Preemption Checking for Law Students

Preemption checking is a research process to determine if your chosen paper topic is original. There may be published papers on the same subject, but the claim of your paper - your argument, perspective, analysis, etc. must be new and unique. Preemption checking is an ongoing, process of broad and thorough research to make sure your paper has not been written by someone else.

This guide lists resources for preemption checking. While each project is different, preemption checking usually involves these steps:

1. Search in HOLLIS to find books and articles using multiple terms and phrases to account for all the ways the idea could be expressed.
2. Search for academic articles in Harvard-provided sources as well as Google Scholar using increasingly specific phrases and keywords. 
3. Think broadly about where scholars might publish on this topic. For foreign jurisdiction research, identify relevant databases for the academic publications of the jurisdiction. For "law and " topics, search the databases covering the related discipline.
4. Search for prior theses and dissertations on your topic.
5. Check working paper/preprint databases to find the most current, upcoming papers.

At a minimum first pass, we suggest using HOLLIS, Google Scholar, HeinOnline Law Journal Library, and SSRN to determine preemption and to discover prior treatment on the topic in the published academic literature.

While research librarians cannot run the preemption searches for you, they can help you develop a preemption checking plan. For assistance, visit https://asklib.law.harvard.edu.

For topics on foreign law, you may need to explore beyond Hollis and Worldcat to libraries or sources that will best reflect the academic literature of the jurisdiction. These might include national library catalogs, national bibliographies and regional studies databases.

The following are the main sources for law review articles. HLS Library provides many foreign legal databases with academic papers as well as sources for academic literature in other disciplines. Please ask a librarian to help you identify appropriate sources for your specific topic or jurisdiction. 

Working papers are scholarly papers that are not yet in final form, or that will be published solely in these less formal settings than academic journals. Searching for working papers is an important part of preemption checking. You can find the latest academic writings and learn if someone is about to publish a paper similar to the one you plan to write.

Starting with a research guide on your topic will help you identify specialized databases. Google: research guide your general topic to locate them, or browse the sources below.

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