The Restatement of Torts was a prominent part of one of the oral arguments when the Utah Supreme Court visited the Law School a few weeks ago. Restatements are influential secondary sources that are painstakingly created by the American Law Institute. (For a brief primer see here.) The Law Library recently subscribed to HeinOnline’s American Law Institute Library, providing access to the work of the ALI. Researchers interested in studying the Restatements, or other projects such as the Uniform Commercial Code or the Principles of Law, will find this to be a valuable resource. Some of the most recent work of the ALI is not currently available on HeinOnline, but is generally added over time.
As one example of what researchers can find, this new library contains all of the historical drafts of the Restatement (Second) of Torts. This includes 41 Council Drafts, 22 Preliminary Drafts, and 23 Tentative Drafts (all covering the span of about 20 years). Researchers can also search through all the documents in this specific collection, as they can with all of the other Restatements and other ALI documents.