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 …

Evaluating A Law Practitioner's Legal Research System, Olivia Weeks

Olivia L. Weeks

No abstract provided.

Civil Juries And Complex Cases: Taking Stock After Twelve Years, Richard O. Lempert

Book Chapters

Twelve years ago, as the first Reagan administration was coming into office, it appeared that the civil jury, at least in complex cases, might be on the way out. The hostility of Chief Justice Warren Burger toward the civil jury was no secret and the circuit courts were split on the question of whether the Seventh Amendment guarantee of trial allowed an exception for complex cases. The issue was ripe for Supreme Court resolution. Moreover, a body of then-recent scholarship provided the Court with some historical justification for reading a complexity exception into the Seventh Amendment as well as with …

"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.

Guide To Researching International Human Rights Law, Steven C. Perkins

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Research And The Justice Mission Of Law Schools, Mark Tushnet

Cleveland State Law Review

There are some obvious things to say about research and the justice mission of law schools, and many other contributors to this discussion have said them. For example, jurisprudence lies at the core of the classical legal curriculum, and-at least in the contemporary law school-definitions of justice are part of the jurisprudence syllabus. Because the concept of justice is not self-defining, conceptual inquiry into the meaning of justice, a traditional mode of legal research, is recurrently needed. In this way, research is tightly linked to the justice mission of law schools. In this piece, I move from global concerns--jurisprudence in …

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 …

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

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Claims & Opinions An Exchange Of Views: Game Theory And Bankruptcy Reorganizations, David G. Carlson

Articles

No abstract provided.

Placing The Horse Before The Cart: The Need To Convince Law Firm Partners And Law Professors On The Inadequacy Of Legal Research Training At Law Schools As A First Step In Developing A Successful Training Solution, Michael Slinger

Michael J. Slinger

No abstract provided.

Jurimetrics: The Meaning And Measurement Of Legal Sovereignty And Domestic Jurisdiction, Bin Cheng

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Race Consciousness, Gary Peller

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.

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, …

Plagiarism In Law School: Close Resemblance Of The Worst Kind, Robert D. Bills

Santa Clara Law Review

No abstract provided.

Strategic Research In Law And Society, Bryant G. Garth

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

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.

Stirring The Ashes: Race Class And The Future Of Civil Rights Scholarship, Fran Ansley

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

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 …

Law & Society: Its Research, Richard O. Lempert

Articles

Writing in 1968 on research in the then infant discipline of law and social science, Harry Kalven noted with some pride the growing body of book-length work in the area. While the "relevant" bookshelf in Kalven's office was "still well under five feet," there had for Kalven "been nothing like [these books] previously, and their existence mark[ed] a major change in the relationship of law and science." Today, when I look around my office, I see 11 relevant bookshelves, which is only a small fraction of what has been produced.

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.