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Simple English definitions for legal terms

Order of authorities

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A quick definition of Order of authorities:

In legal writing, the order of authorities is the way sources are arranged to support the author's claims. The sources are listed in order of importance, following a specific set of rules. The most important sources are constitutions, followed by statutes, treaties, cases, legislative materials, administrative and executive materials, intergovernmental organizations' resolutions, records, briefs, and petitions, secondary materials, and cross-references to the author's own material. The order of authorities helps readers understand the strength of the author's arguments and the sources used to support them.

A more thorough explanation:

Definition: In formal legal writing, the order of authorities refers to the sources used to validate claims made by the author of the paper. The sources should be arranged according to their order of importance, in accordance with Bluebook Rule 1.4.

Examples:

  • Constitutions - U.S. Federal Constitution, U.S. state constitutions, foreign constitutions, and foundational documents of the United Nations, League of Nations, and European Union.
  • Statutes - Federal, state, and foreign statutes arranged alphabetically by jurisdiction and by codification order.
  • Treaties and other international agreements - arranged by most recently enacted first and continue towards earliest, except foundational documents of the United Nations, League of Nations, and European Union.
  • Cases - arranged by federal, state, foreign, and international courts and agencies, with the most recent decision first and continue towards oldest.
  • Legislative materials - arranged by bills and resolutions, committee hearings, reports, documents, and committee prints, and floor debates.
  • Administrative and executive materials - arranged by federal, state, and foreign materials, with the most recently enacted first and continue towards earliest.
  • Intergovernmental organizations' resolutions, decisions, and regulations - arranged by United Nations and League of Nations, and other organizations alphabetically by name.
  • Records, briefs, and petitions - arranged by the court where filed, using the order of courts given in Section 4 ("Cases") above.
  • Secondary materials - arranged by uniform codes, model codes, and restatements, books, pamphlets, and shorter works in a collection of works by a single author, journal work not written by students, book reviews not written by students, student-written material from law reviews and journals, annotations, magazine and newspaper articles, working papers, unpublished materials that are not forthcoming, and electronic sources.

These examples illustrate the order of authorities in legal writing. The sources are arranged in a specific order, depending on their importance and relevance to the topic being discussed. This helps to ensure that the author's claims are properly supported and validated by authoritative sources.

order | order of examination

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got a random stanford email and almost had a heart attack
ALSO CONGRATS!
Congrats1!
21:15
Miami A, yall I'm so excited I could cry.
21:15
Feel like I can finally stop holding my breath!! Whew!!!
[] baddestbunny
22:16
every time I get accosted by a strange man who follows me around because my male coworkers were too busy talking to walk me back to my car I get closer to saying we need to bring back traditional gender roles
Dkk
22:32
Nice! @Macaque
Dkk
22:32
@Aromatic, Have to guess.
Dkk
22:33
That sucks @Bunny do you have to go to the hospital?
[] baddestbunny
22:40
I said accosted not assaulted
23:35
guys. my notre dame address just went long is this good or bad
1a2b3c4d26z
23:37
Oooooo me too
23:37
omg is this good or bad
Dkk
23:47
Idk if gender roles are gunna fix that then.
23:49
it looks like most people who applied in october last cycle didn't get a decision until january... does it even mean anything that our addresses went long??
hows ED 2 compared to ED 1?
Dkk
0:10
No idea
windyMagician
0:34
reporting live to say my ndls address also went long
does it mean anything ^
Dkk
2:21
NDLS and Fordham took a very long time last year. It's good info for people to know.
[] baddestbunny
4:29
let’s get after it boys and girls
Dkk
5:21
I gtg to bed soon.
Dkk
5:22
Big day today. Gunna be a crazy one. I will sleep through the first half.
good morning lsd it is 5 am EST
also jazzy my ndls address went long ages ago i sadly do not think it means anything
my stanford address also went long LOL i think at most it's an indicator it's under review
WorthlessAttractiveZombie
7:44
My berkeley paragraph finally disappeared. I definitely think it is just an indicator that they are actively reviewing files, and does not mean anything about A, WL, or Rs
WorthlessAttractiveZombie
7:46
Also has anyone's date disappeared for W&L? Mine did last night
7:55
@WorthlessAttractiveZombie: mine did yesterday morning
7:56
Oops sorry I meant Vilanova. Mine disappeared last week
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