미국 法源에의 체계적 접근
A Systematic Approach to the American Legal Sources
김재원
초록
It is needless to say how pivotal the knowledge of American law is in this globalized society, where American standards are viewed as the global standards. Especially for those who conduct comparative legal studies, or engage in legal research for new legislation, American law supplies abundant and very useful resources. The access to the primary sources of American law has been much easier these days since many libraries of Korean law schools and the Institutions doing legal work have begun to subscribe major on-line legal services such as WESTLAW and LEXISNEXIS. Despite of this amazing accessibility, many researchers in Korea often complain about little information they obtain from those on-line services. The author believes that this problem is chiefly derived from the ignorance of the basic framework of the American legal system, including the classification structure and the publication of legal authorities. For this reason, the article provides a general survey of the American legal system especially focusing on the constitutional mechanism, legislative proceedings, and judicial lawmaking. There have been many publications in Korea that explain how to find and use American case laws. Nevertheless, it seems quite insufficient to learn enough information about American statutory laws. This article thus tries to summarize the federal and state legislative procedures as well as their respective publications of primary legal materials. In this regard, slip laws, session laws and the compilation of statutory laws are explained in detail. The author concludes the article by suggesting a tip for an efficient research methodology for American law.