The Kathrine R. Everett Law Library houses a rich collection of law and law-related materials to support the research and teaching of the UNC Law School community, and the larger University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill community. The library is also open to lawyers and other members of the public.
With over 300,000 print volumes across four floors, most of the Law Library’s print collection is available for all to use, although much of it does not circulate outside the library. The print collection contains materials in the following categories: United States federal and state law collections, including an extensive collection of North Carolina materials; foreign and international collections; government publications; and special collections and rare books.
United States Federal and State Law Collections
In the Library’s federal and state law collections, we have three types of materials available:
- Primary materials, such as statutes (codes and session laws), cases reported from courts, and administrative regulations.These primary materials include the United States Code, the official Statutes at Large, the unofficial United States Code Annotated and United States Code Service, the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations. In addition, the Library holds an extensive collection of federal and state court reports.
- Finding aids, such as periodical indexes, case digests, citators and other reference materials.
- Secondary materials, such as treatises, periodicals, government reports and documents, legal encyclopedias and Restatements of Law.
North Carolina
Print sets of the official North Carolina General Statutes and the unofficial West’s North Carolina General Statutes are shelved on the fourth floor in the Reading Room along with the North Carolina Session Laws. The library also houses print sets of the official North Carolina Reports and Court of Appeal Reports. The Law Library also holds a complete set of North Carolina regulations published in the North Carolina Register and the North Carolina Administrative Code.
Foreign and International Collections
International Law Collection
The Law Library strives to collect international law at the research level. The collection includes treaties, international legal periodicals, international treatises, and other monographs. For additional international materials, elsewhere on campus is Davis Library, the main library at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, which has been a United Nations full depository of documents since 1946. Nearby Perkins Library on the Duke University campus has been a full depository for the European Union (ECC and EC) since 1964.
Foreign Law Collection
Foreign law, published in English, is collected at the Law Library at an instructional support level as required by the teaching at the University of North Carolina School of Law. This collection includes a number of foreign legal periodicals. There has been an emphasis in the past on collecting legal materials from common law countries, particularly Canada.
Government Publications
The Law Library is a selective depository library of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). The Library’s documents collection consists primarily of legal and law-related materials. Depository materials are received in paper, microfiche, and electronic formats.
The UNC community and the general public may visit the Law Library to use these materials during regular library hours. In many cases, the material must be consulted in the Law Library and does not circulate outside the Law Library.
Accessing the Collections
Please use Locate in the Library for more information about the contents of these collections and their locations in the Law Library.
If you need further assistance accessing our collections, please contact the Reference Desk by email at lawref@unc.edu, by phone at 919-962-1194, or by chat at https://library.law.unc.edu (Click “Questions”).