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How Does The Law Change? The Case For Legal Research, Jeanne W. Halpern

Miscellaneous Law School History & Publications

Legal research, once synonymous with pretrial investigations, courtroom proceedings, and a rather slavish application of precedent has, since the turn of the century, moved increasingly into university law schools. In so doing, legal research has expanded to include reform, innovation, and vigorous inquiries into the relation of law to the social forces that create it. In the satiric lithograph on the cover, "Les gens de justice" (courtesy of the University of Michigan Museum of Art), Honoré Daumier depicts 19th century lawyers and their "research" as pompous and self-serving. The frontispiece shows the William W. Cook Legal Research Building at the …