Legal resources

Legal resources

• Links to laws and legal information including Federal

law, court opinions, treaties, legal dictionaries and
journals, and copyright information.
 Introduction
• The materials used for legal research are generally divided into two
broad categories: primary resources and secondary resources. 
• Primary resources contain laws, orders, decisions, or regulations
issued by a governmental entity or official, such as a court,
legislature, or executive agency; the President; or a state governor. 
• Secondary resources offer analysis, commentary, or a restatement
of primary law and are used to help locate and explain primary
sources of law.
• This guide introduces beginner legal researchers to different types
of secondary resources and provides links to resources in the Law
Library and online.
• Secondary sources may influence a legal decision but do not have the
controlling or binding authority of primary sources.
• The secondary resources discussed in this guide fall into six major
categories:
• Definitions (dictionaries with legal terminology and terms defined by
law)
• Legal Encyclopedias (multi-volume works about many different topics)
• Books & Binders (single- or multi-volume works about one particular
topic)
• Articles (in-depth works about highly specific topics)
• Restatements (rules and examples from common law)
• Legal Directories (listings of people and organizations)
Secondary Sources: A Great Place to Start

• At first glance, it may seem backwards to start your legal research

with secondary resources rather than primary resources, but there
are good reasons for doing so.
• Secondary resources are helpful when you are unfamiliar with a topic
or area of law and do not know where to start looking for primary
sources.
• They explain basic concepts and cite to primary sources, helping you
expand your research, and they help you generate keywords to use
when searching through primary resources of law.
Federal law
• Federal law is the body of law created by the federal
government of a country. ... As a result, two or more levels of
government exist within an established geographic territory.

• The body of law of the common central government is the

federal law.
• The U.S. Constitution declares that federal law is “the
supreme law of the land.”

• As a result, when a federal law conflicts with a state or local

law, the federal law will supersede the other law or laws.

• This is commonly known as “preemption.” In practice, it is

usually not as simple as this.
• What are the three different types of court opinions?
• majority opinion, dissenting opinion, concurring opinions.
• What is the court opinion and why is it important?
• Main Opinion
This is the Court's official decision in the case.
• In legal terms, the opinion announces a decision
and provides an explanation for the decision by
articulating the legal rationale that the justices relied
upon to reach the decision.
• Why do courts write opinions?

• A judicial opinion is a form of legal opinion written by

a judge or a judicial panel in the course of resolving a
legal dispute, providing the decision reached to
resolve the dispute, and usually indicating the facts
which led to the dispute and an analysis of the law
used to arrive at the decision.
• What are examples of opinions?

• Opinions are statements that reflect the views or

ideas that people have about subjects and topics.
For example, your friend says that all ice cream is
tasty.

• This is their opinion, because not everyone may

think the same way, nor can it be proven to be true.
• Treaty, a binding formal agreement, contract, or
other written instrument that establishes
obligations between two or more subjects of
international law (primarily states and international
organizations).
• Treaties are significant pacts and contracts.
• They are “an enduring relationship of mutual
obligation” that facilitated a peaceful coexistence
between First Nations and non-First Nation people
• What is the legal dictionary called?

• A law dictionary (also known as legal

dictionary) is a dictionary that is designed
and compiled to give information about
terms used in the field of law.
Functions

• As pointed out in Nielsen 1994, law dictionaries can serve various functions.

• The traditional law dictionary with definitions of legal terms serves to help
users understand the legal texts they read (a communicative function) or to
acquire knowledge about legal matters independent of any text (a cognitive
function) – such law dictionaries are usually monolingual.

• Bilingual law dictionaries may also serve a variety of functions.

• First, they may have entry words in one language and definitions in
another language – these dictionaries give help to understand legal
texts, usually written in a foreign language, and to acquire knowledge,
usually about a foreign legal system.

• Second, bilingual law dictionaries with entry words in one language

and equivalents in another language provide help to translate legal
texts, into or from a foreign language, and sometimes also to produce
legal texts, usually in a foreign language.
Law journals
A magazine or newspaper that contains articles, news
items, comments on new laws and case decisions,
court calendars, and suggestions for practicing law, for
use by attorneys.
• What does a law journal do?

• What a Law Review Is.

In the context of law school, a law review is an entirely
student-run journal that publishes articles written by
law professors, judges, and other legal professionals;
many law reviews also publish shorter pieces written by
law students called “notes” or “comments.
• Law Journals and Periodicals

Law Journals are scholarly publications covering the

legal field.

They publish articles that are comprehensive studies of

current topics in law, generally written by law
professors and practitioners.
• How important is it to be on a law journal?

• For law students, joining the staff of a law journal can be a

very beneficial activity for one's legal career.

• It can also be extremely time-consuming, so it's critical for a

law student to understand what they're getting into.
• Copyright law protects creators of original
material from unauthorized duplication or
use.
• For an original work to be protected by
copyright laws, it has to be in tangible form.
• In the U.S., the work of creators is protected
by copyright laws until 70 years after their
death.
The five fundamental rights that
the bill gives to copyright owners
—the exclusive rights of
reproduction, adaptation,
publication, performance, and
display—are stated generally in
section 106.
• Some Examples of Works Protected by Copyright

Copyright laws cover music just as much as they

cover other kinds of work. ... When an author
records music and puts it on a DVD, for example,
then the DVD is considered a phonorecord of
both the lyrics to the song and the sound
recording that was produced by the producer.
Copyright laws protect the rights of the
author, artist or other originator of a
creative work to control when and how is
work can be copied and disseminated, and it
prevents others from appropriating the work
without permission.