The Legal Research and Writing Handbook by Andrea B. Yelin and Hope Viner Samborn offers a time- tested introduction to the basics of this essential paralegal skill With clear explanations, examples, and visual aids, The Legal Research and Writing Handbook offers complete coverage of a complex subject in a student-friendly, accessible text. In this thoroughly updated new edition, Yelin and Samborn continue to keep pace with legal research, citation, and technology in today’s law firms. This practical text focuses on efficient research processes and techniques for both traditional and electronic sources, along with step-by-step instruction through each stage of the legal writing process, from prewriting strategies, to revising. The authors provide in-depth coverage of the IRAC method, as well as how to write legal memoranda and legal correspondence. Throughout, the text focuses on the practical skills paralegals need to know. The text is enhanced with examples and visual aids, expert writing and practice tips, hands-on exercises, ethics alerts, up-to-date web resources, and easy-to-navigate page design. Excellent exercises are provided to reinforce student learning. New to the Ninth Edition: Coverage of electronic resources is updated and expanded, reflecting how paralegals do research today. Includes new and expanded coverage of Online Topical Classifications Systems and Researching Statutes Online. Thoroughly updated, with latest information on research sources and methods Streamlined chapter on Research Strategy, focused on how paralegals conduct research today New and refreshed exhibits Revised exercises in each chapter Professors and students will benefit from: Thoughtful revision that reflects how paralegals do research today Detailed discussion of how to use legal authorities in legal communications and how to synthesize them and present them to attorneys. Exhibits, practical tips, updated exercises, and web resources in every chapter. Excellent pedagogy for students includes Net Notes, Ethics Alerts, and Practice Pointers included throughout Examples that provide useful models for students Subheadings provide quick access to topics Helpful appendix on Citation

"Textbook for paralegal courses on legal research and writing"--

Over the past two decades Global Legal Pluralism has become one of the leading analytical frameworks for understanding and conceptualizing law in the 21st century. Wherever one looks, there is conflict among multiple legal regimes. Some of these regimes are state-based, some are built and maintained by non-state actors, some fall within the purview of local authorities and jurisdictional entities, and some involve international courts, tribunals, and arbitral bodies, and regulatory organizations. Global Legal Pluralism has provided, first and foremost, a set of useful analytical tools for describing this conflict among legal and quasi-legal systems. At the same time, some pluralists have also ventured in a more normative direction, suggesting that legal systems might sometimes purposely create legal procedures, institutions, and practices that encourage interaction among multiple communities. These scholars argue that pluralist approaches can help foster more shared participation in the practices of law, more dialogue across difference, and more respect for diversity without requiring assimilation and uniformity. Despite the veritable explosion of scholarly work on legal pluralism, conflicts of law, soft law, global constitutionalism, the relationships among relative authorities, transnational migration, and the fragmentation and reinforcement of territorial boundaries, no single work has sought to bring together these various scholarly strands, place them into dialogue with each other, or connect them with the foundational legal pluralism research produced by historians, anthropologists, and political theorists. Paul Schiff Berman, one of the world's leading theorists of Global Legal Pluralism, has gathered over 40 diverse authors from multiple countries and multiple scholarly disciplines to touch on nearly every area of legal pluralism research, offering defenses, critiques, and applications of legal pluralism to 21st-century legal analysis. Berman also provides introductions to every part of the book, helping to frame the various approaches and perspectives. The result is the first comprehensive review of Global Legal Pluralism scholarship ever produced. This book will be a must-have for scholars and students seeking to understand the insights of legal pluralism to contemporary debates about law. At the same time, this volume will help energize and engage the field of Global Legal Pluralism and push this scholarly trajectory forward into another two decades of innovation.

Legal Research and Writing for Paralegals emphasizes the skills and issues that paralegals encounter in practice. Thoroughly up-to-date, the Ninth Edition continues to combine clear text with visual aids, writing samples, tips, and pointers. Designed specifically for paralegal students, Deborah Bouchoux’s classroom-tested approach teaches cutting-edge research skills, writing style, and proper citation form—to equip students with an essential skill set and well-founded confidence. The author’s logical and comprehensive approach enhances students’ understanding. Part I covers Primary Authorities, Part II discusses Secondary Authorities, and Part III covers the basics of Legal Writing. In addition, Bouchoux integrates writing strategies into each research chapter to demonstrate the link between the two processes. Thorough coverage of electronic research includes chapters on both internet research and fee-based services. Bouchoux thoroughly explains proper citation form and the process of updating/validating legal authorities. The Legal Writing section includes samples of legal writing, such as letters, a court brief, and a legal memorandum. New to the Ninth Edition: New “Sidebar” feature in all research chapters that provides quick tips showing how the material in that chapter applies to computer-assisted legal research systems, such as Lexis, Westlaw, and Bloomberg Law. Discussion of GovInfo, which provides free public access to official and authenticated publications from all three branches of the federal government. Coverage of new tools used for cite-checking, including EVA and Bestlaw. Discussion of Westlaw Edge, Westlaw’s new research platform. Extensive new coverage of the increasing use of artificial intelligence in legal research and writing. Discussion of new sources that provide free public access to the law, including Harvard’s Caselaw Access Project and CourtListener. New sections on preparing email letters and email memoranda, including assignments. All new Research Questions and Internet Legal Research Assignments have been included for each chapter. Professors and students will benefit from: Pedagogy designed to enhance the accessibility of the material, including helpful charts and diagrams that synthesize complex topics, Practice Tips offering realistic and helpful suggestions for workplace success, and Ethics Alerts in every chapter. Targeted and ample exercises help students learn how to use a wide range of research sources. Charts and practice tips, updated for this edition, that help students apply what they have learned. Tips on how to effectively use electronic resources are included throughout the text. Conscientious revision ensures that the book has the most up-to-date material, presented in a readable and accessible format.

Learning Law is an indispensable guide, providing the foundational knowledge and skills required for the study and practice of law.

In force in 70 countries around the world and covering more than two thirds of world trade, the 1980 United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) is considered to be the most successful convention promoting international trade. According to many commentators, this success is due, among others, to the fact that the Convention does not directly impact on the domestic law of the various legal systems, as it applies only to international - as opposed to purely domestic - contracts. The Convention, in other words, does not impose changes in the domestic law, which makes it easier for States to adopt the Convention. This does not mean, however, that the Convention does not have any impact on the domestic law at all. This book analyzes - through 24 country reports as well as a general report submitted to the 1st Intermediate Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law held in November 2008 in Mexico City - to what extent the Convention de facto influences domestic legal systems. In particular, the book examines the Convention's impact on the practice of law, the style of court decisions as well as the domestic legislation in the area of contract law.

This book presents a comprehensive and systematic study of the principal aspects of the modern law of international commercial transactions. Based on diverse sources, including legislative texts, case law, international conventions, and a variety of soft-law instruments, it highlights key topics such as the international sale of goods, international transport, marine insurance, international finance and payments, electronic commerce, international commercial arbitration, standard trade terms, and international harmonization of trade laws. In focusing on the private law aspects of international trade, the book closely analyzes the relevant statutes, case law and the European Union (EU) and international uniform law instruments like the Rome I Regulation, the UN Convention on the Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), UNCITRAL Model Laws; non-legislative instruments including restatements such as the UNIDROIT Principles on International Commercial Contracts, and rules of business practices codified by the ICC such as the Arbitration Rules, UCP 600 and different versions of the INCOTERMS. The book clearly explains the key concepts and nuances of the subject, offering incisive and vivid analyses of the major issues and developments. It also traces the evolution of the law of international trade and explores the connection between the lex mercatoria and the modern law. Comprehensively examining the issue of international harmonization of trade laws from a variety of perspectives, it provides a detailed account of the work of major players in the field, including UNCITRAL, UNIDROIT, ICC, and the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH). Adopting the comparative law method, this book offers a critical analysis of the laws of two key jurisdictions—India and England—in the context of export trade. In order to stimulate discussion on law reform, it explains the similarities and differences not only between laws of the two countries, but also between the laws of India and England on the one hand, and the uniform law instruments on the other. Given its breadth of coverage, this book is a valuable reference resource not only for students in the fields of law, international trade, and commercial law, but also for researchers, practitioners and policymakers.

This book brings together the top international sales law scholars from twenty-three countries to review the Convention on Contracts for International Sale of Goods (CISG) and its role in the unification of global sales law. It reviews the substance of CISG rules and analyzes alternative interpretations. A comparative analysis is given of how countries have accepted, interpreted, and applied the CISG. Theoretical insights are offered into the problems of uniform laws, the CISG's role in bridging the gap between the common and civil legal traditions, and the debate over good faith in CISG jurisprudence. The book reviews case law relating to the interpretation and application of the provisions of the CISG; analyzes how it has been recognized and implemented by national courts and arbitral tribunals; offers insights into problems of uniformity of application of an international sales convention; compares the CISG with the English Sale of Goods Act and places it in the context of other texts of UNCITRAL; and analyzes the CISG from the practitioner's perspective.