Final Review

Question 1

What are primary sources of law?

Answer 1

Actual legal authority such as constitutions, case law, statutes, and administrative regulations.

Question 2

What are secondary sources of law?

Answer 2

Sources that explain and analyze the law, including legal encyclopedias, American Law Reports, periodicals, treatises, and restatements.

Question 3

What is a legal encyclopedia?

Answer 3

A broad overview of legal topics that is rarely cited, such as American Jurisprudence or Corpus Juris Secundum.

Question 4

What are American Law Reports (ALR)?

Answer 4

In-depth analysis of specific legal issues derived from cases across jurisdictions.

Question 5

What are periodicals in legal research?

Answer 5

Scholarly articles providing in-depth treatment of narrow legal issues, such as law reviews.

Question 6

What are treatises?

Answer 6

Comprehensive analyses of a single legal subject, for example, Corbin on Contracts.

Question 7

What are restatements?

Answer 7

Clarifications and restatements of common law principles by the American Law Institute.

Question 8

What are reporters in case law research?

Answer 8

Published volumes containing judicial decisions, essential for understanding court hierarchies.

Question 9

What is the West Topic and Key Number System?

Answer 9

A tool for finding cases by subject, using headnotes and Key Numbers.

Question 10

What are citators?

Answer 10

Tools like Shepard’s and KeyCite used to determine case treatment and find citing references.

Question 11

What are slip laws?

Answer 11

Individual acts as passed, available online or in designated libraries.

Question 12

What are session laws?

Answer 12

Chronological compilations of laws passed during a legislative session, such as Georgia Laws.

Question 13

What are codes in statutory research?

Answer 13

Statutes organized by subject, available in official and unofficial versions.

Question 14

What is the Federal Register?

Answer 14

A daily publication of proposed and final federal regulations.

Question 15

What is the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)?

Answer 15

Codification of final regulations, searchable online.

Question 16

What is the TARC Method?

Answer 16

A systematic approach for effective online searches using Terms, Alternates, Root Expanders, and Connectors.

Question 17

What is phrase searching?

Answer 17

Using quotation marks to search for specific phrases.

Question 18

What are the main reasons to ‘shepardize’ or ‘keycite’ a case?

Answer 18

1. To determine the direct history of a case. 2. To determine the treatment of one case by other courts. 3. Citing references. 4. Table of Authorities.

Question 19

What does “negative treatment indicated” signify?

Answer 19

It indicates that at least one point of law in your case was impacted negatively, which may not be the point of law you are using for your argument.