Start - Law - United States, General - Research Guides at University of Oregon Libraries

Starting Your Research

Introduction

This research guide is intended to guide members of the University of Oregon community who are new to legal research. Databases or resources linked in this guide are available to the public or members of the University of Oregon community. For further assistance, email lawref@uoregon.edu.

The First Steps of Legal Research

When starting legal research, there are a few initial steps you want to take:

Determine your jurisdiction
Determine what types of sources you need for your research
Generate search terms

See below for more details and guidance about each of these steps.

Determine Your Jurisdiction

Is this an issue that would be addressed by state courts, federal courts, or both? Is this an administrative law or tribal law issue?

To learn more about the federal and state court systems, visit the United States Courts website.
For more details, read the report Federal and State Courts: Structure and Interaction from the Congressional Research Service.

Federal Courts

To learn more about federal courts, see this webpage from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

State Courts

If you are interested in state-level court decisions or legal processes, you may want to learn from the National Center for State Courts about the structure of the relevant state court systems. Court structure and terminology varies from state to state.

For example, New York State has a state-wide trial court called the Supreme Court, and the highest court in the state is called the Court of Appeals.
For more information about Oregon's court system, see this overview from the Oregon Judicial Branch:

Oregon's State Courts: Overview

Tribal Law

For information on researching tribal law, please visit this LibGuide's Tribal Law page.

Administrative Law

For more information on researching administrative law, including Oregon-specific information, see this research guide from Lewis & Clark Law School.

Determine What Types of Sources You Might Need

In legal research, you will come across mostly primary and secondary sources. Primary sources directly establish or constitute the law. Secondary sources describe, explain, and analyze the primary sources.

Here are some examples of primary and secondary sources:

Primary Sources

Secondary Sources

Statutes

Cases

Regulations

Codes

Constitutions

Treaties

Books

Articles

Treatises

Encyclopedias

Restatements

American Law Reports

When you begin legal research, it's usually beneficial to begin by examining secondary sources to get an overview of your research topic.

Develop Search Terms

Once you generally know what issue you will investigate, try referring to a law dictionary, thesaurus, or encyclopedia to get ideas of what search terms to use in your research. If you have more synonyms in your search terms, you have a higher likelihood of finding relevant resources.

See this LibGuide from the UC Berkeley School of Law or this LibGuide from the UC Davis School of Law for guidance on Boolean searching.