A class taught at Singapore Management University, teaching an introduction to United States legal research for international law students using Westlaw International, Lexis, and other online tools.
2. Agenda
Basics of U.S. Court System
Using U.S. Secondary Sources
Understanding U.S. Case Citations
Finding U.S. Federal and State Case Law
Finding U.S. Federal and State Legislation
3. U.S. Court System - Basics
U.S. Courts
Federal Courts
U.S. Supreme
Court
13 Circuit
Appellate
Courts
Federal
District
Courts
Specialty Courts:
-Bankruptcy
-Tax Court
-Federal Claims
-Intl Trade
-Armed Forced
-Veterans Claims
State Court System for Each of 50
States
State
Highest
Court
State
Appellate
Courts
State District
Courts
4. Federal Circuit Courts
Circuit Courts numbered 1 to 11, Federal Circuit, and DC
Circuit
http://www.uscourts.gov/Court_Locator.as
px
5. Secondary Resources
Encyclopedias
AmJur 2d – American Jurisprudence 2d
CJS – Corpus Juris Secundum
ALR – American Law Reports
Cornell’s LII WEX Legal Encyclopedia
Journals/Books
Limiting to U.S. Law Reviews in Westlaw and
Lexis
SSRN
Google Scholar
6. American Jurisprudence 2d – AmJur 2d
legalsolutions.thomsonreuters.c
om
Legal Encyclopedia
Start with the Index
Provides summary of the law topic
Will refer to key cases and relevant
legislation
Available on Lexis and Westlaw
Selective in citations provided in the
entries, not comprehensive for all cases on
a subject
Strong on federal legislation
7. AmJur 2d on Westlaw
When using
Westlaw
Intl, start by
locating the
United
States
Collection
8. AmJur 2d Westlaw Search
Limit by fields. Use PR field to
search the information above
the main text of the entry.
Search tips are here
in Scope Information.
9. AmJur 2d Search Help in Scope Info
Click on AMJUR
link to return to
search window.
10. AmJur 2d Table of Contents
Option to browse
Table of Contents
rather than search.
11. AmJur 2d Table of Contents
From within Table of Contents,
can use Ctrl-F to find main
subject terms.
16. AmJur 2d on Lexis
Multiple access points into encyclopedias.
17. AmJur 2d on Lexis
Can limit to only searching
Table of Contents
18. Corpus Juris Secundum - CJS
Legal Encyclopedia
Start with the Index
Provides summary of the law topic
Will refer to key cases and
relevant legislation
Available on Westlaw
More comprehensive than AmJur
in case citations provided, but that
can make the entries less
readable.
Heavy on cases, light on
legislation legalsolutions.thomsonreuters.c
om
24. ALR
More thorough and comprehensive encyclopedia
Multiple ALR series in the print volumes
ALR, ALR 2d, ALR 3d, ALR 4th, ALR 5th, ALR
6th, Federal, and Federal 2d.
All series and volumes are kept because not all entries
have been updated from original entry so the index may
refer to an older ALR series.
There are at least eight different indexes for the print
series – it’s complicated.
Entries are officially called Annotations.
Print volumes updated annually.
Online ALR
Updated weekly
Comprehensive search through all series
26. ALR on Westlaw International
When using
Westlaw
Intl, start by
locating the
United
States
Collection
27. ALR Westlaw Search
The Index to Annotations is a very
helpful guide. To find the index on any
subject, include PR search with phrase
―index to annotations‖
30. ALR – Table of Contents
This ToC is not linked.
To use this information,
copy the heading, return
to search window, and
search on the copied
terms.
31. ALR Using the Index
To use the index, copy
the heading and return
to search screen.
32. ALR Searching the Index Heading
After copying the title from the Index, paste it into the search window. Use a TI title
search to limit search for terms in article titles. Also add a PR field limiter with phrase
―index to annotations‖ to only retrieve the very helpful index listing for this title.
33. ALR Index to Annotations
Index to Annotations is
a helpful listing of all
the articles within this
subject.
42. LII WEX Entry
Cites primary legislation
Cites primary cases
Provides summary
of the legal topic.
43. Journals & Books
legalhistoryblog.blogspot.com
Nothing different about searching
for U.S. journals and books.
Can limit journal searches to U.S.-
only databases, if needed.
Many free sources available
online.
44. U.S. Journals on Westlaw International
Limit search to U.S. law reviews by selecting LAWREV-PRO on World Journals
tab.
45. U.S. Journals on Lexis
Limit search to U.S. law reviews by selecting the U.S. Law Reviews and
Journals, Combined database that is listed on the Secondary Legal page.
47. Journals on Google Scholar
Search for articles on Google Scholar at scholar.google.com
Click the down arrow
leads to Advanced Search
options
48. Journals Google Scholar Advanced Search
If the term search returns too many results, can limit to law review articles by
including phrase ―law review‖ in the ―published in‖ field.
49. Journals Google Scholar
Clicking the PDF link on the right may offer an free full-text version even when the
title link does not.
50. Case Law
Understanding Citations
Mandatory or Persuasive
Authority
Searching
Westlaw
Lexis
Cornell’s LII Directory
Google Scholar
51. U.S. Case Citations
Roe v. Wade 410 U.S. 113 (1973)
Volume of Reporter
Reporter Abbreviation
First Page of Case
Year of DecisionCase Name
52. U.S. Case Citations – Parallel Citations
Smith v. Chaney Brooks Realty, Inc., 10 Haw. App. 250, 865 P.2d
170 (1994)
Parallel Citations:
Parallel Citation
Bright v. Los Angeles Unified Sch. Dist.,
18 Cal. 3d 450; 556 P.2d 1090; 1976 Cal. LEXIS 364; 134 Cal. Rptr. 639; 2 Media L. Rep. 1175 (
Because of the number of reporters, it can look very complicated:
Parallel Citations
53. Case Law – Mandatory or Persuasive?
Federal Courts
United States Supreme Court—Mandatory authority in all
courts, federal and state, when the decision covers federal law
issues.
United States Courts of Appeals—Mandatory on district courts
and other lower courts within the circuit. Persuasive authority
in other circuits and in state courts.
United States District Courts—Mandatory on specialized lower
courts within the appellate jurisdiction of the district court.
State Courts
State Supreme Courts, on decisions of state law—Mandatory
authority for all lower courts in that state, and when federal
courts hear state law cases under diversity jurisdiction.
State Appellate Courts, on decisions of state law—Mandatory
on all lower courts in the state.
State Trial Courts—Mandatory only if the trial court has review
authority over a lower court's decisions.
56. Case Law - Westlaw
To limit a search to a specific court
Use a Field Limiter – CO
Examples:
To search only Ninth Circuit cases
CO(9)
To search only Arizona Appellate cases
CO(ariz.app)
To search only highest court in the state of Arizona
CO(az AND high)
To search only highest court in multiple states:
CO(ia ks mo AND high)
To search only New York Family Court OR New York District Court:
CO(n.y.fam.ct OR n.y.dist.ct)
To search only the First District of the Ohio Court of Appeals
PR(―first district‖) AND CO(ohio.app)
For more Westlaw court abbreviations, go to:
http://static.legalsolutions.thomsonreuters.com/product_files//wes
tlaw/wlawdoc/wlres/caselaw7.pdf
60. Case Law – Free Online Resources
Legal Information Institute (LII)
Excellent directory to free online resources
www.law.cornell.edu
Google Scholar Legal Documents
scholar.google.com
Federal Cases from Federal Court Websites
www.uscourts.gov/FederalCourts.aspx
Another Court Website Index
http://www.law.cornell.edu/federal/opinions.html
State Cases from State Court Websites
www.ncsc.org
67. Case Law - Google Scholar
Currently has:
-U.S. Supreme Court cases
since 1791;
-U.S. federal
district, appellate, tax, and
bankruptcy courts
since 1923, and
-U.S. state appellate and state
supreme court cases since
1950.
68. Case Law – Google Scholar Courts
Can limit search
to specific courts.
69. Case Law – Google Scholar Case Search
Search for cases by key terms.
70. Case Law – Google Scholar Case
Official page numbers
are provided for citation
needs.
71. Case Law – Google Scholar Case Search
Smart enough to return the original,
full-text case as first item in the results list
even just using a simple name search.
73. Legislation on Westlaw
U.S. legislation is available many places online. If you have Lexis and Westlaw acces
take advantage of the valuable information in the annotated versions of the U.S. Code
74. Legislation – USCA Search
Specific
citation
search.
Or access code
through the Index.
77. USCA – Benefits of Annotated Version
Entry includes valuable information such as recommended law review articles that
discuss this section of the statute.
78. USCA – Benefits of Annotated Version
Entry also includes references to CJS entries that discuss this statute.
79. USCA – Benefits of Annotated Version
Entries include links to relevant ALR annotations.
80. USCA – Benefits of Annotated Version
Cases and Case Points of Relevancy
Links to relevant cases on various aspects of this statute.
86. USCS – Benefits of Annotated Version
USCS provides similar additional
information, such as links to
AmJur articles on this statute.
87. USCS – Benefits of Annotated Version
Links to relevant
law review articles
88. USCS – Benefits of Annotated Version
Discussion with links to relevant cases.
89. Legislation - LII Resources
Again looking at Cornell’s LII website at law.cornell.edu
Provides links to state legislation, organized by topic.
Helpful for research and comparative analysis.
90. Legislation – LII State Statute Topical Index
Directory of
state legislation
organized by
subject.
91. Summary – Page 1 of 2
Court System
Helps determine what is mandatory law
Secondary Resources
Encyclopedias
AmJur
CJS
ALR
Journals/Books
Can limit to U.S. only in Westlaw and Lexis
SSRN
Google Scholar
92. Summary – Page 2 of 2
Case Law
Citations
Use tables in Bluebook or other tables online to understand court
abbreviation.
Searching
Westlaw and Lexis
Cornell’s LII Directory
Google Scholar – Legal Documents
Legislation
Many free sources for U.S. legislation. If have Westlaw or
Lexis, use annotated versions
USCA – Westlaw Annotated Code
USCS – Lexis Annotated Code
Cornell’s LII Directory
Many free legal resources available at law.cornell.edu
93. Additional Resources
The Bluebook
KF 245 .B58
Basic Legal Research by Amy E. Sloan
KF240 .S585
Principles of Legal Research by Kent C.
Olson
KF240 .O57