Secondary Sources

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Secondary Sources
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What are Secondary Sources?

• Secondary sources are not the law
• They are anything else that helps you learn
  about, find, or present the law
  
• Commentary on the law

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Why Use Secondary Sources?

• Persuasive authority
• Depends on the reputation of the author
• Learning about the law
• Finding the law
• Some tools meet some needs better than others
• Background
• Explains the law

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ALR (American Law Reports)

• Annotations are objective essays
• They help you accomplish the necessary objective
  step to understanding the law
  
• Annotations describe the law
• Provides descriptions of both sides of an issue
  or when something is found or not found

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ALR

• Never cite to an ALR Annotation

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ALR

• ALR will provide you with citations to statues
  and representative cases
  
• If you find a case on point, look it up in the
  West reporter, note the Topic and Key Number, run
  that through the digest that covers the
  jurisdiction that concerns you

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Annotation Finding

• ALR Index (dont forget the pocket part)
• Annotation titles are very descriptive

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Annotation History Table

• After you have identified and Annotation, but
  before you read it, make sure that it has not
  been supplemented or superceded by a later
  Annotation
• Check the Annotation History Table, after z in
  the ALR Index

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Parts of an Annotation

• The first section is usually a Scope Note read
  it
  
• The second section usually details related
  Annotations, see if any other Annotations look
  interesting

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Updating

• Update your Annotation in the Pocket Part
• Further updating through an 800 number

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ALR Online

• Once exclusively on Lexis, is moving to West
• Automatically updated
• No Index
• Limit your search to the title field

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Treatises

• Scholarly books about an area of the law
• Can be one or several volumes
• Manner of updating varies
• Looseleaf
• Pocket Part
• New Edition

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Wright and Miller
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Other Monographs

• Other books are found in the same manner as are
  scholarly treatises
  
• Can be very practical
• Lists
• Forms

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How Will You Use Them?

• Scholarly treatises can be very persuasive
• Treatises, generally, are very good for learning
  about the law
  
• They are generally good law finders
• Practical tools can have many useful extras

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How to Find Treatises

• Library Catalogs
• Multi-Institution Databases (WCAT, RLIN)
• Law Books and Serials in Print
• Books in Print

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Catalog Searching Terms

• Controlled vocabulary
• Library of Congress Subject Headings
• Find several books on point and see what headings
  were assigned to describe them

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Quest searching

• Prefer Keyword (if you know the subject used, use
  it as a part of the keyword search)
  
• Can conduct Boolean searches
• Can limit searches to parts of the bibliographic
  record
  
• Can limit searches to particular library at B.C.
• kcovenants and compete and ll.puc.
• Also try scovenants not

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Law Review Articles

• Most scholarly discourse in American law takes
  place in the pages of law reviews
  
• Most are published by law schools

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What Purposes?

• If the author is eminent, can be persuasive
• Generally good law finders
• Some are good at describing the law, especially
  student case notes
  
• Articles tend to be on hot topics
• Dont look for an exposition of a settled concept

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B.C. Law Review, a general scholarly journal
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B.C. International and Comparative
Law Review, a topical scholarly journal
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B.C. Environmental Affairs Law Review,
a topical scholarly journal
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Magazine focussing on the legal profession
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Local bar journal
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Topical legal magazine
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Finding periodical articles

• Index v. Full-Text
• Prefer an index
• More years covered by an index
• More titles covered by an index
• Full text, get items that mention a concept
• Index. Get items about the concept

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Indexes

• Index to Legal Periodicals
• Over 500 journals, including most scholarly
  journals covered
  
• Current Law Index
• Over 850 journals, almost the same list as ILP,
  but some bar journals and legal newspapers

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Index to Legal Periodicals Coverage
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Index to Legal Periodicals
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Current Law Index
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Current Law Index Coverage
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Subject Headings

• ILP uses their own
• Look at the front of a recent issue
• CLI uses LCSH for the first heading
• Their own for subheadings
• For either, run a search, identify on-point
  articles, run a new search using the subject
  headings assigned to the on-point articles

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Online search example

• Use ILP on Westlaw and the web to find articles
  about covenants not to compete

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Updating

• You dont really update a law review article
• Look for a more recent article about the topic

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Looseleafs

• Pull together most primary material on a topic
• Also good finding tools, practice hints, and
  explanations
  
• If there is one on your subject, you will use it
• Only exist for topics that generate

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How do you find out if a looseleaf exists on a
topic?

• Legal Looseleafs in Print

CCH Standard Federal Tax Reporter
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Legal Newspapers

• Use to keep track of what is happening in the
  legal community
  
• Local legal newspapers print descriptions of
  recent cases from trial and appellate courts
  
• They may have a case retrieval service (for a fee)

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Local legal newspaper
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National legal newspaper
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Legal Newsletters

• Very specific topical coverage
• Great sources of news
• How do you find out if a newsletter exists on
  your subject?

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Legal Encyclopedias - National

• An attempt to describe the state of the law on a
  topic for the entire nation
  
• Not extremely useful unless
• The law IS the same everywhere
• No other research starting tool is working for you

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American Jurisprudence (AmJur)
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Corpus Juris Secundum (CJS)
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Legal Encyclopedias - State

• More useful than national encyclopedias
• Describes the state of the law on a topic for the
  state
  
• Frequently includes practice tips and forms

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Massachusetts Practice
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Restatements

• Can be extremely persuasive
• Eminent legal scholars got together and initially
  restated what the law was
  
• Now the frequently state what the law should be

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