| Research Methods in American Legal History | Morris L. Cohen |
| Spring 2000 |
Course Outline
| January 26 | Historical sources of American law; Colonial American law |
| February 2 | Overview of bibliographic sources (general and legal), including RLIN, OCLC, ESTC, EAI, periodical indices, historical abstracts, etc. |
| February 9 | Research in early (pre-1880) case law |
| February 16 | Research in early statutory law and legislative history |
| February 23 | Constitutional research - federal and state |
| March 1 | Research in federal government documents (including serial set) |
| March 8 | Biographical materials (general and legal); manuscript collections and personal papers |
| March 15 | Spring recess |
| March 22 | Researching crimes and criminal law (including trials) |
| March 29 | Legal ephemera |
| April 5 | Court records (federal and state) |
| April 12 | Practice materials (court rules, legal forms, legal manuals); secondary sources and reconstructing the legal and public context (treatises, periodicals, newspapers, law lectures and student texts) |
| April 19 | Early American sources of international law and relations |
| April 26 | Historical research in legal language; Coordinating historical research |
| May 3 | Student presentations; wrap-up |