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Originally Posted by sfergnel
HELP!!!!
For those of you who have been at this a lot longer, and who are more knowledgeable,
What is the best way to begin an organized, systematic education of LAW?
I am college educated, and I am still finding it hard to comprehend the level of legalese required to navigate through the various waters of BB.
But my concern is more so for my children. I have soon to be adults (this year, and next) and I fear that without some legal education, I cannot combat the silent submissive citizen crap that is taught in their educational institutions.
I need to be able to help them to see, and comprehend the magnitude of the lie they have been taught.
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Go to a law library, if you can, associated with a law school at a major, private university. I pick private because accept for UCLA, most public law-school libraries I have found lacking. Go in and just walk around the various floors to see what is in there. Do not worry if you do not understand exactly at what you are looking. It just takes time to become familair with what I am about to help you find.
First; find and read the Constitution of you state, and then read the Constitution of the United States. Then read the Articles of Confederation. Then read the Declaration of Independence. Then proceed with the following:
Pick any legal term to begin. Find the legal dictionaries; Black's, Bovier's, etc. Take down a selection of the recent and the older additions. Find the term, and learn the various definitions.
Next, go to the legal encyclopaedias; Corpus Juris (CJ), Corpus Juris Secundum (CJ 2nd), American Jurisprudence (Am Jur), and American Jurisprudence II (Am Jur II). Find the term in CJ 2nd, and read the more expanded definitions and operations of the term. Notice there are innumberable footnotes. These direct you to the cases being cited in the body above. After reading the work in CJ 2nd; read the same work in CJ. Note the similarities and differences in the definitions, operations and cases cited. As you go along pull some of the cases reported, especially those from the area in which you live.
Repeat this process, if you wish, with American Jurisprudence, et. al. It is my opinion that this work is not as important as the other legal encyclopaedia. You may wish to see how the works differ, though.
To pull cases you will have to learn how to find the various sectional reporters, and how to read cites. Reporter is the name given to the books in which case decisions are published. After you learn the state reporters, and how to find them; you will also learn the federal reporting system.
The country, as far as the state reporters are concerned, is broken up into geogrpahical sections: Northeastern Reporter (NE), Northwestern Reporter (NW), Southeastern Reporter (SE), Southwestern Reporter (SW), Southern Reporter (S) and Pacific Reporter (P). In addition, California has its own reporter.
To find a case footnoted in the encyclopaedia you will do the following. Read the cite. It will be something like this 123 P 456. The first set of numbers refer to the volume; the letter refers to the sectional reporter--in this case, Pacific; the set of numbers after the letter refer to the page number the case starts on. Be careful when you look at the letter. In some areas there will be the letter2nd or even letter3rd. These numbers refer to a second series or even a third series of the same reporter. You will find, for example, 123P and 123P2d.
The federal system of reporters distributes decisions based on the level of the court making the final decision. The Federal Reporter (F, F2d, F3d) publishes cases from the various appellate courts. The Federal Supplement (FSupp.) does also. (I apologize, but at the moment I do not remember why a case would be in one or the other.) Then there is U.S. Reports (US) and the Supreme Court Reporter (Sup. Ct.). (Same apology as above.) There is also the Lawyer's Addition of the Supreme Court Reporter.
When you read a case you will notice paragraphs at the beginning with a key and a number. These are called head-notes, and the numbers help you locate a specific paragraph in the body of the case. You will also see these headnotes listed under legal terms. These terms refer you to the Digest System. This system helps you find other cases dealing with the same term. The Digest is usually placed next to the Reporterof the same locale.
After you have started to learn your way around the dictionaries, encyclopaedias, reporters and digests; you will move on to the American Law Reports (ALR) to read about the term you are following from another perspective.
Then you will start to look at the terms coverage in the various Law Reviews published by every law school in the country.
Then you will start to look at the various treatises produced by professors, lawyers and judges on the subject of the term.
You will find, if you do research like me, you will going to all of the above simultaneously. Find out where the rolling library carts are kept.
Then you will start on the next term, and if you get hooked, continue this process for the balance of your life.
There is much more but that is for another post.
Offered with love, Joseph Sugarman,
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