Law Commons^™

Teaching Westlawnext: Next Steps For Teachers Of Legal Research, Ronald Wheeler

Ronald E Wheeler

As a follow up to his earlier piece titled "Does WestlawNext Really Change Everything: The Implications of WestlawNext on Legal Research," Professor Wheeler here explores strategies for teaching students to effectively research using the WestlawNext legal research platform. He focuses on challenging law librarians and other teachers of legal research to embrace change, to innovate and to devise research exercises that highlight both the advantages and the alleged pitfalls of WestlawNext. In particular, Professor Wheeler discusses source selection, filters, addressing the volume of results, esoteric content, and Boolean searching.

Wyoming Legal Research, Debora A. Person, Tawnya K. Plumb

Tawnya K. Plumb

Outcomes Assessment And Legal Research Pedagogy, Vicenç Feliú, Helen Frazer

Vicenç Feliú

This article explores application of a taxonomic approach in legal research pedagogy to outcomes assessment based on Prof. Paul Callister's adaptation of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives which integrates instructional design and learning activities compatible with formative assessment during the learning process and summative assessment at its conclusion. It reviews the development of outcomes assessment initiatives by legal educators and the development of outcomes assessment standards by the American Bar Association for the accreditation of law schools.

Bounds And Beyond: A Need To Reevaluate The Right Of Prison Access To The Courts, Steven D. Hinckley

Steven D. Hinckley

The author argues that the 1977 United States Supreme Court decision in Bounds v. Smith insufficiently protects the right of prisoners to represent themselves before the courts by failing to require state and federal correctional facilities to establish and maintain adequately stocked prison law libraries and to provide prisoners with the option to use those libraries as their means of gaining meaningful access to the courts.

2011 Presentation: Law Firm Research Results For New Attorneys, Patrick Meyer

Patrick Meyer

This presentation summarizes results from the author's 2010 law firm legal research survey, which determined what research functions, and in what formats, law firms require new hires to be proficient. This survey updates the author's 2009 article that is available at this site and which was based on this author's earlier law firm legal research survey. See also the accompanying 2011 draft article on this site.

2012 Law Firm Legal Research Requirement Of New Attorneys (Draft), Patrick Meyer

Patrick Meyer

This article summarizes results from the author's 2010 law firm legal research survey, which determined what research functions, and in what formats, law firms require new hires to be proficient. This survey updates the author's 2009 article that is available at this site and which was based on this author's earlier law firm legal research survey. These new survey results confirm that law firms need schools to integrate the teaching of online and print-based research resources and to emphasize cost-effective research. The following federal and state specific print-based resources should be taught in an integrated manner: legislative codes, secondary source …

Does Westlawnext Really Change Everything: The Implications Of Westlawnext On Legal Research, Ronald Wheeler

Ronald E Wheeler

WestlawNext, Thomson Reuters newest electronic research service, has been around for over a year now. Ron Wheeler shares his thoughts on how this service may impact various aspects of legal research, and he suggests further study and research are necessary to fully evaluate and comprehend the system.

Introduction To Special Issue: Determining Legislative Intent In State Courts, Selected Methods And Sources, Linda Kawaguchi

Linda Kawaguchi

Judges and legislators alike have expressed a desire for more certainty on how and when legislative history should be used, both in the interpretation of statutes and to ascertain intent. This is an evolving area of the law, and states appear to be taking the lead in experimenting with methods to provide clarity to what has traditionally been a murky issue. These changes will have an impact on researchers in the future. The articles included in this issue were selected to demonstrate a range of approaches in the areas of legislative process, the history of courts and legislatures addressing the …

The Law Librarian's Role In The Scholarly Enterprise: Historical Development Of The Librarian/Research Partnership In American Law Schools, Michael Slinger, Rebecca Slinger

Michael J. Slinger

No abstract provided.

Thinking Like A Research Expert: Schemata For Teaching Complex Problem-Solving Skills, Paul D. Callister

Paul D. Callister

The difference between expert and novice problem-solvers is that experts have organized their thinking into schemata or mental constructs to both see and solve problems. This article demonstrates why schemata are important, arguing that schemata need to be made explicit in the classroom. It illustrates the use of schemata to understand and categorize complex research problems, map the terrain of legal research resources, match appropriate resources to types of problems, and work through the legal research process. The article concludes by calling upon librarians and research instructors to produce additional schemata and develop a common hierarchical taxonomy of skills, a …

Law Firm Legal Research Requirements Of New Attorneys, Patrick Meyer

Patrick Meyer

This article collects in one place the results of previously published and unpublished surveys as they pertain to law firm research requirements of new hires. The article also summarizes results from the author's recent law firm legal research survey, which determined what research functions, and in what formats, law firms require new hires to be proficient.

The article concludes that there is a need to integrate the teaching of online and print-based research resources for the following tasks: federal and state-specific legislative codes, secondary source materials, reporters, administrative codes and digests. There must also be a strong emphasis on the …

Keeping Students Interested While Teaching Citation, Anna P. Hemingway

Anna P. Hemingway

No abstract provided.

Help Is On The Way, Gail A. Partin, Mary Ann Neary, Jennifer Murray

Gail A. Partin

No abstract provided.

An American Researcher's Guide To European Communities Law And Legal Literature, Timothy Kearley

Timothy G. Kearley

The article provides American researchers who need information on European Communities' law with a basic reference tool to which they can turn to find out where, how, or whether a piece of information they need can be obtained.