Research Guides Home: Legal Research Process: Secondary Sources

Secondary Sources

Secondary sources are types of authority 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.

For More Information:

Guide to Secondary Legal Resources
From the Library of Congress
Quimbee: Introduction to Secondary Sources
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Students can create individual Quimbee accounts. Duquesne Kline faculty or staff who are interested in setting up Quimbee accounts should contact lawlibrary@duq.edu. Users who already have individual accounts should contact Quimbee support (via email at support@quimbee.com or chat widget) to have their accounts moved over to the institutional access.
Quimbee: Legal Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
Quimbee: Treatises
Quimbee: American Law Reports
Quimbee: Restatements, Uniform Laws, and Model Acts
Quimbee: Legal Periodicals
Westlaw-Secondary Sources
Westlaw Training on Secondary Sources

Practical Law: Pennsylvania (Westlaw)
Provides standard documents, standard clauses, practice notes, checklists and more in the areas of corporate and M&A, labor & Employment, litigation, real estate, and trusts & estates
Standard Pennsylvania Practice 2d (Via Westlaw)
"Standard Pennsylvania Practice 2d provides an updated, comprehensive "how-to" discussion of criminal and civil practice and procedures."--Vendor Description
Summary of Pennsylvania Jurisprudence 2d (Via Westlaw)
"Summary of Pennsylvania Jurisprudence 2d provides concise text of civil and criminal substantive law, and discussion of relevant statutes, rules, regulations, and landmark and federal cases."--Vendor Description
Goodrich Amram 2d (Via Westlaw)
"Goodrich Amram 2d Procedural Rules Service with Forms contains the rules of Civil Procedure for the Pennsylvania trial courts, plus notes, citations, commentaries, and over 400 procedural forms."--Vendor Description
Pennsylvania Law Encyclopedia (Via Lexis+)
"For each major issue discussed, Pennsylvania Law Encyclopedia provides "black letter" law summaries that precede more in-depth analysis of case law, statutes, and rules, with proper citations to other authority. Concise yet comprehensive, Pennsylvania Law Encyclopedia presents the rules of Pennsylvania law and their exceptions, qualifications, limitations, and extensions."--Vendor Description

Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Provides access to articles, theses, books, and abstracts from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities, and other web sites. Also includes selected legal opinions, including U.S. state appellate and supreme court cases since 1950, U.S. federal district, appellate, tax and bankruptcy courts since 1923 and U.S. Supreme Court cases since 1791. Case law searches can be limited by court.
About | Search Tips | How to Link Google Scholar to Duquesne University via Gumberg Library
HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
HeinOnline provides access to over 2800 law and law-related periodicals as well as other legal materials. Journal holdings typically begin from a journal's inception. HeinOnline also includes ABA journals and newsletters, state and local bar association publications, and primary law resources (including many historical documents). HeinOnline can be a good resource to check if you are unable to find older materials in Lexis+ or Westlaw.

Materials in HeinOnline are in image format, meaning that the materials appear as they were originally printed.

Users can sign up for individual MyHein accounts that allow them to save or bookmark items and to set up alerts. You can also sign up for SmartCILP, which provides subject-specific lists of new journal articles.
HeinOnline Overview Guide

Social Science Research Network (SSRN)
The Social Science Research Network provides a wide selection of abstracts from journals, working papers, and articles accepted for publication as well as selected full-text papers and articles. It is searchable by using author, keyword, journal or topic. Note: School of Law faculty members, please contact a librarian for assistance when subscribing to Social Science Research Network eJournals.
Digital Commons: Law Network
"The Digital Commons Network brings together free, full-text scholarly articles from hundreds of universities and colleges worldwide. Curated by university librarians and their supporting institutions, the Network includes a growing collection of peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, working papers, conference proceedings, and other original scholarly work."--Website
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About the Digital Commons Network