North Carolina Legal Resources Guide
This guide is an annotated listing of North Carolina legal materials found
in the NCSU Libraries. Federal legal materials are discussed in the guide, U.S. Legal Resources. Specific library
locations are included since these titles are located in different areas of
the D. H. Hill Library.
Getting Started
Legal materials consist of primary sources and secondary
sources. Primary sources are considered mandatory authority that a court must
follow within a jurisdiction. Constitutions, legislation, administrative
regulations, and decisions from a court of higher authority in the same
jurisdiction are all primary sources.
Decisions from courts in other jurisdictions, encyclopedias, journal
articles and books on legal topics are considered secondary authority.
The "law" changes frequently. New laws and regulations are passed and new
court decisions are released. It is important that you consult the most
current versions of legal sources. Publishers of legal materials have created
various methods to update legal materials, such as looseleaf pages or
supplements inserted in the back of a book (pocket part). Examine the books
you are using to determine the updating format. Electronic resources make finding current law much easier.
Uniform methods of citing legal materials have been established. The
general format is:
volume
source
page/section (date)
For example, a decision of the North Carolina Supreme Court would be
cited
134 N.C. 431 (1978).
In the pages that follow, after the description of each source,
an example of the appropriate citation format is provided.
Individuals having a specific reference (citation) to a North Carolina
case, statute, regulation, etc. should consult the appropriate section under
Primary Sources. Those seeking a discussion or article about the law on a particular topic should begin with the section titled Secondary Sources. Directories to assist you in deciphering a citatio
n's abbreviation are listed under Other Sources.
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