Universal citation is a system of citation to legal authorities that cites to paragraphs instead of pages. There are variants to the basic concept of universal citation. American Association of Law Libraries sells a guide book on universal ciation.
By citing to paragraphs instead of pages the universal system of citation is more precise. But that is not why it is important. It is important for economic reasons. I will present two examples to support this claim.
The best online legal research programs are expensive. And the expense increases from five to seven percent every year no matter what the general economy is doing. This means that over the long run more and more people will be priced out of these services.
While the biggest and best online legal research companies get ever more expensive, there is at the same time ever more free case law available online. A problem with the free online cases, provided by the various legal jurisdictions, is that they do not contain page citations to either the official or unofficial reports. So while these cases are available to read, they are not that useful to cite to specific statements or propositions of law if they do not contain numbered paragraphs. If they do have numbered paragraphs, then the cases can be used in a more professional way with the application of a universal system of citation. More and more American state cases are appearing with numbered paragraphs. The result is that people have more meaningful access to this body of case law. I now turn to the second example.
Law libraries all over the world are discontinuing their subscriptions to various hard bound copies of law reports. They are doing this because of the availability of these reports online. For example the law library at the University of Otago in New Zealand is discontinuing its subscription to some of the American law reports. The library has a sign informing people that the discontinued reports can be found on Westlaw. Similarly, the law library at the University of California at Davis is discontinuing subscriptions to various common law jurisdiction law reports.
Discontinuing subscriptions to foreign law reports is fine and dandy for law students and law professors with free Westlaw or Lexis subscriptions that allow them access to the latest cases from common law jurisdictions. But for members of the public, members of the bar, and academics who seek access to the latest cases from such jurisdictions, things have changed radically. One can no longer go to a major research law library to get the latest official or unofficial reports. But we can get those reports for free online. Fortunately, those reports are now being presented with numbered paragraphs. Thus a universal system of citation allows us to use the online reports from common law jurisdictions.
Members of public, academics, and legal professionals should support the expansion of the release of cases with numbered paragraphs whenever the opportunity presents itself for doing so.
