A publication of the Association of Legal Writing Directors

Guide to Legal Citation

Legal writing experts agree that the Guide is the best manual to use for teaching citations—see the pdfbibliography of endorsements.

Hear what professors across the country have to say about using the ALWD Guide to Legal Citation in their classroom:

. . the rules for citations are no longer subject only to the determinations of student-edited law reviews. An outstanding alternative is now available: The Association of Legal Writing Directors—the scholarly association for those who teach legal writing in law schools—with the able editorship of Darby Dickerson of Stetson has completed the Citation Manual which is now available from Aspen. Not only does it look to be a great improvement over past codifications of citation rules (for one thing, it eliminates the confusing and unnecessary variation in citation rules between legal documents and law review footnotes), the Citation Manual is likely to become the standard in the future if for no other reason than most of our students will be using this rule book in their legal writing courses. Congratulations to the Association of Legal Writing Directors on this publication. I am delighted that the true experts in the field, the professional leaders in this area of practice, have made this contribution.
Gregory Sisk
Richard M. & Anita Calkins, Distinguished Professor, Drake University Law School
I have reviewed a fair portion of the ALWD citation book, and I must say I was quite disappointed. Where's the frustration? Where's the irritation? There was no feeling of confusion and anger at being incapable of deciphering the code that is The Bluebook. Where's the feeling of contentment that it is all right not to cite something correctly, because the chances of anyone else discovering your error are so slim? What are all of those examples doing in there?!In short, although there will be some initial difficulties, in the long run this is the way to go.I really was very impressed with it. As much as anything else, it just doesn't feel so pompous. I also love the inclusion of computer ‘how to's,' specific to Word and WordPerfect. That will be a huge help to all, but especially to older practitioners who may not be well-versed in computers. I also like the indicators for where spaces belong, that is a nice feature.The only thing I ran into that wasn't totally user-friendly were the green periods to indicate inclusion in underlines or italics. It is very difficult to distinguish between the black and the green.We are going to begin using the manual immediately for all work from here on out. I have already directed all members to purchase the book.
Todd Chason
Student University of Baltimore
The ALWD guide seeks to adopt a flexible approach with a single set of consistent rules versus the crazy quilt of Blue Book rules. The book is user friendly with a two-color interior design highlighting key points versus the drab Blue Book that terrorizes generations of first year students.The ALWD guide brings common sense to the common law.I found the ALWD guide to be much more user friendly than the Blue Book. However, I predict that it will take a decade or more before the ALWD guide displaces the Blue Book. Rural sociologists found that farmers were reluctant to adopt superior corn varieties because of their greater familiarity with the varieties which were less productive. The superior seed varieties were adopted by the mass of other farmers only after seeing the greater productivity of the new varieties. What is true for seed corn is also true for legal citation authorities.
Michael Rustad
Professor of Law and Director of the High Technology Law Program Suffolk University Law School