If you’ve taken a legal research class, you have probably
heard a professor discuss the importance of state legal encyclopedias as a
research tool. Why? They include jurisdiction-specific coverage of a wide range
of legal topics. The information contained in an encyclopedia may be brief, but
it will point you to the primary law on point for your state jurisdiction.
If you practice within a particular state, you are likely familiar
with the state’s encyclopedia. When I ask for an example of a secondary source
on day one of Advanced Legal Research at UNC, “Strong’s North Carolina Index”
is the most common response every semester.
However, what do you do when you are researching in a state
that you aren’t familiar with? Maybe you are going to conduct multi-state
research and need to start in multiple state encyclopedias? Less than half of
the 50 states have a dedicated legal encyclopedia. Is browsing secondary
sources state-by-state in Westlaw Edge and Lexis+ (maybe even the library
catalog) the quickest way to identify which states have an encyclopedia?
Luckily, this work has already been done for you! Harvard
Law Library has an excellent list of
state legal encyclopedias available here. The list identifies the title and
publisher of legal encyclopedias for each state. Need a quick view of the
landscape of state legal encyclopedias? Check out the map below - the 23 states
in red currently have some form of a state legal encyclopedia.
Bonus: If you are a legal research instructor, this list is a great go-to resource for selecting jurisdictions with or without state legal encyclopedias depending on what you would like to assess on an assignment!
Posted by Nicole M. Downing on Wed. September 7, 2022 10:00 AM
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