Skip to Main Content

American Law Reports (ALR): Home

A guide to using the American Law Reports (ALR) resource for law students, graduates, and members of the public.

Overview

American Law Reports (ALR), published by West, provides topical articles analyzing various legal subjects and issues. It incorporates case law, statutes, regulations, and attorney-written content into a single article for each specific area of law. As a West publication, it uses the Key Number system to connect articles to relevant information in other West sources (such as reporters, digests, and WestlawNext).

At the time of this guide’s creation, there are six series in ALR, plus two federal series, a digest, and an index. The 6th series has been in publication since 2005. For historical research, it may be necessary to consult a previous series.

     

Contents

Analytical articles

▪ Full text of selected black letter law (cases, statutes, rules, and regulations)

▪ References to relevant black letter law (cases, statutes, rules, and regulations), organized by jurisdiction

▪ References to other secondary sources (digests, treatises, law reviews, legal encyclopedias)

▪ KeyCite references (as of the date of publication of the volume) for updating purposes

▪ Key Numbers

Additional Volume Content

Index: alphabetical listing of topics

Digest: case headnotes from cases used in ALR articles, organized by Key Number topic

ALR Series

First Series: 1919-1945

2d Series: 1948-1965

3d Series: 1965-1980

4th Series: 1980-1991

5th Series: 1991-2005

6th Series: 2005-2015

7th Series: 2015-Current

Federal Series: 1969-2005

Federal 2d Series: 2005-2015

Federal 3d Series: 2015-Current

Index: covers all six series, plus two federal series

Digest: covers all six series, plus two federal series

Law Library Location Guide