American Law Reports
American Law Reports (ALR) are series of books containing annotations - detailed articles - about very narrow, specific points of law. Think of them as the opposite of encyclopedias. Their coverage is not comprehensive: there is not necessarily an ALR annotation on every point of law. But on the narrow issues covered by the annotations, they go into significant detail. Searching the ALR index for an annotation about our products liability issue would probably lead you to the annotation shown here. This forty-eight page annotation goes into extensive detail about the strict liability of manufacturers for the allergic reaction of a small number of users. (Strict liability is one type of products liability theory that some courts have adopted.) |
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In the beginning of an annotation's a substantive discussion of the legal question is at hand. It is practical as well as analytical. It discusses the major issues involved in this question and provides a good survey of relevant case law.
ALR annotations provide more detail than encyclopedias but, as mentioned earlier, there may not be an annotation on every specific legal issue you research.
Periodicals: Law Reviews
The term "periodicals" is librarian-speak for magazines, journals, and other publications that come out, yes, periodically (once a week, once a month, quarterly, etc., etc.). There are several types of legal periodicals that might be useful to you while conducting legal research, some examples of which are shown in this graphic. The first type of legal periodical we will consider is law reviews.
Law reviews are periodicals published primarily by law schools (there are some law reviews that are published by professional societies and other such entities). Law reviews contain long, scholarly articles, often about a new, cutting edge legal issue or theory. They also contain case notes: shorter articles that analyze a recent case in detail.
If you can find a good, substantive law review article discussing your research topic, it will likely include footnote citations to many other pertinent resources. Some law review articles tend to be more theoretical than practical: the authors often discuss the philosophical aspects of law and advocate a change to the existing course of jurisprudence that the courts have taken. That type of law review article will probably be less useful to your research.
The next two screens have two law review articles that you might find while researching the products liability issue about the duty to warn of possible allergic reactions.
Here is an article from the University of Toronto Law Review about products liability and allergic reactions in common law jurisdictions (which includes both Canada and the United States). Notice from both the title and the highlighted text that the authors are focusing on things like efficiency, cost-benefit analysis, and avoidance costs. This is definitely a more theoretical study of the law related to our products liability hypothetical. This article uses a law and economics approach to study how the legal system affects society at a wide, macro perspective. While it might discuss specific cases, it is geared more to other academics than to practicing attorneys. |
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Here is another article, this one from the Oklahoma Law Review. From the title and the selected text, you can see that the authors have taken a more specific, nuts-and-bolts approach to their discussion of the law of products liability as it relates to allergic reactions, specifically focusing on the law in Oklahoma on this subject. This sort of law review article can be very helpful to lawyers. The authors have conducted a thorough survey of existing cases and they provide a good summary of current Oklahoma law related to this topic. |
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