In legal writing, it’s often necessary to cite sources in order to provide the reader with information about the source material. It is especially important to do this when using court cases, statutes and other legal documents in the context of briefs and articles. Citations can also help the reader locate sources that are not otherwise readily available to them and to establish the source’s credibility in the mind of the reader.
When citing a source, include the author’s last name (if any) and the title of the work in italics. In addition, you may also use the name of the periodical – if it is a legal journal – in small caps, or the date of issue as it appears on the cover, and the word at in brackets to indicate the page on which the article begins.
The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation 1 (Columbia Law Review Ass’n et al. eds., 21st ed., 2020) is a style guide for citing all types of legal sources and is used in the legal profession. It is recommended that students and lawyers use it as the standard for citing legal materials.
Manual on Usage & Style: A concise guide to style and usage for legal writing, published by the Texas Law Review, offers rules on punctuation, capitalization, numbers and symbols, italics, grammar, word choice, spelling, quotations, composition, and editing. It is a valuable resource for those who want to write with a professional touch.
Reading legal citations, Boston College Law Library. This excellent resource includes a “quick and dirty” guide to common Massachusetts citation forms that are not the proper forms for citing legal documents in a legal document.
Citing to legal materials online – Rules 18 and 20 (West, Lexis, and Westlaw)
Rule 18 states that “citations to a cited document should appear in the text of your work, unless a different format is required by the rules for your particular type of citation.” It is important to note that online sources are too diverse to provide meaningful examples here; consult the specific rules for each document for more information about citing to online documents.
References and footnotes are two of the most commonly used methods for citing to articles in legal writing. Both require some familiarity with the legal citation format and are essential for producing a professional-looking paper.
In-text citations: In-text citations are usually given within the body of the text while footnotes are given at the bottom of the page. In-text citations are preferred for memoranda and facta, while footnotes are generally more useful in citing references to other parts of the paper or other written materials.
For memoranda and facta, in-text citations are preferred because they allow the author to use the same citation in a later version of the paper. They are easier for the author to maintain and can help the reader quickly find the information they need.
When citing to a court case, in-text citations are preferred if the court case is directly relevant to the facts of the argument. If the case is not directly relevant, a parenthetical citation may be used.
