Secondary Sources

Legal Encyclopedias

  • Legal encyclopedias provide a brief introduction to a variety of legal topics.
  • Entries in legal encyclopedias are usually a few paragraphs long and include citations to relevant primary and secondary sources. 
    • Entries are organized alphabetically.
  • Use legal encyclopedias as a starting point to learn very basic background information on your topic.
    • ​Use index and table of contents to find relevant entries.

Types of Legal Encyclopedias

There are two types of legal encyclopedias:

  1. American Jurisprudence ("Am. Jur.") & Corpus Juris Secundum ("C.J.S.") provide general legal summaries common to most jurisdictions.
  2. There are also state-specific legal encyclopedias (mostly for the larger states such as California, New York, and Texas). If you are researching a state law issue and your jurisdiction has a state-specific legal encyclopedia (e.g. California Jurisprudence), it is more helpful than the Am.Jur & C.J.S for finding primary authorities since it focuses on your jurisdiction.

Locating Encylopedias

On Westlaw, you may access Am.Jur or CJS or a state-specific encyclopedia by typing the title in the search box. For example, if you start typing "American Jurisprudence" in the search box, you will see a link to Am.Jur.

type american jurisprudence in the search box and select AmJur.

Alternatively, you may access the list of legal encyclopedias on Westlaw by selecting Secondary Sources and then Jurisprudence & Encyclopedias

select jurisprudence and encyclopedias.

After selecting an encyclopedia, you will see the topics arranged alphabetically. You will see a link to the index as well.

Once you choose an encyclopedia, you will see the topics and index.

 

On Lexis Advance, you may access Am.Jur and state-specific encyclopedias.

  • C.J.S. is not available on Lexis Advance.
  • The encyclopedias on Lexis Advance do not have index.

Just like Westlaw, you may access an encyclopedia by typing the title in the search box.

On Lexis, you may access a source by typing its title in the search box.

Alternatively, you may select Secondary Materials (under the Content Type tab), 

select secondary materials under the content type tab.

Then click on Treatises, Practice Guides & Jurisprudence.select treatises, practice guides & jurisprudence.

Select your jurisdiction to see the see the available secondary materials for your jurisdiction. 

  • The law library has print copies of Am.Jur & C.J.S.
    • Located in the Reading Room 
      • Call Number for Am.Jur: KF 154 .A42
      • Call Number for C.J.S.:   KF 154 .C54
  • As for state-specific encylopedias, only California Jurisprudence is available in print.
    • Located in the Reading Room. (KFC 80 .C29)