Law School Study Aids

There are a variety of study aids that are available to law students to help prepare for classes and exams. Legal secondary sources are materials written by legal commentators and scholars (including law professors, judges and lawyers). These sources try to discuss, explain and analyze law and legal concepts. Often these sources are great places to start legal research in a topic as they often provide great background information and break down the legal concepts in easy to understand ways. Further, these sources will usually provide citations to case law within the analysis. Therefore, starting with a secondary source can help direct one toward further research.

Researchers should remember, that while extremely helpful, secondary sources are only persuasive authority when cited in court. This means that courts may take the authority into consideration when making a decision, but are not required to do so (when the court must take authority into consideration it is considered mandatory or binding authority).

The majority of study aids are either treatises, hornbooks or nutshells. Treatises, hornbooks and nutshells differ in the level of detail with which each type of secondary source covers a specific area of law. Treatises provide the most in depth coverage, while nutshells provide the least. There are many of these study aids located in the Westminster Law Library, either at the reference desk or in the circulating collection.
Treatises provide the highest level of analysis on a specific area of law. They often provide extensive references to related sources in footnotes and appendices. Treatises are usually published in multi-volume works.

Hornbooks are typically secondary sources written by law professors with the specific audience of law students as the target audience. They are usually written in simple prose and condense a specific area of law into a single volume work. Hornbooks usually do not provide as in depth analysis as treatises, but do serve as great study aids or for background information.

Nutshells are usually short, paperback volumes that address a specific area of law. They often provide less references to further sources and ultimately provide the broadest overview of the three types of secondary sources. Nutshells provide great simplistic covering of difficult legal concepts and thus, are great options for non-lawyers looking to research a particular area of law.

There are also commercial outlines which can be very helpful in identifying black letter law. Most of these outlines are geared toward certain casebooks. While these outlines can be helpful, they should supplement, not replace, your own reading of the casebook.

The links below provide resources available online and in the Westminster Law Library to help you study. Although study aids can be very helpful, they cannot replace the information you get by going to class, reading for class and studying with other students. There is a danger in relying on study aids rather than putting in the actual work it takes to learn the legal concepts required by your classes. With that note of caution, study aids can be very valuable in helping you learn while in law school. Use the information and links below to find an appropriate study aid for your needs.

Links:

• University of Chicago: Hornbooks and Study Aids
• Villanova University Law School: Study Aids
• Saint Louis University School of Law: Study Aids in Law School

University of Denver Westminster Law Library Study Aid Collection
1) The Examples and Explanations Series covers a variety of legal topics including: admin law, agency, partnership, bankruptcy, civil procedure, constitutional, contracts, criminal procedure, environmental law, evidence, torts. This series has legal questions and answers to help students better learn legal topics.

2) Hornbook Series covers Administrative law, civil procedure, constitutional law, criminal law, criminal procedure, evidence, etc.

3) Emanuel is a set of commercial hornbooks written on a variety of legal subjects.

4) Nolo creates something similar to nutshell books on legal materials and are usually written in easy to understand language aimed at the public

5) Nutshell Series (West Publishing Company) are somewhat like mini-hornbooks that explain the law in a condensed format. Their size--5" x 7"--may make them seem more palatable and less intimidating. Many of them give you just enough law so that you have a clear understanding of course rules, concepts and policy

6) Glannon GuidesThe Glannon Guides form a new series conceived by Joe Glannon, author of the highly successful Examples & Explanations titles "Civil Procedure" and "Law of Torts." Through multiple choice Q&A, one can test your knowledge and use the detailed explanations of right and wrong answers to analyze your responses.

7) CALI is short for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction. These are interactive computer exercises and questions that test your knowledge of the material and help improve your test-taking skills. The CALI lessons provide interactive exercises where you enter responses to questions based on fact patterns and receive an instantaneous evaluation of your answer, prompts to guide you to, or, the "right" answer. You learn the law and how to apply the law to a body of facts--the key to doing well on exams. Some of the CALIs are mini-tutorials on a particular subject. Most CALIs tell you how long it should take to complete the exercises, and they range anywhere from 10 minutes to one hour.

8)LexisNexis provides a variety of study aids.

9) Westlaw also has study aids. You can search in the secondary source database, and topical secondary source database and topical highlights databases to find helpful study aid products. Westlaw also provides 1L outline Shells.

Written by Brittany Cronin, Law Librarian Fellow