to use: KF 5304-5325 for municipal government and municipal services or KF 1302 for municipal corporations as defendants (civil rights litigation). Some municipal law sources will use the Hicks classification system. For example, New York City laws are classified under S NY8-NY85 and some New York City court reports are classified under R NY.
You can search our catalog, Pegasus, by call number. Go to PEGASUS and use the “Find by Call Number” option.
3. Primary Sources in the Law Library
As a general rule the law library carries current municipal law only for New York City and the District of Columbia. New York City municipal law can be found both on the third floor, in the reserve and reference area, and on the fourth floor.
· On the fourth floor primary sources on New York City do not have a specific location and often are part of more compilations that cover municipal law at the state level. For example, you can find the City local laws within the New York State law collection (each year the last volume of the Laws of the State of New York (S NY2) contains local laws by cities, counties and towns). You can find case law pertinent to the City's local laws in two publications.
o The New York City Housing Court Reporter is a subject-matter compilation of decisions handed down in the New York State and New York City Housing Court system.
o Ordinance Law Annotations, which is currently published by West but is popularly known as Shepard's Ordinance Law Annotations -KF5313 .S5 is a comprehensive digest of case law which interprets or applies city and county ordinances.
D.C. municipal law:
· The library carries both legislative and administrative DC law. LEXIS District of Columbia Code Annotated (S D6.5 2001) and The Code of D.C. Municipal Regulations (S D6.59 1999) can be found in the Reserve Reading Room on the third floor with the other state statutory and administrative codes.
Exceptionally, our library will have municipal law from other jurisdictions, according to the teaching and research interests of our faculty. For example, you may find Chicago Human Rights Ordinances from 1996 in print here, but remember that more and more municipal law is freely available on the Internet! While the Internet is often a surprisingly fruitful source of information, for historical research you may find our bibliographic titles on municipal law codes, such as Municipal Codes of New Jersey, useful.
4. Secondary Sources in the Law Library
If our municipal law collection of primary sources is limited to two jurisdictions (New York City because we are located here, and D.C. by default, as DC municipal law has the double status of municipal and “state” law), our municipal law treatise collection is quite substantial because of its constitutional ramifications and political implications. Here are some of those secondary sources that you may find useful in your research.
McQuillin, Eugene. The Law of Municipal Corporations (West, 1997-)
This 20-volume treatise (in 30 tomes!) is jurisdiction-based and provides extensive coverage of many aspects of municipal law (it is also available on Westlaw; MUNICORP).
Fonatana, Vincent. Municipality Liability: Law and Practice (2007-)
This two-volume loose-leaf treatise focuses on civil rights litigation where the defendants are municipal entities. Earlier editions are also available in our collection.
Matthews, Thomas A. Municipal Ordinances; Text and Forms (West Group,1998-)
This five-volume source (which counts 12 books!) offers detailed coverage of municipal ordinances. The fifth volume contains useful information about “how to use” and “how to access” both the text of the ordinances and of the forms. It is also available on Westlaw; MUNIORD.
Krane, Dale. Home Rule in America: a Fifty-State Handbook
This single-volume monograph offers in-depth 50-state explanations of the complex relationship between the local and state governments.
Daniel Finkelstein and Lucas A. Ferrara. Landlord and Tenant Practice in New York4th Floor: KFN5145 .F497 (West, 1997-) This two-volume loose-leaf provides information concerning substantive and procedural issues related to landlord and tenant matters in New York State, and New York City such as nonpayment and holdover proceedings or changes to rent regulations, terminating tenancy and which includes analysis of court decisions, statutes, rules, as well as useful practitioner-created and official forms. It is also available on Westlaw; NYPRAC-LT.
Housing NYC: Rents, Markets & Trends 3rd Floor Reserve: HD7288.85.U62 N54 This annual publication contains research reports by the New York City Rent Guidelines Board members on housing supply, mortgage survey, income and affordability etc.
Though the principles of researching municipal law are the same as for researching either federal or state law (look for a secondary source on the topic, or find the relevant local law or ordinance, if there is one; make sure that you know how agencies have detailed it and courts have applied it, and then update your results), due to its specificity, research guides, whether in print or on-line tend to be limited to municipalities from a single state.
In the reference area, our library carries a good collection (arranged in alphabetical order) of research guides for 36 states of the union (including DC). For some of those states the library has multiple guides. To find them perform a subject search in Pegasus for “Legal Research -- [name of the state]”. You may start your research with those guides, because some may have a good section on that state’s municipal law.
For example, to find a guide on Illinois municipal law, go to Pegasus and perform a subject search by typing “Legal Research -- Illinois.” First on your result-list is Wojcik’s Illinois Legal Research; its fifth chapter focuses on Illinois municipal ordinances.
Below is a selective list of print and on line guides on researching municipal law:
“New York City Legal Research” in Gibson’s New York Legal Research Guide (3rd ed) (2004). 3rd Floor Reference: KFN 5074. G53 2004. Ellen Gibson wrote one of the clearest and most comprehensive legal research guides to New York state law. Using the same principles she accomplished the task for New York City municipal law as well. This is a must for students, researchers and practitioners interested in our city’s laws. William H. Manz revised this third edition.
Cities and Towns – Research in Municipal Law. This contains a brief introduction to municipal law research filled with examples related to Indiana city and county law. (http://indylaw.indiana.edu/library/Municipal.htm)
Both databases cover municipal law, though none of them does so extensively.
To find some municipal charters and municipal local laws search for municipal codes. Remember that Lexis has quite an extensive municipal codes library which covers municipalities from 35 states on the free web! The fee-based Lexis has some municipal codes online, (MUNCDE) too. The easiest way to access its municipal library is to organize it under the "Municipal Government" tab. Westlaw has also had some municipal codes -- e.g., NYC-MUN. The easiest way to access its municipal library, is by using the tab "Municipal Practitioner."
To find case law on municipal law on Westlaw, go to Ordinance Law Annotations (ORDLAWANNO) (a comprehensive digest of cases interpreting or applying city and county ordinances). On Lexis you need to go to each state library. Please remember that for a comprehensive search on municipal law you need to search the (Federal & State Cases, Combined) database on Lexis and (allcases) on Westlaw.
To find municipal administrative law on Lexis and on Westlaw go to each state’s administrative law library. For example, to find municipal decisions issued by the New York City Human Rights Commission, go to Legal > States Legal - >
New York > Agency & Administrative Materials > New York City Human Rights Commission Decisions.
Both have treatises and encyclopedias that focus on municipal law and both have them badly organized. However, though both have American Jurisprudence, 2d only Westlaw has its municipal law material organized under a different heading, American Jurisprudence – Municipal (AMJUR-MUN).
On Lexis to see whether your secondary source is available you need to go to either Legal > Area of Law - By Topic > Treatises & Analytical Materials > By State > or Legal > Secondary Legal > Matthew Bender(R) > By Jurisdiction > .
On Westlaw there is no clear finding strategy. To find what is available you should know the title of the source and type it in “search these databases.” Among the many useful sources (but hard to locate) are: Carmody Wait 2d New York Practice - Municipal (CW2D-MUN), Citylaw (CITYL) which provides detailed coverage and analysis of NYC administrative regulations and legal developments. A useful multi-source library is Municipal Library Multibase (MUNI) which covers Matthews Municipal Ordinances (MUNIORD); McQuillin: The Law of Municipal Corporations (MUNICORP); McQuillin Municipal Law Report (MUNI-LR); and Municipal Legal Forms ( MUNI-LF).
Please send comments regarding this research-aid tool to Dana Neacsu, Reference Librarian, Columbia University, Arthur W. Diamond Law Library at dana.neacsu@law.columbia.edu.
[1] Written by Dana Neacsu. Last Updated April 7, 2007.
