Fundamentals of Legal Research, Tenth Edition

Abstract

Fundamentals of Legal Research covers research methods and sources for United States law, with additional chapters on public international law and the law of the United Kingdom. This new edition continues the tradition of explaining and illustrating the standard sources, while incorporating new sources. Our goal was to make the content useful to contemporary readers who are familiar with online tools (and indeed prefer them) while also covering print resources sufficiently to ground students in the structure of legal authority and provide a useful reference for those needing information about print legal materials.

The excerpts posted here include the Preface, the Acknowledgements (listing the many librarians who reviewed and updated chapters), the Summary of Contents, and the first pages of several chapters:

• An Introduction to Legal Research
• The Legal Research Process
• Communicating Research Results Through Writing
• Topical Services
• Electronic Legal Research
• Native American Tribal Law

An abridged, softbound edition, Legal Research Illustrated, is in press. An accompanying workbook with exercises is being prepared by Susan T. Phillips (Texas A&M).

Keywords: legal research, research methods, online research, sources of law