Secondary Sources and Practice Materials
What are Secondary Sources?
Distinguished from primary sources:
"Primary authorities are authorized statements of law formulated by governmental institutions. Such authorities include the written opinions of courts (case law), constitutions, legislation, rules of court, and the rules, regulations, and opinions of administrative agencies. Secondary authorities are statements about the law and are used to explain, interpret, develop, locate or update primary authorities. Treatises, articles in law reviews and other scholarly journals, American Law Reports (A.L.R.) Annotations, Restatements of the Law, and looseleaf services are examples of secondary authorities."
--Roy M. Mersky and Donald J. Dunn, Legal Research Illustrated (8th ed. 2002).
Functions of secondary sources:
"[S]econdary source materials have two functions. They provide citations to primary source material. One can use secondary sources as finding tools to obtain references to decisions and statutes that may open fruitful lines of research. The second and most important function, at least from their authors' points of view, is to describe, explain, or analyze issues of law or legal developments. Periodical articles, encyclopedias and treatises can help one unfamiliar with a particular area of law by introducing basic concepts and terminology, and by summarizing and synthesizing numerous, sometimes contradictory, primary sources."
--Morris L. Cohen, et al., How to Find the Law (9th ed. 1989).
When should I use a Secondary Source?
Consider:
- How much do I know about the topic (terminology, doctrines, sources
of law)?
- How complex is the topic?
- Have I already identified relevant primary authorities?
- Are there relevant primary authorities on point in the jurisdiction in question?
- Am I confident that I am on the right track?
What is the best secondary source to consult?
Consider:
- Is my topic within a traditional, common law subject (e.g., contract
law)?
- Am I researching a new area of law or current development?
- Do I need help finding cases or other primary authorities?
- Do I want to locate a persuasive authority that could be cited to a court
as a persuasive authority?
- Am I seeking a discussion of law from a particular jurisdiction?
- How current does the information need to be?
Chart comparing attributes of traditional secondary sources
Pappas Law Library research guides on secondary sources
Practice Materials
- List of select Federal and Massachusetts Practice Materials
- General characteristics of Loose-leaf services
- Further information
Exercise Problems
- You are interested in finding ...
- You
need a recent (last two years) discussion of the
- You