Secondary Sources 101

1
Secondary Sources 101
2
What are secondary sources?

• MOST sources are actually secondary sources
• They include anything thats not a primary source
  (Primary Case law, statutes)
• Such as

3
Journals, Newspapers, Newsletters
4
Treatises, Hornbooks, Nutshells
5
Encyclopedias, Dictionaries
6
Books
7
Why Start with Secondary Sources?

• Provide an overview of an area of the law
• Synthesize and explain rules
• Provide a framework for interpreting the specific
  facts of a research problem

8
When to Use Secondary Sources

• When beginning a research project
• When you need background information about the
  broader legal context surrounding the narrow
  legal issue you are researching

9
Other Benefits of Secondary Sources

• May lead you to relevant primary authorities
  (i.e. cases and statutes).
• May contain footnotes that cite cases, statutes,
  and administrative regulations.

10
Authority

• Secondary sources can NEVER be binding on a
  court, but
• The primary authorities they cite can be binding
  or persuasive authority in your jurisdiction

11
Types of Secondary Sources
12
Legal Dictionaries

• Ex/ Blacks or Ballentines
• Definitions of topics or terms in legal context

13
Legal Encyclopedias

• Corpus Juris Secundum (CJS)
• American Jurisprudence (Am Jur)
• Both cover federal and state issues
• Each title contains pocket parts and supplements
  and subject indexes
• General treatment of American law
• Lots of citations to primary law (cases and
  statutes) and secondary sources (treatises, law
  review articles)
• Easy way to get an overview of an area of law
  from a multi-jurisdictional perspective
• Organized alphabetically by broad topic with a
  detailed subject index.

14
4-step Process for Legal Encyclopedia

• Search for your keywords in the index volumes
• Find the indexed topic and section
• Read the encyclopedia entry
• Update your research with pocket parts and/or
  supplements.

15
Treatises

• Ex/ Greenleaf on Evidence
• extensive analysis of an area of law
• Provides many cites to primary law
• To find them in MORRIS, search by author, title,
  or try a keyword search (ex/ evidence and
  treatise)

16
Restatements

• Ex/ Restatement of the Law of Torts
• Provides definitive statements of settled aspects
  of the law in certain areas
• Black letter rendition of common law principles
  with citations to primary law
• In MORRIS, all begin with the title Restatement
  of the Law of

17
Legal Periodicals

• Ex/ Loyola Law Journal
• Contain scholarly articles on the entire range of
  legal issues
• Reflect the latest thinking on topical issues.
• Close to a thousand titles are published in the
  U.S.
• Yale Law Library subscribes to most of them and
  many foreign legal periodicals
• Most available electronically as well

18
Finding Books and Journals

• Use library Catalogs
• Morris
• Orbis
• LOC
• OCLC / WorldCat

19
Finding Articles

• Use and Index when you dont have a citation
• Index to Legal Periodicals
• LegalTrac
• Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals
• Use HeinOnline when you have the citation
  (Morris gt Law Library Databases gt H)