Several major legal information providers have created
pages in their databases that collect materials relating to the pandemic and
ongoing racial justice protests and issues in the U.S. This post will consider Westlaw,
Lexis, Bloomberg, and HeinOnline; all four have content addressing these
issues, but the presentation and materials may differ.
These databases divide access to materials between the two topics, though many discussions of these issues, and research conducted by legal faculty and students, focus on the connections between them. Many scholars agree that the pandemic is having disproportionate effects on minority communities in the U.S. and believe that discontent with the handling of the pandemic has intensified concerns about racial justice. For example, Ruth Faden, a Library of Congress Council of Scholars member and founder of the Johns Hopkins Institute of Bioethics, gave an interview with the LOC in July where she discussed how both the pandemic and continuing racial injustice highlight structural injustice in the U.S. Though the databases may split their tools, legal researchers can still use them to explore the connections between the pandemic and racial justice in the U.S.
Westlaw
Westlaw offers a page for “Civil Rights Legal Materials and
News” and one for “COVID-19 Legal Materials and News.” Links to both are
currently located on the homepage in a tan box on the right under the title “Featured
Topics.”
Westlaw’s COVID coverage offers a wealth of material. A map
of the U.S. is at the top of the page, and users can click on a state to see
all related Covid-19 documents. There is also a separate button for federal
materials. The page also has links directly to federal legislation,
presidential proclamations and executive orders, administrative decisions and
guidance, state legislation, state executive orders, cases, court emergency
orders and information, and more. Links to recent related news articles from
Reuters are at the very bottom of the page. Links to other toolkits are located
on the right hand side of the page.
Westlaw’s “Civil Rights Legal Materials and News” page is
less robust. It currently offers links to resources under the categories “police
conduct,” “unwarranted criminal prosecution,” “right to protest,” and “voting
rights.” The Civil Rights page also has links to recent news articles from Reuters
on civil rights topics at the bottom.
LexisNexis
Lexis offers a page for “COVID-19 Resources” and one for “Social
Justice Resources.” Links to both are currently located on the Lexis homepage
on the right side of the screen.
The Lexis COVID-19 resources are five “kits” that link out
to different parts of the Lexis database, utilizing different tools. The “Intelligize”
kit provides insight and analysis into SEC topics like disclosure guidance and
compliance management. The “Law360” kit links out to legal news sources on the
pandemic. Metrics on the federal district court system related to COVID are
under the “Lex Machina” kit, and the “Practical Guidance” kit breaks down
coverage and resources by practice areas like Antitrust, Bankruptcy, Civil
Litigation, etc. Finally the “State Net” kit provides access to federal and
state government materials dealing with the coronavirus. Though the landing
page for Lexis COVID-19 resources only has those five boxes, following the
links to the various kits provides access to a wide variety of materials from
across Lexis’ many tools.
Like Westlaw, Lexis’ resources on “Social Justice” are less
robust. Lexis offers three kits, one on “Practical Guidance” for voting rights,
on on “Practical Guidance” for protesters’ rights, and a “State Net” kit on federal
and state government activity related to racial equality and police reform.
Bloomberg Law
Bloomberg has two links on its homepage under the “Featured”
heading that speak to current events. One is titled “In Focus: Remaining Operational”
and the other is “In Focus: Coronavirus.”
The Coronavirus page provides links out to Bloomberg Law
analysis, top news stories, “fast answers” on federal response and HR
considerations, related pages, many different trackers for news and legal developments,
and a number of boxes that break resources down by practice area, including
small business administration, leave and benefits, employment law, and many
more. Bloomberg also highlights some of its international resources for COVID related
topics.
The “Remaining Operational” page focus on business,
litigation, and transactional research. Bloomberg is traditionally strong in
these areas, and this page provides targeted resources like chart builders for
various areas of related law, legal analysis, Bloomberg news articles, and
webinars.
Bloomberg does not currently have a separate page for Civil
Rights or Social Justice, but they do offer a “social justice and diversity”
filter for news stories.
HeinOnline
HeinOnline has several related resources for these
current events. They have a database for “Civil Rights and Social Justice” and
one for “COVID-19 in America: Response, Issues, and Law.”
The COVID page breaks down resources into an introduction,
all titles, economics, global impact, health, society, scholarly articles, and
external links. Each page contains links to legal and historical materials related
to the subject.
The “Civil Rights and Social Justice” page on Hein is the
most robust of all the databases, offering links particularly to legislative, judicial,
and agency materials on topic, as well as scholarly articles and other related
works. Hein provides more access to historical materials than many other sites
and works related to racial justice are helpfully gathered in this page. Hein
also has other related collections that may assist researchers interested in
these issues; their “History of Capital Punishment” and “Slavery in America and
the World: History, Culture, and Law,” are both excellent collections of legal
and historical materials on those topics. HeinOnline also provides access to a
number of UNC Press titles related to racial justice and African-American
history.
Posted by Ellie Campbell on Fri. October 30, 2020 1:00 PM
Categories:
Uncategorized