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CRIM 597: Special Topics

This Guide is created for Barry Ruback's course CRIM 597: special topics

Getting Started (using Westlaw)

Westlaw Campus Research - Law
a comprehensive database of resources for researching U.S. Law.

Thomson Reuters Westlaw Campus Research - Law is a comprehensive database of resources for researching U.S. Law. It includes primary sources including case law, statutes and regulations at the federal and state levels as well as secondary sources e.g. American Law Reports, American Jurisprudence, and over 800 law reviews.

Are you just getting started with your research?

Start with secondary sources (Westlaw and other research platforms)

Is the area of law governed by a statute, regulation, or court rule?

Check out the statute's Notes of Decisions (Westlaw)
Search within the statute's Citing References (Westlaw)

Do you already have a relevant case ("one good case") and need to find more?

Search within the case's Citing References (Westlaw)
Use the West Key Number System (From Stanford Law School)
Work with headnotes (Westlaw)
Look through the table of authorities (Westlaw)

Have you already attempted the above strategies? Are you nearing the end of your research?

Conduct full-text case searches using advanced searches (Westlaw)
Check to make sure your cases are still good law (Westlaw)

Using statutes to find cases
This flowchart will guide you through finding relevant cases if you've already found an applicable statute.
Using a case to find cases
This flowchart will guide you through three different methods for finding cases if you already have one relevant case (the "one good case" method).