LRAW Research Spring 2023

Treatises 

• are books written on a specific legal topic, such as property law or torts. 
• range from one-volume nutshells to hornbooks to multi-volume sets published by prominent legal scholars. 
• typically trace the history and explain the key rules that govern an area of law.
• may or may not provide commentary on major legislation, case law, and policy issues related to the topics they cover.

Nutshells are single volume paperback books that provide a quick overview of an area of law. Nutshells summarize the law and highlight key cases, statutes, and regulations. Nutshells provide more detail than a legal encyclopedia and are often written by the same legal scholar who writes the hornbook on that same topic.

Hornbooks are created for students to supplement their casebooks. They provide more in-depth information than a Nutshell to help students and practitioners expand their knowledge in a particular area of law.

Moore's Federal Practice
Collier on Bankruptcy
Dobbs' The Law of Torts 
Corbin on Contracts
Larson's Workers' Compensation Law
 

Bar Association Publications
State bar associations like the South Carolina Bar Association and the American Bar Association publish books and materials of interest to lawyers who practice in particular areas of law, both state and federal. Bar associations usually publish practical treatises that may include tips for law practice and example documents or forms. For example, if you wish to research the law on attractive nuisance in South Carolina, you might consult The South Carolina Law of Torts. 

A treatise, no matter how well-regarded, is a secondary source, and is therefore always persuasive. You will most often use a treatise to find primary sources of law and to understand the issues surrounding your legal topic. 

There are many tools to help you most effectively use a treatise for your legal research:

1. A treatise will typically include a Table of Contents that you can browse to find your specific legal issue.
2. A treatise will usually include a subject index in the back of the book.
3. A treatise may provide a Table of Cases and/or Table of Rules to determine if and where a specific legal authority is addressed within that publication.
4. Many treatises are now available through electronic databases, which allows for full-text searching as well as the use of the tools mentioned above.

Currency
Remember that online treatises are not necessarily updated more often than print treatises. Information in a treatise that is online as of today might not be current as of today. It is equally important to check the edition of an online treatise as a print treatise.

Check the publication (copyright) date of any treatise you consult, because major changes in the law could make an older treatise unreliable. If the copyright date is several years old, check for a new edition or replacement for that treatise. For example, Prosser and Keeton on Torts has been been continued by The Law of Torts by Dobbs, et al. (see citation examples below). Some treatises in print are supplemented with pocket parts or separate pamphlets to add new commentary and citations to more recent primary authority.

Even if a treatise was updated recently, new cases are decided every day. Check for new cases decided after the publication date of the treatise. If you are going to rely on a case, statute, or regulation cited in a treatise, use a citator to make sure it is still good law.

Many major state and federal treatises are available online via Westlaw, Lexis, or both. Bloomberg Law also includes trusted books and treatises, especially on health law and tax law topics. Fastcase focuses on providing treatises published by the South Carolina Bar to members of the South Carolina Bar, but each treatise is an optional paid add-on to the free Fastcase subscription.

Bluebook rules B15 and R15 cover how to cite books and treatises.  Citations to books and treatises include the following parts:

1. The volume number (if the treatise is part of a multi-volume set);
2. The full name of the author(s) as it appears on the publication (if there is one);
3. The title of the work underlined or italicized;
4. A pincite to the page(s) or section(s) where you found the relevant material; and
5. A parenthetical with the editors (if there are any), the edition (if more than one), and the year.

Below are examples of citations to two torts treatises in print that have sections discussing the attractive nuisance doctrine. NOTE: Dobbs' The Law of Torts continues the no longer updated Prosser and Keeton on the Law of Torts. 
 

Prosser and Keeton on the Law of Torts 399-403 (W. Page Keeton et al. eds., 5th ed. 1984).

Dan B. Dobbs, Paul T. Hayden & Ellen M. Bublick, The Law of Torts 733-39 (2d ed. 2011).
 

Also, Rule 15.9 allows you to cite to treatises if available via an electronic database:

Dan B. Dobbs, Paul T. Hayden & Ellen M. Bublick, The Law of Torts § 277, Westlaw (database updated July 2022).

You can use the Law Library Catalog to search for treatises by keyword, title, and author.

Print Treatises

If you find a treatise in print on your topic, the catalog record will include the location and call number where you can retrieve the book from the library shelves.

Additional options may be available after you sign in with your UofSC login.

Electronic Treatises

Electronic versions of some treatises may be listed in the catalog.

The catalog record will include the link to the electronic platform through which you can access the treatise. In some cases, you sign in with your UofSC login to access an electronic treatise. In other cases, you can access the treatise through Lexis or Westlaw. Or it may be necessary to ask a librarian for assistance.

The best way to search for a treatise on Westlaw depends on whether there is a specific treatise you already know you want, or if you are looking for the most relevant treatise available.

If you know the title of a particular treatise, from the homepage, start typing the name of the treatise in the search box and select it from the drop-down that appears.

Once you select a title, you can browse by Part or Chapter heading, or use the search bar at the top of the page to search the full text of that treatise only.

Click on a link to read a specific section from your results.
Then use the Previous and Next arrows or the Table of Contents to browse surrounding sections in that chapter.

If you do not know of a specific treatise in the area of law you are researching, select Secondary Sources from the homepage.

Under Secondary Sources By Type, choose Texts & Treatises.

Now you can use the search bar to search the entire Texts & Treatises database, or you can use filters on the left to narrow your search to treatises on a particular topic or that cover the law of a particular state.

If you’re looking for a specific treatise in Lexis, from the home page, start typing the title in the search box. Select the title when it appears as a choice.

You can browse by Part or Chapter heading.

Or search the table of contents for that treatise only.

Select a link to read a specific section from your results.

Then use the Table of Contents on the left, or the Previous Section or Next Section links, or links in the Heading to browse surrounding sections in that chapter.

If you do not know of a specific treatise in the area of law you are researching, select Treatises & Guides (below Secondary Materials) from the Content tab in the Explore section on the homepage.

From the Treatises, Guides & Jurisprudence page, you can search the entire treatises database.

You can also browse for treatises by state or by topic.

The Getting Started page of this textbook provides information on troubleshooting a login to Bloomberg Law.

To find a treatise in Bloomberg Law, from the homepage under Popular Links, select Books & Treatises.

You can do a keyword search of the full text of the books and treatises in Bloomberg Law's database. Another option—if you already know preferred titles or publishers—is to check the box next to particular titles or publishers in the SOURCES list below the keyword search. Checking boxes in the SOURCES list can be efficient because it limits your keyword search results to the particular sources you want, instead of searching the entire database of secondary sources.

Select a search result to read that section of a treatise.

Then use the Previous and Next links or Table of Contents link to browse surrounding sections in that publication. Or use the links above to jump to other portions of the publication.