''Corpus Juris Secundum'' (''CJS'';

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

for 'Second Body of the Law')Legal Research and Writing for Paralegals, Published by Wolters Kluwer and written by Deborah E. Bouchoux is an

encyclopedia An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...

United States law The law of the United States comprises many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the nation's Constitution, which prescribes the foundation of the federal government of the United States, as well ...

at the federal and state levels. It is arranged alphabetically, into over 430 topics, which in turn are arranged into subheadings. , ''CJS'' consisted of 164 bound volumes, 5 index volumes and 11 table of cases volumes. ''CJS'' is named after the 6th century ''

Corpus Juris Civilis The ''Corpus Juris'' (or ''Iuris'') ''Civilis'' ("Body of Civil Law") is the modern name for a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence, issued from 529 to 534 by order of Justinian I, Byzantine Emperor. It is also sometimes referr ...

'' of the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantin ...

Emperor

Justinian I Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovat ...

, the first codification of

Roman law Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the '' Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Jus ...

and

civil law Civil law may refer to: * Civil law (common law), the part of law that concerns private citizens and legal persons * Civil law (legal system), or continental law, a legal system originating in continental Europe and based on Roman law ** Private la ...

. The name '' Corpus Juris'' literally means 'body of the law'; ''Secundum'' denotes the second edition of the encyclopedia, which was originally issued as ''Corpus Juris'' by the American Law Book Company (from 1914 to 1937). ''CJS'' is published by

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

in print form and on

Westlaw Westlaw is an online legal research service and proprietary database for lawyers and legal professionals available in over 60 countries. Information resources on Westlaw include more than 40,000 databases of case law, state and federal stat ...

. The print edition is updated annually with pocket supplements and revised editions of bound volumes. Before Thomson's acquisition of West, ''CJS'' competed against the '' American Jurisprudence'' legal encyclopedia. While legal encyclopedias like ''CJS'' were at one time heavily used by the courts, the growth of statutory and regulatory governance has had the effect of eroding this reliance. As such, rather than being used as sources of authoritative statements of law, legal encyclopedias are now more often used as tools for finding relevant case law. Volumes 82, 97, and 98 of ''Corpus Juris Secundum'' appeared behind the closing credits of the '' Perry Mason'' television series. Throughout the series, approximately twenty volumes can be seen on the shelf behind Mason's desk. ''CJS'' discusses more than 400 topics of the law.

References

External links

* West (publisher) Law of the United States Legal research Encyclopedias of law {{Law-book-stub

See also

References

External links