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How to Use ELR’s Online Service ELR®-The Environmental Law Reporter® Online is an environmental, natural resources, toxic tort, energy, health/safety, and land use law research tool containing original source documents, editorial summaries, and expert analysis on state, federal, and international issues. ELR consists of twelve components: News & Analysis; ELR UPDATE; Litigation; Federal Laws and Regulations; Administrative Materials; Indexes; State Materials; International Materials; Health and Safety Materials; Guidance & Policy Collection; Briefs & Pleadings; and Online Seminars. The contents of several of these components are described in more detail below. There are two great techniques for searching ELR: KEYWORD SEARCHES INDEXES
Note that all of these documents, indeed all of the material on ELR, can be accessed directly and immediately using the ELR Search powered by Google. To begin your research, if you choose to use indexes other than the comprehensive Google-powered search engine, consider the three easy approaches we describe starting in this Guide. Often, you'll want to begin with the Indexes section, which is the most comprehensive research tool of its kind. Starting there you can find an article on the subject that interests you, then use ELR's system of cross-referencing to lead you to relevant cases, statutes, and agency documents. If, however, you are interested in going directly to the case law, you can use either Indexes or the Litigation section to quickly find the decision you're looking for. Cases published in the ELR Litigation section include case summaries written by ELR's staff of attorney-editors. In addition, these summaries contain cross-references to our digests of briefs and pleadings filed in a case. Finally, you can use the Briefs & Pleadings Index to take you straight to our digests of a case's pleading documents. If you are interested in using ELR to keep yourself up-to-date on the latest environmental law developments, this Guide will give some tips on how to do that. ELR is set up to facilitate both in-depth research and quick updating of our readers' legal knowledge. Of course, our staff of attorney-editors is also available to answer any questions you might have about using ELR. Please call us at (800) 433-5120 or (in the Washington, DC area) (202) 939-3844. Our receptionist will direct your call to an editor specially trained to answer your question. (Other useful telephone numbers and e-mail addresses appear below.) In addition, our Customer Service department is ready, willing, and able to help you. Thank you for choosing ELR to assist you in your research. We know that you will find it to be an invaluable tool. USING ELR FOR IN-DEPTH RESEARCH There are several ways to access this store of information. The best and easiest way to search for a document in ELR is to use the comprehensive ELR Search powered by Google, which will search every document contained with the service. Another good place to start is the Indexes section. In addition to containing a cumulative table of cases published in ELR, a table for determining the official citation for a case if you only have the ELR cite, and bibliographies of environmental law articles published in other journals (a separate and also extensive bibliography of books and articles published on international environmental law topics is available at the International Materials section), the Indexes section contains Subject Matter Indexes. Each one contains several years worth of citations to cases, Articles, Dialogues, and Comments published in ELR. There is also an index of briefs and pleadings digested in our Briefs & Pleadings service. Set forth below are descriptions of several easy ways to use the Subject Matter Index to begin your research. Each description begins with a chart that diagrams the steps to take, then contains a more detailed explanation, followed by illustrations taken from ELR. One way to begin your ELR research is with an ELR Article on the subject that interests you. To find that Article, go to the Subject Matter Index in the Indexes section. ELR Articles are indicated by the word "analyzed" appearing before a citation. Let's take an example. Suppose you are interested in the recovery of natural resource damages under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). You want to know what proposals have been made in the past to revise CERCLA's natural resource damages provision. Start off by turning to the major heading "Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act" in the Subject Matter Index. Since you probably want to begin with the most recent information on this topic, use the current Subject Matter Index. Your first inclination will be to turn to the subheading "Natural resource damages." Because of the complexity of environmental law, ELR groups related topics under a more general subheading. Therefore, the entries relating to CERCLA natural resource damages appear under the subheading "Remedies," which in turn has a sub-subheading for "Natural resource damages." But don't worry, the Subject Matter Index contains many cross-references that will lead you to the place you want to go. So, if you look for a subheading "Natural resource damages" under the CERCLA main heading, there will be a cross-reference directing you to the sub-subheading "Natural resource damages" under "Remedies." When you go to "Natural resource damages" under "Remedies" in the CERCLA section of the Subject Matter Index, you will see an entry for "Proposed revisions to natural resource damages program". This description is followed by the word "analyzed," so you know the citations that follow it refer to Articles. Let's look at the first one, 27/10121. As the introduction to the Subject Matter Index tells you, this citation means that the Article you want appears in volume 27, page 10121, of the News & Analysis print binders. The same numbering organization of articles and litigation materials is used in ELR's online service. When you click on the link from the Index, you will see the first page of an Article entitled "Reforming CERCLA's Natural Resource Damage Provisions: A Challenge to the 105th Congress From the Clinton Administration." This Article provides an excellent example of the way that ELR is cross-referenced and cross-linked for your convenience. In the footnotes on the first page of this Article, you will see citations and links to cases, the CERCLA statute, and agency documents, which are contained in other ELR sections. If you look at footnote 1 of the Article, for example, you will see a citation to the case Artesian Water Co. v. Government of New Castle County, 851 F.2d 643, 649, 18 ELR 21012, 21014 (3d Cir. 1988). This citation includes both a cite to the official reporter (851 F.2d 643, 649) and a cite to the copy of that opinion that appears in ELR (18 ELR 21012, 21014). The ELR copy of this case appears in volume 18, page 21012, of both the ELR Litigation binders and the online version. You can link directly to the decision from the footnoted article. When you examine a case in the ELR Litigation service, you will see that they begin with a short summary written by ELR's staff of attorney-editors. These will facilitate your research by quickly showing you what the case is about. Each summary tracks the order of the holdings in the case, allowing you to find the holding you want more easily. In addition, many case summaries end with references and links to related cases and to briefs in that litigation that are digested in the ELR Briefs & Pleadings service. Although the ELR Briefs & Pleadings service contains digests of briefs in hundreds of cases, not all cases appearing in the ELR Litigation section or cited in Articles appearing in the News & Analysis service have related briefs digested in the ELR Briefs & Pleadings materials. Nevertheless, you will find many cases that refer to digested briefs. ELR Articles do not just reference materials appearing in the ELR Litigation service. If you look at footnote 2 of the natural resource damages Article in Illustration 2, you will see a cite to an Executive Order. At the end of this citation you will see "ELR Admin. Mat. II 45087." This tells you that this document appears in ELR's Administrative Materials service. Because of the enormous volume of agency documents, not all of the agency documents in ELR's collection appear in the Administrative Materials service in full text. Many of them are listed as available from the ELR Guidance & Policy Collection. If, for example, you are researching environmental enforcement and turn to the Article "The State of Environmental Enforcement: A Speech Presented at the American Bar Association's 1998 Annual Meeting" (volume 28, page 10711, of the News & Analysis service), you will see that footnote 1 cites a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency accomplishments report. At the end of this cite, there is a parenthetical that reads "available from the ELR Document Service, ELR Order No. AD-3928." This means that you can obtain this document simply by referring to our Guidance & Policy Collection. Finally, ELR Articles provide cross-references to the statutes that appear in the ELR Federal Laws & Regulations service. Go back to the natural resource damages Article we took as our example above. If you look at footnote 3, you will see a citation that reads "ELR Stat. CERCLA §101(16)." This tells you that you can examine §101(16) of CERCLA by looking at the copy of CERCLA that appears in the ELR Federal Laws and Regulations section. Perhaps you are interested in beginning your research by turning directly to the case law. ELR allows you to do this easily, in several ways. Let's start with the Indexes section. Let's take an example. Say you are doing research on the addition of chemicals to the toxics release inventory under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA). You turn to the EPCRA section of the Subject Matter Index and look under the subheading "Toxics release inventory, §313". One entry particularly interests you: "EPA decision to list 3-IODO-2-Propynyl Butyl Carbamate was not arbitrary and capricious." The cite and link at the end (28/20200) does not begin with the word "analyzed," so you know that this is a case, not an Article, Dialogue, or Comment. (The Subject Matter Index only contains cites and links to cases, Articles, Dialogues, and Comments. Briefs and pleadings digests are referenced and linked in their own index in the Briefs and Pleadings service. Agency documents are listed in the Administrative Materials and Guidance & Policy Collection sections, and federal statutes and treaties are provided in the Federal Laws and Regulations section.) To find this EPCRA case, click on the link. The case begins with a summary written by ELR's attorney-editors. Following the case summary is a reference, in brackets, to prior decisions in this litigation that appear in ELR. In addition, at the end of the bracketed reference is a citation to an ELR digest of briefs in this case ("Briefs & Pleads. 66525"). To examine this digest, click on the link and go to the ELR Briefs & Pleadings service. There you will find a short summary of the litigation and the parties' arguments. Following this summary is an outline of the parties' briefs. You can also locate decisions using the Litigation section, by way of the current and cumulative litigation directories. USEFUL TELEPHONE NUMBERS AND E-MAIL ADDRESSES Attorney-editors: (800) 433-5120 Rachel Jean-Baptiste jean-baptiste@eli.org Documents (ELR Document Service): (phone) (800) 433-5120 Subscriptions (Customer Service): (phone) (800) 433-5120 UPDATE: (phone) (800) 433-5120
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