Secondary Sources – Choosing a Source: How to Locate Secondary Sources
You may choose to begin with any one of a number of secondary sources.
- For example, say you have been asked to research the law of bailments. Unless you know what a "bailment” is, it would be wise to begin by consulting a legal dictionary in order to first find the legal definition of the term.
Legal dictionaries are an excellent place to start if your research instructions include legal jargon or legalese.
- See e.g. The Dictionary of Canadian Law, 3rd ed, sub verbo "bailment":
"[T]he delivery of personal chattels on trust, usually on a contract, express or implied, that the trust shall be executed and the chattels delivered in either their original or an altered form as soon as the time for which they were bailed has elapsed ... the legal relationship of a bailor and bailee can exist independently of a contract. It is created by the voluntary taking into custody of good[s] which are the property of another...."
Alternatively, a textbook or legal encyclopedia is the most logical point of departure to help you if you are comfortable with the legal terms and issues at play.
- See e.g. Bruce Ziff, Principles of Property Law, 4th ed (Toronto: Thomson Carswell, 2006) at 296 [footnotes omitted]:
"A bailment is a temporary transfer of personalty under which goods of a bailor are handed over to a bailee. As such it resembles, to a degree, a lease of land. And just as the law affecting land leases is an amalgam of principles of property and contract, so too is the law of bailment, with the added dimension that the impact of tort law is also apparent. The law of bailment draws from each of these areas, but it emerges as a branch of the law that is distinct from all three...."
Lastly, if the legal problem being researched is a relatively new or emerging issue, then it might be best to start by scouring a periodical index since journal articles are the most "up-to-date” source of legal commentary.
- See e.g. Nigel Bankes & Nicholas Rafferty, "Privity of Bailment: Liability of Sub-Bailee to Owner of Goods: The Poineer Container" (1997) 50 Can Bus LJ 245.
The following sections in this and the next module will look at the most common types of secondary sources.