Legal Writing

This research guide is focused on academic legal writing and provides guidance on how to choose a scholarly paper topic, conduct a preemption check, stay current via alerts, avoid plagiarism, and apply for writing competitions.

This page contains selected books and articles on scholarly legal writing generally, as well as Eugene Volokh's Law Review Template.

For legal citation, please see these guides:

Nicola A. Boothe-Perry, The Truth of the Matter: Why the Social Contract Dictates Legal Scholars' Sincerity, Candor, & Thoroughness, 101 Marq. L. Rev. 1063 (2018).

Jack E. Byrom, To Love and Die in Dixon: An Argument for Stricter Judicial Review in Cases of Academic Misconduct, 31 Rev. Litig. 147 (2012).

Richard Delgado, How To Write a Law Review Article, 20 U. San Francisco L. Rev. 445 (1986).

Darby Dickerson, Citation Frustrations--And Solutions, 30 Stetson L. Rev. 477 (2000).

Kristina V. Foehrkolb & Marc A. DeSimone Jr., Debunking the Myths Surrounding Student Scholarly Writing, 74 Md. L. Rev. 169 (2014).

Douglas Litowitz, Legal Writing: Its Nature, Limits, and Dangers, 49 Mercer L. Rev. 709 (1998).

Heather Meeker, Stalking the Golden Topic:  A Guide to Locating and Selecting Topics for Legal Research Papers, 1996 Utah L. Rev. 917 (1996).

Ruthann Robson, Law Students as Legal Scholars: An Essay/Review of Scholarly Writing for Law Students and Academic Legal Writing, 7 N.Y. City L. Rev. 195 (2004).

Frederick Schauer, Fuller's Fairness: 'The Case of the Speluncean Explorers',  35 Univ. Queensland L. J. 11 (2016).

Eugene Volokh, Writing a Student Article, 48 J. Legal Educ. 247- 272 (1998).

Andrew Yaphe, Taking Note of Notes: Student Legal Scholarship in Theory and Practice, 62 J. Legal Educ. 259 (2012).