Established in 1684, over a century before the Commonwealth, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court is the oldest appellate court in North America. This balanced, comprehensive history of the Court examines over three centuries of legal proceedings and cases before the body, the controversies and conflicts with which it dealt, and the impact of its decisions and of the case law its justices created Introduced by constitutional scholar Ken Gormley, this volume describes the Supreme Court’s structure and powers and focuses at length on the Court’s work in deciding notable cases of constitutional law, civil rights, torts, criminal law, labor law, and administrative law. Through three sections, “The Structure and Powers of the Supreme Court,” “Decisional Law of the Supreme Court,” and “Reporting Supreme Court Decisions,” the contributors address the many ways in which the Court and its justices have shaped life and law in Pennsylvania and beyond. They consider how it has adjudicated new and complex issues arising from some of the most notable events and tragedies in American history, including the struggle for religious liberty in colonial Pennsylvania, the Revolutionary War, slavery, the Johnstown Flood, the Homestead Steel Strike and other labor conflicts, both World Wars, and, more recently, the dramatic rise of criminal procedural rights and the expansion of tort law. Featuring an afterword by Chief Justice Saylor and essays by leading jurists, deans, law and history professors, and practicing attorneys, this fair-minded assessment of the Court is destined to become a criterion volume for lawmakers, scholars, and anyone interested in legal history in the Keystone State and the United States.

Pennsylvania Legal Research, now in its second edition, was written to provide a practical introduction to legal research with a special focus on Pennsylvania. It is intended to be of use to students who are beginning their legal careers; to practitioners who may need a concise description of research tools they have not used extensively; to attorneys from other jurisdictions who are experienced legal researchers, but who lack familiarity with basic Pennsylvania sources; and to anyone who needs a practical introduction to legal research, with a focus on Pennsylvania law. The second edition begins with an overview of the legal research process and a discussion of research methods. The next chapters describe the more specific steps involved in finding and analyzing judicial opinions, statutes, legislative history, constitutional law, administrative law, and rules of court. The original chapter on secondary sources has been expanded and divided into two chapters, Secondary Sources and Practice Materials. This division reinforces the distinction between more scholarly sources, which may be cited as persuasive authority, and more practice-oriented sources, which are useful research tools without being cited themselves. At the end of the book, an Appendix provides guidance on incorporating legal citations into documents, and highlights citation issues that frequently arise when citing Pennsylvania sources. Updating tools are discussed throughout the book rather than in a separate chapter. The order in which the chapters are assigned in a legal research course can vary. For example, professors who prefer to begin with secondary sources can easily start with those chapters and then return to the earlier chapters on primary sources. The underlying assumption of this edition is that a majority of research will be conducted using online sources; print resources are still acknowledged, but the focus has shifted from choosing between print and online resources to choosing the most efficient research methods for different types of authority. This book is part of the Legal Research Series, edited by Suzanne E. Rowe, Director of Legal Research and Writing, University of Oregon School of Law.

Newly updated, this Pennsylvania-specific guide for legal-research methods, programs, and resources is a must-have for attorneys, law students, librarians, paralegals, or anyone who conducts legal research in the state of Pennsylvania.