The Legal Information Institute provides a helpful explanation of the role of legal citations in standardizing references to primary and secondary authority that is used to create, implement, enforce, interpret, and understand the laws in the United States:
What is “legal citation”? It is a standard language that allows one writer to refer to legal authorities with sufficient precision and generality that others can follow the references. Because writing by lawyers and judges is so dependent on such references, it is a language of abbreviations and special terms.
A reference properly written in “legal citation” strives to do at least three things, within limited space:
- identify the document and document part to which the writer is referring
- provide the reader with sufficient information to find the document or document part in the sources the reader has available (which may or may not be the same sources as those used by the writer), and
- furnish important additional information about the referenced material and its connection to the writer’s argument to assist readers in deciding whether or not to pursue the reference.
The task of “legal citation” in short is to provide sufficient information to the reader of a brief or memorandum to aid a decision about which authorities to check as well as in what order to consult them and to permit efficient and precise retrieval—all of that, without consuming any more space or creating any more distraction than is absolutely necessary.
You now have a good understanding the purpose of citations in general and legal citations in particular, and their importance in referencing the sources you use in your work. If you have any questions or you need help with citations, ask a librarian. We are here to help!
