Nevada Supreme Court Law Library: Restatements & Principles of the Law

Each Restatement section has a clear rule of law, with comments to explain the rule and examples to show how it works. It also includes notes from the authors. You can find cases that use the rule, but the list might not be complete. When researching Restatements on Lexis and Westlaw, you can search the whole text or use the subject index to find specific topics. The subject index helps you find sections related to your topic in each Restatement.

Each Restatement section is structured in a similar way:

• A concisely stated rule of law
• Comments to clarify the rule
• Hypothetical examples (known as illustrations)
• Explanation of the Rule and Reporter's Notes
• Citations to cases that have cited the specific section, comment, or illustration
  • These citations are included by the editors of the Restatement. They are representative cases, not an an exhaustive list of all possible citing decisions.

Full-Text Searching on Lexis and Westlaw

Once you have selected a specific Restatement topic (and any necessary sub-topics, such as the Restatement (Second) of Torts) (as opposed to all available Restatements on Torts), you can perform full-text searches. 

Subject Searching

Restatements have a subject index for each publication to identify relevant sections devoted just to the specific Restatement selected, such as the Restatement Second, of Torts. For example, in Westlaw:

References are to Restatement section(s) (and possibly also illustrations and comments), and entries are minimal: