CHAPTER 2 THE LAW LIBRARY AND LEGAL RESEARCH

As part of your duties as an LN, you may be responsible for the proper maintenance and upkeep of the office law library. The importance of a properly maintained law library is sometimes overlooked. The law library should be setup and maintained to meet the needs of those who will be using it rather than for the convenience of the librarian. Attorneys, LNs, and others involved in legal research must be able to find the current status of the law. Accordingly, the ability to efficiently perform the task of researching reference material will depend to a large extent on how well the law library is maintained.

THE LAW LIBRARY

A law library is a collection of legal reference materials of several different types, consisting of various formats, including hardbound volumes, paperback supplements, loose-leaf services, pamphlets, handbooks, manuals, periodicals, and advance opinions.

The type of materials contained in a library is governed by many considerations, such as the size and functions of the office it is designed to serve, and the pReferences of the personnel assigned to that office. The library in a small staff judge advocate (SJA) office might consist of a few hundred volumes, whereas several thousand volumes might be needed in the library that serves a large naval legal service office (NLSO).

Regardless of the library's size, your first task as a librarian is to determine what legal reference materials are contained in the library and where they are located. Legal reference materials fall into three broad categories that include the following: l Primary sources-These contain the law as stated in statutes, case decisions, and regulations. . Finding tools-These are aids used to help locate the information contained in primary sources, . Secondary sources -These contain discussions or explanations of the law that can be useful in examining the legal concepts and problems associated with a particular law from both a practical and theoretical point of view.

Further on in this chapter, we ^{will examine the} different types of legal reference ^{material that are} grouped in these three categories.

SOURCES OF THE LAW

The primary sources of law in the United States are the U.S. Constitution, its amendments, and the Bill of Rights.

This type of law is called the supreme law of the land and is also commonly known as constitutional law. Constitutional law addresses such matters as your right to counsel, your right to a trial of the facts by your peers, your right against self-incrimination, and your right to be confronted by and to cross-examine any witnesses against you.

The second source of law includes those laws passed or enacted by the various legislative bodies such as Congress or state legislatures. These laws come from the federal and state statutes and are commonly called statutory law. These laws include such matters as federal and state income tax laws, controlled substance laws, drunk driving laws, and gun control laws, to name a few.

A third source of law comes from the judicial system itself. This type of law is based on the concept that our judges will apply either constitutional or statutory law, or will apply a previous court decision to the facts in a given case, thereby rendering a fair and proper decision in the case. This type of law is referred to as case law. Case law is very important because it is often used by attorneys in an effort to persuade a judge to decide a case favorably toward their side. Case law provides guidance and in many instances the requirements for the proper conduct of trials and for the administration of justice in cases. For example, the case of U.S. v. Allen makes it mandatory for courts to give every accused person credit against his or her sentence for any pretrial confinement adjudged at trial. There are thousands of cases that have previously been decided by courts and each decision may have an effect on all future cases with either the same or similar facts.

A fourth source of law is administrative law. Administrative law originates primarily with governmental agencies such as the Department of Transportation, the Department of State, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Defense. For example, the Department of the Navy has issued the U.S. Navy Regulations, 1990. These regulations are not constitutional law because they are not founded in the U.S. Constitution nor any state constitution. They are not statutory law since neither Congress nor any state legislature enacted any law regarding Navy regulations. They are not case law since they did not come into effect as a result of a case decision. Navy regulations were written by the Navy to regulate behavior within the Department of the Navy and as such are administrative in nature. Although some of the regulations may be punitive, they are still administrative law.

A fifth source of law is really nothing more than a combination of any or all of the previous four sources. A good example of this type of law is the Manual for Courts-Martial (MCM). Congress enacted the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) as law. The Congress also enacted a law giving the President of the United States, as the Commander in Chief, the power to enact rules that are necessary to regulate and govern the armed forces, including the enforcement of the UCMJ. The President did this by issuing what is called an Executive Order placing the MCM into effect.

The MCM contains the procedural rules for the proper conduct of trials, known as the Rules for Courts-Martial or R.C.M. The MCM also contains the rules governing what items may be admitted into evidence. These rules are known as the Military Rules of Evidence or Mil.R.Evid. Some of these rules are based on constitutional law such as the rule that gives all military accused the right to counsel. The MCM also contains statutory law such as the UCMJ. Moreover, the MCM refers to case law for some rules. The MCM also contains administrative law that provides the rules that must be followed to hold a court-martial. As you can see, the MCM contains many different types of law and is a good example of a combination of laws.

From all the previously mentioned sources, you should be able to see that a great deal of law is written on many topics virtually every day. For the attorneys to be effective at their jobs, it is critical that they have access to the most recent law in any given area. The lawyers must also be able to rely on the information that is available in the law library. Therefore, it is very important that you maintain the library and keep it as up to date as possible.