Administrative Law Research

Please note that not every federal agency is empowered to issue decisions.  Review an agency's website, the U.S. Government Manual, or the Blue Book (Uniform System of Citation) for information regarding agency decisions.  An agency's enabling legislation can also be referenced to determine if it has such powers.

Agency decisions can be located in a number of places.  Many agencies publish their decisions on their websites providing easy access to the materials.  However agency websites can be slow to update and difficult to search.  Several resources provided to the BC Law community provide access to agency decisions are described below.  If you need further assistance locating a federal agency decision, please see a Reference Librarian.

State agency decisions, like federal agency decisions, can be found in a variety of places.  Agency websites are often a very easy to navigate source of state agency decisions.  In some instances, state agency decisions can be found using resources such as Westlaw, Lexis Advance, or Bloomberg Law.  These resources don't always have complete coverage of all state agencies, however have some coverage.  State agency decisions can also sometimes be located on a government website such as a courts website.