Law Commons^™

Our Perspective On Irac, Christina L. Kunz, Deborah A. Schmedemann

Faculty Scholarship

In this brief article, the authors present their view of IRAC, an acronym for Issue, Relevant law, Application to facts, and Conclusion. The authors conclude that IRAC can be taught so that students understand not only why it is useful as a thinking and writing tool, but also that proper use of it requires judgment and creativity. When IRAC is presented this way, the authors assert, it can serve first-year students well as they study legal writing. And they will operate accordingly, even without being aware of its influence, during their years as practicing lawyers.

The Top Fives: An Internet Pathfinder For Law Librarians, Yolanda Patrice Jones

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Many law librarians are currently beginning to explore the Internet as a source of legal information. One of the most frequently asked questions after one gets an Internet connection is "Where do I go from here?" The following pathfinder is a list of what I consider to be the most important resources which will lead the legal researcher to the widest possible amount of legal information on the Internet.

This list is purely subjective, and certainly not complete. I tried to stick to the 'top five' format as much as possible, but every so often I couldn't help myself from …

"Mastering The Lawless Science Of Our Law": A Story Of Legal Citation Indexes, Patti J. Ogden

Journal Articles

Ms. Ogden presents a history of American legal citation indexes, covering early nineteenth-century attempts, the development of modern citator systems by Frank Shepard and others, online citation systems, and the potential for future improvements in an essential tool of legal research.

The Case Of The Disappearing Briefs: A Study In Preservation Strategy, Margaret A. Leary

Articles

Federal appellate court records and briefs are significant to researchers in many disciplines, but academic law libraries are discarding them. Ms. Leary chronicles the demise of paper holdings in law libraries, the rise of microforms, and the contents and usage of the National Archives and Records Administration's files. She then derives principles for preservation strategies that may apply to other categories of legal material.

Legal Research In A Social Science Setting: The Problem Of Method, T Brettel Dawson

Dalhousie Law Journal

As part of its ongoing process of curriculum development, the Department of Law at Carleton University decided in 1988 that a compulsory course in legal research methods was long overdue in the B.A. Honours degree in Law. Fortified with interest nurtured by methodological debates in feminist scholarship,' experience devilling' for a barrister pending my call to the bar, and practice from instructing a course in legal research and writing while a graduate student, I set about developing the proposed course. No guidelines existed for such a course, beyond the logic that it should complement the socio-legal or legal studies focus …

Teaching Legal Research: Past And Present, Joyce Manna Janto

Law Faculty Publications

For years librarians have debated which procedures will most effectively instruct law students in the art of legal research. Ms. Janto and Ms. Harrison-Cox trace the history of these efforts and propose a model program for the teaching of legal research.

The Lewis F. Powell, Jr. Archives And The Contemporary Researcher, John N. Jacob

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Turning Online Time Into Quality Time: Searching Ohio Case Law On Lexis And Westlaw, Randy J. Diamond

Faculty Publications

This article discusses some of the lesser known complexities of LEXIS and WESTLAW and the necessity for evaluating these systems critically. Sample searches highlight the major differences between WESTLAW's and LEXIS's search protocols. Comparable features of each system are examined to show how users can improve the quality of their search results and to warn of unintended consequences when users misapply them. Strategies for formulating searches that retrieve relevant cases and prevent the exclusion of potentially relevant cases are considered, along with the economics of online searching. Although the searches presented are limited to Ohio case law, they are adaptable …

Research In A Changing World Of Law And Technology, Morris L. Cohen

Dalhousie Law Journal

As a long-time friend and admirer of legal education at Dalhousie, it is an honor and a pleasure for me to offer the Read lecture this year. It is particularly warming to have Mrs. Read and the next two generations of Reads here today, since Dean Read was the strongest proponent of the law library's development during his deanship here. One of the designated topics for these lectures has been legal education. With the dedication of the addition to the Weldon Building housing the restored Sir James Dunn Law Library, and the designation of a librarian, for the first time, …

Review Essay: Legal Research Books, Manuals, And Guides -- More Than Enough, Fritz Snyder

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

This article surveys the current texts of legal research, noting features the author considers important and problems in the approaches of each.

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

Journal Articles

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.

A Guide To Legal Research In The University Of Michigan Law Library (4th Ed.), Peter C. Schanck, Linda S. Maslow

Law Library Publications

The Guide is an outline of legal research method and a finding aid for the Michigan collection. The changes in the Guide over the last 10 years reflect fundamental change in the nature of legal research that are worthy of note.

An Overview Of Health Law Research And An Annotated Bibliography, Richard A. Danner, Claire M. Germain

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Book Review. Legal Information Management Index, Linda K. Fariss

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Foreign Investment In The United States: A Survey Of Current Legal Literature, Igor L. Kavass

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Survey is limited to law and law-related writings on the subject of foreign investments in the United States which attorneys and legal scholars may find useful to consult for the purposes of conducting research and performing professional work. The Survey contains information about books, articles, notes, government reports and surveys, and Congressional hearings, reports, and papers published from about 1970 through the early part of 1985. The publications it describes can be divided into four major categories:

(1) investigative and policy-oriented monographs and articles;

(2) practical law manuals and guides either in the form of books or articles written …

Dedication, Dean C. Dent Bostick

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

It is a privilege for me to write a few words about my friend and colleague, Professor Igor Kavass. It has been the good fortune of the Vanderbilt Law School to have this ingenious and engaging man's high competence over the last decade, and it has been my good fortune as Dean and a fellow professor to know and cherish him as a colleague.

While his classroom teaching, committee service, and collegiality are valued highly by this institution, Professor Kavass' most enduring contribution to the Law School has been his accomplishments as the Law Librarian. In the course of ten …

On Describing Legal Research, Steven M. Barkan

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Fundamentals of Legal Research. 2d ed. by J. Myron Jacobstein and Roy M. Mersky

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.

Reference Guides To State Legal Bibliography: A Composite Review, Marvin R. Anderson

Vanderbilt Law Review

At present, the curriculum at almost all law schools includes a first-year course teaching the fundamentals of the legal method.The practical value of these courses, however, has been questioned. One criticism of the current course structure is the overemphasis placed on the basics of legal research and legal writing to the detriment of legal bibliography.More pertinent to this review is another practice of these classes-the use of certain national-in-scope legal research texts that cannot treat fully the many special characteristics of published legal materials in the various states. To know that states have similar publishing practices for codes, session laws, …

Legal Documentation And Research, Jurij Fedynskyj, John H. Crabb

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

If We Can't Teach Our Students To Write... Let's Examine Some Alternatives That May Have A Chance To Work, Michael Botein

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Indiana University Seminar In Jurimetrics, F. Reed Dickerson, Robert Birmingham, Joseph Brodley

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Information Science Techniques For Legal Searching, Deborah C. Goshien

Cleveland State Law Review

Information scientific methods can be combined with current legal searching techniques to improve the usefulness and cost-effectiveness of computerized legal research. By combining methods from several disciplines, the lawyer-user may be enabled to locate relevant material that might be missed in either a manual or a straight word-byword computer search.

Computer Systems For Research, Layman E. Allen

Book Chapters

The legal communication network today is characterized by two features. Any communication network in this century is marked by a division between the extent to which there is a man involved and the extent to which there is a machine involved. And, in terms of emphasis at this stage of things, at least within law, the emphasis is heavily upon the man communicating messages and relatively less upon the machine. The interesting question is, What is going on within this network that is amenable to being handled by machine and what, among those things, is it wise to do that …

A Case For Computers In Law Practice, Donald J. Elardo

Cleveland State Law Review

There is no profession which has more to gain from dramatic new technological developments for the automation of information than the legal profession.

Legal Research--Computer Retrieval Of Statutory Law And Decisional Law, David T. Moody

Vanderbilt Law Review

Legal research presently involves a considerable amount of any lawyer's time and efforts largely because it is a slow and tedious process. Searching for a pertinent legal point can prove to be time-consuming and often fruitless. Moreover, it is here that chance plays one of its largest roles in the law.' An important legal point may exist,yet the researcher may fail to find it although he exercises a great degree of diligence. All lawyers must recognize this problem and the fact that it is becoming more acute with the passage of time. Something needs to be done to facilitate legal …

A Personal Research System, F. Reed Dickerson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Electronic Computers And The Practical Lawyer, F. Reed Dickerson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Aims And Methods Of Legal Research, Wilfred J. Ritz

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Problem Of Selection In Law Libraries, Theodore Samore

Cleveland State Law Review

Law libraries, like soap, come in three sizes -large, giant, and super. It is also true that law libraries, like taxes, living expenses, populations and college enrollments are rapidly expanding and the end is not in sight. Use determines the growth of a library. As long as students, professors and practitioners ask for more books, more periodicals and more services the library must expand.