The Upper Level Writing Requirement (ULWR): Stage 2: The Preemption Check

Perform a preemption check to see if someone else has written on your particular topic (i.e., your Thesis or Claim)

The preemption check requires broad searches initially

• Cast your net wide but deep
• You want to make sure you don’t miss anything relevant
• Dispose of the mis-hits quickly; focus on possible conflicts

BONUS: It allows you to jumpstart the substantive research needed for your paper

Search published works AND unpublished works

• Published:
  • Lexis+
  • Westlaw Precision
  • HeinOnline
  • Blackmore Databases
  • OhioLINK Central Catalog and Databases
  • Capital’s Catalog
  • Other databases found at https://law-capital.libguides.com/az.php
• Unpublished:
  • SSRN
  • bepress Legal Repositories
  • Google Scholar
  • arXiv.org

Even if someone else has written on your specific topic, that doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t also

If someone has written on your topic, don’t despair!

• Take a different position than that of the previous work
• Find a flaw in their position and critique it
• Propose a new or different solution
• Extend the argument to a different scenario

Most important thing: Make sure that your specific THESIS or CLAIM is unique!