LW 466 – Law of the Workplace

This guide was created to support students in LW 466 with their major research project. 

Law Reviews & Secondary Sources

What is a law review?

A law review is a scholarly journal, usually from a group of students at a law school, focusing on legal issues. Articles are generally written by experts in the field, including law professors, judge and other legal professionals. Law students may write “Notes” or “Comments” included in the law review. Law reviews are the primary means by which legal professionals engaged in scholarship and discussion of legal issues. 

What is a treatise?

A treatise focuses on a single area of law and is written by experts in that area. Treatises range from broad, multi-volume sets to narrowly focused one-volume titles.  Practitioners rely heavily on treatises for the detailed coverage and practical tips they contain. The content varies tremendously, but you can usually find thorough explanations of the law at issue along with citations to relevant cases, statutes, regulations, and other secondary sources. Some treatises also contain the full text of these materials in appendices. (Georgetown Law)

What is a restatement?

Restatements of the law, aka restatements, are a series of treatises that articulate the principles or rules for a specific area of law. They are secondary sources of law written and published by the American Law Institute (ALI) to clarify the law. Restatements currently exist for twenty areas of law such as contracts, law governing lawyers, and torts.

The ali created restatements to help courts understand and interpret the current common law. Thus, restatements synthesize and restate existing case law and statutes from various jurisdictions. As secondary sources, restatements are only a source of persuasive authority and do not replace precedents and controlling statutes. However, courts may choose to adopt or cite approvingly to restatement. (Cornell Law)

Finding Law Reviews in Lexis Advance

On the right hand side of your case’s page, directly below the Shepard’s information, you’ll see an “About This Document” box that links to other information about your case. 

Find References to this Case, circled in red, will create a list of results referencing your case. You can then filter those results by type of material.

You can choose “Law Reviews & Journals,” circled in orange below. 

Also….

You can search for Law Review articles from the Nexis homepage by selecting “Law Reviews” under Guided Search. 

Secondary Sources in Nexis Uni

Secondary sources beyond law reviews are a bit hidden in NexisUni; they’re actually under “Law Reviews and Journals!” Search for your topic, then select Law Reviews and Journals (see red circle below) and Under Category in the filters (see blue square below) you can filter for other types of secondary sources like treatises and restatements. 

Treatises are scholarly legal publications containing law related to a particular area.

Restatements are summaries of legal rules in a specific area written by the American Law Institute, an organization of professors, judges and lawyer. 

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