The search for English legal materials (mainly those of common law countries and international law materials) refers to the authoritative original materials for finding specific regulatory documents or their provisions. The main methods and techniques for understanding and mastering English legal materials are especially necessary for legal research and learning. They not only help law learning, but also help to study and solve various problems in legal theory and practice.

 

First Quarter: General Methods for Searching English Laws and Regulations 1. Understanding the basic characteristics of laws and regulations is one of the prerequisites for finding regulatory information.

 

1. The characteristics of the law itself

 

First, the law is constantly changing and developing, and the amount of legal information is always increasing. Second, the law is a manifestation of the desire to maintain stability and order and adapt flexibly to the needs of a wide range of human activities. It is one of the daily tasks of law to pay attention to the balance of coordinating stability and variability. Third, the diversification of legal sources and the diversification of legal data sources have led to the diversification of the types of regulatory materials. Fourth, the fundamental problem of the law is effectiveness. The legal data to determine its effectiveness is mainly the original materials, the most important of which is the current regulations. Therefore, the original materials, especially the original materials that record the current regulations, are the core of legal information and the most authoritative and reliable regulatory materials.

 

2. Characteristics of regulatory information.

 

The statutory data refers to the original carrier that records the binding principles and rules formulated, passed or recognized by certain state organs in accordance with specific legal procedures, including the statutes passed by the legislature, the judgments of the judicial organs, the administrative orders and regulations of the administrative organs, Treaties between countries, etc. The regulatory materials have the following characteristics: First, the regulatory materials are all raw materials. It is the vehicle for recording the rules of human conduct that will be enforced by the State and is the medium of law that the judiciary can and must obey when making judgments. Second, regulatory information is at the heart of government publications. Regulatory information is distinctively official, even if the non-official version is based on official data. Third, regulatory information is at the heart of legal information. Legal information resources can be divided into three parts: (1) original materials, such as regulations and codes, treaties, judicial decisions, administrative regulations, etc.; (2) search tools, such as bibliographies and guides, citations, abstracts, indexes, dictionaries, etc.; (3) Secondary materials such as textbooks, legal restatements, journal articles and reviews. Among them, the original material is the most authoritative part of the legal information resources, and also the basis of the other two parts. Fourth, the regulatory materials are successional. As the law requires attention to the balance between coordination stability and volatility, regulatory data must be replenished and updated on a regular basis. Since the original regulatory material still has legal effect before it is declared invalid or abolished, the time sequence method is important for finding the earliest regulatory data. Fifth, the source of regulatory information is diverse and complex. There are official and non-official sources of regulatory information, traditional prints and modern non-print information sources, as well as informational and searchability, comprehensive and specialized. The authority of various types of regulatory information sources is different, some are binding, some have only a certain degree of persuasive power, and some have no formal legal effect.

 

Second Quarter: the basic steps to find regulatory information should be noted in the following points:

1. Background research Background research is a general or complete understanding of the legal field related to the inquiry requirements. The main method is to browse legal encyclopedias, textbooks, etc., through these secondary documents to grasp the relevant background materials, we also can get clues of the original materials.
2. To analyze and classify of query requirements, first, we shall conduct a careful analysis of the query requirements, such as distinguishing between facts with legal significance and facts without legal significance, and then grasping the legal issues involved in legally significant facts. Sometimes, the question of legal terminology should also be considered as a definition of the term or other interpretation in order to determine the relevant legal dictionary or other regulatory information. Second, classify the sources of regulatory data involved in the legal issues being consulted and search for its entry. For legal issues, we should see whether it is a legal concept or a jurisprudence, a problem of international law or a problem of domestic law and whether it is a specific legal provision or a general legal system. Look for the entry to see if you use keywords, keywords, jurisprudence names, regulatory names, treaty names, or effective dates. For legal information sources, see whether applicable regulations, case studies, treaty sets, or use of indexes, abstracts, citations, notes, encyclopedias, yearbooks, manuals, and computer databases.
3. Finding answers during the search process, you can take a step-by-step approach. First, follow the order of "search tool → secondary document → original material", that means, firstly we search for indexing, citation, abstract and other search tools, then check the secondary documents, and finally check the original materials. Secondly, for the original material, the name of a famous case or regulation is known, and the name is chosen from similar jurisprudence or statute, and the specific judgment basis of the jurisprudence or a specific provision of the famous law is taken. In this process, special attention must be paid to the selection of authoritative, legally valid and up-to-date raw materials, including the identification of the original materials found to determine whether they are valid. After acknowledging that all the valid current regulations are available, they are selected according to their authority, from the law or case law to the jurisprudence and other original materials explaining their effectiveness, and then respond to the questions. Written replies should include a statement of the issue and its applicable legislation or other valid original legal material. Third, the strategy and method of finding regulatory information 1. Where a country's laws and regulations are involved, it is best to find the country's legal information sources, such as finding the United States law, you can use the following major sources of legal information published in the United States:

 

First, the source of statute law (including constitutions, laws, administrative regulations, and local regulations) can be further divided into: (1) Slip law, such as United States Code Congressional and Administrative News ( "US Legal Conference and Administrative News Report" referred to as USCCAN, etc.; (2) Session laws, such as the United States Statutes at Large published by the GPO since 1875, which referred to as Stat. (3) Code, such as the United States Code (USC) published by West Publishing Company since 1976; in addition, the United States Code Service published by Lawyer Co-operative Publishing Company which is referred to as USCS).

 

Second, case law information resources, including: (1) Law Reports, such as the United States Reports published by the GPO since 1790 (U.S.). In addition, there are the National Reports System (NRS) published by West Publishing Company and the American Law Reports System published by Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company (AMR); (2) Search tools, such as the American Digest System, published by West Publishing Company since 1658 referred to as AD System, or the Shpard's Citations published by McGraw-Hil.

 

2.For the examination of the materials of a certain departmental law in the world, it is best to check the compilation of special regulations (especially the compilation of special regulations and materials by subject or classification). This method is especially suitable for the search of comparative law data or thematic data. For example, to find information on constitutions, commercial law, environmental law, competition law, investment law, and patent law of various countries in the world, the following regulations can be used separately: Constitutions of the Countries of the World, 1971 Published by Oceana Inc.; Constitutions of Dependencies and Special Sovereignties, published by Oceana since 1975; Copyright Laws & Treaties of World ( loose-leaf information), published by UNESCO since 1956; International Protection of the Environment: Treaties and Related Documents, published continuously since 1975; Digest of Commercial Laws of the World, published continuously since 1966; World Law of Competition, published continuously since 1979; Investment Laws of the World: the Developing Nations (loose-leaf information), since 1972, continuously published by Oceana; Patent Law & Practice Series ( loose-leaf edition), published continuously since 1973.

 

3. To find any legal information relating to a specific legislative or judicial body, we may directly investigate the source of legal information related to the institution. For example, to find information on the regulations of the United Nations International Court of Justice, the four publications of the International Court of Justice can be used; (1) ICJ, Reports of Judgments, Advisory Opinion and Orders; (2) ICJ, Pleadings, Oral Arguments and Documents; (3) ICJ, Acts and Documents Concerning the Court; (4) ICJ, Yearbook.

 

4. For targeting selection of materials, first, the following non-official materials are available for use in searching the US Supreme Court decision, such as the United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyer Edition and The United States Supreme Court Digest, Lawyer's Edition, published by Lawyer Co-op. Pub and Supreme Court Reporter published by West Publishing since 1882 (S. Ct.); Secondly, once the required materials are found, the material is to be provided to the user. It is best to quote and provide the official version of the materials, such as US Reports and US Supreme Court Bulletin.

 

5. Flexibly using the appropriate search method. First, topic search method. Legal encyclopedias, jurisprudence, statute compilation and citations are all allowed to be searched by this method. Let's look at the English law as an example to discuss the use of the topic search method. (1) To find an overview of the law on a particular subject, you can use the legal encyclopedia, such as Halsbury’s Laws of England, whose fourth edition was published in 1986. (2) Find case cases related to a specific topic, and use the case summary and index. There have the case summary, such as The Digest, published by Butterworths, which is currently in its third edition. Indexes such as Law Reports Consolidated Indexes, edited and published by Incorporated, having 10 years of compilations such as 1951-1960, 1961-1970, 1970-1980, .... Another example is All England law Reports: Consolidated Tables and Index ("1935-1981 Collection of All England Jurisprudence Books and Indexes"). In addition, the following publications have subject indexing attached: Current law and Current Law Yearbooks; (4) determining the effectiveness of the information obtained and, if necessary, using the relevant reference books. For example, Chronological Tables of the Statutes and the Daily List of Government Publications published by HMSO and The Current Law Statutes Citator 1947-1971 , The Current Law Legislation Citator and The Current Law Case Citator 1947 published by Sweet & Maxwel. Second, the law and jurisprudence name search method. The name search method is generally used when you know the name of the law or case to be investigated and ask for the source, time of formulation or judgment, development or announcement of the agency, its current effectiveness and content. A variety of sources of legal information, commonly have a common law or jurisprudence name index or name table for searching. For example, “Where is the US Animal Protection Act of 1970?” can be used by USC to check USC's Popular Names and Tables, resulting in: Animal Welfare Act of 1970Pub L. 91-579, Dec.24. 1970. 84 Stat 1560 (Title7, §§2131-2147, 2149, 2150, 2155) which means: Public Law No. 91-579 of the Animal Protection Act of 1970, adopted on December 24, 1970, in page 1560 of the 84th volume of the United States Decree. (Can be found under the seventh title of American Code, 2131-2147, 2149, 2150, 2155) Third, the time sequence search method. In addition to searching by subject and name, you can also find them in chronological order. That is, to find the source of ancient legal information, the source of modern legal information, the source of contemporary legal information, and adopt the method of scrutiny and reverse investigation, using index, abstract, citation, annotation and other search tools to find.

 

Fourth, eliminating the obstacles to finding answers to legal counseling questions. In the process of searching for regulatory information, you usually encounter related concepts and terminology. You need to first remove these obstacles in order to find them. The main performances are as follows:

1. The inaccuracy and inconsistency of legal terminology, such as the “development of the UK’s Law of Master and Servant” since the Middle Ages, involves the interpretation of the legal term “Law of Master and Servant”. By looking at The Oxford Companion to Law, the Stroud's Judicial Dictionary, etc., it can be seen that the Law of Master and Servant has gradually evolved into a department of law involving Labor Law, industrial law, the law of employment, trade union law, industrial relations law, law of health and safety at work and other departmental laws. In order to answer the above questions, it is necessary to find legal information related to these departments.
2. The translation of factual terms into legal terms. The so-called factual terms, is the natural language that reveals or describes a certain behavior, thing, or phenomenon. Legal terminology, an artificial language that reveals or describes a certain behavior, thing, or phenomenon with a specific legal meaning. For example, "toy pistol" is a factual term concerning the question whether robbery with toy pistols in the United States constitutes a serious robbery. If you use the "toy pistol" as a search portal, it is difficult to provide a satisfactory answer, which needs to be converted into legal terminology. The method of conversion can be gotten by either consulting experts and scholars, or find related reference books such as Black's Law Dictionary and Ballentine's Law Dictionary. The Legal terminology of "Pistol Pistol" should be "imitation firearms". Similar factual terms include “illegitimate children”, “children”, “conscience”, etc., and their corresponding legal terms are “children born out of wedlock”, “minor”, “goodwill”, etc.
3. Clarifying the meaning of legal abbreviations. In terms of legal abbreviations, attention should be paid to the use of specialized legal abbreviations dictionaries and abbreviations attached to various legal information sources. For example, to check the abbreviations related to English law, we can use such reference books as: Index to Legal Citations and Abbreviations, Sweet & Maxwell's Guide to Law Reports and Statutes; for abbreviations related to US law, you can use the Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations Used in American Law Books, Current American Legal Citations with 2100 Examples and the Legal Citation Directory. Section 2 The search for regulatory data can be broadly divided into two categories: domestic law data and international law materials. Domestic law materials are divided into statute data, jurisprudence (law) materials and other regulatory materials according to their formal origins. International law materials are divided into international treaty materials, international customary law materials, international law jurisprudence materials and other international law materials according to their formal origins. From the overall perspective of regulatory data, statute materials, jurisprudence materials and international treaty materials are the most important part of the regulatory materials, and are also the key targets and main content that are often required to be searched. Here we only focus on the search methods for the three types of regulations such as statutes, jurisprudence and international treaties.
4. Enacted law or statutory law, generally refers to laws passed by a specific state agency (mainly referring to the legislature), which corresponds to customary law (especially case law) and is often referred to as statute law ( Written law). In the Western Methodology, the statute is also called legislation. In the statute law, according to different organs of law and different legal effects, it can be divided into constitution, law, administrative regulations and local regulations. Usually, a regulation includes: the name of the regulation, the official interpretation, the full name of the regulation, the standard date, the formulation, the text, the side note, the effective date, and so on. There are generally four situations in which the statute is searched, that is, to find all or part of the regulations of a certain country, to find regulations in a certain category or a specific field, to find a specific provision or regulation of a certain regulation, and to determine the validity or authority of a certain regulation and specific provisions. Query requirements sometimes involve one or two of these four types, and sometimes may involve all. In the search for statute data, the following three aspects are generally involved: First, Determining a certain type of law or national law. The purpose is to determine the source of legal information appropriate to a problem or topic. For example, it has been proposed to look for the US Constitution and its amendments, which can be found in the Constitutions of the Countries of the World, as well as USC, USCA, USCS, Stat. Second, Judging a regulation or its specific provisions. For example, someone looks for specific provisions in the US Constitutional Amendment on the legal abolition of slavery and the recognition of blacks civil rights. Looking for the main sources of legal information in the United States mentioned above, it is known that such provisions are the 13th to 15th amendments of the US Constitution. Third, determining the effectiveness of regulations or legal provisions. For example, someone is asked to find out the validity of the US Constitution and its amendments. Looking at the above-mentioned sources of information on the United States or Shepard’s Citations, we can see that the US Constitution has been valid since 1789. There are 26 amendments so far.

 

Statute law can be searched by subject, classification, legal name, chronological order, legislative body, etc., but in the search process, the index is usually used first. The basic strategy is:

1. If all relevant materials for a problem need to be quickly identified, a separate published regulatory index and a general index attached to the source of legal information should be used. For example, if we wan to look up US federal regulations we can use both a separately published regulatory index and a general index attached to USC, USA, USCA, and USCS.
2. If you need to find a specific regulatory data, you should use the general index attached to the corresponding regulations. For example, to look for the US “Animal Protection Law” and search for it, a name given to the question is the “Animal Welfare Act”, and we directly check the USC 1976 version of the general index: meaning: Animal Welfare Act animal protection law text of Act 7 § 2131 et seq. Text, Title 7, Chapter 2131 and following contents. Animal, generally, this index This index is generally the animal Short title, 7 § 2131 note title short name, the seventh title chapter 2131 notes. It is Indicated that the Animal Protection Act contains Chapter 2131 of Title 7 of the United States Code, from which the full text can be found. The full text of the law can also be found in the respective indices of the USCA and USCS.
3. If you are looking for early regulations or retrospectively looking for it, it is recommended to use retrospective cumulative indexes such as Index Analysis of Federal Statutes, 1789--1873 and Index to the Federal Statutes, 1874--1931.
4. The jurisprudence of the case law (English case, decidate case, precedent; French jurisprudeuse) refers to the judgment of the judicial organs with precedent, including the judgment of the domestic judicial organs and the judgment of the international judicial organs.

 

The precedent role of the judgment is binding and persuasive. Usually, the judgment is binding on the case, but whether it is binding or persuasive as a precedent for other courts or future trials of the court will vary according to different legal systems and different laws. As far as international law is concerned, the judgments of international judicial organs generally do not have the binding force as a precedent, although in special circumstances, they may be persuasive to some extent. As far as domestic law is concerned, judicial decisions in the civil law system are not binding as precedents. Judicial judgments in the Anglo-American legal system are considered to have universal legal effects as precedents, called case law, which is a relatively major source of law contrary to statute law. As far as the meaning of case law is concerned, it is precisely in the Anglo-American legal system that it generally refers to the legal principles or rules contained in a court judgment, and has binding or persuasive effect as a precedent for other courts or future trials of the court. Of course, this principle or rule is closely related to the rest of the judgment. It can be seen that case law is inseparable from precedent, and the search for precedent also includes the search for case law. Only the search for precedent in domestic law is discussed here. The precedent generally includes: the name of the case (the plaintiff and the defendant), the number, the date of the judgment, the summary of the case, the note (that is, the summary of the legal rules or main facts in the case), the name of the judge/lawyer, the factual part, the opinion of the court, the judgment, and so on. The first step in finding a case is to select the appropriate source of information for the case. The source of precedent information in various countries, classified from the form of records, there are information tools such as full-text jurisprudence and search tools such as case summary; from the perspective of publishing, there are official and non-official versions. Unofficial versions are generally easier to find than the official version of the precedent information source. Second, we could use the appropriate source of specific case information. The main channels of search are: 1. Using the case list to check the case list is one of the most common ways to find a case. The precedent compilation and precedent search tools (such as abstracts, citations, notes) have their own case lists. According to the case list, the case needs to be carefully analyzed in order to find authoritative precedents. For example, the list of precedents in the American Judicial Summary System is arranged in alphabetical order by case name, as long as a clue of a case is known, such as name, approximate time, the jurisdictional court. It is easy to find the title and key number of the relevant precedent, and then find the summary of the case by searching for the key number. For example, “Between 1967 and 1977, the court in the State of Hawaii of the United States accepted a famous case concerning mental damage. The plaintiff was Leong and the defendant was Takasaki. Please provide the judgment of the case”. The known conditions for this question are:

(1) Accepting court - a court in the state of Hawaii;

(2) Time - approximately 1967-1977;

(3) Name of the case - Leong v. Takasaki;

(4) Theme - related to mental damage.

 

According to the first three known conditions, you can use the American Digest System's "Eighth Decennial Digest" (1966--1976) and "Ninth Decennial Digest" (1976--1986), and then take the precedent name Leong v. Takassaki and the theme Damage as entrance to find the the case list of summary, at last you can find: Leong v. Takasaki, Hawaii, 520p 2d.