Primary Law and Secondary Sources = Two Categories of Legal Authority

Primary Law​ = sources that state the actual law:

● Constitutions​ (e.g, United States Constitution, Texas State Constitution)

● Statutes​ = laws enacted by a legislative body (e,g., U.S. Code, Texas Code)
● Rules of Evidence & Procedure
● Municipal Codes and Ordinances​ = laws enacted by local governmental bodies
(i.e, city council)
● Cases​ = opinions handed down by courts (e.g. federal and state appellate
decisions)
● Rules and Regulations​ = ​ issued by ​federal and state administrative government
agencies ​pursuant to statutory authority, ​(e.g., U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA))
● Treaties​ = binding agreement between Nations (e.g., Geneva Convention, North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Worldwide Chemical Weapons
Convention)

Secondary Law​ = sources that explain, criticize, discuss, or help locate primary law.
Anything that is not the actual law is considered a secondary source.

● Legal Dictionaries​ (e.g., ​Black’s Law Dictionary, Nolo’s Plain English Law
Dictionary​)
● Legal Encyclopedias​ = brief summaries of the law organized alphabetically by
topic (e.g., American Jurisprudence (Am. Jur), Corpus Juris Secundum (C.J.S.),
Texas Jurisprudence (Tex. Jur.))
● Legal Treatises, Hornbooks, & Practice Guides​ = ​books that provide in-depth
coverage of a particular legal topic, often written by leading scholars in that area
of law ​(e.g., Prosser & Keeton on Torts)
● Restatements of Law​ = the ​"​restating​" of the legal rules and common law in an
area of law written by the American Law Institute (ALI), a prestigious legal
organization composed of noted professors, judges and lawyers.
● American Law Reports (ALR)​ = ​ articles/annotations that provide an objective and
in-depth analysis of specific ​legal​ issues (i.e, Dramshop Liability), often with a
survey of how every jurisdiction handles that issue.
● Law Reviews and Journals​ = articles on legal topics written by law professors,
judges, attorneys, law students (e.g., South Texas Law Review, Texas Law
Review, Yale Law Journal)