Primary and Secondary Legal Sources
Essays are also useful tools if you are not familiar with a particular legal topic. In a way, a treatise is like an extensive legal encyclopedia that covers only one area of law. For example, one of the most important treatises on tort law is Prosser and Keeton on tort law. For contracts, many lawyers refer to Williston on Contracts. Some treaties are general and deal with national treatment of areas of law; Others focus specifically on a specific jurisdiction. However, all contain quotes about primary authority. In short, because secondary sources reflect how the law is perceived, they are really important for a fuller understanding of the law. Given the breadth of the definition, it is not surprising that secondary sources can be as diverse in nature and purpose as different methods of evaluating legislation and jurisprudence. For example, many secondary sources take the form of recent authoritative articles, some of these bodies compile case law or laws from many jurisdictions, and still others are in the form of live or recorded seminars. And this only scratches the surface of all available secondary sources of law. Given the raw size of resources that the term encompasses, it may be useful to define “secondary sources” first. Law journal articles, law journal articles, and other legal journals can be helpful, but it should be noted that they often include opinions about a law, court decision, or other development of law. While these opinions can be very persuasive, they should be used in a discriminatory manner.
These types of articles can provide excellent historical research in a particular area. While not all secondary sources can be described in detail here, some important secondary sources are described below. With Secondary Sources on Westlaw, you can get valuable advice and insights from the most knowledgeable lawyers in all areas of law, access the largest collection of leading analytical titles, and more. The benefits don`t stop there; As diverse and extensive as secondary sources are the many ways they can add value to your law practice. They should always be a central part of any research process to ensure that the resulting product is of the highest quality. Note on the use of legal research sources: As mentioned earlier, law is an ever-changing entity that could theoretically vary from day to day, week to week, month to month, or year to year, rendering some publications obsolete. In order to remedy this situation and to keep the researcher informed of current developments in the law, publishers publish a so-called pocket part, which completes a certain volume of a publication. Pocket coins are located at the back of the volumes and are inserted into a pocket inside the volume – hence their name “pocket coins”.
In fact, there are many secondary sources that may even point you to the most relevant cases and laws that you can examine and rely on for the legal issue under investigation. Many even carefully distill the legal issues of the referenced primary authorities for easy consumption, making understanding a previously unknown area of law relatively quick and painless. If secondary sources don`t really establish the law, why should they care? Although they cannot be directly invoked as a legal authority, secondary sources remain among the most important authorities that can be used in legal arguments. Overall, if authorities such as the laws and jurisprudence that establish the law are primary sources, anything that discusses and analyzes primary sources is more than likely secondary sources. For starters, as mentioned above, using secondary sources in your research process usually leads to a more complete understanding of the legal issue in question. Being able to know not only what the law says, but also what others say about the law, can add a clearly reliable flavor to your legal argument. Many secondary sources have value that goes beyond citability in a legal argument. In particular, many titles offer valuable information about current court decisions or new laws.
Some may analyze new legal authorities to break down their meaning into more digestible terms, while others consider the potential impact of a new judgment or law. Even more secondary sources may examine current legal trends or the current state of a particular area of law, based on recent court decisions or updates to legislation. The number of secondary sources is essentially infinite. Any source that is not primary is secondary by default. Secondary sources serve two purposes: first, they provide an explanation or understanding of a particular section of the law; Second, they are ideally a good way to find primary authority. Secondary sources are not binding on the courts (i.e., they are only a persuasive authority) – but they often offer good, compelling arguments on which a court can rely. Legal encyclopedias offer excellent insight into various legal topics. For example, if you`re not sure what a secure transaction is, or if you`re not sure about the difference between condos and co-ops, a legal encyclopedia will give you a solid, basic understanding. It will also provide you with quotes on primary authority that may be helpful.
To research a particular problem within a jurisdiction, having your own jurisdictional legal encyclopedia is a good place to start.
