Restatement Indexes

Indexing of the Restatements has changed over the course of the three published series. The first series of Restatements has a single, unified subject index that covered all of the Restatements. Each Restatement in the first series also has its own subject index. There is no unified index to the second or third series.

Some of the Restatements in the second series, such as the Restatement of the Law Second, Contracts and the Restatement of the Law Second, Torts, have a subject index in each volume covering only the materials in that volume. Therefore, to thoroughly search the print subject index of one of these Restatements, you would have to check a separate subject index at the end of each of its volumes. Other Restatements in the second series, including Restatement of the Law Second, Agency, have a single index in the last volume covering the contents of all volumes.

Each of the third series Restatements has a subject index in its last volume that covers all of its volumes. To thoroughly search the subject index to the Restatement of the Law Third, the Foreign Relations Law of the United States, you would only need to search a single index at the end of the last volume.

Although there are three series of Restatements (and a fourth one in progress), unless you are doing scholarly research such as you would do for a law review article, you will probably want to search only the latest complete Restatement that covers your issue. You will probably not often find it necessary to search the first series Restatements.

As an example, imagine that you are researching the law of dog bite liability and review the facts of our previoushypothetical.

Since the Restatement of the Law Third, Torts: Liability for Physical and Emotional Harm is not yet final, you would probably want to search the Restatement (Second) of Torts instead. You might begin by looking for " dogs " in the index in the first volume, find nothing, and move to the second volume's index. If you found nothing there, you would move to the third volume's index. In the index to the third volume, you would find the index page that appears on this page. On the basis of the index entries, you might then decide to read the text of § 509.

Lexis

Restatements can be found on Lexis by clicking on browse, choosing " all sources" and then searching under the letter " R." Lexis provides current versions of Restatements but not superseded Restatements, such as the Restatement (First) of Torts.

It is possible to narrow your search of a Restatement on Lexis to a specific division or chapter using the Table of Contents as shown in the illustration below. Simply left click in the box to the left of the appropriate division or chapter heading to select it for searching.

It is possible to narrow your search to a heading in Lexis by using a pulldown menu. Alternatively you can search the entire document.