Winning Research Skills - Westlaw

A Short History of Legal Research
checking the accuracy of citations; verifying the information about judges and attorneys of
record that is supplied by the court; and more.
Chronological and Subject Arrangement
Most primary law, whether judicial, legislative, or administrative, is initially published in a
chronologically arranged series appropriate to a particular jurisdiction. But to facilitate your
research, publishers analyze the law and organize information by subject as well as
chronologically. Case digests, for example, are subject arrangements of the legal issues discussed
in cases. Statutory and administrative codes are also arranged topically.
Forms of Publication
Finally, the forms of legal publication are common across different jurisdictions. Federal
legislation is published chronologically as session laws and then compiled topically in a statutory
code. Federal regulations appear in a chronological register and then in a topical administrative
code. Federal cases are published in reporters and subsequently indexed in digests. The same is
true—more or less—for each of the 50 state jurisdictions. Therefore, once you’ve learned how to
use the research tools for one jurisdiction, you’re well on your way to learning them all.
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