SLR: Business Resources: Legal Research Review, Part 1

Words and Phrases

Words and Phrases is an extended dictionary of sorts.  It consists of multiple volumes and is located in the Reference Collection on the 1st Floor of the CWSL Library.  The term entries include citations to the origin of the definition given.  Here is an example of the definition for "insider trading"

Black's Law Dictionary

Black's is probably the most famous of the legal dictionaries, which define legal terms.  There is a copy in the Reference Collection, at the Reserve Desk, and on the 3rd and 4th floors near the catalog terminal.  Here is the definition of "insider trading" from Black's:

 

 

Practice Guides & Looseleaf Services

• ELECTRONIC:  Browse the resources on the Research Databases page.  We have publications from BNA (via Bloomberg Law), and CEB available in electronic format  Many of the Matthew Bender practice guides are available on Lexis Advance..
• PRINT:  Do a search for the titles you locate in the catalog to see if we have the titles and, if so, where they are located.

American Jurisprudence, 2d Series

Suppose we wanted to research the issue of insider trading.  One avenue we may want to take is to look at articles in legal encyclopedias.  One of these encyclopedias of general jurisdiction is AmJur2d, which is located in the Reference Collection on the first floor of the library.  It can also be accessed on Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw.  In print, we would want to start with the General Index, which is shelved at the end of the series.

The listing for "Insider Trading" in the General Index gives us a cross reference to "Securities Regulation (Federal)."  Accordingly, we should then looking up this term in the General Index volumes.

Suppose we are specifically interested in the fiduciary duty of insiders.  That is discussed under the topic of Corporations in §112 (now 108 .  AmJur2d is arranged in alphabetical order by topic, similar to a regular encyclopedia.  Find the appropriate volume and locate the referenced section number.

 

Corpus Juris Secundum

CJS is the other major legal encyclopedia of general jurisdiction.  Like AmJur2d, the print version is shelved in the Reference Collection on the first floor of the CWSL library.  It also has General Index volumes shelved at the end of the series.  As you will see from the examples below, the topics vary someone from those in AmJur2d.

Again, we will look up information on insider trading:

This gives us three cross references.  Let's look under the topic, Securities and Securities Regulaitons in the General Index.

 

Yet another cross-reference:

Looks like we have finally located something similar to what we found in AmJur2d. 

State Legal Encyclopedias

The CWSL also has some state-specific legal encyclopedias in its print collection:

• Cal Jur III
• Witkin's Summary of California Law
• New York Jurisprudence 2d

In addition to the print collection, Lexis & Westlaw also cover legal encyclopedias for California and other states.  

 

AMERICAN LAW REPORTS

ALR publishes annotations compiled by legal scholars.  It is covered on both Lexis and Westlaw.  However, Westlaw provides an index and also indicates the original publication date of the article.