Research Materials In The United

States
Many of our laws, particularly political
and commercial law, originated from the
American legal system.
One consults laws and decisions of the
United States only if our laws were
copied from them and its principles of law
were adopted in the Philippines.
Example: The concept of due process of
law found in Our Constitution was

Common Law vs Civil Law Systems

Common law
Is generally uncodified. This means that
there is no comprehensive compilation
of legal rules and statutes. While
common law does rely on some scattered
statutes, which are legislative decisions, it
is largely based on precedent, meaning
the judicial decisions that have already
been made in similar cases. These
precedents are maintained over time
through the records of the courts as well
as historically documented in collections

Civil Law,
in contrast, iscodified. Countries with civil law systems
have comprehensive, continuously updated legal codes
that specify all matters capable of being brought before a
court, the applicable procedure, and the appropriate
punishment for each offense. Such codes distinguish
between different categories of law: substantive law
establishes which acts are subject to criminal or civil
prosecution, procedural law establishes how to determine
whether a particular action constitutes a criminal act, and
penal law establishes the appropriate penalty. In a civil
law system, the judges role is to establish the facts
of the case and to apply the provisions of the
applicable code

A. Case Law
Federal Court Decisions
Supreme Court
US Federal Supreme Court decisions are officially
published in the US Report and its alternative texts in
the Supreme Court Reporter published commercially
by West Publishing Company
US Supreme Court Reports,Lawyers Ed. Published
by Lexis Publishing Company.
US Law Week(USLW) a looseleaf service published by
the Bureau of National Affairs, prints important current
decisions of the US Federal Supreme Court and digests of
decisions of the federal appellate and district courts, and

Court of Appeals and District Court

Decisions
The intermediate appellate courts are the US
Court of Appeals divided into 13 circuits
In the federal court system, the general trial
courts are known as US District Courts in 94
districts.
These courts have no official reports , except for
slip decisions.
The decisions of these courts are published
unofficially by West Publishing in The Federal

Special Federal Courts

There are several specialized trial courts such as
the Bankruptcy Courts, The Court of Federal
Claims and The Court of International Trade.
Bankruptcy Courts
Federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction over
bankruptcy cases involving personal, business, or
farm bankruptcy. This means a bankruptcy case
cannot be filed in state court. Through the
bankruptcy process, individuals or businesses
that can no longer pay their creditors may either
seek a court-supervised liquidation of their
assets, or they may reorganize their financial

These courts have no official reports , except for

slip decisions.
The decisions of these courts are published
unofficially by West Publishing in The Federal
Reports , Federal Supplements and Federal
Rules Decisions which contain a limited number
of US District Court decisions.

Decision of State Courts

Decisions of the State Courts are published
in two forms:
1. as official reports , issued by the
courts as authoritative texts of their
decisions and and as
2. unofficial reports issued by
commercial publishers

WEST LAW and LEXIS

are the leading online system in legal
research.
West law
http://international.westlaw.com
Lexis http://www.lexis.com/
They're available on subscription basis.
Both provide access to a wide range of
documents including full text of opinions
from federal and state courts as well as

The major comprehensive unofficial

reporting system is the West
Publishing Company's National
Reporter System and the online
systems of Lexis and WestLaw.
The National Reporter System includes
a series of regional reporters publishing
the decisions of appellate courts of the
50 states and the District of Columbia.

This system divides the United States

into seven regions and publishes the
decisions of the appellate courts of the
states in each region together in one
series of volumes

Federal Constitution
The Constitution of the United States of America is
the supreme law of the United States. Empowered with
the sovereign authority of the people by the framers and
the consent of the legislatures of the states, it is the
source of all government powers, and also provides
important limitations on the government that protect the
fundamental rights of United States citizens.
The text of the US Constitution is found in several
publications, from pamphlets to annotated texts, from
constitutional treaties to hornbooks as appendices. It is
also found in the beginning volumes of the US Code
(USC), the US Code Annotated (USCA) and the US
Code Service (USCS).

The United States Code (USC) is a consolidation and

codification by subject matter of
thegeneralandpermanentlaws of the United States. It is
prepared by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the United
States House of Representatives.
After the U.S. Congress passes a bill and the president signs it into
law, it is typically codified, i.e., placed into the United States Code
(USC), the official version of federal statutory law. The USC
includes 50 subject titles, which are subdivided into chapters and
sections. The USC contains the codified legislation, as well as such
elements as authority references, historical notes, enactment dates,
cross-references, tables, and an index.
Since 1927, West has published an annotated version of the USC, the
United States Code Annotated (USCA). Annotations are summaries
of published court decisions that have interpreted the section. In the
USCA, the annotations follow the text of the section. The USCA and its
indexes are updated more frequently than the USCpocket part
inserts and interim pamphlets are issued throughout the year.

Constitution of The US Annotated

One of the most extensive and authoritative volume is the
Constitution of the United States of America,
Analysis and Interpretation, edited by Johnny H.
Killian and published by the Congressional Research
Service. contains legal analysis and interpretation of the
United States Constitution, based primarily on Supreme
Court case law.

https://www.congress.gov/constitution-annotated/

There are two commercially

published,unofficialcodes:
theUnited States Code Service(USCS) from
Lexis; and
theUnited States Code Annotated(USCA)
from West.
Unlike the official USC or free, unofficial versions
of the USC online, the USCS and USCA
areannotated, they provide references to
primary and secondary sources and cross-

US SUPREME COURT DIGEST

U.S. Supreme Court Digest, Lawyers' Edition
published by Lexis, organizes the case law
alphabetically with headnotes arranged under modern
titles of law. It also includes a Table of Cases, which lists
alphabetically all decisions, specifying Digest sections
where headnotes are located.
United States Supreme Court Digest published by
West Publishing
Digest of United States Supreme Court Reports
(LexisNexis) and United States Supreme Court
Digest (West), provide ways of locating cases by name
or by subject.

http://uscode.house.gov/
http://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes.php#codified
https://lscontent.westlaw.com/images/content/FindStatutes10.pdf
https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/constitution
https://www.congress.gov/constitution-annotated/
Constitution of The US Annotated
The Law Library: Revisiting Traditional Legal Research Method

American Law Reports (ALR) published

by the Lawyers Cooperative Publishing
Company, contain the complete text of
selected court opinions with extensive
commentaries or annotations.