Legal Citations – Citing Legal Sources: Footnotes
Although in-text citations are fairly common in legal memos and factums, footnotes are the preferred method of citation used at law school.
There are two types of footnotes:
- Citation Footnotes: directly support the author's argument and point the reader to the source which is being quoted or referred to.
- Textual Footnotes: point the reader to peripheral material that is related to the subject, but not directly supporting the author's argument.
Generally speaking it is only appropriate to use footnotes under these circumstances in legal writing:
- at the first reference to a source;
- at every subsequent quotation from the source;
- at every subsequent reference or allusion to a particular passage in the source; and,
- to provide peripheral or parenthetical information, such as a quotation or brief description, in order to clarify an in-text proposition.
There are several rules governing the use of footnotes in legal writing.
EXAMPLE 1: Only superscripted numbers (i.e. no roman numerals or symbols) are used to signal a footnote.
EXAMPLE 2: The full citation should be provided in the first footnote referring to a source.
There are also many other rules, such as:
- when to combine footnotes;
- how to include parenthetical information within a footnote; and,
- prior and subsequent references to a citation.
The only way to really get to know these rules is through practice!