legal writing

ORA Open Book Collection

Open access collection of written academic research, hosted by the Oxford University Research Archive (ORA). Its contents include theses, books, datasets, articles and other forms of information. The site can be browsed using a search function and results can be filtered by title, author or keyword. This site is largely open to all; however, some results may require institutional access to view.

The Indigo Book

The Indigo Book is an open-access legal citation manual that uses the same citation system as the well-known Bluebook. It is an open access resource, provided by a team of students from New York University led by Professor Christopher Jon Sprigman; it was last updated in 2016. 

Project for Interdisciplinary Law and Religion Studies

Website of the Project for Interdisciplinary Law and Religion Studies (PILARS) an initiative of the Open University Law School. The project provides comment and analysis on recent law and religion judgements along with a list of related judgements covering a range of jurisdictions. PILARS also offers guidance on how to write a case comment, a bibliography of law and religion texts and a list of related websites.

Law PORT

Law PORT is a collection of online, interactive training resources, aimed at postgraduate legal researchers, and made freely available by the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS). The tutorials are designed to develop legal research and information literacy skills and focus on public international law. Tutorials currently available include an Introduction to OSCOLA (Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities) and an overview of the key sources for researching Customary International Law.

Legal Abbreviations

Extensive list of abbreviations for law reports, law journals, courts, government departments, international organisations and so on, provided by Monash University Library, Australia. Covers Australia and other common law jurisdictions and public international law; also has key abbreviations from civil law jurisdictions.

Case law in an era of heightened scrutiny

Online guide to the writing and publishing of United States case law. The guide was written by Ken Strutin, who is Director of Legal Information Services at the New York State Defenders Association, and was published in August 2014 on LLRX.com. The guide provides commentary on and links to articles from law review, books, guides and reports on the publishing of case law. There are also links to manuals on opinion writing. Not all of the materials linked to are available in full text.

LegalCitation.ie

This website makes available OSCOLA Ireland, a citation system for Irish law. It was developed by Irish academics and is based on the Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA). The OSCOLA Ireland manual may be downloaded free of charge and there is a quick reference guide and a set of FAQs. The guide covers abbreviations, cases, legislation, books, articles, online sources and other materials; it also gives guidance on presentation, punctuation and cross-referencing. The site's Links page has information about using OSCOLA Ireland with EndNote and Zotero.

Bibliothèque Cujas: Cuj@sthèque

The website of Bibliothèque Cujas in Paris includes a suite of legal research resources called  'Cujasthèque'. The Jurisguide section gives an overview of French legal publications and provides introductions to many different aspects of French legal research, some intended for students, some for academics. Full research guides are provided under ‘Guides et tutoriels’, covering legislation, case law, doctrinal writing, journals, mélanges and parliamentary publications; their main focus is on French law, but other countries, the EU, the Council of Europe and the UN are also included.

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