Cases
Statutes
Regulations
Secondary Sources
Potpourri
100

The short numbered paragraphs, highlighting the points of law in an opinion, written by West editors and found before the text of the opinions in West reporters in print and on Westlaw.

What are headnotes?

100

This official set contains the codified laws of the United States.

What is the United States Code?

100
This official publication contains the codified regulations of the federal administrative agencies.
What is the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)?
100

A source in which you would find scholarly articles on recent legal topics most likely on a narrow issue of law.

What is a law review or journal?

100

This source restates the common law doctrines on a subject using the rules in a majority of jurisdictions.

What is the Restatement?

200

The type of authority of a Michigan Supreme Court decision in the Illinois Supreme Court.

What is persuasive authority?

200
These two unofficial sets contain the laws as found in the U.S. Code, PLUS case summaries and citations to secondary sources.
What are the U.S. Code Annotated (USCA) and the U.S. Code Service (USCS)?
200
This official publication contains proposed and final regulations of federal administrative agencies in chronological order.
What is the Federal Register?
200

A source where you could find .pdf typeset page images of law review articles.

What is HeinOnline?

200

Publisher known for its practitioner-oriented handbooks on Illinois law, which are recognizable by their black paperbound or spiral-bound books.

What is IICLE (or Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education)?

300

This classification system in Westlaw allows you to search for cases by subject from any court in any jurisdiction.

What is the West Key Number system?

300
Tool used to locate a statute if you only have its name (e.g., Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).
What is the "Popular Name Table"?
300

Legislation that defines the scope of an agency's mission and empowers it to perform its functions.

What is enabling legislation or an enabling act?

300
This Legal Dictionary is generally seen as the most authoritative of its kind.
What is Black's Law Dictionary?
300

Used in online Terms and Connectors searching for locating terms within the same sentence.

What is /s?

400

Names of the citators for Westlaw, Lexis, and Bloomberg Law.

What are KeyCite, Shepard's, and BCite?

400
When a federal statute is first published, it is identified by this number.
What is its Public Law Number?
400
A currently updated, free, online unofficial version of the Code of Federal Regulations.
What is the e-CFR?
400

Corbin on Contracts and Prosser and Keeton on the Law of Torts are examples of this type of secondary source.

What is a treatise?

400

The number of the Federal Circuit Court which includes Illinois.

What is 7?

500

Citations to the same case opinion from different reporters are called this.

What are parallel citations?

500
This official set contains the text of federal statutes, as passed, in chronological order (by session of Congress).
What is the United States Statutes at Large?
500
A Web site where members of the public may post comments on proposed federal agency regulations.
What is Regulations.gov?
500

One of the two commercially-published, Illinois-specific legal encyclopedia sets.

What is Illinois Law & Practice or Illinois Jurisprudence?

500

The 37th law passed during the 115th Congress.

What is P.L. 115-37?

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