If you’re not an expert researcher or if you don’t have access to a large law library with professional foreign and international law librarians, the key to productive legal research is the “Legal Research Guide,” most of which are created by those professional and expert law librarians, many of whom also have US and foreign law degrees.
For example:
1) NYU’s GlobalLex (sample Researching Canadian Law)
Two recent articles worth reading if you want to research online and recall the past:
Net for Lawyers: Google’s News Search is in Even Worse Condition Than we First Thought, Another in an Unfortunately Growing Series of Articles about Google Search Problems
“The Cobweb: Can the Internet be archived?“ by Jill Lepore, New Yorker, Jan. 26, 2015 issue.
From Dewey B Strategic (always worth reading – not sure if there is an audio version):
Tuesday, June 2, 2015: “Listen up: Isn’t it time for Legal Publishers to Offer Audio News Playlists? Modio Legal Is Open and Ready For Business” (And read the Comments, too.)
Short answer: No. (But your questions do give us ideas for future blog posts!)
Longer answer: The two professional law librarians currently posting to this blog serve a county of 500,000+ residents (and the rest of Oregon – and other states and countries on occasion) and run a public law library so we just don’t have the time to answer everyone’s questions. (But you can visit your own county’s Law Library and research your question!)
Longest, and perhaps more useful, answer for those with legal reference or research questions: Please read the legal research tips we provided in our August 2010 blog post:
“Google Scholar Case Law Evolves“ by Mark Giangrande, Law Librarian blog:
Excerpt: “…. Google is hardly a substitute for any of the commercial databases as it does not have the value-added features such as secondary sources and others. At the same time, anyone searching Scholar’s case law database can do so with a good amount of confidence in my opinion….” [Google Scholar Case Law Evolves]
From the Gallagher Law Library Blog: Alternative Legal Research Databases
“When you think of online legal research, LexisAdvance, WestlawNext, or BloombergLaw probably spring to mind. With summer fast approaching, it may be worthwhile to explore some alternative legal research databases….” [Link to Gallagher Law Library blog post.]
From ABA News: “Site aiming to prevent ‘link rot’ for legal researchers wins 2015 Webby,” by Molly McDonough, 4/27/15:
Excerpt: “A service that enables courts and researchers to make permanent links to research found on the Web has won a Webby Award for best legal site of 2015.
Perma.cc, developed by the Harvard Law School Library and supported by a network of more than 60 law libraries, takes on the widespread problem of broken or defunct Web links, also known as “link rot,” which can that can undermine research by scholars and courts….” [Link to full ABA article.]
“The library is a growing organism.” [Ranganathan, the fifth of “Five Laws of Library Science”]
Visit the new website of the Multnomah Law Library for your legal research adventures. Note that Saturday hours have returned, remote and in-library database access is expanding, and the online catalog will earn its keep as a time-saver.
And don’t forget the Oregon legal research databases I featured in last week’s blog posts, from the State Law Library and OSB.
Oregonians Rejoice: EBSCO Legal Information Reference Center has arrived. (Yes, thank the State of Oregon Law Librarian!)
This database contains NOLO Legal information books and much more.
This database is available to all Oregonians. (Other states, public libraries, and law libraries have their own access protocols.)
It’s easy! Visit the Internet Archive. Click on Web. Enter the URL you want saved into the “Save Page Now” box. Voila!
For example, I linked in a previous blog post to this article: “Never trust a corporation to do a library’s job.”
But, let’s say, the article vanishes in the fullness of time from that particular URL and you can’t find another URL location for it via Google. You will still be able to see the article at the Internet Archive since I used their “Save Page Now” service.
Oregon Legal Research Blog