Transcript American Law - Principles of Legal Research

CML 3319: Advanced Legal Research
Methodology (Winter 2011)
American Law
Nathalie
Léonard,
Cecilia
Tellis, Law Librarian
Brian Dickson Law Library
Outline
 Overview of the American legal system
 Legal resources to locate case law,
statutes and journal articles
 Exercise
My approach to legal research
 To consult secondary sources
 To consult case law and legislation
 Noting up cases and statutes found.
United States Legal System
Court of Last Resort
Hears only appeals on questions of law.
Ex. : Supreme Court (at federal or state level), Supreme Court of Appeals, Supreme Judicial Court, Court of Appeals
Appeal Court
Hears appeals on questions of law or fact.
Ex. : Court of Appeals, Superior Court, Commonwealth Court, Court of Criminal Appeals, Appellate Division of the Supreme
Court
Court of First Instance
Either before a judge alone or a judge and jury. Courses often have names that indicate their areas of jurisdiction.
Ex. : Small Claims Court, Criminal Court, District Court, Supreme Court.
U.S. Federal Courts
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
CIRCUIT COURTS
OF APPEALS (11)
& DC CIRCUIT
District
courts
(97)
Tax
court
Court of Appeals for the
Federal Circuit
Court of
International
Trade
Court of
Federal
Claims
Court of Last Resort for each state
Court of
Appeals
for
Veterans’
Claims
COURT OF
APPEALS FOR THE
ARMED FORCES
Army, Navy, Marine
Corps, Air Force, Coast
Guard Courts of
Military Review
State level: by example, New York
Courts
NEW YORK COURT OF APPEAL
APPELLATE DIVISIONS OF
SUPREME COURT (4)
Supreme
courts (12)
County
courts (57)
City Court
Court of
Claims
Family
Court
APPELLATE TERMS
OF SUPREME
COURT
Surrogate’s
court (62)
District
courts
Secondary sources
 Monographs
– Wigmore on Evidence; Corbin on Contracts
 Legal Periodicals
– HeinOnline, Index to Legal Periodicals Fulltext, LegalTrac.
 Legal Dictionaries
– Black’s Law Dictionary
 Legal encyclopedias
– Corpus Juris Secundum (available on Westlaw Canada or in print SLR
4-(59-60))
– American Jurisprudence (available on LexisNexis/Quicklaw and
Westlaw or in print SLR 4-60)
– American Law Reports (“A.L.R.”)
Case Law
 National reporters (superior courts):
–
–
–
–
U.S. Supreme Court Reports (1790-)
Supreme Court Reporter (1882)
Federal Reporter (1880-)
Federal Supplement (1933-)
Case Law
 States Reporters :
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Atlantic Reporter (1885-)
North Eastern Reporter (1885-)
North Western Reporter (1879-)
South Eastern Reporter (1887-)
South Western Reporter (1886 -)
Southern Reporter (1887-)
New York Supplement (1888-)
California Reporter (1959-)
Case Law
 Digests of cases
– Digests (three series):
• Century Digest (1896-)
• Decennial Digests (1897-1906, 1907-1916, etc.)
• General Digest (updating the last issue published of the
Decennial Digest)
Noting-up American cases
 Is the case still good law?
– Has not been overturned
– How the case has been treated by new cases
• The case has been considered, distingued, applied, etc.
 Tools:
– LexisNexis/Quicklaw (Shepard),
– Westlaw Canada (KeyCite)
– Shephard’s Citations (in print)
Finding case law online
 U.S. Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov
or Cornell’s LII: (http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct)
 Lower Federal Courts:
http://www.jsutica.com/courts/federal-courts/
 Westlaw Canada
 LexisNexis/Quicklaw
Legislation
- The U.S. Constitution has been put in place in 1789.
- This document establishes the government as well as three
powers:
Congress (the legislature);
President (executive branch) and,
Federal courts (the judiciary).
 The Constitution has created several levels of government:
a national federal government;
an independent government in each State, and,
a government for each city.
Legislation
 The Constitution lists the areas of federal
jurisdiction.
– ex. : taxes, social security, environment, l’impôt, …
 State governments and municipal governments
have the right to legislate in any other field.
 The Constitution and federal statutes are the
supreme law of the country.
The federal legislature: the Congress
 Before it is official, a bill must be passed
by both houses – the House of
Representatives and the Senate– and the
President must sign it
– The President has the right to veto any legislation
State legislatures
 Each state legislature is divided into two
chambers - the House of Representatives and
the Senate (or similar names like General
Assembly))
– they both have the right to impose laws that will
apply in the state in question
Regulations
 Some federal agencies are part of the
executive and have the right to establish
regulations.
 - ex. : Food and Drug Administration, which
determines which drugs can be offered to the public
 There are also state agencies who have
similar power.
– ex. : Department of Motor Vehicles from
California
Statutes
 Bill (H.R. 676 or S. 612)
 Slip Law (Pub.L. No. 103-416)
 Session Laws
– Published in Statutes at Large, official source
 United States Code and United States Code
Annotated
– Organized in 50 titles (topics), published every 6 years.
– Index of statutes organized by title or by « Popular Name »
 United States Code Service, Lawyers’s Edition
To locate statutes and regulations
 U.S. Constitution:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/constitution/index.html
 Sources for Slip/Session Laws

http://thomas.loc.gov/bss/d111/d111laws.html
 United States Code
– On GPO Access: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/index.html
– Cornell’s LII- US Code Collection: http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/
To locate statutes and regulations
(more)
 Code of Federal Regulations
– http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cfr
 State Law (Cornell LII’s Law By Source:
States)
– http://www.law.cornell.edu/states/listing.html
Bills
 THOMAS
– Like LEGISinfo : all sorts of information on bills
introduced in Congress
– since 1995 (the 104th Congress)
Citations
 The Bluebook : A Uniform System of
Citation (18th ed.)
– Harvard Law Review
To obtain more information :
 U.S. Courts
 Understanding the Federal Courts, a
document created by the Administrative
Office of the Courts of the United States
 A Guide to Legal Literacy, a document
created by the State Bar of California
 Library of Congress
 Our Research guide on American law
To obtain more information
 In print:
– Armstrong, J.D.S. Where the Law is : An Introduction to Advanced Legal Research, 3rd
ed. (St. Paul, MN : Thomson/West, c2009). FTX General KF 240 .A76 2009
– Berring, Robert C. Finding the law, 12th ed. St. Paul, MN : Thomson/West, c2005.
– FTX Reference KF 240 .C538 2005
– McCormack, Nancy, John Papadopoulos and Catherine Cotter. The Practical Guide to
Canadian Legal Research, 3rd ed. (Toronto : Carswell, c2010). FTX Reserve KE 250 .C37
2010
– Olson, Kent C. Principles of Legal Research (Successor to How to Find the Law, 9th
edition) St. Paul, MN : West, c2009. FTX Reference KF 240 .C538 2009