Research Questions

Here is the index in the back of this volume. Under "Libel and Slander," you look up "Statute of Limitations" and discover that it is not listed! Try again by looking under "Limitations" instead.
Here it is, "Limitations of Actions". Notice that besides the specific cross-references, the index shows that this issue is covered "generally" in sections 404 through 410. None of the cross-references seem to be specifically on point, so perhaps we should just start reading with section 404.
Here is the beginning of § 404 of the Am. Jur. 2d Title "Libel and Slander," which begins the coverage of Limitations of Actions. Notice from the two highlighted portions of the discussion that different jurisdictions start the statute of limitation running at different times. Some start the statute of limitations for a claim of libel at the time of publication, unless it was published in a "secretive manner" or "concealed from the plaintiff," and some start it at the time the publication was discovered. If one of the representative cases in the footnotes is from your jurisdiction, you can then start researching in your jurisdiction with the appropriate digest using that case. Let's review what we have learned about general legal encyclopedias.

General Legal Encyclopedias - Review

Quiz 1. The footnotes in Am. Jur. 2d and C.J.S. have citations to:

A.	only cases
B.	only statutes
C.	only other secondary resources
D.	only cases and statutes
E.	cases, statutes, and other secondary resources

Quiz 2. Which one of the two legal encyclopedias on general American Law has a desk book containing miscellaneous reference materials such as a conversion table for units of measure and copies of historic documents like the Magna Carta? – Am. Jur. 2d

Quiz 3. The West Digest Topics are identical to

A.	The Am. Jur. 2d Titles
B.	The C.J.S. Titles
C.	Neither the Am. Jur. 2d Titles nor the C.J.S. Titles

State Legal Encyclopedias

Many states have legal encyclopedias that are, obviously, limited to the law of that state. Some are very similar to Am. Jur. 2d and C.J.S..

For example, shown here is part of Texas Jurisprudence 3d, a legal encyclopedia with over eighty volumes that provides a summary of Texas law. It is essentially a Texas version of Am. Jur. 2d and is organized into numerous Titles, each one covering a broad area of law that is divided into a detailed outline of a specific section, each addressing one narrow aspect of that broad area of law.

State Legal Encyclopedias

Texas Jurisprudence 3d has a detailed fourteen-volume index and, like Am. Jur. 2d and C.J.S., it is updated with annual pocket parts. Shown here is the first page of the Title "Banks and Other Financial Institutions." Notice the "Scope" section, which describes what is covered in this Title. Also note that "Federal Aspects" describes the extent to which federal law deals with this subject and that under "Treated Elsewhere" are cross-references to related subject that can be found in other Titles of Texas Jurisprudence 3d.

At the right is another page from the Texas Jurisprudence 3d Title "Banks and Other Financial Institutions," showing the point of law covered in § 277, "Powers of licensed foreign bank." Notice that it provides references to West Digest Topics and Key Numbers, and that its footnotes contain citations to primary legal resources, in this example a section of the Texas statutes.

Texas Jurisprudence 3d has several binders that provide cross-references to sections where specific cases are cited, and a volume with a Table of Parallel References. The Parallel References are useful if you have a citation for the previous edition, Texas Jurisprudence 2d, and you need to find where that same issue is covered in Texas Jurisprudence 3d. Tex Jur 3d, like Am. Jur. 2d, also has a Desk Book with miscellaneous reference materials, many of which are the same that are found in the Am. Jur. 2d Desk Book but some of which are specific to Texas, such as the Texas State Constitution.

Other states' encyclopedias similar to Am. Jur. 2d includeFlorida Jurisprudence 2d and Illinois Jurisprudence.

Another example of a state legal encyclopedia is Summary of California Law (10th Ed., 2005). This smaller, thirteen-volume set is more akin to a collection of short treatises on general areas of law - Contracts, Torts, Worker’s Compensation - as they are practiced in California. Each subject in Summary of California Law is organized in a detailed outline.

The text in Summary of California Law includes citations to cases, statutes, as well as secondary resources, such as the law review article shown in the second citation here. Note that instead of footnotes, these citations are found in parentheses within the text itself.

Besides its index, Summary of California Law also contains a Tables volume that allows users to find where specific cases and statutes are discussed.

Not every state has a comprehensive encyclopedic resource like Texas and California. But most states have some general work that summarizes major areas of state law. To find out whether your state has its own legal encyclopedia, check the on-line catalog of your school's law library. Or, better yet (because not knowing the title of your state's legal encyclopedia can make searching for it tricky), ask a law librarian.

Now that we've looked at general and state legal encyclopedias in print, let's briefly examine legal encyclopedias in their online formats.