Legal Skills Guides: Periodicals
Using
Legal Periodicals
The Problem:
The partner you work for has asked you to draft a memo on the possible future
effects of a recent administrative ruling on telecommunications law. You
have tried your favorite practice guides and legal encyclopedias, but can't
find any discussion of it. Are you going to have to spend the night
researching cases and administrative regulations? What if you simply don't
understand this area of law well enough to know what the future effects of this ruling
will be? Don't give up! Someone may have already written an
article on just this subject in a legal periodical, doing most of your work
for you!
What is a legal periodical?
Legal periodicals, including law reviews or law journals, are secondary
sources which analyze, describe and comment on the law. They contain
articles written by law faculty, attorneys, law students or other experts in
an area of law, not by courts or
legislatures. Legal periodicals are usually affiliated with law schools, but some are
published by non-academic institutions. Those published by law schools are
usually edited by students. California Western publishes two legal
periodicals,
California Western Law Review and
California Western International Law Journal.
Traditionally, legal periodicals have been print publications.
However, some legal periodicals are now also published electronically on the Internet. The
library has begun to subscribe to some of these publications.
What are they used for? A legal
periodical article can be a good introduction to the law in an obscure or
newly-developing area, or can provide useful discussion of the background of an important case,
as well as its affect on the law. Legal periodical articles often cover areas which practice
manuals, treatises and other standard sources do not address,
whether because the topic is too specialized, or because the developments have
happened too recently. You can also look at legal periodical articles for:
-
Detailed background information on primary laws.
-
General overviews or the current status of an area of law.
-
Arguments suggesting reforms to primary law.
-
References to primary law, and other secondary materials.
Distinguishing between types of legal periodicals.
Different legal periodicals contain different
types of articles, are published more or less frequently, and can be found at
different places; some are much more difficult to locate, and therefore use,
than others.
 General. Ex.:
California Western Law Review,
Harvard Law Review.
These "law reviews" publish articles on a wide range of legal topics.
We subscribe to many in print, and most can also be found through services
like "Hein Online." |
 Special Interest.
Ex.:
California Western International Law Journal,
Harvard Journal of Law &
Public Policy. These "journals" focus on a specific area of law or
are interdisciplinary, and we subscribe to many in print and through "Hein
Online." Some are published in a magazine format. |
 Bar Association Journals.
Ex.:
ABA Journal,
San Diego Lawyer. These journals contain
practical articles pertaining to recent news and the interests of association
members. Journals of national associations are often available at
California Western in print or on "Hein Online"; local and regional journals
from other parts of the country are usually available on microfiche. |
 Legal Newspapers. Ex:
L.A. Daily
Journal,
National Law Journal. Current law-related developments, including court
decisions and rule changes. These are usually available in print or on
microfiche, and some are available online through "
LegalTrac."
|
Newsletters. Ex:
Federal Sentencing
Guide Newsletter. Also known as ‘current awareness’ periodicals, these are published daily, weekly
or monthly on a specific topic, and contain the latest developments in the area.
California Western subscribes to many of these either in print or online.
Otherwise, they can be difficult to locate, and are often not indexed. |
Distinguishing between types of articles.
In casual reference, anything printed in a legal periodical is often called an
"article." In fact, there are different types of
articles, and an article's "type" will affect its "authoritative value," or the
weight to which a judge will assign something quoted from that article.
For example, an article written by a judge or professor would have more
"weight" than a note or comment by a student. You can determine the type
of article you are reading by looking in the table of contents at the
beginning of the periodical issue.
 Articles. Longer works, written by attorneys, judges or law professors.
They contain extensive citations to primary and other secondary materials.
Essays. Shorter works with less extensive citations, written by attorneys, judges or law professors.
Symposium. An entire journal issue containing works on the same topic. Symposium issues
are often published once a year by a general journal.
Feature Article. The main article in a particular journal issue.
The rest of the issue contains commentary about and and discussion of this
article.
Note or Comment. A piece written by law student regarding a broad topic.
Case Note/Case Comment/Recent Developments. A piece written by a law student on a narrow topic or recent court decision.
Book Review. A review of a book related to the subject of the journal.
How to find legal periodical articles. The
easiest way to find a legal periodical article is through an online search service. Printed
or online periodical indexes, however, are often the most thorough
way to find articles on a particular subject.
Historical research may require searching print indexes, because
important and well-known articles by distinguished authors, such as Langdell or Brandeis, are often not incorporated into
electronic indexes because their publication pre-dates some index coverage. If you are
searching for articles about a particular case or statute, you may also be
able to find law review and journal
articles through citator services such as Shepards and KeyCite.
Electronic indexes and search
services.
Indexes organize articles by their
topic, rather like the index in a book or the subject headings of a library catalog do.
In contrast, search services will search for words
in either an "abstract" or the full text of a journal article, the way a
Westlaw or Lexis search for cases does. Both are useful when searching for articles on a particular
subject or by a particular author. Below are links to the online indexes and searching services
for legal periodical articles available to California
Western faculty and students. Some of these, such as
LegalTrac, can
be used as both indexes and searching services. Others are purely
search services. These resources are available only on campus, or off campus with a California Western network login
and password. Individual databases may require their own IDs and
passwords; see the descriptions for details.
|
Current Index to Legal Periodicals (CILP) |
Weekly index to over 500 major U.S. legal periodicals
with links to the full text through Westlaw and Lexis (Westlaw and Lexis
passwords required). |
|
HeinOnline Periodicals |
Image-based collection of law journals, many
from date of inception to present. Also, pre-1981 Federal Register, treaties
from 1776 and U.S. Supreme Court from 1754. Author, title and full text of articles are
searchable. |
|
Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals |
A multilingual searchable database of
abstracts of articles and book
reviews published worldwide. Includes analysis of legal essays,
festschrifts, melanges, and congress reports. Covers international (public
and private), comparative, and municipal law of countries other than the
United States, the U.K., Canada, and Australia. 1985 to the present, updated
quarterly. Abstracts only. |
|
IndexMaster |
Searchable database of the indexes and tables of contents of
thousands of law-related books. No link to the full text. |
|
Index to Legal Periodical & Books |
Searchable database and indexing service of the
abstracts of law-related articles. Link to a list of databases where
the full text of each article is available. Updated daily. Check
"Legal Periodicals and Books" to search 1982-present, and "Legal Periodicals
Retro" to search 1918-1981. |
|
LegalTrac Periodical Index |
Searchable database and index of abstracts of U.S. legal periodical and newspaper
articles
from 1980 to present. Full text of some articles is available. |
|
Lexis-Nexis |
Includes a searchable database of hundreds of U.S. and
Canadian law reviews and journals, from 1982 to the present. Full text
of all articles available. Note: Lexis password required. |
|
Westlaw |
Includes a searchable database of selected documents from
hundreds of U.S. law reviews, journals, CLE publications and bar journals.
Full coverage for the entire run of some journals, and coverage starting in
1994 for others. Full text of all articles included in the database
available. Note: Westlaw password required. |
California Western subscribes to many more
searching and indexing services for journals and periodicals on the arts,
humanities, medicine, and other subjects.
Go to our
Searching and Indexing Services page to see these.
 Print Indexes. At left is a picture of the
Index to Legal
Periodicals and Books, and below is a list of some of the indexes located in the Reference area of the California Western Library,
or, occasionally, in our microform collection.
As you will see, the indexes cover different time periods, and some cover only
selected areas of law. In addition, you should check the front pages of
an index if you want to determine whether it covers a specific periodical. Often
you will need to use more than one index to
do an effective search. "Access points" are the different ways that
you can find articles in an index. For example, you may be looking for
articles about a specific statute. The fastest way to find these
articles will be to look in an index which has a "Table of Statutes" as an access point. |
|
Name |
Coverage |
Access Points |
|
Current Law Index |
1980+ |
Author, Title, Subject, Table of Cases, Table of Statutes, Book Reviews |
|
Index to Legal Periodicals and Books
|
1700's+ |
Author, Title (of reviewed books only), Subject, Table of Cases, Table of Statutes, Book Reviews |
|
Index to Periodical Articles Related to Law |
1958+ |
Author, Subject, Book Reviews |
|
Index to Foreign Periodicals |
1960+ |
Author, Title, Subject, Geographic, Book Reviews |
|
Index to Canadian Legal Periodical Literature
|
1961+ |
Author, Title, Subject, Table of Cases, Book Reviews |
|
Public International Law |
1975+ |
Author, Subject, Book Reviews |
|
Index to Federal Tax Articles |
1913+ |
Author, Subject |
|
Criminal Justice Periodical Index |
1975+ |
Author, Subject, Book Reviews |
|
Law Books in Review |
1974+ |
Author, Title, Subject, Book Reviews |
|
Index to California Legal Periodicals and Documents |
1964-79 |
Author, Subject, Table of Cases, Table of Statutes,
|
|
All CAL Index |
1963-78 |
Subject |
How do I use these? Indexes
work like old-fashioned library card catalogs, with entries for authors, subjects and titles. The publishers mix their
entries together in different ways. For example, the
Index to Legal
Periodicals and Books combines the subject and author entries, but has a
separate section indexing book reviews by the title and author of the book;
the
Current Law Index, in contrast, mixes its entries of
titles and authors, but has a separate book of subject entries. They
both have separate tables of cases and statutes. These tables will
help you locate articles which deal with a specific statute or case.
Subject Headings have subtle differences between indexes.
Current Law Index classifies its articles based on the Library of Congress subject headings (the same
classification system used by our library, and contained in the red books located near the
Reference Desk), but not all indexes do. Make
sure to follow cross-references (for example, under a particular subject
heading, it might say, "See also: Class Actions." Articles listed
there might also be useful to you), and use the thesaurus, when it is available,
to make sure you are finding all useful subject headings.
Important:
Printed Indexes are often not cumulative,
i.e. you must check numerous volumes or supplements to comprehensively
research a topic over a period of time. In contrast, electronic indexes
are cumulative, and so you can search the entire chronological coverage of the
index with one search query.
|
