Social Law Library

John Adams Courthouse

houses the Social Law Library

The Social Law Library, founded in 1803, is the second oldest

Boston, Massachusetts, the same building which houses the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and the Massachusetts Appeals Court

.

History

The history of the library is very much bound up in the history of the Supreme Judicial Court itself. Many of the proprietors of the library were chief justices of the Supreme Judicial Court, including

Reporter of Decisions, which was the first office of its kind at the state level in the United States, and the first officially reported decision was Gold v. Eddy (1804). This turn of events allowed the public greater access to the decisions of the courts of Massachusetts, and in turn popularized the common law

legal system in the United States.

Today

Today, many lawyers in the Boston area use the library for legal research. Members pay a yearly fee for the privilege of being admitted to the library and using its facilities, with the exception of state, court or non-profit legal services organizations members. The library has over 450,000 volumes of materials, most of which can be searched using an online catalog accessible via the library's web site.

External links

Official homepage of the Social Law Library

42°21′32″N 71°03′40″W / 42.358989°N 71.061147°W / 42.358989; -71.061147

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