CHAPTER XVII 
LAW BOOKS 
The Anglo-American law of the past and the materials out 
of which, along with the facts of life, the Anglo-American 
law of the future will be made are found in law books. These 
books may, therefore, be called the repositories of the law. In 
the matter of authority the materials in these repositories 
of the law vary in importance. Some are of almost controlling 
importance. Others are only of persuasive importance. Still 
others are of importance only as helps for finding the other 
materials. Consequently it has become customary to classify 
law books according to their authority, and this gives us three 
main classes of law books: (I) Books of Primary Authority, 
(II) Books of Secondary Authority, and (III) Key Books. 
Books of primary authority include (A) Statutes, and ( B ) 
Judicial Decisions; and Statutes include (1) Constitutions, 
(2) Treaties, and (3) Statutes proper. Books of secondary 
authority include (A) Digests, ( B ) Encyclopedias, (C) Text- 
books, (D) Law Dictionaries, ( E ) Legal Periodicals, and ( F ) 
Annotations to Statutes and Cases. Key Books include (A) 
Indexes, (B) Notes on Reported Cases, ( C ) Tables of Cases, 
and (D) Citators. Various lists 104 of law books have been 
compiled and published — all essentially alike, but the list pre- 
pared by Edmund M. Morgan is best adapted for student 
use, because it is accompanied by a large but succinct amount 
of explanatory material, and this list with Professor Morgan’s 
accompanying explanations and with a supplementary list of 
state reports is the one now published in this study. 
104 Hicks, Materials and Methods of Legal Research ; Lawyer’s Cooperative Pub. Co., 
Laiv Books and their Use; Mason in Brief Making; Kiser, Principles and Practice of 
Legal Research; Morgan, Introduction to the Study of Lata. 
083 ) 
