Intro to U.S. Legal Research

Dana Neacsu

What Are Primary Sources?

The law: “official pronouncements of lawmakers” Statutes

But also Rules and regulations, and Court decisions (Common Law

System) Sources which may be binding authority Repositories of law (its tangible aspect)

Federal Repositories of Statutory Law Statutes Statutory law Session laws

(chronological compilations) Codes (subject matter compilations)

Federal Statutory Law: United States Statutes at Large

(session laws) United States Code (code)

USC: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/browse.html

The Bluebook: Citing Statutes

Federal statutes should be cited to the current official code (the United States Code, which is abbreviated as U.S.C.)

Rule 12: a codified statutory citation contains four basic elements: 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (2000).

Rule 12: a citation to the official compilation of federal session laws (Statutes at Large, abbr: Stat) contains six basic elements: An Act to Permit Civil Suits under Section 1979 of

the Revised Statutes (42 USC 1983)…, Pub. L. No. 96-170, § 1, 93 Stat. 1284 (1979) (amending, An Act to Enforce the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the U.S., c. 22, 17 Stat. 13 (1871))

Let’s Look at a Federal Statute!

42 U.S.C. § 1983 (2000)

Ch. 22, 17 Stat. 13 (1871) amended byPub. L. No. 96-170, 93 Stat. 1284 (1979)

Federal Repositories of Case Law Cases Decisional law Reports

Jurisdictional compilations of cases (federal, state, etc). Federal Reports:

United States Supreme Court Reports (3) Federal Reporter (West) Federal Supplement (West)

The Bluebook: Citing Cases

Rule 10: a full case citation includes four elements The name of the case; The abbreviation of the published

source where it can be found (reporter);

A parenthetical that indicates the court and jurisdiction; and

The date or year of the decision.

Let’s Look at a Case!

• Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1 Cranch)(1803):

• Reporters• Print• Digital

• Free-of-charge repositories (Oyez; Curiae-Yale; lexisOne; Findlaw; Google Scholar)

• Fee-based repositories (Westlaw Lexis & Bloomberg)

NY State Law (research w Westlaw/Lexis/ Bloomberg)

NY State Statutes McKinney’s NY State Statutes http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/menugetf.cgi?

COMMONQUERY=LAWS

NY Case Law (reporters) Official (New York Reports: 3) Commercial (New York: 1)