Hornbooks Series: Hornbooks are published by West Group. These are one volume mini‐treatises that summarize expl
ain the law on subjects like criminal law, employment discrimination, property and real estate finance. Hornbooks provide an overview of the legal doctrines, principles, and rules, focusing only on the most important issues and cases for the area of law being covered. Brooklyn Law School Library has both Hornbook series practitioner’s edition and Hornbook series student edition.
Understanding Series: The Understanding series is published by LexisNexis and written by legal scholars. They provide straightforward, clear analysis of a particular area of law highlighting important issues and citing leading authority. Like hornbooks, the Understanding series is written with law students in mind and tend to provide the most detail on the more complex issues. The Understanding series typically provides less treatment to each topic than hornbooks, but significantly more than Nutshells. Brooklyn Law School Library has over fifty Understanding series titles covering administrative law, bankruptcy, conflicts of laws, criminal procedure, and evidence.
Exa
mples and Explanations Series: Examples and Explanations series are published by Aspen, a branch of Wolters Kluwer Law & Business. Each title begins with a general introduction to a topic and a basic explanation of the major issues specific to that area of law. Also included are a series of examples and corresponding explanations that provide analysis of the examples. The examples range from the simple to the more complex to help students apply their knowledge, and thus better understand complex concepts. Brooklyn Law School Library has a growing collection of this series covering many topics including trusts and estates, evidence, torts, criminal law, and civil procedure.
Nutshells
Series: The Nutshell series is published by West Group and consist of short, one volume paperbacks that present a general overview of an area of law and provide citations to leading authority. Nutshells should not be used as a source of in‐depth treatment and analysis because they give just enough information to provide students with a general understanding of major concepts, polUnderstanding Law Student Study Aidsicies and relevant rules for any given topic. Brooklyn Law School Library has over five hundred titles in this series dating back to the 1960’s. Library users will find Nutshells on many 1L subjects and also on more advanced subjects like toxic torts, elder law, sea law, electronic discovery and international human rights.
