Project: Caselaw Access Project

Where can I find Caselaw Access Project?

What does Caselaw Access Project do?

The Caselaw Access Project offers free, public access to over 6.5 million decisions published by state and federal courts throughout U.S. history.

Why does Caselaw Access Project exist?

Access to our common law - the written decisions issued by our state and federal courts - supports equality and enables innovation in legal services.

Between 2013 and 2018, the Harvard Law School Library digitized over 40 million pages of U.S. court decisions in collaboration with legal startup Ravel Law, transforming them into a dataset of over 6.7 million cases that represent 360 years of U.S. legal history. The Caselaw Access Project API (CAPAPI) and bulk data service put this important dataset within the reach of researchers, members of the legal community, and the general public.

Learn more about how Caselaw Access Project data is being used in our Gallery and CAP Examples repository on GitHub.

The Caselaw Access Project relies on the support of many at the Law School Library, the Law School and from across the University. We also express our deepest appreciation for the brilliant advice and extraordinary efforts of Jeffrey P. Cunard, Maxine Sharavsky and their colleagues Michael Gillespie, Sarah A.W. Fitts and Robert Williams, Jr. at Debevoise & Plimpton, Henry B. Gutman and colleagues at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, and Jonathan H. Hulbert and his fellow members of the Office of the General Counsel.

Caselaw Access Project on Github

News

Press

A Closer Look at the Caselaw Access Project May / June 2020 AALL Spectrum

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New "Historical Trends" Viewer from Caselaw Access Project Graphs Frequency of Words and Phrases June 21, 2019 LawSites

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New tool by Harvard Law lets people explore language usage in caselaw June 20, 2019 ABA Journal

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LawNext Episode 18: Adam Ziegler On How Harvard Put 360 Years Of Caselaw Online November 12, 2018 LawSites

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Harvard Opens Up Its Massive Caselaw Access Project October 31, 2018 TechDirt

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Caselaw Access Project launches API and bulk data service October 31, 2018 Harvard Law Today

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Caselaw Access Project gives free access to 360 years of American court cases October 30, 2018 ABA Journal

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Harvard Law Library Readies Trove of Decisions for Digital Age October 28, 2015 The New York Times

Project Contributors

Past and current

Anastasia Aizman Designer and Lead Creative Technologist Kendra Albert Research Associate Karen Beck Manager, Historical & Special Collections Zachary Bodnar Digitization Specialist June Casey Librarian for Open Access Initiatives & Scholarly Communication Deborah Chase Digitization Specialist Stephen Chapman Manager, Digital Strategies for Collections Jack Cushman Director Kim Dulin Library Innovation Lab Director Lindsay Dumas Digital Projects Archivist Kate Edrington Digitization Specialist Harmony Eidolon Program Coordinator Kerri Fleming Digital Projects Archivist Kelly Fitzpatrick Research Associate Gerard Fowke 2018 Harvard Law School Library Intern Andy Gu 2021 Summer Research Assistant Jane Kelly Historical & Special Collections Assistant Erica Leeman Digitization Specialist Dustin Lewis Project Manager Andrew MacTaggart Senior Digitization Specialist Emily Magagnosc Digitization Specialist Margaret Peachy Curator of Digital Collections Lori Schulsinger Collection Development Coordinator Andy Silva Developer Ben Steinberg DevOps Shailin Thomas Affiliate, Berkman Center for Internet & Society Caroline Walters Collection Development Librarian for U.S. Law Suzanne Wones Executive Director, Harvard Law School Library Adam Ziegler Director Jonathan Zittrain Harvard Faculty and Law School Library Director