Use the sites and techniques on this page to discover significant and unresolved legal issues.
Skimming recent publications of different types can often bring unresolved issues to light.
Search Ignacio by subject or key word to look for books in broad areas of law (e.g. Criminal, Bankruptcy, Privacy) or that interest you. Limit or modify your search by "Location" to "Law Stacks." Also limit or modify by "Year" to limit results to more recent books.
Look at the discussions and notes before and after the cases for indications of unresolved issues.
Recent ALR annotations tend to reflect topics of current interest where there has been enough case law to form the basis for an annotation. For some of these topics, there may be different or even conflicting approaches to the issues in question.
Here are some sample Westlaw law review searches for finding novel or unresolved issues.
These searches retrieve lots of documents, even with a date restriction limiting results to the last few months. Consider adding topical search terms — even broad ones such as "discrim!"
adv: "beyond the scope" /s note or article or comment and date(after 5/2017)
adv: "beyond the scope" /s note or article or comment and discrim! and date(after 5/2017)
Here are some sample Lexis law review searches for finding novel or unresolved issues.
These searches retrieve lots of documents, even with a date restriction limiting results to the last few months. Consider adding topical search terms — even broad ones such as "discrim!"
"beyond the scope" w/s note or article or comment and date aft 5/2017
"beyond the scope" w/s note or article or comment and discrim! and date aft 5/2017
Here are some sample Westlaw case law searches for finding novel or unresolved issues. (See the Circuit Splits section of this guide for finding circuit splits and similar jurisdictional conflicts.)
These searches retrieve lots of documents, even with a date restriction limiting results to the last few months. Consider adding topical search terms — even broad ones such as "discrim!"
adv: issue or question or matter /s "first impression" or novel and date(after 5/2017)
adv: issue or question or matter /s "first impression" or novel and discrim! and date(after 5/2017)
Here are some sample Lexis case law searches for finding novel or unresolved issues. (See the Circuit Splits section of this guide for finding circuit splits and similar jurisdictional conflicts.)
These searches retrieve lots of documents, even with a date restriction limiting results to the last few months. Consider adding topical search terms — even broad ones such as "discrim!"
adv: issue or question or matter w/s "first impression" or novel and date aft 5/2017
adv: issue or question or matter w/s "first impression" or novel and discrim! and date aft 5/2017