What type of authority includes legal encyclopedias, articles, and treatises?

Secondary authority encompasses materials that provide analysis, commentary, or scholarly discussion about the law, rather than the law itself. Legal encyclopedias, articles, and treatises fall under this category as they do not serve as law directly but rather help explain and interpret primary legal sources.

These secondary sources can be incredibly useful for legal researchers because they offer insights, summarize vast areas of law, and point out relevant cases and statutes. They assist researchers in understanding complex legal concepts and finding applicable primary authority. In contrast, primary authority refers to statutes, regulations, and case law, which are the actual legal standards that govern behavior. Tertiary authority usually consists of tools that compile and summarize primary and secondary sources, like legal dictionaries and encyclopedias. Administrative authority relates specifically to rules and regulations established by governmental agencies. Therefore, the characterization of legal encyclopedias, articles, and treatises as secondary authority is accurate, highlighting their role in legal research as tools for understanding and interpreting the law rather than sources of law itself.