Two Works from the Pen of Lee Peoples

Lee F. Peoples, Associate Director for Faculty, Research and Instructional Services at Oklahoma City University Law Library and a contributing editor to this blog has penned two works recently, one addressing choice and effectiveness of tools used to research case law, and the second on international legal research. I haven't read the latter but I find the former quite interesting and recommend it to all academic reference librarians plus firm and corporate law librarians who typically face the problem of retraining new hires in the art of doing research.

Both articles are available from SSRN.

The Death of the Digest and the Pitfalls of Electronic Research: What is the Modern Legal Researcher to Do? 

Abstract: Professor Peoples reports the results of a study finding that the opinions and performance of modern legal researchers do not support the traditional notion that print digests are the tool of choice for researching legal rules while electronic databases are best suited for finding cases discussing unique factual situations. Tomorrow's lawyers are unaware of some common shortcomings of electronic research and do not possess the strategies to compensate for them. Law librarians must become more involved in electronic database instruction, integrate legal information literacy education into the curriculum, and advocate for improvements to electronic databases to improve the situation.

Strategies and Sources for International Legal Research

Abstract: This paper was presented at the Global Issues in Law and Finance Conference, June 30, 2005 in London, England. The Conference was jointly sponsored by the Credit Law Institute and the Conference on Consumer Finance Law. The content of the paper is based on the course Advanced Legal Research: Foreign, Comparative and International Law (hereinafter FCIL) that I teach along with Professor Judith Morgan at the Oklahoma City University School of Law. The paper focuses on research strategies and reference sources for foreign and international law. Specifically it discusses finding treaties, foreign law research and international trade in goods research.