How to Prepare Your Note, Cert. or Seminar Paper:
Primary Source Research

Based upon your research in secondary sources, you should know the pertinent legal issues, the jurisdiction(s) you will research, and appropriate keywords. If you need further background on using primary sources, please consult a basic guide to legal research.

Although this guide points to resources for federal and Massachusetts research, there are tools for locating these resources in other jurisdictions.

Statutory Research

Statutes are laws promulgated by the legislatures at the state and federal levels. Statutory research involves searching the applicable statutory code followed by updating in the session laws or advance legislative service. Session laws are recently enacted legislation not yet available in the main statutory volumes or pocket parts.

First, use the general index to the relevant statutory code to search by topic.

Use the popular name table of the statutory code or Shepard's Acts and Cases by Popular Name [Law Pappas Indexes & Law Annex Ref KF 90 S52 1992] if you know the name of an applicable act.

Consult a guide to Federal Statutory Research. Also, take a look at Massachusetts Statutory Research for Massachusetts research.


Legislative History Research

Legislative history research is used to ascertain legislative intent. The library receives most federal legislative materials on microfiche. Access to these materials is available through CIS Index [Law Micro Index KF 49 C64] or Congressional Universe on the web.

For more details, see the Federal Legislative History Research guide.

If your research involves state legislative history, please consult a reference librarian for assistance. In general, state legislative history research is challenging and many of the sources may not be available locally.


Administrative Law Research

Rules and regulations are issued by state and federal agencies. Regulatory research involves consulting the administrative code of the relevant jurisdiction followed by updating your research in the administrative register.

Use the index to the appropriate administrative code to begin your research. For sources of federal regulatory materials, see Federal Administrative Law: Rules and Regulations. For Massachusetts research, see the Massachusetts Regulatory Law Research guide.

Administrative decisions that interpret agency rules and regulations may be found in print or online. Refer to the guide on Federal Administrative Law: Agency Decisions which has detailed information on print and online sources for these decisions. A similar guide for Massachusetts Agency Decisions is also helpful.

Looseleaf services often contain administrative law materials. You may have found a looseleaf service on your topic while using the looseleaf services section of the secondary source research page.


Case Law Research

The library collects all the available federal and state digests.

Start with the descriptive word index for the relevant jurisdiction to find the appropriate topic & key number. Then consult the appropriate digest volumes with your topic & key number or use Westlaw.

Use the table of cases to locate a citation when you only have a party name.

Once you have found the citations to relevant cases, find the cases in the appropriate reporter. Federal Case Law Research: Reporters lists the names, library, and online locations of the reporters for federal jurisdictions. For Massachusetts case law, please see the guide to Massachusetts Reporters.

You may also choose to conduct case law research online. Please consult Federal Case Law Research: Finding Tools for detailed information for federal cases. For Massachusetts tools, see the Massachusetts Case Finding Tools guide.


Tools for Other States

To locate sources for primary law in other states, consult Table 1 of the Bluebook or Appendix 1 of the ALWD Citation Manual for your jurisdiction.

  • Statutory sources: statutory compilation and session laws
  • Administrative law sources: administrative compilation and administrative register
    • Please note that the Pappas Law Library collects few administrative codes and administrative decisions for states other than Massachusetts.
  • Case law sources: ALWD court system and reporters; Bluebook court names appear in bold type.

Use the following tools to find the sources of primary law online.


Legal Research Guides

  • How to Find the Law
    Law Reserve & Law Ref Desk KF 240 C645 1989
  • Fundamentals of Legal Research
    Law Reserve & Law Ref Desk KF240 .M47 2002
  • Handbook of Legal Research in Massachusetts
    Law Ref & Law Ref Desk KFM 2475 .H36

Finally, if you are having trouble locating or using primary materials, please consult a reference librarian by making an appointment or stopping by the reference desk in the Pappas Law Library Reading Room.

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Page maintained by Raquel Ortiz
Last updated: April 2007