LibGuides: Academic Success Resources for Students: Sources of Law: Cases, Statutes, Secondary Sources and More (2024)

FAQs

Is a statute a secondary source of law? ›

Primary sources establish the law. They include cases, statutes, regulations, treaties, and constitutions.

The four sources of federal and state law are (1) constitutions, (2) statutes and ordinances, (3) rules and regulations, and (4) case law.

Secondary sources, such as Law Journals, Encyclopedias, and Treatises are a great place to start your legal research. Unlike primary materials (case law, statutes, regulations), secondary sources will help you learn about an area of law, and provide you with citations to relevant primary materials.

Some secondary sources are available on Lexis only, some are available on Westlaw only, and some are available in print only. Some secondary sources may be available in a variety of formats, allowing you to decide which best fits your needs.

They include legal dictionaries, encyclopedias, law reviews, American Law Reports, treatises, restatements, and jury instructions. Secondary sources are a great way to start research and often have citations to highly relevant primary sources.

Primary legal sources are the books and websites that comprise the formal, written statements of law issued by government entities. The “law,” in this context, includes everything from a state's statutes to a city's ordinances to caselaw published by a court.

Most research uses both primary and secondary sources. They complement each other to help you build a convincing argument. Primary sources are more credible as evidence, but secondary sources show how your work relates to existing research. Tertiary sources are often used in the first, exploratory stage of research.

The purpose of secondary sources is to interpret, or explain the meaning of the information in primary sources. Secondary sources help you to understand more about a person's life as well as how and why an historical event happened.

Some of the most highly used secondary sources belong to the following categories: legal dictionaries, legal encyclopedias, American Law Reports, law journals, Restatements, and treatises.

Methods for Finding Secondary Sources

You can search or browse for secondary sources on Westlaw or Lexis by: Source Type (e.g., legal encyclopedia, treatise, law journal article, etc.) Jurisdiction (e.g., federal, California, etc.) Topic or Practice Area (e.g., Intellectual Property, Criminal Law, etc.)

Why LexisNexis is better than Westlaw? ›

Content. LexisNexis provides access to an extensive collection of legal content, case law, statutes, regulations, verdicts, and more. Westlaw also has expansive content but has a narrower focus specifically on US legal research.

The three sources of law are constitutional, statutory, and case law. The sources of law are ranked as follows: first, constitutional; second, statutory; and third, case law. Although it is technically ranked the lowest, judicial review makes case law an extremely powerful source of law.

Some of the most highly used secondary sources belong to the following categories: legal dictionaries, legal encyclopedias, American Law Reports, law journals, Restatements, and treatises.

A secondary source (aka secondary authority) is a writing about primary authority. Secondary sources explain the law and provide citations to primary authorities including cases. Thus, if you find a secondary source that is relevant to your issue(s), your secondary source will lead you to relevant cases.

Primary sources function as the main object of analysis in a research study, whereas secondary resources are used to describe, interpret, generalize, or synthesize primary sources. Secondary sources help readers understand second-hand information and commentary and can detail how and why a historical event occurred.