Page 145 - Training for librarianship; library work as a career
P. 145
TRAINING FOR LIBRARIANSHIP
the lawyer as well, consists of statute law and
case law. The former is made by legisla-
tures, the latter by the courts. Statute law
consists of session laws, and compilations and
codifications of existing laws. Case law or
court law consists mainly of judicial deci-
sions. Such decisions are contained in law
reports. Written opinions of federal and
state courts are reported either officially or
unofficially. Appellate courts of last resort
usually have an official reporter who prepares
the court's opinions for publication. Private
law pubhshers also issue special series of re-
ports containing selected cases of importance
or opinions not officially reported. Court de-
cisions are also classified in summarized form
in law digests. The legal treatise or textbook
conmionly discusses the meaning, interpreta-
tion, significance and development of statute
and case law with citations of laws and cases
in point. The law encyclopedia aims to clas-
sify the whole body of law under appropri-
ately selected, alphabetically arranged heads.
General principles are stated in the text and
citations of cases are given in notes. The
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