Week 2 Discussion Sources of Law
Why We Have Different Sources of Law
We have different sources of the law in the United States legal system not only to help us understand our legal structure but also because it is important to be familiar with how each source of law relates to each other.
Difference Between Primary and Secondary Sources
Primary sources are actual laws used to analyze legal issues and support legal positions and legal
arguments by legal professionals. Secondary sources are not actual laws and are materials that either summarize or explain the law. They also provide citations to primary sources.
Pros and Cons of Using Secondary Sources
The pros of using secondary sources are that they explain or summarize the law and typically can
provide overviews of legal topics. They also can provide citations to primary sources. Their only con is that they are not actual laws.
What Makes a Secondary Source Credible
A secondary source is considered credible when it is published in a well-known medium and is peer-reviewed and cite-checked. It also more often than not provides citations to other well-
known sources. An example of a credible secondary source would be a restatement because it “restates” the legal rules that constitute the case law in a particular subject area, written by the American Law Institute (ALI). An example of a bad choice for a secondary source would be Wikipedia because the information on there can be changed or altered by anyone on there. It is just best for legal professionals to always use more recent sources for topics that change over time.
