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Sources of Law
U.S. Government
Precedent
U.S. Judicial System
Research Strategies
100
This is the highest primary source of law in the United States.
What is the U.S. Constitution?
100
These are the two parallel systems of government in the United States.
What are the Federal Government and the State Governments?
100
This is the principle or doctrine that requires judges to decide similar cases in the same way.
What is stare decisis?
100
These are the two parallel judicial systems in the United States.
What are the federal and state judicial systems?
100
This is how many lawyers and law students begin their online research.
What is Google?
200
This is what we call law that is created by the courts.
What is case law or common law.
200
This branch of government can veto legislation.
What is the Executive Branch?
200
All federal and state courts are required to follow precedent from this court.
What is the United States Supreme Court?
200
These are the three levels of courts in both of the parallel U.S. court systems.
What are trial (or district) courts, appellate courts, and supreme (or highest) courts?
200
This is a free online resource for finding cases.
What is Google Scholar? or lp.findlaw.com?
300
This primary source of law consists of many different laws, each of which is usually written in general terms and covers a wide range of circumstances.
What are statutes?
300
This branch of government interprets federal statutes to determine if they are constitutional.
What is the Judicial Branch?
300
This word describes the area within which statutes or cases are binding.
What is a jurisdiction?
300
The United States Courts of Appeal are divided into thirteen of these.
What are Circuits?
300
State statutes can usually be found for free on these sites.
What are state government websites?
400
These are the four primary sources of law.
What are constitutions, statutes, cases, administrative regulations?
400
This branch of government enacts codes or statutes.
What is the Legislative Branch?
400
This word describes the kind of authority the prior decision of a state lower court will be for an appellate court in that same state.
What is persuasive authority.
400
This word describes the kind of authority a decision on a question of federal law from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York will be for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
What is persuasive authority?
400
Federal statutes can be found for free on this site. (Name any one of several.)
What is FDSys or Congress.gov or GPO.gov or lawsource.com or Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute.
500
These are three commonly used secondary sources. (Name any three).
What are legal encyclopedias, treatises, American Law Reports, Restatements of Law, Law Reviews? (Any three will be correct.)
500
These governmental bodies create regulations.
What are Administrative Agencies?
500
This word describes the kind of authority a case decided by a U.S. Court of Appeals in the Seventh Circuit will be for a U.S. District Court in the Seventh Circuit.
What is binding or mandatory authority?
500
This word describes the kind of authority a decision from the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts on a question of Massachusetts state law will be for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
What is persuasive authority?
500
United States Supreme Court cases can be found for free at this website.
What is the website of the United States Supreme Court (www.supremecourt.gov)?