A publication of the Association of Legal Writing Directors

Guide to Legal Citation

Those who have used past editions of the Guide will appreciate these terrific updates in the seventh edition:

  • Expanded and updated coverage of how to cite to the multitude of e-sources that practitioners and students use when conducting legal research in the real world today
  • New Appendix 8 helps law review staff writers cross-reference the Guide’s citation rules with traditional legal citation standards
  • Every rule and example revisited and edited for consistency with traditional legal citation standards, to explain how to cite traditional sources held in new technology platforms, and for improved clarity
  • Free online access to Appendix 5 that has an expanded list of periodical titles
  • Free online access to Appendix 2 with updated and expanded coverage of jurisdiction-specific sources and directions for finding local legal citation rules that have been vetted by practitioners across the country
  • Updated appendices containing new abbreviations
  • Expanded coverage and explanations of state legislative materials in Rule 15 so that every state is represented in an example in that rule
  • Rewritten Rules 25 and 12.15 pertaining to practice documents that reflect shortened citation formats for electronically filed practice documents
  • Additions to Rule 26 to account for the myriad of ways we listen to speeches, addresses, and other oral presentations today such as on conference platforms and posted online
  • Additions to Rule 27 explaining how to cite to interviews conducted in non-traditional ways such as through Zoom
  • Revisions to Rule 28 explaining how to cite to cite private audio and videos people take on their personal devices that they do not post online; expanded instruction on how to cite to podcasts, audiobooks, or other audio recordings that are available online and how to cite to photographs and illustrations
  • Additions to Rule 33 that capture citations to short electronic messages such as chats in shared workspaces like Microsoft Teams, texts, and documents in shared drives.
  • Ten new Sidebars addressing information students will need to know in practice
  • Additional component diagrams (for a total of 96), standardized and color-coded
  • New examples reflecting the rich diversity of subjects, authors, editors, and speakers that compose the legal world

And a great teaching book just got better. Check out more fantastic features of the Guide!

  • Provides step-by-step guidance for citing primary sources of law and a variety of secondary sources.
  • Includes “Academic Formatting” icons that note differences in citation style between academic legal writing and professional legal writing, letting students easily contrast the formats side by side in the same rule.
  • Increases usability by covering the most important aspects of legal citation in just 40 rules.
  • Incorporates 127 subsections that do not have an equivalent in traditional legal citation and an additional 44 subsections wherein a significant portion of the information does not have an equivalent, giving students a much more complete understanding of where and how citation fits in the legal world
  •  Continues and expands its user-friendly features, including:
    • Fast Formats that preview and refresh understanding of essential components for full and short citations of primary and secondary sources
    • Snapshots of frequently cited sources that teach students where to find essential components for building citations
    • Sidebars that help students understand the “why” of legal citations and steer them away from common errors
    • Templates that diagram essential components and dozens of new examples
    • Self-stick tabs for flagging frequently referenced pages

Watch this video to see what professors across the country are saying about the Guide.

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