This brief post is intended to be a primer on secondary sources commonly used as companions to the casebook assigned in 1L courses. These secondary sources are typically referred to as Supplements, and you will hear this word thrown around from the first weeks of class till the end of the semester. The frenzy of supplement-talk will reach its high point right around finals, as students will begin talking about which supplements they are planning to use for finals and why theirs is the best of the lot. I myself got incredibly wrapped up in researching supplements to gain that extra edge against my class mates and even resorted to using 2002 treatise for Con Law that none of my other peers used—I took Con Law in 2014! But this story will be delved into more when I post a more specific article specifically on Con Law supplements. Again, this post is mainly to serve as an introductory guide to supplement-seeking students.
Using supplements is typically not encouraged, as many of my
professors told me to stay away (they did this in person, on the syllabus, and
over email). But some of professors will even recommend supplements in their
syllabus—shout out to my professor Kenneth Manaster who recommended a
supplement in my first year Torts class. This recommendation not only saved me
from getting a less than stellar grade in the class, but actually helped me
earn a CALI ( an award for the highest grade in the class). I finished with a
fairly high GPA after my first semester, but this was my only CALI award. I
started using a supplement in Torts far earlier than I did in any other class;
I don’t think it was a coincidence that it was also my highest grade.
But now for the meat, what are supplements? As mentioned above, they
are secondary sources, which are defined by the Harvard Law School Library
website as “[S]ources [that] often explain legal principles more thoroughly
than a single case or statute, so using them can help you save time.” [1]
This definition is fantastic because it harkens on the main point of
supplements: they save you time! And as many law students and professors
will attest, time is the most valuable commodity as a 1L law student.
The value of supplements is realized because of how incredibly
inefficient it is to wade through dense cases to find a single legal principle,
especially when the subject matter and nomenclature are very complex and
foreign. Note, I do not recommend shying from the reading; instead, I
urge you to read supplements first so you know WHAT to look for when reading the case. Not only will this make
the reading easier, but it will also make the reading far more interesting and
transform your class experience into an engaging one. In other words,
supplements help you understand what the hell is going on.
I still have flashbacks to my pre-supplement days and reading Pennoyer v. Neff, a relic of civil
procedure jurisprudence that simultaneously left my head in a daze and left me terrified
of being cold-called. But since we are on the topic of efficiency, let me not
waste any more of your time and introduce the a couple of different types of
supplements:
·
Crunchtime Series: These are
supplements marketed by Emmanuel and give brief outlines of the area of law. They
will methodically list concepts, claims, and legal theories and write
explanations for each while listing their components element-by-element. They
also contain multiple choice questions, essay questions, and exam tips. I found
that these supplements are really, but only good to gain big picture ideas of
the law, which will largely be echoed in class. When reading them before the
reading, you will know the law, but not exactly how to find it. They also don’t
develop the nuances as well as some of the other supplements;
·
Understanding Series: These are
mini-treatises that are often organized extremely succinctly and are written by
top educators in the field. They are very student friendly and are written for
clarity. These will give you all the background necessary to find the law
without bogging you down with footnotes and other extraneous material.
Importantly, many of the cases assigned within your casebook will also be in
the Understanding series, so you can take a sneak peak into what the case
is about. This is one of the best supplement series out there and are highly
recommended;
·
Hornbooks: This is a term that
rings a bell for older lawyers, in fact, law schools used to give hornbooks to
students who achieved the highest grade in the class. Hornbooks can be summed
up as denser versions of the understanding series. They are extremely
comprehensive and contain many more footnotes than an understanding
series—indeed, LaFave and Scott’s Hornbook on Criminal Law contained entire
pages that were almost comprised of footnotes. But these footnotes are not just
clutter—they often provide cases that illustrate the primary proposition they
are cited in support of. I remember that the footnotes in LaFave and Scott’s
hornbook finally helped me understand some of the nuances of Attempt law.
·
Treatises: These treatises, made
by companies like Aspen and Foundation Press, are essentially the same as
hornbooks for your intents and purposes. They are lengthier than the
Understanding series but all are pretty student-friendly as they are designed
for students. In picking a certain treatise over a hornbook—for example,
Farnsworth on Contract (made by Aspen) vs. Calamari and Perillo on Contracts
(hornbook series), read the same section for both and see which writer
resonates with you more. This can be done by checking these books out in the
library. Many times I turned to a treatise only to find that an analog hornbook
just clicked with me more. The time doing this type of research up-front will
pay dividends on the back-end of the semester where you are extremely busy with
finals.
·
Examples and Explanations:
Another hallmark supplement of 1L. These supplements provide a brief overview
of a topic and then test your knowledge with short answer questions. While
these can be good to prepare for finals, I found that the other
treatise-formatted supplements with a more explanatory narrative were more
effective in teaching you the nuances of the law and give you the extra edge
over your classmates. Again, this depends on preference, and if drilling
questions works for you better than learning from reading a supplement that provides
a book-type narrative, than E and E may be for you.
Supplement
tip: See which author writes you casebook and see if that author has a
corresponding supplement. Although there may be a lot of overlap, you can find
many of the open-ended answers to questions in the casebook answered in the
supplement. Additionally, there will be no discrepancies in terms or
explanations so you will get a double dose of information provided in the
casebook. The best example of this double-dipping was in Criminal law with
Dressler’s understanding series. I read this throughout the entire semester and
did very well on the exam. I did not find the overlap to be detrimental, as the
understanding supplement really just hammered home concepts and explained
theories that I did not understanding entirely from extrapolating from the
cases.
Well
there you have it. Hopefully this brief introduction will be give you a good summation
of supplements. More tips, details, and comparisons of supplements will follow
in further posts.