Preface

• Author: Beau Steenken, Tina M. Brooks
• Pages: xii-xii

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Preface

At its most basic definition the practice of law comprises conducting

research to find relevant rules of law and then applying those rules to the

specific set of circumstances faced by a client. However, in American law,

the legal rules to be applied derive from myriad sources, complicating the

process and making legal research different from other sorts of research.

This text introduces law students to the new kind of research required to

study and to practice law. It seeks to demystify the art of legal research by

following a “Source and Process” approach. First, the text introduces

students to the major sources of American law and describes the forms the

various authorities take in print. After establishing this base, the text

proceeds to instruct students on the tools they will most likely use in

practice, namely electronic research platforms and legal treatises. Finally, the

text illustrates how the different pieces come together in the legal research

process.

The text is intended to be used for introductory legal research courses for

first year law students with little or no experience with legal sources or legal

research. It is the authors’ experience that beginning students better

understand the role of each source of law in the U.S. system if it is

introduced on its own in print form. Students also tend to focus more on

efficient processes if the processes are introduced independently of sources

of law. The organization of the text, therefore, deliberately introduces

sources of law in print before moving on to electronic research techniques,

the use of secondary sources, and the research process. The authors follow

a similar organization in their own research courses but would like to

emphasize that they do so for pedagogical reasons specifically with 1Ls in

mind.