Researching U.S. Law Jennifer Allison Librarian for Foreign, Comparative, and International Law Harvard Law School Library May 5, 2016

SJD Guide to Law Library Services: Includes an overview of U.S. law (scroll down to the bottom).

1. Review: legislative process; general legal research procedure. 2. Read about a federal statute in a law review article. 3. Find materials showing the statute’s legislative history. 4. Find cases and other secondary materials that define and analyze the statute. A GENDA

1. Bill is introduced, discussed, and voted on in Congress. 2. Identical version of bill is passed by both houses of Congress and signed by President. 3. The new statute is assigned a public law number and published, in chronological order, in the Statutes at Large. 4. The new statute is codified in appropriate section(s) of the United States Code. 5. Courts define and interpret the statute through judicial opinions. 6. Legal secondary sources analyze the statute and the courts’ interpretation of it. T HE L EGISLATIVE P ROCESS

1. Use legal secondary sources to learn about legal principles and important primary sources. 2. Research relevant statute(s), using legislative history materials and the annotated code. 3. Review relevant judicial opinions for statutory analysis, using citators to make sure each opinion is still good law. L EGAL R ESEARCH P ROCEDURE

Databases we will use today: HeinOnline Proquest Legislative Insight Westlaw R ESOURCES

Research starts with secondary sources like this law review article. Rachel E. Barkow, Clemency and Presidential Administration of Criminal Law, 90 N.Y.U. L. R EV. 802 (2015). H EIN O NLINE L AW J OURNAL L IBRARY

This article discusses how the president’s constitutional power to grant clemency in criminal cases could be used to exert executive authority over the federal criminal justice system. On page 815, it cites a federal statute, the Sentencing Reform Act. After reading this article, you want to learn more about this statute. H EIN O NLINE L AW J OURNAL L IBRARY

Statute Information: Sentencing Reform Act Pub. L. No Stat Codified at 18 U.S.C. § 3551

With this information, we can find out why this statute was enacted (legislative history), and how it is enforced (case law). We’ll start with legislative history.

P RO Q UEST L EGISLATIVE I NSIGHT ProQuest Legislative Insight: A Good Database for Federal Legislative History

What we know about the statute: Sentencing Reform Act Pub. L. No Stat Codified at 18 U.S.C. § 3551 P RO Q UEST L EGISLATIVE I NSIGHT

What we know about the statute: Sentencing Reform Act Pub. L. No Stat Codified at 18 U.S.C. § P RO Q UEST L EGISLATIVE I NSIGHT

There is a compiled legislative history for this statute, so let’s take a look at it. P RO Q UEST L EGISLATIVE I NSIGHT

This statute was part of a larger “appropriations” bill. This means that it was enacted, along with many other statutes, in part to provide funding to a federal agency. At this point, let’s do a CTRL+F on this page to find references to our statute… P RO Q UEST L EGISLATIVE I NSIGHT

The first “historical” document that we see for our statute is a Senate Report (S. Rpt.) that was published by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary in This was when it was still a bill and they were considering whether or not to pass it. The citation to this document is S. Rpt This means it was the 223rd Senate report published during the 98th Congress. P RO Q UEST L EGISLATIVE I NSIGHT

A House or Senate Committee Report includes the text of the bill, the bill’s purpose, a narrative of legislative action, an explanation of legislative intent, and committee views on the legislation. You can access this document from here as a PDF. P RO Q UEST L EGISLATIVE I NSIGHT

We also now know the number of the bill that was passed to enact our statute: S This means it originated in the Senate. This information could be helpful to us in later research, so it’s good to make a note of it. What we know about the statute: Sentencing Reform Act Bill: S. 668 (98th Congress) Pub. L. No Stat Codified at 18 U.S.C. § P RO Q UEST L EGISLATIVE I NSIGHT

This legislative history has some additional materials related to sentencing reform. Read these to learn more about the history and debate related to the enactment of the statute. P RO Q UEST L EGISLATIVE I NSIGHT

W ESTLAW Westlaw: Case Law, Secondary Sources, and More

W ESTLAW What we know about the statute: Sentencing Reform Act Bill: S. 668 (98th Congress) Pub. L. No Stat Codified at 18 U.S.C. § 3551.

W ESTLAW

Important tip #1 for Westlaw: Use the tabs! They help you navigate all the information in Westlaw about this statute.

W ESTLAW Important tip #2 for Westlaw: Use navigation tools! Like with a book, you can “page” through the sections of the code and see the table of contents.

W ESTLAW Document tab: Text of the statute and “credits” (historical information)

W ESTLAW Document Tab - Credits: Public law and Statutes at Large citations for the original statute and all its amendments, with date of passage.

W ESTLAW Document tab – Table of Contents button: Use this to see statute in context of the title, part, chapter, and subtitle in the U.S. Code.

U NITED S TATES C ODE Title 18: Crimes and Criminal Procedure United States Code (U.S.C): Organized by subject (“title”), with parts, chapters, and subchapters. Each subchapter has one or more sections, designated by the § symbol. Image: Bureau of Prisons,

W ESTLAW Notes of Decisions tab: Selection of judicial opinions that cite and explain statute, organized by subject.

W ESTLAW History tab: Useful materials for legislative history research.

W ESTLAW The History tab also includes information about the statute’s current validity. Here, there are two congressional bills being considered that would amend this statute, H.R.1251 and H.R.2944.

W ESTLAW Of greatest value to researchers: Citing References Lists all materials in Westlaw that cite this statute.

W ESTLAW Citing references can be filtered. This is helpful when there are 16,000+ results.

W ESTLAW Example: Show all law review articles, published in the last 12 months, that cite this statute. 12 results.

W ESTLAW Context and Analysis tab: List of selected materials for more in-depth analysis.

W ESTLAW Westlaw is also useful for case law research.

F EDERAL AND S TATE C OURT H IERARCHY U.S. Supreme Court U.S. Federal Courts of Appeals U.S. Federal Trial Courts State Court of Appeal State Trial Court State Supreme Court

W ESTLAW Important tip #1 for Westlaw: Use the tabs! They help you navigate all of the information Westlaw has related to this case.

W ESTLAW The Citing References feature for cases is just like that for statutes. It lists everything in Westlaw that cites the case. Limit by the menu options on the left side. Remember, law review articles are under Secondary Sources.

W ESTLAW The Filings tab shows documents filed with the court by the parties and by others who are interested in the outcome of the case (amicus curiae, or “friend of the court”).

W ESTLAW Finally, don’t forget to examine how the case has been subsequently treated. Other courts may not have followed the case exactly, perhaps because of slightly different facts than the original case. These are listed both under citing references and on the Negative Treatment tab.

1.We reviewed the federal legislative process and the common U.S. legal research procedure. 2.We learned how to find materials showing the legislative history of a federal statute. 3.We learned how to find cases and other secondary materials that define and analyze the statute. R EVIEW

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