LEGAL RESEARCH BASICS - EXERCISES



LEGAL RESEARCH USING ELECTRONIC DATABASES - EXERCISES

1. Locate and pull up the full text of the following law journal article:

Game Over: The “Region Lock” in Video Games by Angus MacCulloch in European Intellectual Property Review

How did you find the full text of the article?

First, I went to the SMU Libraries Catalog to determine which sources have European Intellectual Property Review. The SMU Libraries Catalog indicates that this journal can be found in Westlaw. Next, I went to Westlaw and typed in the name of the journal in the “search for a database” box. This journal was the first result in the list, which I then clicked on. It brought up a search box. I used the search terms: au(macculloch) & ti(video). This search brought up a link to the full text of the desired article.

2. Does either Lexis or Westlaw have a database of court decisions from the following jurisdictions (indicate which one, neither, or both, for each country)? If so, are the court decisions available in English?

Hong Kong – Both Westlaw and Lexis provide databases of Hong Kong court decisions in English.

Italy – Neither Westlaw nor Lexis provides any database with Italian court decisions.

Malaysia – Lexis provides a database with Malaysian court decisions in English. Westlaw does not provide any database with Malaysian court decisions.

Mexico – Lexis provides a database with Mexican Supreme Court decisions, but they are available only in Spanish. Westlaw does not provide any database (to which SMU Law Library subscribes) with Mexican court decisions.

3. In the Hein database “Foreign Relations of the United States”, locate a Memorandum dated February 7, 1969 with the title “Covert Support of the Thai Government Party in the Thai Parliamentary Elections”. Does the Memorandum state any amount (or an estimate of an amount) of funds provided? – if so, what is the amount?; if not, why not (as stated in the Memorandum itself)?

No amount is specified, as this information has not been “declassified”.

Path to find it: From the “Foreign Relations of the United States” database in Hein, click on “1969-1976, Richard M. Nixon/Gerald R. Ford”. Next, click on “vol. XX, Southeast Asia, 1964-1972”. Next, from the menu on the left-hand side of the screen, click on “Thailand Southeast Asia” (page 1). Scroll down to page 6 which has the document titled: “Memorandum Prepared for the 303 Committee. Subject: Covert Support of the Thai Government Party in the Thai National Parliamentary Elections”. The relevant information (“dollar amount not declassified”) is on the bottom of the page.

4. A court decision contained in the database “International Law in Domestic Courts”, states: “during a civil war that lasted for more than 30 years, over 200,000 indigenous people disappeared or were assassinated in Guatemala by the Army and by civil servants acting under its orders”. Locate this decision in the ILDC database. The court that issued this decision is located in what country?

Spain (Constitutional Court)

Path to find it: From the “International Law in Domestic Courts” database, click on the “advanced search” tab at the top. In the “search terms” box, type in “Guatemala”. From the “other search terms” list, select either “human rights” or “international criminal law” (both work equally well in this search). From the “keywords” list, select “genocide”. Then, click on the “back to advanced search” link. Finally, click on the “search” button, and the first result is the relevant case: Menchu and others v. Two Guatemalan Government Officials and others, Constitutional appeal (recurso de amparo) Judgment of the Constitutional Court, ILDC 137 (ES 2005) 26 September 2005. Click on the link to the full text of the case and find the relevant language at the top of the “analysis” section.

5. With regard to any of the countries mentioned in question 2 above, can you find better sources (subscription or free) for court decisions of those countries other than Westlaw or Lexis? If so, please name the sources below.

Start with a legal research guide for each of the four jurisdictions (such as the research guide on Mexican law published by Tarlton Law Library, Univ. of Texas ). Research guides for each of them will describe print and/or electronic sources other than Lexis and Westlaw where you can find court decisions. Also, the website provides a database of cases, or links to websites that have cases, for Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Italy (but in Italian only). provides links to court websites in Mexico, but these do not appear to provide actual court decisions.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download