Universal Citation: Footnotes

1 See Wheaton v. Peters, 8 Pet. (33 U.S.) 591, 668 (1834). Ironically, the decision contributed to the current dilemma. Before then, state-appointed official reporters were prevelant, compensated for by sales of their reports. Afterwards, the commercial publishers were so much more efficient that by the early twentieth century many states discontinued the official reporters and insisted on citation to a reliable commercial publisher. See Kelly Browne, Battle Erupts Over Citation Format, N.L.J., July 17, 1995, at C5.

2 Craig Joyce, The Rise of the Supreme Court Reporter: An Institutional Perspective on Marshall Court Ascendance, 83 Mich. L. Rev. 1291, 1390 (1985), quoted in West Publishing Co. v. Mead Data Central, Inc., 799 F.2d 1219, 1240 (8th Cir. 1986) (Oliver, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part).

3 Harvard Law Review Association, The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (16th ed. 1996); see Kelly Browne, Battle Erupts Over Citation Format, N.L.J., July 17, 1995, at C5.

4 See Margie Wylie, Court paper monopoly challenged (last modified March 10, 1997) (http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,8627,00.html?dtn.head).

5 See Kathy Shimpock-Vieweg, Citation Reform: The Time Is Now, Ariz. Law., Aug./Sept. 1996, at 10.

6 See Robert Berring, On Not Throwing Out the Baby: Planning the Future of Legal Information, 83 Calif. L. Rev. 615, 623-24 (1995).

7 See Wendy J. Gordon, A Property Right In Self-Expression: Equality and Individualism in the Natural Law of Intellectual Property, 102 Yale L.J. 1533, 1600 (1993).

8 West Publishing Co. v. Mead Data Central, Inc., 616 F.Supp. 1571 at 1578 (D.Minn. 1985), affirmed 799 F.2d 1219 (8th Cir. 1986), cert. denied 479 U.S. 1070 (1987)

9 John B. West, Multiplicity of Reports, 2 L. Libr. J. 4, 4 (1909).

10 See James H. Wyman, Freeing the Law: Case Reporter Copyright and the Universal Citation System, 24 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 217, 221 (1996).

11 See Kathy Shimpock-Vieweg, Citation Reform: The Time Is Now, Ariz. Law., Aug./Sept. 1996, at 10.

12 See Matthew Bender & Co. and HyperLaw v. West Publishing Co., No. 94 CIV. 0589 (S.D.N.Y.), and Matthew Bender & Co. v. West Publishing Co., No. 95 CIV. 4496 (S.D.N.Y. March 12, 1997) (order granting summary judgment on pagination issue only), available at 1997 WL 117034.

13 See, e.g. Oasis Publishing Co., Inc. v. West Publishing Co., 924 F.Supp. 918 (D.Minn. 1996).

14 See John J. Oslund, Debate rages over who owns the law, Minneapolis Star-Trib., Mar. 6, 1995, at 8A.

15 See Kelly Browne, Battle Erupts Over Citation Format, N.L.J., July 17, 1995, at C5.

16 See American Bar Association, American Bar Association Official Citation Resolutions (visited April 12, 1997) (http://www.abanet.org/citation).

17 See Robert J. Ambrogi, Internet Use Creates Call for New Citation System, Res Gestae, April 1996, at 35-36.

18 See American Bar Association, American Bar Association Official Citation Resolutions (visited April 12, 1997) (http://www.abanet.org/citation).

19 See Kathy Shimpock-Vieweg, Citation Reform: The Time Is Now, Ariz. Law., Aug./Sept. 1996, at 11.

20 See Robert J. Ambrogi, Internet Use Creates Call for New Citation System, Res Gestae, April 1996, at 35.

21 See Rita Reusch, AALL Recommends New Citation Format (visited April 12, 1997) (http://law.wuacc.edu/aallnet/citation.htm).

22 See Gary Sherman, A Simplified System of Citation, Missouri Law Bulletin, March 1996, at 8-9.

23 See Henry H. Perritt, Jr., Public Information in the NationalInformation Infrastructure: Report to the Regulatory Information Service Center, General Services Administration, and to the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget (visited April 12, 1997) (http://www.law.vill.edu/Fed-Agency/OMB/pub.info.NII/omb78.htm).

24 See id.

25 See id.

26 See id.

27 See id.

28 See James Love, Public Domain Cite Letter from UPD (visited April 12, 1997) (http://www.essential.org/listproc/info-policy-notes/0249.html).

29 See James Love, Free the Law Struggles - a background (visited April 12, 1997) (http://www.essential.org/listproc/info-policy-notes/0148.html).

30 See State Bar of Wisconsin, Technology: Citation Reform (visited April 12, 1997) (http://www.wisbar.org/trci.htm).

31 See id.

32 See id.

33 See State Bar of Wisconsin Technology Resource Committee, Proposed Citation System: Report to Board of Bar Governors (last modified June 30, 1994) (http://www.law.cornell.edu/papers/wiscite/wiscite.overview.html).

34 Id.

35 The report also included dissenting opinions by Donna M. Bergsgaard and William H. Lindberg on behalf of the West Publishing Company and by Frederick A. Muller. An adaptation of Bergsgaard and Lindberg's opinion was published as Case Citation Formats in the United States: Is a Radical New Approach Needed?, 23 Int'l J. Legal Info. 53 (Spring 1995).

36 See Rita Reusch, AALL Recommends New Citation Format (visited April 12, 1997) (http://law.wuacc.edu/aallnet/citation.htm).

37 See Proceedings of the 88th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Law Libraries Held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, July 18-19, 1995, 87 Law Libr. J. 694, 700-08 (Fall 1995).

38See Rita Reusch, AALL Recommends New Citation Format (visited April 12, 1997) (http://law.wuacc.edu/aallnet/citation.htm).

39 See id.

40 See Law Library Group Airs Citation Changes, N.Y.L.J., Aug. 29, 1995, at 2.

41 See id.

42 See Kathy Shimpock-Vieweg, Citation Reform: The Time Is Now, Ariz. Law., Aug./Sept. 1996, at 11.

43 See Robert J. Ambrogi, Internet Use Creates Call for New Citation System, Res Gestae, April 1996, at 35.

44 See American Bar Association, History of ABA Special Committee on Citation Issues (visited April 12, 1997) (http://www.abanet.org/citation/history.html).

45 See Robert J. Ambrogi, Internet Use Creates Call for New Citation System, Res Gestae, April 1996, at 35.

46 See Kathy Shimpock-Vieweg, Citation Reform: The Time Is Now, Ariz. Law., Aug./Sept. 1996, at 11. The ABA proposal would "strongly urge" courts to require parallel citations to commonly used printed case reports, until such time as "electronic publications of case reports become generally available to and commonly relied upon by courts and lawyers." The parallel cite should not include a pinpoint citation to the exact page of the quoted material, however. See Edward W. Adams, ABA Urges Uniform Case Citation System for States, N.Y.L.J., Mar. 29, 1996, at 1.

47 See State Bar of Wisconsin, Technology: Citation Reform (visited April 12, 1997) (http://www.wisbar.org/trci.htm).

48 See Wendy R. Liebowitz, Matthew Bender Wins A Battle, But Who'll Win Case-Cite War?, N.L.J., Dec. 9, 1996, at B18.

49 See Robert J. Ambrogi, Internet Use Creates Call for New Citation System, Res Gestae, April 1996, at 35.

50 See HyperLaw, Inc., Meeting With Harvard Law Review Association, American Association of Legal Publishers, November 9, 1995, Suggested Revisions to the Sixteenth Edition, The Bluebook - A Uniform System of Citations (last modified November 8, 1995) (http://www.hyperlaw.com/bluebk.htm).

51 See Wendy R. Liebowitz, Matthew Bender Wins A Battle, But Who'll Win Case-Cite War?, N.L.J., Dec. 9, 1996, at B18.

52 See Robert J. Ambrogi, Internet Use Creates Call for New Citation System, Res Gestae, April 1996, at 35.

53 See id.

54 See Wendy R. Leibowitz, Watch Cost of Law Library Drop with CD-ROMs, Web and Online, N.L.J., Dec. 16, 1996, at B19.

55 See Robert J. Ambrogi, Internet Use Creates Call for New Citation System, Res Gestae, April 1996, at 35.

56 See id.; In the Matter of the Amendment of the Supreme Court Rules: Electronic Archives of Appellate Opinions, Rules and Orders; Citation of Wisconsin Appellate Opinions - SCR 80.01 and 80.02, Order #95-01, at 1.

57 See Wendy R. Leibowitz, Watch Cost of Law Library Drop with CD-ROMs, Web and Online, N.L.J., Dec. 16, 1996, at B19.

58 Edward W. Adams, ABA Urges Uniform Case Citation System for States, N.Y.L.J., Mar. 29, 1996, at 1.

59 Harvard Law Review Association, The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (16th ed. 1996).

60 See id. at 61-62.

61 See id. at 80-81.

62 See id. at 124.

63 Barry D. Bayer and Benjamin H. Cohen, Pot Pourri: Desktop Notes, Custody Software, the Latest Bluebook, and the Death Of WLN, Law Office Technology Review, Jan. 22, 1997.

64 See Brief of Amici Curiae American Association of University Professors, et al. in Support of Appellees, Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, 117 S.Ct. 554 (No. 96-511, 1997 WL 74396).

65 See Coalition of E-Journals, Citation Proposal: How to Cite to Electronic Journals (visited April 12, 1997) (http://www.richmond.edu/~jolt/e-journals/citation_proposal.html).

66 One article available online, James H. Wyman, Freeing the Law: Case Reporter Copyright and the Universal Citation System, 24 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 217 (1996) addresses many of the same issues discussed in this essay.

67 See Bernard J. Hibbitts, Last Writes? Re-assessing the Law Review in the Age of Cyberspace (last modified March 10, 1997) (http://www.law.pitt.edu/hibbitts/lastrev.htm).

68 See Notice of opportunity to comment and of public hearing on the ABA Citation Resolution, 62 Fed. Reg. 8037 (1997).

69 See Transcript - Hearing, Automation Committee U.S. Judicial Conference re ABA Citation Proposal, April 3, 1997, (last modified April 11, 1997) (http://www.hyperlaw.com/jctrans.htm). For up-to-date information on these proceedings, go to the HyperLaw Report (http://www.hyperlaw.com/hlreport.htm), an archive regularly updated with information and commentary about citation reform from HyperLaw, the federal government, and other parties.

70 See Wendy R. Liebowitz, Matthew Bender Wins A Battle, But Who'll Win Case-Cite War?, N.L.J., Dec. 9, 1996, at B18.

71 SeeWendy R. Leibowitz, Watch Cost of Law Library Drop with CD-ROMs, Web and Online, N.L.J., Dec. 16, 1996, at B19.

72 See id.

73 See id.

74 See Wendy R. Liebowitz, Matthew Bender Wins A Battle, But Who'll Win Case-Cite War?, N.L.J., Dec. 9, 1996, at B18.

75 See Robert Berring, On Not Throwing Out the Baby: Planning the Future of Legal Information, 83 Cal. L. Rev. 615, 633 n.66 (1995).

76 Wendy R. Leibowitz, Watch Cost of Law Library Drop with CD-ROMs, Web and Online, N.L.J., Dec. 16, 1996, at B19.

77 See id.

78 See Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, Judicial Opinions (last modified Feb. 1, 1997) (http://www.law.cornell.edu/opinions.html).

79 See Wendy R. Liebowitz, Matthew Bender Wins A Battle, But Who'll Win Case-Cite War?, N.L.J., Dec. 9, 1996, at B18.

80 Wendy R. Leibowitz, Watch Cost of Law Library Drop with CD-ROMs, Web and Online, N.L.J., Dec. 16, 1996, at B19.

81 Id.

82 Bradley J. Hillis, Considerations When Placing Court Opinions on the Internet (June 4, 1996) (http://ming.law.vill.edu/vill.info.l.chron/hillis.html). This article also contains a review of the technical problems of placing court decisions online; see also Candace Elliott Person, Citation of Legal and Non-legal Electronic Database Information (last modified Oct. 21, 1996) (http://www.michbar.org/publications/citation.htm).

83 See Copyright Legislation Debated, 4 no. 7 J. Proprietary Rts., July 1992, at 33.

84 See id.

85 "No State or Federal court, agency, or department, or other authority of a State or the Federal Government may require that, in documents submitted to such court, agency, department, or authority, a system of citation to State or Federal laws, regulations, judicial opinions, or administrative decisions be used in which copyright subsists, unless no other system of citation to such laws, regulations, opinions, or decisions exists." H.R. 1822, 104th Cong. (1995).

86 See Proposed Bill Prohibits Use Of Copyrighted Legal Citations, 7 no. 8 J. Proprietary Rts., Aug. 1995, at 27.

87 See id.

88 See Robert J. Ambrogi, Internet Use Creates Call for New Citation System, Res Gestae, April 1996, at 35.

89 In 1995, however, West assembled a surprisingly balanced bibliography of articles discussing case law citation issues. See Lori A. Hedstrom and Linda S. Feist, An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Articles Discussing Case Law Citation Issues (May 1995) (on file with author). But see supra text accompanying note 138.

90 See Kathy Shimpock-Vieweg, Citation Reform: The Time Is Now, Ariz. Law., Aug./Sept. 1996, at 10-11.

91 See id.

92 See id.

93 See id.

94 See id.

95 See id.

96 See id.

97 See Kelly Browne, Battle Erupts Over Citation Format, N.L.J., July 17, 1995, at C5.

98 See Myrna Barnet, AALL Task Force on Citations Formats Final Report: Position Statement of Shepard's/McGraw-Hill, March 1995, available at at 1995 WL 227833. But in practice, such fears have proved unfounded. In the 6th Circuit, inserting slip opinion page numbers or sequential case identification numbers has added little to the work of the court. See Susan Hansen, Fending Off the Future, Am. Law., Sept. 1994, at 78.

99 See Kathy Shimpock-Vieweg, Citation Reform: The Time Is Now, Ariz. Law., Aug./Sept. 1996, at 10-11.

100 For a series of articles on West misconduct, see Minneapolis Star-Tribune, West Publishing and the courts (visited April 12, 1997) (http://www.startribune.com/westpub/).

101 See Kelly Browne, Battle Erupts Over Citation Format, N.L.J., July 17, 1995, at C5.

102 See James H. Wyman, Freeing the Law: Case Reporter Copyright and the Universal Citation System, 24 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 217, 270 (1996).

103 See Paul Axel-Lute, Legal Citation Form: Theory and Practice, 75 Law Libr. J. 148, 152 (1982).

104 See Kelly Browne, Battle Erupts Over Citation Format, N.L.J., July 17, 1995, at C5.

105 See Alan D. Sugarman, The AALL Citation Task Force Report: Consensus on Paragraph Numbering (last modified July 16, 1995) (http://www.hyperlaw.com/cite1a.htm).

106 See AALL Task Force on Citation Formats Final Report, at 58 (March 1, 1995), available at 1995 WL 227835. This line of reasoning, however, is in conflict with the proposition that a uniform citation system would be medium-neutral. Cases now are printed in the order in which edited versions are approved by judges, not in the order in which they were decided. If opinions are published in the order in which they are decided, however, print publishing could be delayed for weeks or months because opinion 10 could not be published until after opinion 9, which could be held up in editing by a judge. Alternatively, complex tables or binder notations would be necessary in order to locate a case in a printed volume. This would increase the cost of legal education and advice and discourage print publishing opponents argue - and would result in a reduction, not an increase, of public access to judicial opinions. See Kelly Browne, Battle Erupts Over Citation Format, N.L.J., July 17, 1995, at C5.

107 See Margie Wylie, Court paper monopoly challenged (last modified March 10, 1997) (http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,8627,00.html?dtn.head). West notes that the government is a notoriously slow and inefficient provider of information. See Kelly Browne, Battle Erupts Over Citation Format, N.L.J., July 17, 1995, at C5. But if a public archive is implemented, the government might not be as slow in publishing cases; online cases would be "published" as soon as they were released. See id.

108 James Love, History of ABA Special Committee on Citation Issues (visited April 12, 1997) (http://www.essential.org/listproc/info-policy-notes/0249.html).

109 See id.

110 James Love, Public Domain Cite Letter from UPD (visited April 12, 1997) (http://www.essential.org/listproc/info-policy-notes/0249.html).

111 See Kelly Browne, Battle Erupts Over Citation Format, N.L.J., July 17, 1995, at C5.

112 See Gary Sherman, A Simplified System of Citation, Missouri Law Bulletin, March 1996, at 8.

113 Lexis-Nexis, Marketing Positioning Statement Lexis-Nexis: Court Assigned Citation System (last modified February 9, 1995) (http://www.lexis-nexis.com/lncc/products/bulletins/020995.html).

114 See Gary Sherman, A Simplified System of Citation, Missouri Law Bulletin, March 1996, at 9.

115 See id.

116 See id.

117 See Christopher G. Wren and Jill Robinson Wren, Letting a Thousand Citation Systems Bloom (visited April 17, 1997) (http://www.abanet.org/lpm/newsletters/netwren.html).

118 See American Bar Association, Public Domain Cite Letter from UPD (visited April 12, 1997) (http://www.abanet.org/citation/history.html)

119 See Wendy R. Liebowitz, Matthew Bender Wins A Battle, But Who'll Win Case-Cite War?, N.L.J., Dec. 9, 1996, at B18.

120 See State Bar of Wisconsin Technology Resource Committee, Proposed Citation System: Report to Board of Bar Governors (last modified June 30, 1994).

121 See id.

122 See James H. Wyman, Freeing the Law: Case Reporter Copyright and the Universal Citation System, 24 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 217, 232 (1996).

123 See Margie Wylie, Court paper monopoly challenged (last modified March 10, 1997) (http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,8627,00.html?dtn.head).

124 See Erik J. Heels, The shakeout among online providers of legal information begins as more lawyers inevitably access the Internet (visited April 12, 1997) (http://www.abanet.org/lsd/stulawyer/2-96online.html).

125 See Kathy Shimpock-Vieweg, Citation Reform: The Time Is Now, Ariz. Law., Aug./Sept. 1996, at 10.

126 See James H. Wyman, Freeing the Law: Case Reporter Copyright and the Universal Citation System, 24 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 217, 271 (1996).

127 See id.

128 See AALL Task Force on Citation Formats Final Report, at 50 (March 1, 1995), available at 1995 WL 227835, quoting Thorne D. Harris III, CD-ROMs--The New Basic Research Tool, La. B.J., Dec. 1994, at 381.

129 See Saundra Torry, It's a Magical History Tour at 'Vacatur Center,' Wash. Post, Mar. 10, 1997, at F7.

130 Anthony Aarons, A Whole New Cite, Res Ipsa, Feb. 8, 1995 at 4.

131 See Kelly Browne, Battle Erupts Over Citation Format, N.L.J., July 17, 1995, at C5.

132 See id.

133 See id.

134 See Kathy Shimpock-Vieweg, Citation Reform: The Time Is Now, Ariz. Law., Aug./Sept. 1996, at 10.

135 See Edward W. Adams, ABA Urges Uniform Case Citation System for States, N.Y.L.J., Mar. 29, 1996, at 1. For more information on the business case for HyperLaw, see The Business Case for HyperLaw, Inc. (last modified April 16, 1997) (http://www.law.harvard.edu/courses/tech97/temp/team4/business.html).

136 See Wendy R. Liebowitz, Matthew Bender Wins A Battle, But Who'll Win Case-Cite War?, N.L.J., Dec. 9, 1996, at B18.

137 See Kelly Browne, Battle Erupts Over Citation Format, N.L.J., July 17, 1995, at C5.

138 See Alan D. Sugarman, The AALL Citation Task Force Report: Consensus on Paragraph Numbering (last modified July 16, 1995) (http://www.hyperlaw.com/cite1a.htm).

139 See West's Citation Policy Statement (October 10, 1994) (on file with author).

140 See id.

141 See id.

142 See James Love, DOJ Antitrust Investigation of West Publishing (visited April 12, 1997) (http://www.essential.org/listproc/info-policy-notes/0105.html).

143 See id.

144 See Attached is the brief West submitted to the Wisconsin Supreme Court at their hearing on March 21 concerning the public citation system (gopher://essential.essential.org/00/pub/tap/Legal/westbrief) (last modified March 15, 1995).

145 See Donna M. Bergsgaard and Andrew R. Desmond, Keep Government Out of the Citation Business, Missouri Law Bulletin, March 1996, at 5, citing Arthur Andersen, Cost Study: Proposed Wisconsin Case Law Citation System (March 1995).

146 See id. at 1, citing Frederick A. Muller, AALL Task Force on Citation Formats Final Report, Dissenting Opinion, at 1 (March 1, 1995), available at 1995 WL 227835.

147 See John J. Oslund, Debate rages over who owns the law, Minneapolis Star-Trib., Mar. 6, 1995, at 8A.

148 See id.

149 James Love, TAP responds to July 28 West letter (visited April 12, 1997) (http://www.essential.org/listproc/info-policy-notes0093.html).

150 Id.

151 Cyber-justice; West fear of on-line changes groundless, Minneapolis Star-Trib., Oct. 16, 1994, at 26A.

152 See Wendy R. Liebowitz, Matthew Bender Wins A Battle, But Who'll Win Case-Cite War?, N.L.J., Dec. 9, 1996, at B18.

153 See id.

154 Id.

155 Lexis-Nexis, Marketing Positioning Statement Lexis-Nexis: Court Assigned Citation System (last modified February 9, 1995) (http://www.lexis-nexis.com/lncc/products/bulletins/020995.html).

156 See id.

157 See Erik J. Heels, The shakeout among online providers of legal information begins as more lawyers inevitably access the Internet (visited April 12, 1997) (http://www.abanet.org/lsd/stulawyer/2-96online.html).

158 See James Love, Cost of the West Monopoly for Citing Federal Courts (visited April 12, 1997) (http://www.essential.org/listproc/info-policy-notes0093.html).

159 See Erik J. Heels, The shakeout among online providers of legal information begins as more lawyers inevitably access the Internet (visited April 12, 1997) (http://www.abanet.org/lsd/stulawyer/2-96online.html).

160 See Harvey Berkman, DOJ Files Brief that SupportsBender, N.L.J., Sept. 2, 1996, at A10.

161 James Love, Public Domain Cite Letter from UPD (visited April 12, 1997) (http://www.essential.org/listproc/info-policy-notes/0249.html).

162 See id.

163 Edward W. Adams, ABA Urges Uniform Case Citation System for States, N.Y.L.J., Mar. 29, 1996, at 1.

164 See, e.g., Kathy Shimpock-Vieweg, Citation Reform: The Time Is Now, Ariz. Law., Aug./Sept. 1996, at 11.

165 See Robert Berring, On Not Throwing Out the Baby: Planning the Future of Legal Information, 83 Calif. L. Rev. 615 (Mar. 1995).

166 See Julius J. Marke, Impact of Technology on Legal Citation Form, N.Y.L.J., July 16, 1996, at 5.

167 An invaluable resource for tracking such change, such as the current proceedings before the Judicial Conference, is the HyperLaw Report (http://www.hyperlaw.com/hlreport.htm); the archive is regularly updated with information about and commentary about citation reform from HyperLaw, the federal government, and other parties.

168 See Christopher G. Wren and Jill Robinson Wren, Letting a Thousand Citation Systems Bloom (visited April 17, 1997) (http://www.abanet.org/lpm/newsletters/netwren.html).

169 Franz Kafka, The Trial 213 (Willa & Edwin Muir trans. 1988).

170 See James H. Wyman, Freeing the Law: Case Reporter Copyright and the Universal Citation System, 24 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 217, 279-80 (1996).

171 See Robert J. Ambrogi, Internet Use Creates Call for New Citation System, Res Gestae, April 1996, at 36.