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Secondary Sources in Legal Research: Home

Encyclopedias. Treatises, Periodicals, Restatement, American Law Reports and other secondary source material.

Types of Secondary Sources in Law

  • Legal Periodicals
    • Scholarly  - Law Reviews and Journals
    • Practical - Bar Journals
    • News Oriented - Newspapers and Magazines

Value of Secondary Sources

  • Will give you background in unfamiliar areaas
    • including jargon & terms of art
  • Will lead you to primary authority
    • Mandatory & Persuasive
  • Will help you interpret primary authority
  • May address undeveloped areas of law
  • Are generally NOT for citing or relying on

    Updating

    Print

    • Printed Volumes have pocket parts, supplements or both

    Online

    • Updates can be continual or only periodic
      • It varies by title and type of resource

    Access Points

    • Index
    • Table of Contents
    • Table of Cases
    • Table of Statutes

    Using the access points, locate potentially relevnat sections in the text