Impuesto sobre la Renta Empresarial (ISRE) a) Deducciones

Law students and aspiring legal researches will likely encounter a broad range of secondary sources. In the following sections, we briefly describe some of the common types of secondary sources used by legal researchers.

Figure 8.2.1 provides a quick-glance summary of the strengths and weaknesses of each type of secondary source described.

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Secondary Source Advantages & Disadvantages

Legal encyclopedias

More breadth and less depth; a very general introduction to many legal topics. Low

citability. Practice Series &

Materials

Breadth and depth vary by source, as does the amount of commentary. Citability thus varies; typically low. Useful in jurisdiction-specific

research. American Law

Reports (ALRs)

More breadth and less depth; annotations contain summary but not analysis. Useful to

start research on narrow topics and for jurisdictional comparisons. Low citability. Restatements

Highly credible and thus highly citable. In- depth coverage on areas of traditional common

law. Model Codes &

Uniform Acts

Focus on areas governed by statutory law and provide extensive annotations to relevant

caselaw. Treatises

Treats a subject in depth but breadth varies. Citability sometimes high but varies depending

on the reputation of the treatise. Form books Useful for identifying the pieces necessary to a

type of legal document. Law Review &

Journal Articles.

In-depth treatment on a narrow area of law; not updated once published. Quality and thus

citability varies.

Figure 8.2.1: An Overview of Secondary Source Types

8.2.1.1 Legal Encyclopedias

Legal encyclopedias are the most general of secondary sources. They have more breadth than depth and so can provide an introduction to a wide range of legal topics. If the researcher is unfamiliar with an area of law and needs a list of the major primary authorities in the area as a starting point for further research on the issue, legal encyclopedias are a solid place for him to begin his research. They are, as one would expect from the term

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“encyclopedia,” organized alphabetically by topic. American Jurisprudence 2d (Am. Jur. 2d) and the Corpus Juris Secundum (C.J.S.) are two of the most widely known legal encyclopedias. Some states have jurisdiction-specific legal encyclopedias, such as Ohio Jurisprudence 3d.

8.2.1.2 Practice Series & Practice Materials

Practice series resemble legal encyclopedias in that they cover a variety of legal topics, though perhaps not as many as a legal encyclopedia, and they tend to be jurisdiction-specific. They are usually written by practitioners or scholars specializing in that jurisdiction and may contain descriptions of the current state of the law, some analysis of the law, and possibly forms relating to a particular topic. They tend to be organized by topic and can be one volume or many.

Other practice materials may be form books, discussed further in section 6.2.1.7, or process-oriented guides as to how litigation on a topic normally proceeds. Materials in the latter category may explain how litigation on a topic proceeds and the court filings and documentation typically seen in such cases.

Practice series and other practice-oriented materials can sometimes resemble treatises in their depth of coverage on specific topics. In fact, whether an item should be deemed a “treatise” or a “practice material” can be a gray area, and these sources are often found using similar methods that will be discussed later in this chapter.

8.2.1.3 American Law Reports (ALRs)

The American Law Reports is a set of hundreds of volumes which are filled

with articles called “annotations.” ALRs provide an odd combination of breadth and depth; the number of topics covered is vast but those topics are much more specific than those in an encyclopedia. The annotations summarize caselaw on those narrow topics across jurisdictions; the function is more of a report on the current state of the law rather than an analysis of the law as one would find in a topical treatise. Each annotation contains a table of the relevant primary authorities described in the annotation organized by jurisdiction which can be a quick reference for finding primary authorities on that topic across jurisdictions. There are six series of the ALRs covering state law, the most recent being the ALR 6th_.

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8.2.1.4 Restatements & Principles of Law

Restatements are publications by the American Law Institute (ALI) that clarify and organize the existing state of caselaw on a given topic, or, in other words, restate the law. The restatements contain analysis on an area of law, summarize and refer to caselaw across jurisdictions, and may offer suggestions on how the legal system could clarify an area of law going forward.

Because the ALI is composed of a large number of legal scholars and practitioners who are the experts in their fields, the restatements are generally considered to be among the most persuasive of the secondary sources of law. In fact, they are often cited by judicial opinions, particularly when there is no binding authority on point.

Many of the restatements are on their third series and are published by topic. Some of the more well-known restatements are those covering the laws of agency, contracts, property, torts, trusts, and unfair competition. A complete list of topics may be found on the ALI website.

The ALI also publishes recommendations on areas of the law that need to be updated; these publications are called “Principles” and cover a wide variety of legal topics. These can be useful to a practitioner looking for guidance on how to present to the court on an area of unsettled or outdated law.

8.2.1.5 Model Codes & Uniform Acts

The ALI and the Uniform Law Commission both publish model codes and uniform acts to advocate standards or to improve organization in certain areas of the law. Just as the name implies, these publications are written in the form of model statutes that jurisdictions can adopt in part or whole into their own statutory codes. Examples that are familiar to first year law students are the Uniform Commercial Code and the Model Penal Code; a full listing can be seen on the Uniform Law Commission website and the ALI website. These publications contain annotations detailing how these model statutes have been adopted and implemented in various jurisdictions and thus can be a rich source of primary authority for a researcher.

8.2.1.6 Treatises

Treatises are comprehensive texts on a narrow legal subject. They generally provide much more discussion and analysis of the legal topic than a legal encyclopedia or ALR annotation while also leading the researcher to primary authorities through references and citations. They

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may or may not be jurisdiction-specific and can vary in length from one to dozens of volumes.

Treatises are often named after their authors, e.g., Nimmer on Copyright,

Farnsworth on Contracts. Some treatises are highly reputable in a given field,

but the quality can run the gamut. Consulting a subject-specific research guide or a research expert may be the quickest method to locate the most credible title for a specific legal topic.

8.2.1.7 Form Books

While each legal problem is distinct and each client unique, often the output of legal practice takes standardized forms. For instance, partnership agreements, while differing in the details, are generally structured in the same way. On the litigation side, while motions will employ unique arguments depending on the circumstances, the motions themselves will follow a standard format. Thus, one of the more useful types of secondary source in practice are form books, which publish blank templates or forms that lawyers can use in crafting their own legal documents. Usually, some explanatory text, similar to what you would see in a treatise, accompanies the templates.

Form books may be either jurisdiction specific or neutral; they may also be topical specific or cover a wide variety of subjects. West’s Legal Forms is an example of a general, jurisdiction-neutral form set. Published sets of pattern jury instructions, on the other hand, are topically specific and are often published for specific jurisdictions.

8.2.1.8 Law Reviews & Journals

Law reviews and journals contain scholarly articles primarily written by law professors on various specialized areas of law. Journals are published periodically and may contain articles on a particular subject area (e.g. Harvard

Journal on Racial and Ethnic Justice) or articles in a wide variety of subjects (e.g. Harvard Law Review). Individual articles, however, usually address a very

narrow area of the law. Furthermore, they tend to focus on underdeveloped or rarely-visited areas of the law and thus often contain information not found elsewhere. For this reason, they can be a rich resource for identifying not only relevant primary authority on that narrow topic but also secondary authorities on point. For the same reason, they are occasionally cited as persuasive authority by judicial opinions.

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