Lectures & Course Materials

Colorado Law library faculty members are experts in legal research and teach a number of for-credit classes throughout the academic year. Please consult the Law School's Calendars and Schedules page to see what courses are being offered in the coming semester.

Foundational Courses

Foundations of Legal Research

taught by: Library Faculty

(LAWS 5646) This one-credit, pass/fail, first-year elective is designed to move students from the brief introduction to legal research offered in the first-year legal writing classes to the sort of problem-centered research students will perform starting in the summer after their first year. Provides students with a conceptual understanding of the organization and connectivity of legal authority and with instruction in research methodology at both the project and resource levels.

Advanced Courses

Foundational Courses are recommended, but not required, before taking advanced legal research courses.

Advanced Legal Research

taught by: Library Faculty

(LAWS 6856) This two-credit course moves students from the brief introduction to legal research offered in the first-year legal writing class to the problem-centered research students will perform in practice. Offers an in-depth look at research resources and methods. Primary and secondary sources from the judicial, legislative, and executive branches of federal and state government will be covered, both print and online.

Colorado Legal Research

taught by: Library Faculty

(LAWS 6866) Surveys resources and methods to effectively research Colorado law. Covers primary and secondary resources including Colorado statutes, cases and digests, regulations, and constitution and practice materials. Covers how to research Colorado municipal law and other Colorado topics.

Special Topics in Legal Research: International Law

taught by: Aamir Abdullah

(LAWS 6836) Introduces students to resources and methods used to conduct foreign, comparative, and international law research. This course explores primary and secondary sources of international law (e.g., treaties, cases from international courts and tribunals, documents from international organizations) and foreign law (e.g., civil codes, cases, statutes). In addition, it will introduce navigating different legal systems and language barriers.

Academic Legal Research

taught by: Michelle Penn

Are you hoping to write a student note or comment for a law journal? Or will you be writing a research paper for a seminar? Doing so requires a different set of legal research skills, so this one-credit course teaches students how to do scholarly-oriented research from topic selection through the remainder of the research process. Students will select a scholarly legal research topic, identify and evaluate their relevant primary and secondary sources, and draft a prospectus based on their research.

Tags: