Vicki Lawal PhD Law Librarian August University of Jos Library

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Vicki Lawal PhD Law Librarian August University of Jos Library"

Belinda Chase
7 years ago
Views:

1 Legal information resources Tutorial 1 Vicki Lawal PhD Law Librarian August 2015 University of Jos Library

3 Outline of presentation Introduction Primary sources: Secondary sources: Types of legal resources Print and electronic legal resources

4 Objectives of the tutorial To help students: Understand the different types of legal information resources available in the Law library such as: Primary and Secondary Sources of law Types of legal resources To enable students know how to find authoritative material in research.

5 Introduction What are legal information sources? Basically, legal information resources contain information about the law and its processes, the main sources of law therefore consist of: 1. Primary sources 2. Secondary sources

6 Sources of law Primary sources: Primary sources are those sources from which law and legal principles originate and can be found. They contain information produced by: - Governmental agencies, - Institutions or organizations, - Statutes as well as decided cases by courts published in the form of law reports and statutes. - They include documents such as legislations, opinions and decisions of courts, and so on. Importance: Opinions contained in Primary sources are considered binding or mandatory (Dina, Akintayo & Ekundayo, 2005). A few examples include: Selected Judgments of the Federal Supreme Court of Nigeria. All Nigeria Law Reports. Judgments of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

7 Cont. Examples of other law reports published by governments of the various states in Nigeria include: Laws of Lagos State. Laws of Enugu State. Laws of Plateau State. A number of law reports are also published by non-governmental agencies such as the: Nigerian Weekly Law Report. Nigerian Lawyers Quarterly. Election Petition Law Reports. However, cases reported in this series only contain selections of decided cases from superior courts such as the Supreme Court of Nigeria and the High Court (Obilade, 1979).

8 Cont.

9 Cont.

10 Sources of law Secondary sources: Secondary sources are descriptions of or commentaries on the law; they explain the meaning and applicability of primary authorities in law. They enable the researcher to obtain a general overview of a case. They include mainly journals and textbooks (Dina, Akintayo & Ekundayo, 2005). Journals: Over twenty journal titles are published annually by academic institutions, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the Nigerian Law School and other organisations. Some examples include: The Nigerian Journal of Contemporary Law (Journal of the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos). Ibadan University Law Review. Nigerian Bar Journal (Journal of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA). Nigerian Law and Practice Journal (Journal of the Nigerian Law School). Nigerian Current Law Review (Journal of the Nigerian Institute for Advanced Legal Studies, NIALS). University of Jos Law Journal.

11 Cont. Textbooks: Legal textbooks account for most of the publications by members of the Nigerian academia, the bench, and the Bar. There is also a dependence on foreign sources particularly with respect to international comparative law (Mamman, 2008). (See also Gasiokwu, 1993; Gidado & Shikyil, 2003). Search/finding tools: Other forms of secondary sources are search/finding tools in the form of reference materials which facilitate easy location or provide updates to relevant information. Examples include: Tables of Abbreviations: These are made up of alphabetically arranged abbreviations or short forms of legal terms referred to in law books. The student can use it to find incomplete abbreviations and locate other cases in the library.

12 Sources of law Digests are arranged by a topic and key number system which divides the law into 400 broad topics and expands as new areas are developed in law, one of the advantages of the digest is that it serves as a comprehensive case finding tool for the researcher, example includes case digests. Tables of Cases are alphabetically arranged lists of titles of cases either by name of plaintiff or defendant. They are mostly indexes to books, periodicals, treatises, encyclopaedias and digests. Cases listed are mainly those discussed in individual case comments, law students usually find such comments useful in aiding their understanding of case law. Examples include: Comprehensive Index to NWLR; Index of International Humanitarian Law, etc.

13 Sources of law Indexes: An index is a list of bibliographic information or citation to a body of literature usually arranged in alphabetical order based on some specified datum such as author, subject or keyword (Cleveland & Cleveland, 1990). Indexes serve as guides to the intellectual content of information resources. Essentially, the value of an index lies in its structural organization and layout as a primary factor in facilitating user information retrieval (Mulvany, 1994). Examples of indexes include Indexes to Legal Periodicals and Books, Citation Indexes and so on.

14 Sources of law Other types of secondary reference sources include: Black s Law Dictionary Legal encyclopaedias and dictionaries - Loose-leaf services Case citators Example Current Law Case Citators, Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents Encyclopaedia of Group processes and Intergroup Relations Encyclopaedia of the Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

15 Thank you!

16 Selected references Cleveland D.B.. & Cleveland A. D. (1990). Introduction to indexing and abstracting. Englewood: Libraries Unlimited. Dina, Y., J. Akintayo & F. Ekundayo. (2005). Guide to Nigerian legal information. Retrieved from: < Gasiokwu, M. U. (1993). Legal Research and Methodology. Jos: Fab Anieh Nig. Ltd. Gidado, M. M. & Shikyil, S. S. (2003). The province of legal method. Jos: Mono Expressions Ltd. Mamman, T. (2008). The role of culture in teaching about other legal systems. Paper presented at the IALS General Assembly. Retrieved from: < Obilade, A. O. (1979). The Nigerian legal system. London: Sweet and Maxwell.

Accreditation issues in Faculty of Law of Nigerian Universities: Imperatives for law libraries, laws and statutes.

Accreditation issues in Faculty of Law of Nigerian Universities: Imperatives for law libraries, laws and statutes. University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal) Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln Winter 9-3-2014 Accreditation issues