Upper Class & Graduate Courses
Please contact the instructor if you have any questions about the courses listed below.
Administrative Law Research
[1 credit ]
Letter grade only.
Prerequisite: Lawyering, or currently enrolled in U.S. Legal Research for LL.M. Students.
Course meets first 6½ weeks of the term. Limited enrollment.
This course will focus on practical aspects of the doctrinal Administrative Law course, learning to maneuver through the federal rulemaking process and locating agency adjudications. Students will participate in electronic rulemaking and make use of the Unified Agenda. This course will expand the students' skills in using the legal sources discussed in the administrative law courses by putting the process into action. Students currently enrolled in the Administrative Law course are particularly encouraged to take this course.
Advanced Legal Research in Business Law
Fall 2012 [1 credit ] Matt Morrison
Prerequisite: Lawyering.
Course meets first 6½ weeks of the term. Limited enrollment.
This course will introduce students to online sources for finding corporate business information. Sessions will cover materials generated by the business entity such as annual reports and filings with state and federal agencies, materials issued by regulators, market and industry information, and business news. The focus will be on learning to use business databases, research strategy, and the evaluation of resources.
Advanced Legal Research - International and Foreign Law
Spring 2013 [2 credits ] Thomas Mills
Limited enrollment.
The practice of law continues to become ever more dependent upon a clear understanding of the global context in which it occurs. This course provides an overview of sources, methods, and strategies for researching international and foreign law. Topics to be covered include the various legal systems of the world, public and private international law, the European Union, and the United Nations. The course will be delivered through lectures and hands-on exercises. Selected readings will be available online and on reserve; there is no required textbook. There will be a series of assignments and a final research project in lieu of a final exam. Foreign language ability is not required.
Online Legal Research: Free Sources
[1 credit ]
S-U or letter grade.
Prerequisite: Lawyering or U.S. Legal Research required; LL.M students who have not taken U.S. Legal Research may be admitted subject to instructor approval.
Course meets first 6½ weeks of the term. Limited enrollment.
Free online sources of legal information have proliferated in recent years. This course prepares students to become thoughtful, adaptive researchers who can use these resources to their advantage. Students will learn how to evaluate online content, developing strategies for finding legal and non-legal information, and use free Web-based applications to organize their research and keep current in their fields. In addition to helping students develop practical research skills, this course will consider the role of free resources in the overall legal information context. Weekly problem sets will be assigned, and students will prepare a final project on a topic of their choice (subject to instructor approval).
Online Legal Research: Subscription Sources
[1 credit ]
Prerequisite: Lawyering required for JD students. LL.M. students concurrently enrolled in U.S. Legal Research for LL.M. Students may take this course.
Course meets first 6½ weeks of the term. Limited enrollment.
With the ongoing evolution of legal information, online legal research skills are fundamental. This half-semester course will help students become effective, efficient researchers by developing students' skills and strategies in using subscription-based sources, including BNA, Bloomberg, Loislaw, Westlaw, Lexis and others. We will explore when and how to use various resources, considering their relationship to each other and to traditional print sources. Weekly problem sets will be assigned.
Online Research and Resources
Spring 2013 [1 credit ] Amy Emerson
With the development of the Internet, web-based legal research skills have become increasing important. Lawyers today are expected to have the research skills necessary to effectively and efficiently use these materials. This half-semester course will help students become effective and efficient researchers by developing students’ general online research skills and strategies, and exploring when and how to use free electronic resources in conjunction with paper resources.
Advanced Legal Research
[3 credits ] Team taught by three research services librarians
Prerequisite: Lawyering.
Limited enrollment. Satisfies the writing requirement.
This seminar teaches cutting-edge research techniques to prepare students for practice in the law office of the future. It focuses on desktop electronic legal research and covers U.S., international, and foreign law, as well as multidisciplinary research. It is designed to teach students, whose careers will begin in a period of information transition, how to handle traditional and electronic sources and formats and make efficient choices.
