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Citator
In legal research, a citator is a citation index of legal resources, one of the best-known of which in the United States is Shepard's Citations. Given a reference of a legal decision, a citator allows the researcher to find newer documents which cite the original document and thus to reconstruct the judicial history of cases and statutes. Using a citator in this way is colloquially referred to as "Shepardizing". Use in legal research Topical research Because cases cite related cases, citators can be used to find cases which are on topics related to a given topic. A common research strategy is to use "one good case" to find related cases. Establishing authority Another important application is to determine whether the conclusions of one case have been followed, overturned, or modified in later cases, especially by higher courts. This is important for legal systems in which the binding authority of a case is contingent on precedent. Citators often include annotations indicating ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legal Research
Legal research is "the process of identifying and retrieving information necessary to support legal decision-making. In its broadest sense, legal research includes each step of a course of action that begins with an analysis of the facts of a problem and concludes with the application and communication of the results of the investigation." The processes of legal research vary according to the country and the legal system involved. Legal research involves tasks such as: # Finding primary sources of law, or primary authority, in a given jurisdiction ( cases, statutes, regulations, etc.). # Searching secondary authority, for background information about a legal topics. Secondary authorities can come in many forms (for example, law reviews, legal dictionaries, legal treatises, and legal encyclopedias such as American Jurisprudence and Corpus Juris Secundum). # Searching non-legal sources for investigative or supporting information. Legal research is performed by anyone with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |