The Library's primary function is the support of the Law School curriculum and faculty research. Although intended chiefly to serve the students and the faculty of the Law School, the Library is open to all members of the University community and to the public.

The Thurgood Marshall Law Library contains over 400,000 volumes of Anglo-American legal materials as well as outstanding international and foreign law collections. Extensive collections of both primary sources and secondary materials such as treatises are available. Areas of particular strength are those that comprise a major component of the law school curriculum or where there is substantial faculty research, including environmental law, health law, intellectual property, international law, law in film, German law, homeland security and terrorism, and East Asian legal studies.