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Scholarly Research for Law Students

Developing a Research Plan

Research for a seminar paper differs from the type of legal research covered in 1L legal research classes or in legal practice. In those sorts of environments, you are usually researching a given question. Your goal is to locate authority relevant to your actual or hypothetical client's problem. By contrast, it is up to you to determine the research questions when writing a scholarly paper. Your thesis, or the unique point of view you bring to the topic, will guide your research.

You will also use different types of resources. In order to write your scholarly paper, you will probably work with more than just Lexis and Westlaw. In contrast to practical legal research, which focuses on primary law materials, your seminar paper is likely to draw on law review articles, journal articles from other fields, books, government and nonprofit resources, and news articles.

This guide outlines the big-picture process of researching for your scholarly paper. The main steps are:

  1. Selecting a Topic: You need to find a topic that is not too broad or too narrow. You might have an idea based on your previous work or life experience. If not, you may want to look at some of the current awareness tools provided in this section. Once you have developed a first draft of your thesis statement, you can move on to a preemption check. 
  2. Preemption Check: The preemption check is where you make sure your thesis has not been dealt with before by another author. Even if your original idea is preempted, you can usually tweak your thesis statement so it is sufficiently novel or original. Another aspect of the preemption check is making sure you understand the current state of the law. You don't want your idea to be preempted by case law, a statute or a regulation. Again, even if you are preempted, you can usually adjust your thesis rather than abandoning your topic. The preemption check involves reviewing a variety of legal and non-legal databases. 
  3. Research: Research is iterative, meaning your work in non-linear steps, often adjusting your work based on what you learn as you go.  

There is often a blurring of these three steps. For instance, during your preemption check, you may complete much of your preliminary research. You may also refine your topic several times during your research and writing.

In addition, this guide also covers: 

  • Current Awareness: How to set up alerts.
  • Interlibrary Loan: If the vast resources of the Penn State Libraries do not have what you need, you can request journal articles and books from other libraries. 
  • Organizational Tools: Your paper will likely involve a large number of sources. You can keep track of these using folders, Westlaw's outline feature, or a citation manager like Zotero. 
  • Bluebook Citation Generator: This tool creates first drafts of Bluebook citations. It can be especially useful for items with a control number like an ISBN (book), DOI (journal article) or PMID (Pub Med ID). 

Selected Books on Scholarly Legal Writing

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