Access the website for the law library for Harvard Law School:
1. Select or search for “Research Guides.” Review the guide relating
to Secondary
Sources. Based on your review of the 2 secondary source options,
why are secondary
sources a good place to start your research?
-
Secondary sources are a great place to start your research because
they can save you a lot of time. Secondary sources tend to explain
legal principles a bit more clearly than you would find in some of the
primary sources. Also, a secondary source is research that someone
else has already done on the issue you are researching, so you may
find more in one place versus many different places.
Access the Law Review Commons:
2. Select the University of Michigan Law Journal. Search for an article
published in 2014
in the Michigan Law Review relating to the scope of precedent.
a) Who is the author of this article?
-
Randy J. Kozel
b) How many pages long is the article?
-
53
c) Review the discussion on page 182 relating to the difference between a
holding and
dicta. What does the author say is the distinction between
binding holdings and
dicta?
-
Binding holdings are entitled to deference from future courts, while
everything else is dispensable.
Randy J. Kozel, The Scope of Precedent, 113 Mich. L. Rev. 179 (2014).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol113/iss2/1
