Introduction to Legal Research Class - Syllabus and Schedule
Fall 2001

• Week 1 - Introduction
• Week 2 - Case Finding
• Week 3 - Statutes & Legislative History
• Week 4 - Administrative Law
• Week 5 - Secondary Materials
• Week 6 - Online Services
• Week 7 - Strategy

Back to the LLNE Homepage

Week 1 - Tuesday, September 25, 2001
Teacher: Joan Shear, Boston College Law Library

Introduction

• What is Law? - What is Legal Research?
• Primary & Secondary Materials
• Importance and Methods of Updating
• Knowing Where to Start
  • Reading Citations
  • Basic Finding Aids
• The Importance of Cases
• Court Structure
• Court Reporting
  

Variety of information formats - hard copy, on-line, CD-ROM, microformat

Shepard's and other Citators

Week 2- Tuesday, October 2, 2001
Teacher: John Nann, Boston College Law Library

Case Finding

• The Importance of Cases
  • Court Structure
• Court Reporting
  • National Reporter System
  • West Digests

Week 3 - Tuesday, October 9, 2001
Teacher: Mary Ann Neary, Counsel, Massachusetts Senate

Statutes & Legislative History

• Finding Statutes - Federal and Massachusetts
  • Codes
  • Session laws
  • Slip laws
• Interpreting Statutes
  • Finding Cases that interpret
  • Legislative history to interpret
• Updating Statutes
• Finding and Compiling Legislative Histories

Week 4 - Tuesday, October 16, 2001
Teacher: Anne Stemlar, Hale and Dorr

Administrative Law

• Agency Information
• Regulations
  • C.F.R. / L.S.A.
  • Federal Register
• Adjudications

Week 5 - Tuesday, October 23, 2001
Teacher: Barbara Morgan, University of Massachusetts Library, Amherst

Secondary Materials

• Specific Secondary Sources
  • ALR
  • Restatements
  • Treatises
  • Uniform Laws
  • Periodicals and their indexes
  • Mass Practice Series
  • Encyclopedias, Dictionaries
  • Form books, Looseleaf Services

Week 6 - Tuesday, October 30, 2001
Teachers: Mark Frongillo, Westlaw, and Denise Sharif, Lexis

On-line Services

• Hands-on Westlaw / Dialog
• Hands-on Lexis / Nexis
  

Week 7 - Tuesday, November 6, 2001
Teacher: Christine Swan, New Hampshire Law Library

Strategy

• How to Approach a Problem
• Hands-on Research Exercises
  

Back to the LLNE Homepage

http://www.aallnet.org/chapter/llne/ilrsylf01.htm
Contact: Raquel Ortiz (rmortiz@bu.edu)
Last updated: 8/30/01
© 2001, Law Librarians of New England.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.