Legal Research

From the Government Printing Office, this site is a portal for federal publications of all types.

This collection provides the public with access to research products produced by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) for the United States Congress. By law, CRS works exclusively for Congress, providing timely, objective, and authoritative research and analysis to committees and Members of both the House and Senate, regardless of political party affiliation. As a legislative branch agency within the Library of Congress, CRS has been a valued and respected resource on Capitol Hill for more than a century.

The official website for U.S. federal legislative information. The site provides access to accurate, timely, and complete legislative information for Members of Congress, legislative agencies, and the public. It is presented by the Library of Congress (LOC) using data from the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Office of the Secretary of the Senate, the Government Publishing Office, Congressional Budget Office, and the LOC's Congressional Research Service.

Find C-SPAN programs by frequently searched categories, a selection of most popular searches, some well-received "fast finds", and a look into the archive at the most popular programs (by online views) for each day of the year. The online archive contains the contents of three C-SPAN cable channels focusing on public affairs, including Congressional affairs.

A digital project from Georgetown University’s Center for Latin American Studies and the Secretariat for Political Affairs of the Organization of American States. This database includes a wide range of documents from countries located in the Americas, such as national constitutions, judicial documents, and information on civil society. Materials are available in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese.

Offers news releases, virtual tours, documents, and basic information about the United Nations and its bodies. Three different search engines explore a large database and list of links. The site includes a wealth of reports, statistical data, and other information on human rights, international law, peacekeeping missions, and other topics. In addition, there is a separate database of official UN documents available on the Web, covering primarily parliamentary documents from 1993 to present.

This site offers access to the world’s constitutions so users can systematically compare them across a broad set of topics.

Information on US relations abroad as well as background information from the US State Department.

This publication of the CIA provides information on the history, people and society, government, economy, energy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities.

This research guide from the University of Missouri Libraries provides links to public opinion polls for news organizations as well as non-profit organizations.

Gateway to variety of studies supported by Pew Research

From the University of Michigan

This survey website is a global network of social scientists studying changing values and their impact on social and political life.

The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) strives to democratize access to the best data on religion. The initial archive was targeted at researchers interested in American religion, but now includes American and international collections and developing features for educators, journalists, religious congregations, and researchers. Data included in the ARDA are submitted by the foremost religion scholars and research centers in the world.

The website enables scholars, students, policy-makers and the media to investigate trends in policy-making across time and between countries. It classifies policy activities into a single, universal and consistent coding scheme. CAP monitors policy processes by tracking the actions that governments take in response to the challenges they face.

From George Washington University, this is the Website of a project that has collected the world's largest non-governmental archive of declassified documents, many of them covering controversial issues and obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. Though many documents are not accessible through the Web site, there are large collections of papers called briefing books on a variety of foreign affairs topics. This site is a rich set of primary source documents on key international issues.