Sources and Characterics of the Law
A. Law Library Intimidation
1. The number of resources appear to be too numerous or too complicated to learn or understand
2. Must consider sets of resources rather than individual volumes
3. Traditional catalogs, indexes, and finding aids for libraries are not used to identify legal information resources
4. Variety of formats for the publication of legal information
a. Print resources
b. Computerized databases for legal information resources - LEXIS and WESTLAW
c. Electronically published copies of legal materials including; federal and state case law, statutes, and regulations are available on the Internet.
B. What are the sources of law?
1. Federal and state governmental structure
a. Constitution - The basic fundamental law upon which all other laws refer to and cannot contradict. The constitution sets out the basic procedures, rights, and responsibilities of the government. Usually it includes statements concerning rights of the governed
i. The constitution contains issues of fundamental government management or fundamental rights of governed
ii. Constitutions are difficult to change to assure no significant changes are made without broad agreement by citizens
iii. Constitutions do not contain day-to-day types of legislation
iv. Because of the nature of American litigation, constitutions should be checked when major changes in law are suggested
b. Judicial Branch
i. Interprets the laws and regulations made by legislative and executive branches
ii. Court is a tribunal established by the government to hear and decide matters giving redress to the injured, enforcing punishment against wrongdoers
c. Legislative Branch
i. Makes or writes statutes or statutory law
ii. Responds to idea or desire that government regulate or control some conduct or perceived problem
iii. Because of the American belief that there should be legislation for every perceived problem - a remedy for every wrong - this source of law should be reviewed in research for all legal questions
d. Executive or Administrative Branch
i. Enforces the statutes or laws enacted by the legislative branch and signed by the President
ii. Primary law making function is through the regulatory agencies
iii. Executive or administrative branch is comprised of regulatory departments, agencies and independent agencies, selected by the President or Governor.
iv. Administrative agencies have a large and increasing impact on governmental operations
v. Agencies perform legislative, executive, and quasi-judicial functions as part of their day-to-day duties
vi. Agency regulations are similar in form to statutes and are meant to be day-to-day, real-time enforcement of statutory oversight as given by the legislative body
2. What are the characteristics of legal information sources
a. Legal information resources are either primary or secondary sources
i. Primary sources are legally binding; i.e., judicial law or printed opinions, statutory law, and administrative or regulatory law
ii. Secondary sources describe or analyze the law; e.g., periodical or journal articles, treatises, and other textual treatments
b. Legal research resources are essentially organized by their source of law, although there is some overlap
c. Sources of the law are chronologically published
d. Because of chronological publication, there is a need for subject access to the primary sources of the law via finding tools to identify cases, statutes, and authority; e.g., digests, citators, indexes, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and looseleaf services
e. Primary sources may be published by both official and unofficial or commercial editions.
i. Official version of the opinion or statute must be cited in legal documents.
ii. Commercial or unofficial usually published more promptly and include legal research aids; e.g., tables of cases or statutes, plaintiff and defendant tables, or annotations
f. Electronic publication of legal information resources
i. Prompter publication in electronic format reduced difficulty associated with chronological publication
ii. Relieved problem of subject access
iii. Basically no different from official publication of case or statute