The Dos and Don'ts of Outside Reading Using Study Aids in Law Schools

"A learned fool is one who has read everything, and simply remembered it." -Josh Billings, American Humorist

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One reason law school is unique is because it is the only school where a student can make a conscious effort to avoid attending a class, yet end up scoring higher on the final exam than many of her fellow students who laboriously attended and prepared for every lecture. (However, while this is possible in law school, it is not recommended.)

The reason for this curious phenomenon is simple: many law students do not know how to play the law school game. Contrary to what your professors may tell you, an integral part of playing the law school game is the judicious use of study aids. What are law school study aids? In brief, they are straightforward sources of "the law"-those legal rules and principles that are crucial for you to know at test time.

As an initial matter, you should accept the fact that you, too, will buy and use commercial study aids even after you have spent a bundle just to attend law school and purchase the required texts. There are several reasons you will do so. The primary reason is to clarify and organize the mass of unfamiliar materials you will be studying. Both law school professors and the textbooks they use tend to obscure the so-called "black letter" law you need to know to get good grades within a massive exposition of text, ideas, and questions. Unlike the judicial opinions found in the casebooks (which will be your primary sources of assigned reading), law school study aids contain straightforward statements of black letter law, its sources, and its rationales, along with a few illustrations of its application. Thus, they help to unobscure the obscure. Accordingly, they will enable you to spend considerably less time organizing and learning a subject than would otherwise be necessary.

In addition to helping you make the most efficient use of your study time, such aids (when used wisely) free up time for enjoying those activities that are not necessarily associated with being a law student. Also, since the majority of your fellow students will be using study aids, you may be at a competitive disadvantage if you do not do the same.

This article provides the new law student with an overview of the various types of study aids available, including advice on how and when to use them and which ones to use. We hope this will help reduce some of the anxiety engendered by the existence and variety of these materials.

Part of the wise use of study aids is knowing when and how not to use them. Study aids, like alcohol, should be used in moderation. You should not rely upon them exclusively to learn the subject matter of your classes. Overreliance on or addiction to study aids can make you intellectually lazy and can hamper the development of your ability to read and analyze case law for its salient points, an essential skill for any lawyer. This chapter therefore concludes with some appropriate caveats aimed at preventing a student from becoming addicted to study aids or from otherwise using them in a harmful fashion.

Hornbooks

Hornbooks are hardcover, scholarly treatises designed not as study aids, but as authoritative legal reference works. Lengthy and heavily footnoted, they are devoted to particular areas of the law and are written by noted legal experts, professors, and scholars. They are usually quite reliable, but since each hornbook consists of several hundred (or often over 1,000) pages of text, hornbooks are much too voluminous for busy law students to use regularly as study aids. You should therefore generally consult hornbooks infrequently, and then only to clear up any confusion that arises on particular or specific points of law. For example, if you did not understand the difference between a bilateral contract and a unilateral contract after a lecture and a review of other less detailed study aids, you could find the distinctive features of each amply discussed and illustrated in a hornbook on contracts.

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By the same token, because of the detailed nature of hornbooks, a contracts hornbook would not be the best place to turn for a quick review of the subject, especially if you are only trying to gain an overview of the course and refresh your recollection for a final exam. Because of their bulk and hardcover format, hornbooks are expensive to buy, typically selling for $25 to $30 or more each. Happily, it is almost certain you will never need to buy one. The cost of using a hornbook can be reduced to nothing by making use of the hornbooks in the law school library. Given the small number of times you will find yourself needing to consult those treatises, there is little reason to purchase a hornbook, except perhaps for a class in which you are utterly confused or for which there are no other types of decent study aids available.

The following hornbooks are widely regarded as helpful to both students and lawyers:

• Calamari & Perrillos Hornbook on Contracts (West, 2nd Ed., 1977)
   
• La Fave & Scott's Handbook on Criminal Law (West, 1972)
   
• Prosser & Keetons The Law of Torts (West, 5th Ed., 1984)

West's Nutshell Series

Nutshelb are akin to miniature, paperback hornbooks. West Publishing Company publishes dozens of nutshells on numerous legal topics, usually ranging from approximately 250 to 500 pages each. These study aids are less authoritative than most hornbooks (although a number of distinguished professors serve on the Nutshell Advisory Board) and vary greatly in quality. However, because they are fairly succinct as compared to hornbooks, nutshells provide a comprehensive view of the subject matter of a course with a minimum time investment on your part. The broad-brush treatment found in nutshells often serves to illustrate and focus ones attention on important legal issues that are likely to appear on a final exam, rather than on trivial minutiae. The nutshell series also covers considerably more course subjects than do outlines or hornbooks. Complete listings of the many nutshells and hornbooks published by West can be found at the beginning of any nutshell and should give you an idea as to what is available.

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