Legal Citation

Rule 30.1 of the ALWD guide requires the use and citation of traditional printed sources when available, unless there is a digital copy of the source available that is authenticated, official, or an exact copy of the printed source.  Generally, the ALWD guide encourages authors to find and use the hardcopy of the sources; however, if the researchers cannot find the hard copies of the materials they should use the most current internet materials. See Sidebar 30.1.

Generally, the ALWD guide establishes three general formats for structuring a citation. These three general formats are:

1. citations to the hard-copy print material,
2. citations that combine the print citation with the electronic citation using “available at,” and
3. citations directly to the electronic version.

Under Rule 31.1 – Internet Citations, authors should cite directly to an internet source when a source does not exist in a traditionally printed form or commercial database. If the internet source is identical to the print source, authors may include a parallel cite to the internet source preceded by "available at." Authors should cover the following elements: 

1. Typeface the title or party name as you would for a normal citation. Do not underline the URL. If there is no printed comparison, treat the source as unpublished. Rule 31.1(b).
2. If an author is unclear, a title alone may be used. Rule 31.1(a).
3. Only pinpoint cite if a page number is a fixed feature of the document, e.g. PDFs. Rule 31.1(d).
4. Indicate a year if the date clearly refers to the material cited, otherwise use the "last visited" date in parentheses. Rule 31.1(e)(2).
5. Include a Perma.cc link, DOI link, or link to an archived copy in brackets after the original URL. Rule 31.1(f).

Example: Faith Karimini, What Jeff Sessions Said about Russia Ties during Confirmation Hearings (last updated, March 3, 2017), available at http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/02/politics/russia-jeff-sessions-confirmation-hearing/index.html [https://perma.cc/K7A7-5AVA].