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 and updating by searching for newly passed laws. Session laws are recently enacted legislation not yet available in the main statutory volumes or pocket parts.

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 Lexis Nexis Congressional 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.

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

Our Federal Case Law Research guide lists the names and locations of the reporters for federal jurisdictions, as well as tools for case law research. For Massachusetts case law, please see the guide to Massachusetts Reporters.

The Finding and Updating Case Law guide discusses case law research tools and techniques.

Tools for Other States

To locate sources for primary law in other states, consult Table 1 of the Bluebook 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:Bluebook court names appear in bold type.

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

Legal Research Guides

  • Basic Legal Research: Tools and Strategies
    Law Reserve KF240 .S56 2009
  • Legal Research in a Nutshell
    Law Reserve KF240 .C65 2007
  • Handbook of Legal Research in Massachusetts
    Law Ref & Law Ref Desk KFM 2475 .H36 (looseleaf)

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: September 2009