This is a quick guide to the types of legal material you will come across and research during your entire legal education.
Primary Sources of Legal Material
Treaties – treaties can cover many different legal subject areas and can be multi-national or bi-lateral (between just 2 countries). It is always worth starting with the organisation that created the document or a source for one of the countries.
Legislation – there are 2 different types of legislation: (a) primary legislation which are acts and treaties and these form the main backbone of the law, and (b) secondary legislation which in the UK are Statutory Instruments and these look to put the meat on the bones and often form more concrete regulations rules and orders. Acts (also called Statutes) are only passed after debate in Parliament and they aim to draft the act carefully in order to make sure that the correct intention of Parliament is achieved. This means that the terms and phrases used are very different to natural language and can be quite difficult to interpret. It is however an important skill as you will need to do this to use legislation in essays and arguments.
Cases – cases are a very important source in English and Welsh law as it is a common law country. This means that judgments made become ‘part of the law’ under the doctrine of precedent. This precedent has grown over 100s of years in certain legal topics such as contract, tort and equity where very little legislation has been made and so the law are the doctrines that have been enshrined in case law. Even where legislation has been made (and in Scotland as well) case law helps to interpret the legislation and so is a very important source.
Secondary Sources of Legal Material
Core Texts – for each legal topic you will find there will be a large number of textbooks available. It is likely if you are studying that you will work from a reading list and there will be textbooks recommended for you on there. However there are a number of practitioner’s textbooks for the major legal topics which are seen as an authority on a subject. It is always worth consulting one of these if you need an authoritative secondary source.
Encyclopaedias – there are many encyclopaedias within the law. These looks to sort the law into organised topics and to provide a thorough explanation with links through to other sources. The main one for England and Wales is called Halsbury’s Laws of England and this is a large multi- volume work which is arranged by broad subject. The structure of it is very good in building an understanding of the law, all topics start out with an introduction and then the first subsection is the law ‘in general’ before moving on to more specific areas. There is a basic definition the law with links through to cases and legislation. For Scotland there is the Stair’s Memorial Encyclopaedia.
Digests – these are summaries of cases, legislation and commentary arranged either by topic or by date/topic. These can be useful if you wish to get an overview of legal material for a specific subject.
Articles – you are likely to have to read a number of articles if you are researching the law. These have the benefit of being able to focus on more specific topics of law, being able to be published more quickly that books in the event of an important piece of legislation being passed or a case being decided.
Dissertations – these are a record of research work done before and can be very useful. Students can also learn to how legal arguments are structured.
As a law student, you should expect to engage with various types of legal materials to deepen your understanding of legal principles, concepts, and cases.
