The Greater Philadelphia Law Library Association’s (GPLLA) Social Responsibilities Committee recently announced the launch of Pennsylvania Legal Research 101: About the Law and How to Find It. Focusing on free online sources of information, this guide was created to help the general public research federal, Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia law. It is intended to be an educational guide to help users develop a strong foundation for doing legal research.
Pennsylvania Legal Research 101 describes what “the law” is, how it’s created by different branches of the government, and where to find it. To that effect, the guide is broken down into various parts:
- Part 1: Overview of the U.S. Legal System, which includes chapters that define key types of primary legal authorities and explain how power is shared in the U.S. government. Chapters are formatted in a Q&A style.
- Part 2: Finding the Law, which contains individual chapters that describe the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches, as well as what type of law they create and where to find such law. Chapters are formatted in a Q&A style.
- Appendixes, which include additional resources for conducting legal research.
- Quick Links (also found in Appendix D), which provide tables that quickly link users into free, online sources of law for U.S., Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia.
While this guide aims to increase the general public’s access to legal information – thereby making a contribution to the greater Access to Justice movement – it may also be a helpful resource for experienced researchers.
If you’d like to learn more about the guide, the authors will be hosting a free webinar via Zoom on Wednesday, Feb. 22nd at noon. To participate, sign up via the GPLLA website. Typos, mistakes, or other suggested updates may be submitted to gplla.src@gmail.com.
Please feel free to use and share Pennsylvania Legal Research 101!