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Intro to U.S. Legal Research

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).

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Intro to U.S. Legal Research

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  1. Intro to U.S. Legal Research Dana Neacsu

  2. 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)

  3. 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

  4. 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))

  5. Let’s Look at a Federal Statute! • 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (2000) • Ch. 22, 17 Stat. 13 (1871) amended by Pub. L. No. 96-170, 93 Stat. 1284 (1979)

  6. 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)

  7. 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.

  8. 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)

  9. 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)

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