Legal Definitions - legal citology

Definition: Legal citology is the study of citations, especially in footnotes, and how they impact legal scholarship. It is often abbreviated as citology. A person who studies legal citology is called a legal citologist.

When a legal scholar writes an article or book, they often include citations to other sources to support their arguments. Legal citology examines these citations and how they are used. For example:

• A law review article cites a Supreme Court case to support its argument about the interpretation of the Fourth Amendment.
• A legal textbook cites a statute to explain the elements of a particular crime.
• A judge's opinion cites a previous case to justify their decision in a current case.

By analyzing these citations, legal citologists can gain insights into how legal scholarship is developed and how legal arguments are constructed.