INTRODUCTION TO
U.S. LEGAL METHODS FOR FOREIGN LAWYERS
This page is intended to
provide you with some resources for basic information on the workings of
the US legal system and other materials helpful to foreign attorneys
wishing to study or practice in the United States. It is not intended to
provide legal advice.
(under construction)
I. Helpful Texts
II. Courses and Programs
III. Reference Materials
IV. Associations and Consortia
Involved in Graduate Legal Education for Foreign Lawyers
V. The United States Legal
System
VI. Research
VII. Writing
VIII. Substantive Law
I. Helpful Texts
Burnham, William J., Introduction
to the Law and Legal System of the United States (2d Ed. West 1999)
Clark, David S.,
and Tugrul Ansay, eds. Introduction to the Law of the United States
(2d ed. Kluwer, 2002).
II. Courses and Programs
American
Institute for Legal Education
LLM Guide (from the University of
Leiden). An elegant website.
Programs for
Foreign Lawyers (from JURIST)
III. Reference Materials
Introduction
to Legal Education in the U. S.
Introduction
to United States Law (from the University of San Francisco Law School)
IV. Associations and Consortia
Involved in Graduate Legal Education for Foreign Lawyers
Association of American Law
Schools
American Bar Association
V. The United States Legal
System
A. Basics
Guide
to Law Online: United States (from the Law Library of Congress)
Introduction
to the United States Legal System (from the 'Lectric Law Library)
Introduction
to the United States Legal System
An
Introduction to the United States Legal System (from Queen's
University). Includes discussion of the Constitution, the separation
of powers doctrine, and the court system.
United
States Legal System
The
United States Legal System (Powerpoint presentation) (may not
display in all browsers)
B. Some History of the United
States
Presidents
and States of the United States
C. The Constitution.
The Constitution is the
founding document of the United States, and provides the authority for
all federal action, executive, legislative and judicial. Through the
14th Amendment, it also applies to the actions of the various states of
the United States.
The Law Library of Congress, U.
S. Constitution
National Archives and Records
Administration, The
Constitution of the United States
The
Constitution for the United States: Its Sources and Application
D. The Federal Judiciary
The
Federal Judiciary Homepage
Internet
Legal Resource Guide United States Federal and State Courts
This site assists you in finding the texts of federal and state
court decisions. Much of this information duplicates the materials
available in LEXIS and WESTLAW.
United
States Judiciary (from the Law Library of Congress)
Overview
of the Court System
E. The President and the
Executive Branch
The
Executive Branch
The
Presidency
F. The Legislative Branch (the
House of Representatives and the Senate)
The
Congress (from About.com)
IPL
Internet Reference: The Congress
G. Political Philosophy and
History
Federalism
in the United States
Includes some discussion of
the origins and meaning of federalism in the US system.
IPL
Ready Reference Collection: Historical Documents
VI. Research.
The Internet now provides many good introductions to domestic, foreign,
international and comparative legal research. Here is a sampling of some
of them.
General
Legal
Research and Writing Page
Federal Law
Resources
GPO
Access: Federal Information by Topic
Thomas (From the Library of Congress)
State Law
Resources
State and Local
Government On the Net (from Seattle Public Library)
Municipal Law
Resources
Municipal Codes
Online (from Seattle Public Library)
State and Local
Government On the Net (from Seattle Public Library)
Special Topics
International
Law In General
Foreign and Comparative
Law
VII. Writing
Legal
Research and Writing Page
A. Texts
Association of Legal Writing Directors Manual. LSU Law Center, like several
other schools, has adopted the ALWD
Manual for legal citation. It is taught in the first year legal
research and writing course.
A Uniform System of Citation.
This volume, called "the Bluebook", is the traditional manual for academic legal citation. It is published by the law students at four
different law schools: Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Yale, and
Columbia and is also used widely. If you attend LSU Law Center as an LLM
or MCL student you will need to use the Bluebook in the research papers
and/or thesis that you write while you are here. In addition, you may need to use it to decipher
citations in law reviews. Several works are available to assist with interpretation of the
rules in the Bluebook and they may be helpful to you. Try:
Criticisms of the Bluebook have
become fairly standard in the past ten years. See AALL
Citation Format Committee Report and Yolanda
Jones' article. Karla's
Guide to Citation Style Guides is also helpful, although not limited
to law.
Other citation formats also
exist. See Dr. Tavel's
Self-Help Legal Citation Guides. The
Association of Legal Writing Directors has also developed a format.
Citation to Internet sources is
increasing. Candace
Elliott Person's study is helpful, as is Peter
Maggs' study of the impact of the Internet on legal bibliography. See
also Pearl
Rozenberg's "The Truth is Out there".
U. S. legal practitioners
generally do not use The Bluebook. Instead,
they rely on manuals of
citation and style issued by bar associations or the Supreme Courts of
their states. Below are some state Supreme Court manuals.
If you write an article or essay
for a U.S. law review or journal you must be aware of any special citation
formats that the law review or journal uses. Most U. S. law reviews
use the Bluebook.
For citation to non-U.S. legal
materials, there are also some guides available. See A
Citation Manual for European Community Materials. In addition, the
Bluebook contains a section devoted to international and foreign legal
material citation.
Deciphering citations.
You can decipher law review and
opinion abbreviations by looking in various guides already listed here,
such as the Bluebook. A helpful online guide to citations is the
LawNet Citation Guide.
You can also find citation abbreviations in Black's Law Dictionary
and in Bieber's Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations (5th edition),
both available in the Law Library.
Bieber's Dictionary of Legal
Abbreviations. KF 246 .B5 2001
Black's Law Dictionary.
KF 156 .B53 1999
You should consider buying your
own copy of Black's Law Dictionary or another standard law
dictionary for reference purposes. The Law Library has copies of the
standard dictionaries in its collection, which you can examine before
making your purchase.
VIII.
Substantive Law
CALI (Center for Computer Assisted Legal
Instruction).. This site provides links to "lessons" intended to
assist the law student in reviewing substantive law concepts in various
areas. I used these materials extensively when I was preparing for the
bar.
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