Treatise Finders (US Legal Research) 

For Canadian legal practitioners, the need to research American law arises for a variety of reasons: client problems may involve U.S. business or real estate transactions, cross-border litigation, enforcement of judgments, or child custody and access. Researchers may also be looking for persuasive precedents on legal issues which have not been litigated in Canadian courts. 

Beginning with an authoritative text, one that can provide an overview of the legal principles and point you to the governing legislation plus a manageable number of key cases, is especially important when tackling foreign law research. However, finding that starting point can be challenging when you’re unfamiliar with the leading U.S. titles in a particular area of law. 

A quick way to identify relevant American texts is to use a treatise finder. This handy tool, found on the websites of many large U.S. law school libraries, provides you with short lists of recommended texts in all the main areas of law. 

We often use the Georgetown Law Library Treatise Finders. 

For example, let’s say we are searching for an American equivalent to our Houlden and Morawetz, Bankruptcy and Insolvency Law of Canada. Georgetown’s Bankruptcy Law Treatises lists six texts. At a glance, it lets us see that Norton Bankruptcy Law & Practice and Collier on Bankruptcy are the big names. Texts are identified by symbols as “preeminent treatises” or “study aids” (screenshot of icon legend below). Brief information about content, audience, and availability (whether in print, or online through Westlaw or LexisNexis) is provided for all entries: 

You’ll find other good treatise finders on the Harvard, John Marshall and D’Angelo Law Library websites.  

If you need more resources that will help you find your footing with an unfamiliar area of US law, check out one of our older posts: American Law Guides for Beginners (and Canadian legal researchers).