When conducting any kind of legal history research, it is always a challenge to locate secondary sources. Historically, these materials were only available via interlibrary loan while the most delicate and valuable were reserved for archival research and study. However, with the advent of massive collaborative digitization projects, access to legal texts and treatises from the 16th, 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries has greatly improved in recent years. While many of these materials are available through paid subscriptions such as through HeinOnline or Gale’s Making of Modern Law (available to Pace students). Many others are available online for free. Below please find a list of some of the most helpful sites for locating scanned, searchable versions of free historic legal texts and treatises.
- Archive.org, E-Books & Texts Library, http://archive.org/details/texts
- Digital Public Library of America, http://dp.la/
- Google Books, http://books.google.com/books
- Hathi Trust, http://www.hathitrust.org