Introduction

There are many types of secondary sources. This guide introduces some of the most frequently used secondary sources and describes how Boyd Law students may access them. For more information on the types of secondary sources covered in this guide, please select the relevant page on the side-navigation.

  • Legal Dictionaries: define terms and words used in legal contexts
  • Legal Encyclopedia: a brief summary of various legal topics organized in alphabetical order
  • American Law Reports: A series of annotations covering narrow legal topics. A typical ALR annotation introduces a narrow legal issue and summarizes leading cases from all U.S. jurisdictions that address that issue.
  • Legal Treatises: provide in-depth analysis of an area of law. Some treatises are single-volume, others are multi-volume texts. Treatises are usually written by well-recognized experts in the field.
  • Law Review Articles: scholarly articles written by law professors, students, and, less frequently, judges and practitioners.
  • Restatements of the Law: A series of statements of common law on various topics, published by the American Law Institute (ALI). The members of ALI are professors, judges, and practioners who are experts in their fields. Restatements organize and clarify the principles of common law in a code-like format and include comments and citations to cases. For more information, please see Restatements Guide.

Primary Authority vs. Secondary Authority

Primary Authority = actual sources of law. 

  • Examples: constitutions, statutes, cases, regulations, international treaties, local ordinances 
  • Primary authority is binding on people and organizations within the jurisdiction. For example, the Nevada Revised Statutes is binding on people and entities in the state of Nevada.

Secondary Authority = Writing about primary authority.

  • Examples: law review articles, treatises (not to be confused with a treaty), American Law Reports, legal encyclopedia
  • Secondary authority is not binding or mandatory, but it may be persuasive.

Benefits of Using Secondary Sources

  • If you are not familiar with your research topic, use secondary sources to learn background information.
  • Secondary sources use important terms of art which you can use later as keywords to find additional primary/secondary sources.
    • Example: You are researching what would happen to a contract if a natural disaster prevents a party from fulfilling the contract. Secondary sources will tell you force majeure clause is a term referring to a contract clause discussing non-performances due to circumstances beyond the parties' control.   
  • Footnotes in secondary sources point to relevant primary and secondary sources. Use them to expand your research.