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