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Research Guides

Writing Academic Papers for Law School

Academic legal writing is different from regular, or practitioner, legal writing. This guide was created as a resource to help law students learn the nuances of academic writing and to assist with their Substantial Writing and other papers for law school

Research Steps

Your research process will involve multiple steps. You will want to

  • do the in-depth research on your topic. Find out what is out there!
  • develop horizontal and vertical knowledge of your topic. This means having introductory and background information on your topic as well as in-depth information about your thesis.
  • update your research
  • revisit your initial thesis
  • approach the first draft

For more information, see Jessica Lynn Wherry & Kristen E. Murray, Scholarly Writing: Ideas, Examples, and Execution 58 (3d ed. 2019).

Gathering Information

As you gather your information, you will want to make sure to cover some basic methods and sources:

  • Be Thorough
    • Check the academic literature, even outside the legal academic literature.
      • Both older and more recent legal academic literature not on Lexis and Westlaw.
      • Check SSRN.com. 
      • Check the Lee Library's website for journals and books that are interdisciplinary.
    • Sample cases or incidents
    • Find empirical studies
    • Dig into the details on each especially important case, statute, incident, etc.
    • Look at dockets for court cases.
    • Look at the news about the relevant case, statute, incident, etc.
    • Compare this list of being thorough with Eugene Volokh, Academic Legal Writing: Law Review Articles, Student Notes, Seminar Papers, and Getting on Law Review 101 (5th ed. 2016).
  • Ask Someone
  • Start with Secondary Sources
  • Be a Savvy Internet User
  • Stay Current
    • Set up alerts on Westlaw and Lexis to stay current on new developments

For more information these steps, see Elizabeth Fajans & Mary R. Falk, Scholarly Writing for Law Students 64-71 (5th ed. 2017).

Researching a Case

For thorough understanding of a case:

  • consult the opinions of the judges who have ruled on the case,
  • review oral argument transcripts, and
  • examine other relevant court documents.

For federal cases, court documents may be found on Bloomberg Law and PACER.

For state cases, it may be possible to find court documents on the state court website, or you may need to call the state court.

Researching a Statute

For a thorough understanding of a statute, consult the legislative history documents, including:

  • Congressional Reports
  • Congressional Record
  • Congressional Hearing
  • Bills

For federal statutes, these materials may be found on ProQuest Congressional or ProQuest Legislative Insight. Further guidance can be found on this Research Guide.

For state statutes, these or similar materials may be able to be accessed on state government websites. 

Sources to Cite in Your Paper

Find good sources to cite in your paper by: 

  • Citation Mining in the source itself 
  • Consulting Citing References 
    • HeinOnline
      • "ScholarCheck"
    • Westlaw
      • "Citing References" 
    • Google Scholar 
      • "Cited by ___" 
    • Lexis
      • "Other Citing Sources" 

Find law review articles to cite in your paper at: 

  • HeinOnline
  • SSRN
    • ssrn.com
    • Create a free account
    • Check just the last couple of years
    • Make sure that the article doesn't have a final published version. If it does, use the final published version instead. 
  • Google Scholar 
  • Westlaw
  • Lexis

Physical sources can be accessed at: 

  • The BYU Law Library
  • The Lee Library 
  • Interlibrary Loan

How Do You Know When You Are Ready to Write?

There are a number of questions you can ask yourself to help determine if your research has reached a point where you can begin writing:

  • Is your research complete and updated?
  • Have you answered the questions you identified while analyzing the materials?
  • Have you evaluated your topic and initial thesis statement?
  • Have you culled your materials and organized them in a logical way?
  • Are you mentally ready to begin writing?

For more information, see Jessica Lynn Wherry & Kristen E. Murray, Scholarly Writing: Ideas, Examples, and Execution 82-83 (3d ed. 2019).