If you are asked to research an area of law with which you are unfamiliar, start out by looking of a an overview of summary of the issue. It is beneficial to develop a basic understanding of the issue before attempting to locate cases or statutes, because the a summary will help you generate a list of appropriate search terms and may even provide you with references to the relevant primary law.
SSRN is a popular source for published articles in multiple disciplines, as well as works in progress and forthcoming articles. SSRN also includes the Legal Scholarship Network (LSN).