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Guide to Researching the Law In Cyberspace
Jennifer L. SelbyUniversity of Michigan Law Library
International Law Librarian
September 20, 2006
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We will discuss:
The sources and methods for conducting legal and law-related research on your chosen topic relating to Cyberspace Law
We will rely primarily on free Internet resources, but also look at licensed online resources available to the UM community
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Evaluating web sites
Need to evaluate the information for quality: Currency: Look for a date
indicating the last time a web page was updated or a publication date on an individual document
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Evaluating web sites
Authority: Government, university, and other public bodies and organizations lend more authority to the information on their web sites. Keep in mind however that an
organization may have an agenda that shades the quality of their information.
Look to see if a web site attributes its information to other bodies and if the information is provided in a more static format, such as PDF.
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Evaluating web sites
Durability: Remember that the web site can be ephemeral with documents and web sites disappearing. It is important to make copies, especially for citation purposes.
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, or, Why It’s a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources (http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/eval.html)
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Searching the Internet Pandia (http://www.pandia.com/): A guide to Internet
searching and search engine optimization Specific Tips for searching Internet:
http://www.pandia.com/goalgetter/recommendations.html `
Beyond Google and Yahoo: Advanced Search, Tom Mighell & Sabrina I. Pacifici (http://www.llrx.com/features/techshow06search.pdf)
Gumshoe Librarian 2006, Barbara Fullerton & Sabrina I. Pacifici (http://www.llrx.com/features/gumshoe06.htm) List of recommended web sites to enhance your research on various subjects, including cyber security
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Searching the Internet
Bespacif (http://www.bespacific.com/) Blog by Sabrina Pacifici on law & technology, “providing top-quality information on professional concerns like privacy, freedom of information, e-government, copyright, and proposed technology legislation.”
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Secondary Source Research Do not reinvent the wheel – use
books, law reviews, etc. to learn from and cite to the legal experts
Good way to obtain citations to relevant case law, statutes, regulations, etc.
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Secondary Source Research Books in the Law Library – Always start
with Lexcalibur: http://lexcalibur.lib.law.umich.edu/ Keywords/Table of Contents Subject Headings
E.g., Internet law and legislation; Computer Networks law and legislation; Intellectual Property
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Secondary Source Research Books Lists in Law Library – Computers
and the Internet List of important works in Law Library, but
not comprehensive – place to start Under “Reference Resources,” “Books
Lists,” “Secondary Sources,” (http://www.law.umich.edu/library/refres/bibliographies/2dysrcs/secondarysourcesindex.htm#d-j)
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Secondary Source Research Books in other libraries on campus,
such as Graduate Library – Mirlyn covers all libraries except Law and Business: http://mirlyn.lib.umich.edu/ Keyword Covers legal aspects and non-
legal aspects of relevant topics
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Google Book Project/Mbooks UM Library collections currently being
scanned in full (for materials out of copyright) and in limited view or snippets (for material still in copyright) - http://books.google.com/ & http://mirlyn.lib.umich.edu Produces searchable Index of books,
allowing full-text searching of keywords Researcher can then retrieve paper copy
if material relevant & want to see more Law Library collections not yet scanned
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Secondary Source Research
Law Reviews/Journals: Note that there does not exist one single database that comprehensively covers all the law journals Instead, you must use a
combination of tools/databases
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Secondary Source Research - Articles Free online articles:
Law Reviews/Journals - http://www.jurist.law.pitt.edu/sg_cyb.htm#Reviews Michigan Telecommunications and
Technology Law Review Berkeley Technology Law Journal
SSRN Cyberspace Law Abstracts Choose “Legal Scholarship Network” from
menu Choose “Subject Matter” Choose “Cyberspace Law”
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Secondary Source Research - Articles Law Library’s Electronic Resources
List - http://www.law.umich.edu/library/eres/ereslist/ereslistindex.htm Licensed online resources; access limited
to UM Community Full- text:
Lexis/Westlaw HeinOnline JSTOR
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Secondary Source Research - Indexes Index to Legal Periodicals and
Books Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals LegalTrac Proquest
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Secondary Source Research – Research Guides Jurist/Cyberspace Law (
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/sg_cyb.htm): Links to news, books, articles, etc.
LLRX.com Search engines State & Federal Law International Law Comparative & Foreign Law
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Primary Law Research
U.S. Federal & State International Law Foreign Law
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U.S. Federal and State Law Federal
Legislation/Regulations/Case Law GPO Access (
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/index.html)
• Provides links to other offiicial web sites, such as US Supreme Court (http://www.supremecourtus.gov/)
Cornell LII (http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/federal/)
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U.S. Federal and State Law
Findlaw for Legal Professionals (http://lp.findlaw.com/)
Lexisone (http://www.lexisone.com/) Free web resources that include federal case law
LexisNexis Academic/Legal Research (Access limited to UM community)(http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe)
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U.S. Federal and State Law Federal: Legislative History (Bills,
Reports, Hearings, etc.) and Bill tracking Library of Congress/Thomas (
http://thomas.loc.gov/) LexisNexis Congressional/Legislative
Histories, Bills & Laws (Access limited to UM community)(http://web.lexis-nexis.com/congcomp/)
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U.S. Federal and State Law State
Legislation/Regulations/Case Law Cornell LII (
http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/states/index.html)
Findlaw for Legal Professionals (http://www.findlaw.com/11stategov/)
Lexisone (http://www.lexisone.com/) Free web resources that include statel case law
LexisNexis Academic/Legal Research (Access limited to UM community)(http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe)
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U.S. Federal and State Law Gateway/Database sties
Firstgov (http://www.firstgov.gov) Allows searcing of” millions of web pages from
federal and state governments, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.”
Findlaw (http://www.findlaw.com) Law portal with own search engine
Catalaw (http://www.catalaw.com) “Catalog of catalogs of worldwide law on the Internet.”
Regulations.gov (http://www.regulations.gov) Locate and comment on U.S. Federal agency
regulations USPTO (http://www.uspto.gov)
Patent & Trademark searches
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U.S. Federal and State Law Specialized Resources (Licensed and
available to UM community) Electronic versions of looseleaf services,
covering specialized areas of law (http://www.law.umich.edu/library/eres/ereslist/bycategory/ebooks.htm CCH OmniTax Online Library CCH Business & Finance CCH Internet Health & Human Resources
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U.S. Federal and State Law Records & Briefs
Federal Courts – US Supreme Court U.S. SCt.Records & Briefs, 1832-1978:
PDF documents, access restricted to UM community (http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/umich_law?db=SCRB)
Lexis (Gendfed; Briefs) 1979 Westlaw (SCT_Breifs) 1990/91- Microfiche in Law Library, 1832-present
(Call No. Micro-10 S1) See Reference Desk for help
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U.S. Federal and State Law
Federal Courts – Others Law Library does not have access to
Court of Appeals or District Court documents
State Courts – Michigan Supreme Court Online, 2001/2002 –
(http://courts.michigan.gov/supremecourt/Clerk/msc_orals.htm)
Paper in Law Library, 1854-present (Call No. Records & Briefs) See Reference Desk for help
State Courts – Others Law Library does not carry
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U.S. Federal and State Law Call individual federal or state courts and
for a fee obtain copies of documents Pacer (http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov)
For-fee database of online full-text records, briefs, etc. for all US Federal courts
Law Library does not have access Can sign up individually and use personal
credit card – fees are minimal Not all Federal Courts participate
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U.S. Federal and State Law Focused Google search
Search case name in quotations Case may be posted by a blogger or a
party involved If all else fails: Check to see if
specialized case reporter is in paper in Law Library E.g., BNA’s Patent, Trademark &
Copyright Journal (PTCJ) is available in paper, 1973 - [Eng Per B_N_A's]
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International Law/Treaties Key questions to locating a treaty:
Is it bilateral or multilateral? Is the U.S. a party? What is the date?
See: Accidental Tourist table, Ch. 6; pgs. 133-134. [Online in Lexcalibur and paper in Ref Coll Bibliog Accident]
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Treaties
US a party? Start with US Treaties in Force
http://www.state.gov/s/l/treaty/treaties/ UST TIAS UNTS (multilateral/bilateral) KAV International Legal Materials (ILM)
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Treaties
United States Treaties (UST) Paper: 1950 – [JX8 9 U58.3 A]
10+ time lag in publication Online: Treaties and Agreements
Library/HeinOnline, 1950-1984, PDF documents http://www.heinonline.org/HOL/Index?collection=ustreaties
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Treaties
TIAS – Like a slip opinion Paper through 1996 (10 yr time
lag) Online/PDF 1996- :
http://www.state.gov/s/l/treaty/tias/
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Treaties
Kavass (KAV): United States Treaty Index & Hein Microfiche Series Master Guide & various indexes
Online: Treaties and Agreements Library/HeinOnline, PDF documents http://www.heinonline.org/HOL/Index?collection=ustreaties KAV 0001-7503 (1987-2006)
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Treaties
UN Treaties – UNTS Multilateral and bilaterial, to which US
may or may not be a party Paper: United Nations Treaty Series
(UNTS), 1946- [JX9 UN.8 V.1] League of Nations Treaty Series (LNTS),
1929-1946 [Micro-10 LLMC 79-454]
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Treaties
UN Treaty Collection - Electronic Resource List (Mostly PDF documents) (http://www.law.umich.edu/library/eres/ereslist/intl/un.htm) : International Law/Treaties Mulitlaterial Treaties Deposited with the
Secretary-General (paper (Ref CollIndexes Multilat) or online).
UNTS 1946- [JX9 UN.8 V.1] & Online
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Government Documents
E.g., United Nations (UN), World Trade Organization (WTO), European Union (EU), etc.
Typically the best place to start is the organization’s website See Law Library’s Electronic
Resources List: http://www.law.umich.edu/library/eres/ereslist/ereslistindex.htm
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Government Documents UM Library Documents Center -
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/ Inter-govenrmental Organizations (IGOs)
(http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/intl.html#IGOs) EU – Europa (portal server) Eur-lex
(Legislation, Case Law, Treaties, etc) UN – Official Document System (ODS)
Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) (http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/intl.html#listsNGOs)
Statistics (http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/stats.html)
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Foreign Law
Law of jurisdictions outside of the U.S. 200+ non-US jurisdictions
General sources: Reynolds & Flores
Best starting place for foreign law Multi-volume set; also online at Electronic
Resources List Introduction to Foreign Legal Research
UM Law Library Research Guide: http://www.law.umich.edu/library/refres/resguides/pdfs/foreign.pdf
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Foreign Law
Foreign legal citations can look weird 1995 (1) SACR 45 (CC)
South African Criminal Reports, Constitutional Court
§191 Nr. 5 ZPO Zivilprozeßordnung (civil procedure code
of Germany) Clunet 122 no. 3:585-597 ’95
Journal du Droit International (France) 13 Gr.B. 408 (1901)
The Green Bag
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Foreign Law
Sources to help you identify weird cites World Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations Noble’s International Guide to the Law
Reports Bieber’s Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals
(Online at Electronic Resources List) BlueBook
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Foreign Law
Locating sources of foreign primary law: Reynolds & Flores
Paper [Ref Coll Bibliog Reynolds] Online – Electronic Resources List
Lexcalibur Online sources
Compiled Foreign Law links – Electronic Resources List/Foreign & Comparative Law: http://www.law.umich.edu/library/eres/ereslist/ereslistindex.htm
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Foreign Law
Foreign Primary Law on the Web (U. of Houston) http://www.law.uh.edu/libraries/fi/foreignlaw.html
Compilation of Foreign Laws by Country (Harvard) http://www.law.harvard.edu/library/services/research/guides/international/web_resources/foreignA.php
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Foreign Law
Locating foreign periodical sources Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals LegalTrac Index to Legal Periodicals and
Books Don’t look for periodical articles on
Lexcalibur!
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Law Firms
Hieros Gamos (http://www.hg.org) Collection of law firm links and legal information based on practice area (such as Computer Law; Technology & Cyberspace Law)
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Background Materials
UM Law Library’s Internet Legal Research Guide (http://www.law.umich.edu/library/refres/resguides/pdfs/internet.pdf)
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Finals Tips
Keep a research log! Be sure to properly cite your sources –
do not plagiarize! Stop by the Reference Desk for further
help: Staffed 9am-midnight, 7 days/week Librarians available Mon-Wed, 10-
6pm; Thur-Fri, 10-5pm, and Sunday, 2-6pm
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