At the beginning of its establishment, the Legal Branch of the Library of China Academy of Social Sciences received legal books from Tsinghua University, Beijing Railway University (Beijing Jiaotong University), Law Publishing House, the State Council Legal Affairs Bureau, the Supreme People's Court Research Office and other units, and then received manuscripts and materials presented by the descendants of the famous jurist Shen Jiaben in the late Qing Dynasty and the famous legal historian Yang Honglie in the Republic of China. After the Cultural Revolution, Mr. Zhang Youyu, the first dean of the Law School, also donated all his books.

This batch of books is huge, with a total of 200 thousand copies. Since the reform and opening up, with the development of the country's rule of law and the increasing abundance of book funds, the number and structure of books have been further improved. By the end of 2007, there were nearly 350,000 books and periodicals, nearly 100 kinds of electronic resources, and three special collection centers (Human Rights Information Center, United Nations depository library and legal history database). No matter the number of books or the structure of documents, it ranks in the forefront of the national law library.