Legal research can include the use of both primary and secondary sources.
Primary sources are official pronouncements of governmental lawmakers. Examples of primary sources include court decisions, statutes, and regulations that influence legal doctrine.
Secondary sources are works that discuss, explain, or analyze legal doctrine, but are not actual laws. Examples of secondary sources include: treatises, hornbooks, restatements and practice manuals.
|
Legal Primary Sources |
Legal Secondary Sources |
|
Court decisions |
Treatises |
|
Statutes |
Hornbooks |
|
Regulations that form the basis of legal doctrine |
Restatements |
|
|
Practice manuals |
|
|
Law reviews from academic journals |
