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Finding a Topic for Your Comment, Note or Law School Paper
Specialized Research #8 - Dorraine Zief Law Library Handout
Contents
[A Word About Lexis & Westlaw]
General Considerations & Challenges
Your goal will be to write a comment, note, or paper that has something new to say, that is
of manageable scope, and is interesting enough to merit as much as two years
of your life.
The challenges are that the universe of potential topics is almost unlimited, that you are
new enough to the law that you don't yet have a feel for many of the unexplored
issues, and that you will, at the outset, be searching for something that can't
be stated in discrete, descriptive terms.
This guide lists several techniques for identifying potential topics. Its main focus is on sources
that might reveal what is new or what is unsettled.
[Return to Contents]
More Advice
These two books offer more advice:
- Eugene Volokh, Academic Legal Writing: Law Review Articles,
Student Notes, and Seminar Papers, and Getting on Law Review, 3d ed. (New York: Foundation
Press, 2007). See especially pages 9 - 38. There are excerpts
of Academic Legal Writing are available at Prof. Volokh's site, but you'll
get more if you read (or at least skim) the whole book. The Zief Library's
copy is at KF 250 .V64 2007 Law Open Reserve, or you can buy your own for about $30
from the Thomson⁄West site.
- Elizabeth Fajans & Mary R. Falk, Scholarly Writing for Law Students: Seminar
Papers, Law Review Notes, and Law Review Competition Papers, 3d ed.
(St. Paul, MN: Thomson⁄West, c2005). See especially pages 14 - 45. The
Zief Library's copy is at KF 250 .F35 2005 Law Open Reserve, or you can buy your
own for about $45 from the Thomson⁄West
site.
Lexis's and Westlaw's literature for law reviews also discusses how to use their systems for finding
topics. Some of that advice is included here. For more detail, check the materials
in Law Review &
Journal Note Topic Selection (PDF; 2 pages) and Westlaw's
Writing a Law
Review Article (PDF; 4 pages).
Techniques and Sources for Finding Potential Topics
Ask an Expert
Professors at USF —
Ask those you know, and any others who teach or research in areas that might interest
you. (The USF Law Review Handbook has a list matching professors with topic
areas.) Practitioners —
Ask lawyers in law firms, government agencies, or public-interest and advocacy organizations
what important issues remain open that they'd research if only they had
the time.
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Browse General Legal News Sources
General legal
newsletters can alert you to new trends, unresolved problems, and reports of
interesting new cases. Opinion pieces can introduce you to provocative new ideas
and issues. Here are some selected news and opinion sources:
United States Law Week (For USF law students. If you're off-campus,
see the remote access instructions.) —
Legal news on all topics from all jurisdictions. ABA Journal online —
Breaking stories on many topics. FindLaw's Writ —
Opinion pieces from regular columnists, most of whom are legal scholars. Jurist's Forum —
Another source of opinion pieces from law professors. Slate's Jurisprudence Stories —
Legal stories from Slate's staff and guest authors. Mondaq —
Short articles, mostly by law firms. Westlaw Bulletin databases —
Westlaw Bulletins summarize "recent federal and state judicial, legislative, and
administrative activities," and are organized by jurisdiction rather
than by topic. The most useful for USF students will be:
WLB
(Westlaw Bulletin; covers all U.S. jurisdictions)
WLB-SCT
(Westlaw Bulletin - U.S. Supreme Court)
WSB-CA
(Westlaw State Bulletins - California)
When you select any of these Bulletins, Westlaw automatically retrieves the most recent news.
You don't need to run a search unless you want to look for specific terms
or change the date range.
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Browse General Legal Blogs
Legal blogs are often on the cutting edge of legal developments. Some offer objective news reports,
and others feature commentary and opinions. A few blogs that cover all sorts
of legal topics listed here. See the section Browse Topic-Specific
Legal Blogs for some ways to find more blogs.
Jurist's "Paper Chase" —
Legal news from the U.S. and other countries, often with links to primary
sources. How Appealing —
Fairly broad coverage of new developments, despite the focus on appellate
litigation. SCOTUSBlog —
Supreme Court news with analysis of pending and decided cases Blawg Republic —
Top posts from multiple legal blogs. Alltop Legal Topics —
Recent posts from a variety of legal blogs. Ninth Circuit Blog —
"Case Summaries and Commentary by Federal Defenders of the Ninth Circuit" California Appellate Report —
"Thoughts on recent Ninth Circuit and California appellate cases from Professor
Shaun Martin at the University of San Diego School of Law."
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Browse Topic-Specific Legal News Sources
If you have a general area of law in mind — even a broad one, like employment law or
intellectual property — these news sources can suggest ideas for topics.
BNA's Topical Newsletters (For USF law students. If you're off-campus, see
the remote access instructions.) —
BNA's newsletters are written by law-savvy reporters and cover the latest news in over two
dozen broad areas of law. Links to these newsletters appear in the United
States Law - By Topic section of the Zief Library's Online
Sources & Databases page. BNA's Web Watch
(For USF law students. If you're off-campus, see the remote access
instructions.) —
Covers legal topics of current interest. Browsing the web materials and documents collected
here by BNA's editors may help you focus your topic. Westlaw Topical Highlights —
Westlaw Topical Highlights are prepared by West editors and summarize recent developments
in about 25 specific areas of law. To see what's available, browse the Directory following
this path:
Legal Periodicals & Current Awareness > Westlaw Highlights &
Bulletins > Westlaw Topical Highlights
Just select any West Topical Highlights database, and Westlaw will automatically display the
latest updates. You can also run your own searches.
Lexis and Westlaw also have current-awareness newsletters from third parties such as Mealey's,
Andrews Publications, Legal Works (Glasser), and others. Most of these newsletters
are not set up for easy browsing, but it's still possible to run broad searches
to retrieve all the articles from recent issues. (Before you search any of these
newsletters, check its information link (the letter "i") to be sure
it is still being updated.)
Mealey's Newsletters via Lexis —
To see what newsletters are available, browse with "Look for a Source" following
this path:
Legal > Legal News > Mealey's Legal News (Full-Text)
To browse recent articles —
Select a specific newsletter in your area (e.g., Copyright: Mealey's Litigation
Report). Then, run a date-restricted search using a descriptive
word from the name of the newsletter, e.g.,
copyright and date aft 4/2008
Andrews Publications Newsletters via Westlaw
To see what newsletters are available, browse the Directory following this path:
Legal Periodicals & Current Awareness > Andrews Publications Newsletters
Then, select a newsletter that interests you. (Before you search, check the information
link (the letter "i") to be sure the newsletter is still being
updated.)
To browse recent articles —
After selecting a specific newsletter in your area (e.g., Andrews Privacy Litigation
Reporter), run a date-restricted search using the phrase "what's
inside" and a descriptive word from the name of the newsletter, e.g.,
privacy and "what's inside" and date(after 12/2007)
This brings up the tables of contents of the most recent newsletter issues. Follow
the links to individual articles that interest you.
Other Publishers' Newsletters via Westlaw
To see what newsletters are available, browse the Directory following this path:
Legal Periodicals & Current Awareness > Legal Newsletters Listed by Title
(Select any newsletter on an area of law that interests you.)
To browse recent articles —
After selecting a specific newsletter (e.g., Legal Works' Cyberspace Lawyer),
run a date-restricted search using a descriptive word from the name of
the newsletter, e.g.,
cyberspace and date(after 4/2006)
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Browse Topic-Specific Legal Blogs
There are countless legal blogs devoted to specific topics. The good ones will clue you in to new
developments and current controversies. The following sites will help you find
topical legal blogs.
ABA Journal Blawg Directory
Pick an area of law you are interested in, or look at the "Legal Theory" or
"Law Professors" categories. Justia Blawg Search
Pick an area of law, or look at the "Legal Theory" or "Law Professor" categories. LexMonitor
"A daily review of law blogs and journals" organized by topical "practice areas." Law Professor Blog network
About 50 topical blogs, from administrative law to workplace law.
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Enter the Ideological Debate
Engaging with the views of a professor, lawyer, or law student who is
passionate about an issue can help you focus your topic. It can be particularly
useful to seek out views of those you disagree with. Two respected organizations
that occupy opposite sides of the ideological spectrum are the American Constitution
Society (more toward the left) and the Federalist Society (more toward the right).
Both have robust web sites and chapters at USF.
American Constitution Society — Research Link —
The new project solicits research topic ideas and lets potential authors browse these ideas.
It's too soon to tell if the project will catch on, but there is also plenty of fodder for
topic ideas elsewhere on the ACS web site. Federalist Society —
The Federalist Society web site does not yet have a project designed to match
students with potential topics, but other features of the site offer plenty of
inspiration for topics.
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Skim Recent Books
Scholarly Books —
Search Ignacio
by subject or key word to look for books in broad areas of law (e.g. Criminal,
Bankruptcy, Privacy) or that interest you. Limit or modify your search by
"Location" to "Law Stacks." Also limit or modify by
"Year" to pick up more recent books. Case Books —
Look at the discussions and notes before and after the cases for indications of unresolved
issues. Latest ALR and ALR Fed Volumes —
The tables of contents in the front of each volume will list topics of current interest
where there has been enough case law to form basis for an ALR Annotation.
For some of these topics, there may be different or even conflicting approaches
to the issues in question.
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Seek Unresolved Issues With Specialized Lexis⁄Westlaw Searches
Both Westlaw and Lexis suggest special law review and case law searches for finding novel
or unresolved issues. (See the next section for techniques for finding circuit
splits.)
These searches retrieve lots of documents, even with a date restriction limiting results to
the last few months. Consider adding topical search terms — even broad
ones such as "discrim!"
Law Review Articles
Westlaw —
JLR
(Journals and Law Reviews) database. Sample search:
"beyond the scope" w/s note or article or comment and date(after 5/2008)
Lexis — "US Law Reviews and Journals, Combined" (LAWREV;ALLUS)
source. Sample search:
"beyond the scope" w/s note or article or comment and date aft 5/2008
Federal Court of Appeals or California Cases
Westlaw —
CTA
(U.S. Courts of Appeals cases) database - or -
Westlaw — CA-CSR
(California reported cases) database. Sample search:
issue or question or matter w/s "first impression" or novel and date(after 5/2008)
Lexis — "US Courts of Appeals Cases, Combined" (GENFED;USAPP)
source - or -
Lexis — "CA Published Cases, Combined" (CAL;CACTSP)
source. Sample search:
issue or question or matter w/s "first impression" or novel and date aft 5/2008
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Look for Jurisdictional Conflicts ⁄ Circuit Splits
Case law, blogs, BNA's
United States Law Week and other legal news sources, the American
Jurisprudence 2d encyclopedia, and ALR (American Law Reports)
can all guide you to circuit splits.
Also, consider
searching ALR (by subject or key word) for any annotations in topics of interest
to you. Most ALR annotations indicate when there is a conflict among jurisdictions.
Split Circuits blog
Professor A. Benjamin Spencer of the University of Richmond School of Law
does short write-ups of noteworthy circuit splits.
United States Law Week (For USF law students. If you're off-campus,
see the remote access instructions.)
Search —
circuit* near split*
to find articles that mention circuit splits — even in passing.
Case Law via Lexis and Westlaw
Lexis — "US Courts of Appeals Cases, Combined" (GENFED;USAPP)
source. Sample search:
court or circuit w/s split and date aft 8/2007
Westlaw —
CTA
(U.S. Courts of Appeals cases) database. Sample search:
court or circuit w/s split and date (after 8/2007)
Selected Legal News Sources on Lexis and Westlaw
Lexis — "Legal News, Current" (LEGNEW;CURNWS)
source - or -
Lexis — ABA's "Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases"
(ABA;PRE-VU)
Source. Sample search:
court or circuit w/s split and date aft 8/2007
Westlaw —
LEGALNP
(Legal newspapers) database - or -
Westlaw — NLJ
(National Law Journal) database - or -
Westlaw — SCT-PREVIEW
(ABA's "Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases") database.
Sample search:
court or circuit w/s split and date (after 8/2007)
American Law Reports and American Jurisprudence 2d on Westlaw
Westlaw —
ALR
(American Law Reports) database - or -
Westlaw — AMJUR
(American Jurisprudence 2d) database. Sample search:
court or circuit w/s split (date restrictions can be problematic in ALR and
AmJur.)
Case books
Review the questions and notes after the cases for references to conflicts among jurisdictions.
[Return to Contents]
Assessing Potential Topics
Make a list of intriguing topics as you go along. If any appeal to you, do some very quick
searches of cases, statutes, books, and law reviews to assess the topic's potential.
Is there enough raw material for you to analyze? Is the issue sufficiently complex
to justify a paper, note or comment? If it seems that the topic has enough depth,
do an initial quick preemption check.
[Return to Contents]
A Word About Lexis & Westlaw
This guide mentions
and links to various Lexis and Westlaw resources. The Zief Law Library's contracts
with Lexis and Westlaw limit our use of Lexis and Westlaw to current students,
faculty, and staff members of the University of San Francisco School of Law.
For information about who may use Lexis and Westlaw, how to arrange your own
subscription, and how to connect to Lexis and Westlaw via the web, see the USF
Law Library's introduction to Lexis and Westlaw.
Authorized users
who follow a Lexis or Westlaw link will first need to sign on to Lexis or Westlaw
before viewing results or coming to the search screen.
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