In print - treatises and restatements for a variety of subjects can be found in several locations through the Law Library, either in the Reference shelving beyond the Circulation Desk or in the stacks on the second and third floors.
Electronically - Although predominantly found in the print domain, Treatises and Restatements are beginning to find their way into electronic databases. You can search for treatises and restatements in the secondary sources portions of Westlaw, Lexis Advance, and Bloomberg Law.
What is it?
A legal treatise is typically a multi-volume set of books that provides an in-depth analysis of a legal subject. Treatises tend to be highly authoritative, as they are often written by influential legal scholars. There are both subject-based and procedural legal treatises.
To locate a treatise on a specific subject, you may want to check out Georgetown's Treatise Finder, a subject-based finding aid for treatises.
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What is it?
Created by the American Law Institute, the Restatements are essentially a set of rules promulgated by collecting laws as applied across the country. Each Restatement is drafted by a renowned legal scholar and then goes through a series of reviews by a panel of experts, the ALI Council, the public, and all members of the ALI. Like uniform laws, states can choose whether to adopt the Restatements. They are often relied upon by courts, and are the most citable of the secondary sources in legal research. A Restatement consists of the rule itself, a thorough commentary, illustrations, and more recently reporter's notes (history of the rule). Restatements can be found electronically in HeinOnline's American Law Institute Library.
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