Where You Have Been
The average student spends
in importance for exam preparation
2.9
Corpus Juris Secundum (C.J.S.)
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INTRODUCTION
Corpus Juris Secundum has the following key points:
C.J.S. is a national legal encyclopedia
As an encyclopedia, C.J.S. discusses almost every area of law, then refers the researcher to other forms of authority (including law) through the footnotes.
Always start in the index
C.J.S. has a multi-volume index titled the General Index.
C.J.S. is published by West Publishing Company
This is important because West generally utilizes a special research system called the Key Number System. Unfortunately, West chose not to fully incorporate this system into C.J.S. However, more recent editions of C.J.S. do refer to relevant Key Numbers. You will become familiar with this later.
C.J.S. is secondary authority
Because it is not law, C.J.S. is considered secondary authority.
QuickView: Corpus Juris Secundum
Demonstration
CLICK HERE for an Introductory Tour of C.J.S.
Lecture Notes . . .
Corpus Juris Secundum
As with the previous Am. Jur. 2d exercise, it's very important that you read all the information provided in this exercise, then answer the Assignment questions as you go.
The common way to refer to this set of books is by the initials: C.J.S.
As mentioned in this exercise, C.J.S. is published by West Publishing Company. Am. Jur. 2d is published by Lawyer's Cooperative Publishing Company. But why is it important for you to know that?
The reason is simple. They use two very different, but very good, research systems. Publications by West utilize the Key Number System. Publications by Lawyer's Cooperative are part of the Total Client Service Library research system. Knowing this difference will make you a better researcher as we expand into different research materials later in the program.
It should be noted that Westlaw (and Lexis) make structural and design changes to their content fairly frequently. A good examl of this is how Westlaw deals with supplements. Originally, Westlaw included supplements in its online content, but then, when their parent company obtained Am. Jur. 2d, they stopped updating the online content for a while in C.J.S. (The thought was that they were going to just let C.J.S. wither on the vine and die since they now owned a better encyclopedia.) However, the supplements are now back. Just go to the bottom of any article and scroll down until you find the Cumulative Supplement heading.
You are certain to experience these sorts of modifications as you use Westlaw and Lexis. Don't let it frustrate you. Just go with the flow, and be flexible.
ViewPoint
Compare Am. Jur. 2d and C.J.S.
Commonly Asked Questions . . .
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Law Library Lab . . .
We recommend that you use the Law Library Lab for C.J.S. both before starting the law library exercises and after you have completed the exercises (for review). You can always revisit the Labs. Just click on the Labs button and navigate to C.J.S., or select from the options below:
CLICK HERE for the C.J.S. Lab (Non-Flash)
Troubleshooting:
If you have problems viewing the Law Library Lab in Internet Explorer, try the following:
1. Click on Tools
2. Click on Compatibility View
In some versions of Internet Explorer, you can simple click on the green Compatibility View icon to the right of the address bar. It has the appearance of a broken page.
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Time Sheets
You are required to keep track of your billable hours when working on legal research and writing assignments and to turn them in with your written assignments. Click on the examples of Time Sheets below to zoom in and compare. Yours should look like the Good example.
Exercise Answers
Click the Answers tab to reveal suggested responses to the exercise in this section of the textbook.But don't look until you have attempted to complete the exercise first.