LEGAL RESEARCH Title and Introduction • Title: Internet Research for Legal Studies • Subtitle: How to find and use online sources effectively • Introduction: Hello, everyone. My name is Bing, and I am here to talk to you about internet research for legal studies. In this presentation, I will cover the following topics: • What is legal research and why is it important? • What are primary and secondary sources and how to identify them? • What are Boolean operators and how to use them in your search queries? • What are key search terms and how to choose them wisely? Definition: Legal research is the process of finding and understanding the legal information that is relevant to a legal problem or decision. Legal research involves identifying the facts of the problem, retrieving the applicable laws, regulations, precedents, and other legal authorities, and analyzing and communicating the results of the investigation1 Importance: Legal research is essential for law students and practitioners because it helps them to: Develop their legal knowledge and skills Support their arguments and opinions with evidence and authority Stay updated on the current developments and changes in the law Provide accurate and reliable advice to their clients or stakeholders What is Legal Research? • Definition: Legal research is the process of finding and understanding the legal information that is relevant to a legal problem or decision. Legal research involves identifying the facts of the problem, retrieving the applicable laws, regulations, precedents, and other legal authorities, and analyzing and communicating the results of the investigation1 What is Legal Research? • Importance: Legal research is essential for law students and practitioners because it helps them to: • Develop their legal knowledge and skills • Support their arguments and opinions with evidence and authority • Stay updated on the current developments and changes in the law • Provide accurate and reliable advice to their clients or stakeholders What are Primary and Secondary Sources? • Definition: Primary sources are original raw evidence or data that you collect yourself in a study or that were produced at the time by participants or witnesses of a historical event. Examples include interview transcripts, statistical data, court records, legal texts, etc2 • Definition: Secondary sources are sources that describe, interpret, evaluate, or analyze information from primary sources. They provide second-hand information and commentary from other researchers. Examples include books, articles, reviews, encyclopedias, etc2 • Identification: To identify whether a source is primary or secondary, you need to consider: • The purpose of the source: Is it to provide original information or to comment on it? • The author of the source: Is it someone who was directly involved in the event or study or someone who studied it later? • The date of the source: Is it contemporary to the event or study or published later? What are Boolean Operators? Definition: Boolean operators are words and symbols, such as AND, OR, NOT, that let you combine keywords to broaden or narrow your search parameters when using a database or search engine. They allow you to focus your search by specifying the relationship between your keywords3 Examples: AND: Provides results that contain both or all keywords. Use this when you want results that contain two or more specific keywords. Example: climate change AND mitigation OR: Provides results that contain either keyword. Use this when you want results that contain at least one (though not necessarily both) of your chosen keywords. Example: lawyer OR attorney NOT: Provides results that contain the first keyword but not the second. Use this when you want results that contain one specific keyword but not another. Example: apple NOT fruit VIDEO CLIP ON BOOLEAN OPERATORS •To see how Boolean operators work in practice, watch this short video clip from McMaster Libraries 4. It explains how to use Boolean operators to narrow or broaden your search results when searching for articles in library databases. •Video Clip • THANK YOU ALL!
