Legal research

Sources of Law

Law can be created in 3 different ways.

1. By legislative action
   1. The legislature (the Senate and the House of Representatives together) create the law by the passage of bills.
   2. Some are very specific.  Others are very broad statements of policy.
   3. These can be found in the State Codes (Revised Code of Washington  [RCW] ) and the U. S. Code for the federal government.
2. By administrative action
   1. The executive branch enforces the law by creating legally binding rules. 
   2. These can be issued as executive orders or administrative regulations.
   3. They can be found in the State Administrative Codes (Washington Administrative Code [WAC] ) and the Code of Federal Regulations.
   4. Administrative departments can have their own judicial process,called quasi judicial, to resolve differences within their area of jurisdiction.
3. By judicial action
   1. The courts deal with the constitutionality of acts of the legislative and executive branches.
   2. The courts deal with
      1. People, organizations that have broken the law
      2. Two or more people or organizations that disagree about the meaning of the law.
   3. Interpreting the law when there is conflict.
   4. The courts can be divided into three levels:
      1. Trial Courts
         1. Superior, District and Municipal Courts at the state level
         2. U. S. District Courts at the federal level
      2. Appellate Courts
         1. State Appellate Court
         2. U. S. Court of Appeals
      3. Supreme Court
         1. State supreme courts  the courts of last resort for state issues
         2. The U. S. Supreme court is the court of last resort for federal issues and conflicts between states.

Law sources can be broken into two classes, primary and secondary.  All of the above sources are considered to be primary sources. Anything that is not of the above list, books (known as treatises, practice guides, hornbooks) and journals (also known as law reviews) is considered to be a secondary source.  Encyclopedias and digests have no legal authority at all.

This page was summarized from Cohen, Morris, Legal research in a nutshell

 Create your own business wiki!HelpPublic, not yet premium Privacy Policy RSS