How to Explore Legal Topics on LII (law.cornell.edu)

LII organizes its legal-topic content mainly through Wex, its free legal encyclopedia and dictionary, plus a set of "Learn About" pages that group topics such as administrative law, constitutional law, criminal law, family law, and immigration. If you want a plain-language overview or a definition before digging into statutes or cases, start with Wex and the topic lists below. If you need the actual text of a law or regulation, use LII's primary-source collections instead (Constitution, U.S. Code, C.F.R., state law).

Start with Wex for definitions and overviews

Wex is LII's original legal encyclopedia and dictionary. It is the fastest entry point when you have a term or a broad subject but no citation.

• Use it for definitions (for example, a term you met in a case or news story).
• Use it for overviews that explain how an area of law fits together.
• LII notes that Wex has added entries on topics such as birthright citizenship, disenfranchisement, prediction market, and surveillance pricing, so it is actively maintained rather than frozen.

A practical sequence: look up the term in Wex → follow the linked topic page → then move to a primary source if you need the controlling text.

Browse by legal topic

LII's "Learn About" section groups material into subject areas. The topics listed on the site include:

Pick the topic closest to your question, then read the overview before following links into cases or statutes. This keeps you from reading a single case out of context.

Use the Gender Justice Collection for focused human-rights material

LII maintains a Gender Justice Collection with topic pages and country resources. The site lists new topics on education rights and technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV), plus resources for Colombia, the Philippines, and the United States. Use this collection when your question is specifically about gender-related rights rather than general law.

When to switch to primary sources

Topic pages explain; primary sources control. Move to LII's primary-source collections when you need the actual language:

• Constitution, U.S. Code, C.F.R., Supreme Court opinions, Executive Orders, Federal Rules, state law and state regulations, and the U.C.C.
• Locators for uniform law, state statutes by topic, and world law

LII states that the U.S. Code is current through the most recent version published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel, and that the C.F.R. is up to date. It also publishes state regulations for all 50 U.S. states.

Tools that help you trace a citation

If you already have a citation and want to find or verify it, LII offers:

• Introduction to Basic Legal Citation (Peter W. Martin) — a guide to citation form.
• Parallel Table of Authorities — maps between citation systems.
• RiO Citation Resolver — resolves a citation to a source.
• Table of Popular Names — finds a statute by its common name.

A worked example

Suppose you read a news article about a "true threat" prosecution on social media and want background.

1. Search Wex for the term to get a definition and overview.
2. Open the related constitutional law topic to see how the doctrine developed.
3. Check the Congressional Research Service's U.S. Constitution Annotated on LII, which the site says includes updates on True Threats (social media) and on Rahimi and applying the Second Amendment Bruen standard.
4. Only then pull the underlying Supreme Court opinion if you need the holding itself.

Staying current

LII's "What's New?" section tracks additions, including new Wex entries, updates to the Constitution Annotated, and Supreme Court Bulletin previews. The LII Supreme Court Bulletin has a subscription page if you want previews delivered; check that page for current terms rather than assuming access details.