Legal Issues in Physical Education: A Research Guide
Finding Articles
SUNY Cortland students can find articles on physical education in the following databases. From the library home page, click on “Databases by Subject” and then “Physical Education”:
- SportDiscus (search for “law” or “legislation”)
- Physical Education Index (search for “law” or “legislation”)
- ERIC (search for “physical education” and either “laws” or “legislation”)
- Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe (click on the “Legal” tab at the upper left)
Books in General
On the library homepage, click under “Find Books” on “Library Catalog” to enter the library catalog.
The standard L.C. sub-heading for a legal topic is "law and legislation," e.g.,
- Hockey--law and legislation
- Sports Facilities--law and legislation
You can use this phrase in a “Words in Subject” search with others to locate the exact documents you need.
Laws, Regulations, and Court Decisions
To find information about how legislation affects the field of physical education, the following terms are important:
Bills
– Proposed laws that go through the legislature to become law. At the federal level, 90% of bills never become law.You can find information on bills in the U. S. Congress at the Thomas database.
Laws
– Bills passed become part of the laws of the land, as expressed in the United States Code.SUNY Cortland students can find information on bills through the Lexis-Nexis Academic database. After entering the database, click on “Legal” at the upper right. Then click on Federal & State Codes on the menu to the left to run a search.
Non-SUNY Cortland users can find a searchable version of the US Code at the GPO Access website.
Regulations
– The Executive Branch enacts the laws, setting standards through its many regulatory agencies. These appear in the Code of Federal Regulations, and they might differ from the text of the law itself.A searchable version of the Code of Federal Regulations may be found at the GPO Access website.
Court cases
– Judges interpret the law. Because their decisions are often based on both the law and past cases, these are important to examine in addition to the laws.SUNY Cortland students can find information on federal and state cases through the Lexis-Nexis Academic database. After entering the database, click on “Legal” at the upper right. Then click on "Federal & State Cases" on the left-hand menu to run a search. For articles on a particular topic, click on the “Law Reviews” link on the left-hand menu.
Non-SUNY Cortland users can search Supreme Court decisions only at the GPO Access website.
Internet
A good first source to try on the World Wide Web is: The Cornell University Law School's sport topic page.Also try individual search engines in databases, search engines, and the like
under specific topics such as "Title IX."
Prepared by Tom Bonn
Updated by Tom Bonn: 6/25/2001
Updated by Dan Harms: July 2009