Rule 12
Read Hornbooks and Treatises
The casebook method of law teaching teaches you to study specific cases in the hope that you will distill the important principles and systemically organize them in your mind. A purist’s approach to learning through cases will make the argument that the process of inductive reasoning from case to case is a superior way to learn the law.
Whether or not you choose this method, you should know that there are other methods of understanding a legal subject. In fact, hornbooks and treatises have been written on any subject area you might study. Hornbooks are commercial summaries of the law, organized by subject and issue and helpful for distilling the core principles. Treatises involve academic summaries and commentary of the issues and all of the cases that touch on the legal issue. A complete treatise might dwarf in size your casebook because it attempts to canvass the entire subject on a national scale.
On occasion, try reading hornbooks or treatises on 1 L subjects. These books can provide context to the cases. You can see the forest for the trees (as they say) and understand why your professor is so focused on that particular tree. You will understand the history, politics, and rationale and even learn where the law makes no sense. These books cannot replace case reading, but they can augment learning by providing a needed context.
