Legal Research

Knowing when to stop is important for efficient and cost-effective legal research. This exercise will cover several factors which you may wish to consider.

This is an exercise designed to introduce first-semester law and graduate students to the basic elements of a typical case "brief" and to teach them general methodology for writing their own briefs. The exercise consists of three parts: (1) an introduction to the purposes and uses of a case brief; (2) a detailed examination of each of the ten components of a typical case brief (with examples); and (3) two actual cases that students are asked to read and then to brief, using the methodology described in this exercise. A sample brief for each of the two cases is also provided, thereby allowing students to correct and modify their briefs by way of comparison.

This exercise will provide the student with a detailed introduction to using the digests to find case law. Example pages from the West reporters and digests are provided and hypothetical research issues are demonstrated to show how these books are used.

Through this introductory lesson, students will learn how federal laws are made and about the federal legislative process. Students will also learn about the various types of documents that are created as a proposed bill works its way through Congress. These documents comprise the legislative history of an enacted law.

This lesson covers the basics of how to research U.S. patent law. It covers both print and online resources, and gives you a thorough introduction to the primary sources of patent law. It also demonstrates the various types of secondary resources that can be useful when researching patent law.

This lesson will familiarize you with primary and secondary sources available in Idaho. It covers the Idaho primary law including the Idaho Constitution, statutes, legislative history, municipal codes, administrative law, and court decisions. The secondary sources portion of the lesson provides a general overview of secondary sources and how you can use them in your research as well as coverage of Idaho specific secondary sources.

This lesson provides an introduction to primary sources of law in Illinois.

This lesson provides an introduction to Illinois focused secondary sources. The reader will learn how to use these sources in both print and digital formats.

This lesson will introduce you to the basic sources for finding primary law in Indiana, and how to use them.

This is an introduction to researching the law relating to intergovernmental and non-governmental agencies. IGOs and NGOs have significant input into international law and finding their resources can be integral to researching international law.

This lesson demonstrates the ways in which internet searching can provide access to internal administrative agency materials.

This lesson will give students a basic introduction to using the Internet for legal research. Students will consider when it is appropriate to use the Internet as a research tool in legal practice. Students will then be introduced to three practical approaches to doing legal research on the Internet.

This exercise begins with some general background questions to help students place administrative agencies within the greater Constitutional scheme. These questions also address the various powers agencies wield, and the ways they are created. Then the exercise examines sources that offer specific details on individual agencies; it goes on to briefly discuss procedural rules, policy statements, and the process of promulgating regulations.

This lesson will introduce you to researching foreign law.

This is an introductory lesson for international human rights law and research.

This lesson is designed for students taking an introductory legal research course who are already somewhat familiar with online research on Westlaw and Lexis. This lesson should be useful for students with basic or intermediate searching knowledge and experience.

This lesson will provide an overview of secondary resources used in legal research. Secondary resources are books and other material ABOUT legal subjects and issues: they discuss and explain primary resources such as cases and statutes and can be useful in assisting our understanding about specific areas of law. The student will learn about the different types of secondary resources and what secondary resources are most useful for specific types of legal research tasks.

This is an introductory lesson on federal and state statutes to acquaint first-year law students with this important form of law. The lesson focuses on the basic structure of statutes and the sources in which they appear. It doesn't describe how to research statutes, but you'll learn statutory research much more easily if you understand this material first.