Recherche documentaire en droit américain pour les non américains...

Repéré encore une fois dans l’excellente lettre ’Arterian and Paul’ LSN Legal Education, Vol. 3 No. 26, 08/24/2006 , cet article de la SSRN traitant des méthodes d’accès à la documentation juridique américaine (et incidemment au droit US) pour les non américains.

Il s’agit du plan détaillé et de l’introduction de l’ouvrage éponyme "An Introduction to the United States Legal System Cases and Comments", ALBERTO MANUEL BENITEZ, George Washington University - Law School paru en avril 2006, qui est quand même un pavé de 400 pages.

A rapprocher des articles déjà parus sur ce site :
 Trouver de la législation américaine en ligne
 Glossaire de termes juridiques américains
 Lire une décision de jurisprudence américaine
 Résumé sur le système juridique Américain

Cet article me fait aussi penser à une référence que je garde toujours en stock à portée de main, tant pour son contenu, fort clair, que pour acquérir le vocabulaire technique adéquat en matière de legal librarianship.

Je veux parler ici d’un article de Gary Yesin, Orienting New Employees : Law Libraries 101 Regular Feature : Practical Solutions, publié dans le Law Library Journal, 96 Law Libr. J. (2004). A noter que la collection complète de cette revue est disponible en test gratuit, avec deux autres, sur le site web de l’éditeur Hein Online.

L’article de Gary Yessin explique en quelques mots simples comment présenter à une nouvelle recrue en bibliothèque les méthodes de travail, les bonnes pratiques, et le jargon de la documentation juridique US.

"An Introduction to the United States Legal System Cases and Comments" GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 214

GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 214

Alberto Manuel Benitez, AN INTRODUCTION TO THE UNITED STATES LEGAL SYSTEM : CASES AND COMMENTS, Introduction, & Chapter One, Carolina Academic Press, 2006

Contact : ALBERTO MANUEL BENITEZ George Washington University - Law School Email : abenitez@law.gwu.edu Auth-Page : http://ssrn.com/author=361647

Full Text : http://ssrn.com/abstract=920680

ABSTRACT : This casebook introduces non-U.S trained lawyers, law students, and college undergraduates to the intricacies and nuances of our legal system. The world is becoming a smaller place and as a consequence of this globalization, the need for lawyers who are international in perspective and competence is increasing. Whatever one’s opinion about globalization, there is no doubt that the U.S. legal system is at the forefront of these changes. This book attempts to compress three years of U.S. legal education into one casebook.

The following materials in this chapter, and throughout this book, will help non-United States law students and pre-law students gain a better understanding of the legal system and the overall legal culture at work in the United States. Particularly, within this chapter is information on the infamous Socratic Method employed, to some extent, at most law schools throughout the country. Also, within this chapter is information that draws specific contrasts between the United States legal system and others. As the reader continues through the text, he will begin to understand that in the United States legal culture, the way one arrives at the answer is just as important as answering the question.

Given its intended audience, this book is an introduction to comparative legal studies, under the theory that, in establishing what the law is in each jurisdiction under study, comparative law (and for that matter, studies of foreign law, as well) should (a) be concerned to describe the normal conceptual world of the lawyer, (b) take into consideration all the sources upon which a lawyer in that legal system might base her opinion as to what the law is, and (c) take into consideration the gap between the law on the books and law in action, as well as (d) important gaps in available knowledge about either the law on the books or the law in action.