57. Encyclopedias as a good place to start

For the person facing a subject for the first time, the encyclopedias are the easiest way to start to begin to understand the law. The entries within the encyclopedia are a narrative statement of the applicable law on a given subject with a substantial number of footnotes to citations of federal and state case law. This is enhanced with relatively good indexing and a standard subject arrangement. The material is updated, via pocket parts, at least once a year.

58. Using the encyclopedia to reach primary sources

Once the researcher has reached the relevant point in the textual part of the encyclopedia, the footnotes will allow a shift to the more standard modes of research in primary sources. It is important to remember that the encyclopedias developed when the common law was a much more prevalent source of law than is true now. While the encyclopedias will still provide an entry point into a new subject, if a subject area is primarily a creature of statute, or has become supplanted by statutory law, the encyclopedias are of lessened value. Finally, it important to remember that Encyclopedias are never to be cited as a source of law themselves.

59. National encyclopedias

Corpus Juris Secundum is the traditional West Publishing US national legal encyclopedia. It follows many of the same subject headings as the digests, and thus the headnotes, but it does not match exactly the current key number system. West also publishes a competing encyclopedia, American Jurisprudence 2nd, because it bought the original publisher in 1998. That unit also publishes a few state Encyclopedias, for NY, Florida, Texas, California, and Ohio. Since national treatises are rarely comprehensive of state issues, these are particularly useful in areas not covered by the common subject treatises. There is no sophisticated Internet-based legal encyclopedia, but Nolo Press has a simple one aimed at non-lawyers.

60. Subject specific encyclopedias

Within certain subject areas, the standard treatise has grown to the point where it has evolved into a special subject encyclopedia: Wright on Federal Practice, Couch on Insurance Law, Oil & Gas, Corporations, etc. In other areas, the special annotated statute set evolved into a similar tool, known as a "looseleaf", which has been described in the section on Administrative Law.