Boley Blog

Legal Research Classes 2025-2026

Signing up for classes? Here are the legal research offerings from the law library on legal research this next year:

Fall

Advanced Legal Research with Professor Jim Kite

This course expands on the practical approach to modern legal research begun in Legal Research I. In Advanced Legal Research, students will explore complex research topics including legislative history, transactional practice, litigation analytics, and artificial intelligence. Students learn through a combination of lectures, homework assignments, frequent in-class exercises and other activities.

Legal Research Environmental Law with Assoc. Dean Rob Truman (online)

This course will be offered online with no scheduled course meetings. Students will gain advanced understanding of the legal resources and research techniques used in the practice of environmental, natural resources, and energy law. We will cover sources and techniques beyond those of introductory research courses, with an emphasis on administrative materials and advanced statutory research, as well as exposure to current awareness tools, topical databases, international environmental legal research, legislative tracking and history, science and statistics sources, cost-effective research strategies, and current and archived sources of government information.

The course is designed to complement other environmental, natural resources, and energy law courses and clinics, and to allow students to apply knowledge gained in this class to their research, clinical, journal, and work experiences.

Legal Research Environmental Law LLM/MSL Only with Professor Kian Pakdel (online)

This course will be offered online with no scheduled course meetings. Students will gain advanced understanding of the legal resources and research techniques used in the practice of environmental, natural resources, and energy law. We will cover sources and techniques beyond those of introductory research courses, with an emphasis on administrative materials and advanced statutory research, as well as exposure to current awareness tools, topical databases, international environmental legal research, legislative tracking and history, science and statistics sources, cost-effective research strategies, and current and archived sources of government information.

The course is designed to complement other environmental, natural resources, and energy law courses and clinics, and to allow students to apply knowledge gained in this class to their research, clinical, journal, and work experiences.

Legal Research International and Foreign with Professor Kian Pakdel (online)

This course explores strategies for conducting research in Foreign, Comparative and International Law, primarily using electronic resources. The course begins by examining the sources of international law, including treaties, cases from international courts and tribunals, documents from international organizations, and scholarly publications. We will also explore finding the law of foreign nations, gaining an understanding of civil legal systems, and learning “work-arounds” when the sources are not in English. Using a problem-based approach, the class will incorporate the following topics while reviewing the sources of international law: international environmental law, international litigation and dispute resolution, international trade and investment law, and international human rights. This class is a requirement for the international law certificate.

Spring

Legal Research 1 with Professors Kostek, Kite, and Anderson (1L or transfer students only)

This course will introduce first-year law students to primary and secondary sources as well as best practices used in legal research with emphasis placed on legal research as an integral part of legal practice. Students will (1) learn foundational research skills that can be applied to legal research questions in any area of law; (2) develop legal research strategies to use databases, sources, and tools effectively; and (3) build on knowledge from LAW I by utilizing core primary and secondary U.S. legal information sources, learn how this material is used, organized, published, indexed, and kept current, and how to find and use these sources efficiently. Mastering legal research requires a hands-on approach.