Free Legal Research Resources on the Internet

Secondary sources are resources that do not issue from a law-making authority. These are sources that comment on or explain the law, but which are not the law itself. Secondary sources are always limited to providing persuasive, rather than mandatory, authority.

Secondary sources can allow a research to understand a particular area of law. They can also help researchers to identify potentially relevant primary law resources. Often if makes sense for a researcher to start his or her research with a secondary source.