Legal Research

legal research

It is the process of identifying the

rules that govern an activity and
finding materials that explain or
analyze those rules
Determining what law applies to a
particular situation is a skill requiring
expertise in legal analysis
Involves the use of a variety of
resources
Expertises in legal
research
Must be able to analyze factual
situations
Determine the relevant fields of legal
doctrine
Apply rules developed by courts
Effective use of the librarys
extensive array of online and printed
sources
Knowing which sources are
authorative or useful for what
The sources of law

The law consist of those recorded

rules that society will enforce and
the procedures by which they are
implemented
For continental legal system, those
recorded rules are statutes
For common law legal system, those
rules areshaped over the course of
many years in court decisions
The sources of law

Law studets must learn how legal issues fit

into dichotomies in legal field not to solve
the problems but to know where to look for
answer
It is necessary to learn how to classify a
questionwithout pigeonholing the situation
to narrowly
Analysis within a particular doctrinal are can
clarify a specific issue, but most situation
contain isues from a number of areas
The form of legal
information
Effective
legal researc requires
knwoledge of the nature of the legal
system and understanding of the
ways in which legal information is
dissemnited
The form of legal
information
Current and historical information
Primary and secondary sources
Primary sources are the official
pronouncements of the governmental
lawmakers
Works which are not themselves the law,
but which discuss or analyze the legal
doctrine are considered secondary
sources
Print and electronic resources
Legal language

agood law dictionary is neede to

understand the language of the law
The leadng work is Blacks Law
Dictionar
Beginning a research
project
The hardest part is finding the firs
piece of relevant information
Step back andstudy the problem
carefuly
Determine whether the jurisdictional
focus in federal or state
Be sure to understand the terms in
which the problem stated
Formulate tentaive issues
Beginning a research
project
Going to a trustworthy secondary
source
Free internet sites are not
comprehensive, but they can provide
places to start if more thorough
resources are not readily available
Completing a research
project
The limits to research are set by the
nature of the project
If theres no limits, you must do
enough research to be confident that
the research is based on information
that is complete and accurate
Completing a research
project
The surrest way to achieve this
confidence is to try several different
approaches to the research problem
Verify that sources to be relied upon are
still in force and a good law
No research is complete unless the
lattest supplements have been checked,
surrent awarness sources have been
searched, and the status of cases to be
relied upon has been determined