Introduction to Basic Legal Citation - access-to-law home

PREFACE
Contents | Index
This electronic publication was conceived in the summer of 1992. A small band of Cornell
Law students, charged with identifying subjects on which computer-based materials would be
particularly helpful, placed citation at the top of the list. With their assistance I prepared the
first edition of Introduction to Basic Legal Citation. It was released on diskette that fall, one
of the first hypertext publications of Cornell's Legal Information Institute (LII). Later
reconfigured for the Web, where it still resides at: http://www.law.cornell.edu/citation/, the
work has been updated regularly in the years since. Like that online version on which it is
based, this e-book was most recently revised in the fall of 2012 to take account of changes in
the citation rules of a small number of U.S. jurisdictions and the format of currency
information furnished for statutes by LexisNexis and Westlaw. As was true of the editions
released in 2011 and 2010 it is indexed to the fourth edition of the ALWD Citation Manual
and the nineteenth edition of The Bluebook.
A Few Tips on Using Introduction to Basic Legal Citation
This is not a comprehensive citation reference work. Its limited aim is to serve as a tutorial on
how to cite the most widely referenced types of U.S. legal material, taking account of local
norms and the changes in citation practice forced by the shift from print to electronic sources.
It begins with an introductory unit. That is followed immediately by one on "how to cite" the
categories of authority that comprise a majority of the citations in briefs and legal
memoranda. Using the full table of contents one can proceed through this material in
sequence. The third unit, organized around illustrative examples, is intended to be used either
for review and reinforcement of the prior "how to" sections or as an alternative approach to
them. One can start with it since the illustrative examples for each document type are linked
back to the relevant "how to" principles.
The sections on abbreviations and omissions, on typeface (italics and underlining), and on
how citations fit into the larger project of legal writing that follow all support the preceding
units. They are accessible independently and also, where appriopriate, via links from the
earlier sections. Finally, there are a series of cross reference tables tying this introduction to
the two major legal citation reference works and to state-specific citation rules and practices.
The work is also designed to be used by those confronting a specific citation issue. For such
purposes the table of contents provides one path to the relevant material. Another, to which
the bar at the top of each major section provides ready access, is a topical index. This index is
alphabetically arrayed and more detailed than the table of contents. Finally, the search
function in your e-book reader software should allow an even narrower inquiry, such as one
seeking the abbreviation for a specific word (e.g., institute) or illustrative citations for a
particular state, Ohio, say.
If the device on which you are reading this e-book allows it, the pdf format will enable you to
print or to copy and paste portions, large or small, into other documents. However, since the
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