Fundamental Sources | Corpus Juris Secundum
Great places to begin or expand your research

| C.J.S. is published by West Publishing Company (now Thomson-West). It is one of the 2 national legal encyclopedias.
| THE INDEX The C.J.S. General Index is a multi-volume soft bound set of books usually found at the end of the set of main volumes. Encyclopedias, including C.J.S., provide a topic and section number. If the topic and section number was Witnesses, Section 57, the researcher should locate the main volume containing the topic Witnesses, and find section 57. Sometimes the index will provide signals, such "THIS INDEX" or "SEE CONTRACTS, SUPRA." These signals tell the researcher that the subject is covered somewhere else in the set of indexes. The soft bound indexes. are replaced every year with new sets. around June or July, the publisher offers a softbound update to the index. Your library may or may not subscribe to that index update. But always check to see if one is located with the other sets of index volumes.
| THE MAIN VOLUME The main volumes are hard bound. The topics contained within are listed on the spines of the books. Encyclopedias are made-up of two elements: commentary and footnotes. The commentary, at the top of the page, will discuss the topic. After most sentences, a small raised number is provided. This number refers to the footnotes at the bottom of the page. If the small number is 6, the researcher would find the corresponding footnote number 6 at the bottom of the page. The footnotes contain references to other authority, such as cases, statutes, regulations, rules, and additional secondary sources. These sources are relevant to the sentence that contained the footnote reference number.
| MORE . . . Always check the pocket part of the main volume. If the set is older, the pocket part may become too thick for the volume. In such a case, the publisher will modify the pocket part to become a soft bound supplement. The supplement will be kept on the shelf next to the volume it is updating.