Current Index to Legal Periodicals (CILP) Subject Headings
Accounting
Administrative Law
Admiralty
Agency
Agriculture Law
Air and Space Law
Animal Law
Arts and Entertainment
Banking and Finance
Bankruptcy Law
Biography
Civil Law
Civil Rights and Discrimination
Commercial Law
Communications Law
Comparative and Foreign Law
Conflict of Laws
Constitutional Law, Generally
Consumer Protection Law
Contracts
Corporations
Courts
Criminal Law and Procedure
Dispute Resolution
Domestic Relations
Economics
Education Law
Elder Law
Employment Practice
Energy and Utilities Law
Environmental Law
Estates and Trusts
Evidence
First Amendment
Food and Drug Law
Fourteenth Amendment
Gaming
Government Contracts
Health Law and Policy
Housing Law
Human Rights Law
Immigration Law
Indian and Aboriginal Law
Insurance Law
Intellectual Property Law
International Law
International Trade
Judges
Jurisdiction
Jurisprudence
Juveniles
Labor Law
Land Use Planning
Law and Society
Law Enforcement and Corrections
Law of the Sea
Legal Analysis and Writing
Legal Education
Legal History
Legal Profession
Legal Research and Bibliography
Legislation
Medical Jurisprudence
Military, War and Peace
Motor Vehicles Natural Resources Law
Oil, Gas, and Mineral Law
Organizations
Partnerships
Politics
Practice and Procedure
President/Executive Department
Products Liability
Professional Ethics
Property-Personal and Real
Psychology and Psychiatry
Religion
Remedies
Retirement Security
RICO
Science and Technology
Second Amendment
Secured Transactions
Securities Law
Sexuality and the Law
Social Welfare
Sports
State and Local Government Law
Taxation-Federal Estate and Gift
Taxation-Federal Income
Taxation-State and Local
Taxation-Transnational
Torts
Trade Regulation
Transportation Law
Water Law
Women
Workers’ Compensation Law
Changes in 2008
Change #1:
• Deleted the Subject Heading “Trusts”
• Changed the name of Subject Heading “Estate Planning and Probate” to “Estates and Trusts”
Reasoning: The “Trusts” subject heading was not used very often, nor does probate get much discussion in law review articles.
Change #2:
• Changed the name of Subject Heading “Arts and Literature” to “Arts and Entertainment”
Reasoning: Literature is an art, so the Subject Heading was redundant. More importantly, we needed a subject heading that covered law review articles about television, movies, videogames, and new forms of entertainment as they develop.
Change #3:
• Changed the name of Subject Heading “Military Law” to “Military, War and Peace”
Reasoning: The concept of “military” was not broad enough to cover all of the conflict-related issues that are discussed in law review articles, such as post-conflict rebuilding of foreign governments.
Change #4:
• Deleted the Subject Heading “Computers”
Reasoning: Surprisingly, “Computers” has become a little-used Subject Heading over the years. The topic was first used back when lawyers were figuring out what sort of intellectual property law applied to computer software. Now most of the computer-related issues discussed in law review articles fall under other Subject Headings, such as “Communications,” “Intellectual Property,” and/or “Arts and Entertainment” as we deal with file-sharing and streaming issues. With this change, articles that are about computers in general, without dealing with communications or other topics, will be indexed under the Subject Heading “Science and Technology.”
Change #5:
• Changed the name of Subject Heading “Comparative Law” to “Comparative and Foreign Law”
Reasoning: Many law review articles discuss the laws of other nations without making comparisons to U.S. law or other countries’ laws.
Change #6:
• Changed the name of Subject Heading “Constitutional Law” to “Constitutional Law, Generally”
• Introduced new Subject Heading “First Amendment”
• Introduced new Subject Heading “Second Amendment”
• Introduced new Subject Heading “Fourteenth Amendment”
Reasoning: Many aspects of constitutional law are already covered by other CILP Subject Headings.
For example, when a law review article discusses the constitutional aspects of a criminal case, we don’t “over-index” by putting the article under both “Criminal Law and Procedure” and “Constitutional Law.” We just use the more specific Subject Heading, “Criminal Law and Procedure.” Similarly, constitutional issues regarding judicial review go under the subject heading “Judges;” legislative powers are covered by “Politics” and/or “Legislation;” the relationship between the states and the federal government goes under “Jurisdiction;” and so on.
However, there were several constitutional topics that receive a lot of discussion in law review articles which were all lumped under the “Constitutional Law” Subject Heading. From now on, the many law review articles that discuss First Amendment freedoms of expression, press and religion will have their own place to land in CILP. The many articles about gun ownership also have their own Subject Heading, “Second Amendment.” Many other articles will fit under the new Subject Heading “Fourteenth Amendment,” which will cover citizenship, privileges and immunities, due process, and equal protection.
Any articles that don’t fit these more specific topics will continue to be assigned to the broader Subject Heading, “Constitutional Law, Generally.”
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