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Identifying Red Herrings in American Legal Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2022

Erin Gow
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Abstract

This article presents useful clues for British law librarians and legal researchers conducting research on American laws and legal systems. It focuses on general guidelines and key sticking points the author, Erin Gow, found when transitioning between legal research in the American and British jurisdictions. Key skills introduced include the ability to: differentiate between federal and state legal jurisdictions in the US; recognize key differences in American legal terminology and construct searches using American terms; analyze and select key American legal resources for different types of research questions; and identify American standards of legal citation. This article is based on the presentation that the author gave at the BIALL Online Annual Conference in June 2021.

Keywords

legal researchUS lawUnited States
Type
Five Papers from the BIALL Online Annual Conference 2021
Information
Legal Information Management , Volume 21 , Issue 3-4 , December 2021 , pp. 202 - 206
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by British and Irish Association of Law Librarians

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References

Footnotes

1 Hale, Brenda, ‘The Changing Legal Landscape’ (2019) 19 LIM 217, 222CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Generally referred to as the Dear Colleague letter and available online at: https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201605-title-ix-transgender.pdf.

3 Magrath, Paul, ‘Law Reporting and Public Access in the Courts’ (2019) 19 LIM 224, 227CrossRefGoogle Scholar.