L9117 SEMINAR in ADVANCED LEGAL RESEARCH
Syllabus
One credit, Pass/Fail
Room: 5W1 (Reserved for the use of class throughout the day)
Purpose
This seminar is designed to give students an opportunity to reflect on the law-making process and enhance the skills necessary for efficient research. Legal texts which are the sources of law are assessed in the abstract and their distribution is presented without regard to any one medium or producer. By the end, the student will have a better understanding of the law dissemination process and will have developed a reliable framework for effective legal research.
Readings
No book will be required for this course. A number of different research textbooks are available in the library collection.
Pre-Class Assignment: Before the course begins you are expected to have read "Basic Introduction to Researching the Law of the United States", as a short refresher on the subject. It is available at http://www.columbia.edu/~mckeever/case_law.html.
As the course progresses you may want to review sections of "Core Legal Research Competencies: A Compendium of Skills and Values as Defined in the ABA Macrate Report." a somewhat dated (1996) report by the American Association of Law Libraries – Research Instruction Caucus. It is at http://www.aallnet.org/sis/ripssis/core.html.
Class and Assignment Structure
| 9:30 - 10:40 | Class meeting |
| 10:30 - Noon | Execute short assignment and review with teacher |
| Noon -1:30 | Lunch |
| 1:30 - 2:40 | Second class meeting |
| 2:40 - 5:00 | Execute longer assignment and review with teacher |
Monday, August 30th
General background and diagnostic review
Statutes
Basics, Updating
Legislative history
Tuesday, August 31st
Case Law
Known item
Finding a case
Updating
Wednesday, September 1st
Administrative Law
CFR, Federal Register
Looseleafs
Thursday, September 2nd
Secondary materials
Practice materials
Friday, September 3rd
Topics selected by the class during the first day.
Review