Legal Encyclopedias
Ideally, legal encyclopedias include the following:
- A complete and integrated statement of all applicable law
- Citations to relied-upon authority (i.e. cases, treatises and restatements)
- Analytical and subject indexes
- Frequent supplements
An encyclopedia is used as a starting point in a search for law. The researcher will find an elementary statement of the applicable law and a list of cases supporting the statement.
In the Wirtz Labor Library we have the following encyclopedias:
- Corpus Juris Secondum (CJS) 2d (West Publishing)
- American Jurisprudence (Am Jur) 2d.(Lexis Publishing)
There are differences between the two titles:
| Corpus Juris Secondum | American Jurispurudence |
| Cites all cases on point | Cites selective cases |
| Indexes correspond to Digests and West's Key Numbers system | Indexes correspond to American Law Reports |
| References to West Publications | References to LEXIS Products |
| No almanac function | Desk Book with Historical and Legal Facts |
Portions of CJS are available via WESTLAW. Call 1
800 REF ATTY for assistance.
Am Jur 2d is available on
LEXIS in CONLAW;AMJUR
There are currently no Legal Encyclopedias available for free on the Internet.
