Judicial Opinion Writing: An Annotated Bibliography

Abstract

This Bibliography seeks to supply legal writing professors, students, judicial law clerks, and judges with a list of resources that will be helpful for both opinion writing and for those preparing to work with or write for judges. The number of law school courses offered in judicial opinion writing has increased, along with the total number of elective courses in legal writing. The growth of judicial opinion writing courses, in particular, may be due to the rise in popularity of judicial externships. In addition to training externs and clerks, an upper-level class in judicial opinion writing provides an opportunity for students to hone their skills in writing for a particular audience. It allows them to structure, organize, analyze, and use rhetorical devices introduced during the first year through a different type of document. Such a course can cause students to look at the legal process from a different perspective and to become critical readers and users of opinions by writing them. Thus, other goals of a judicial opinion writing course can include learning about the audiences of judicial opinions and the perspective judges bring to their opinion writing. The annotations are intended to speed the process of selecting relevant resources.

Keywords: legal writing, opinion writing, opinion(s), court, judicial, judge, bibliography, pedagogy, teach(ing), law clerk, judicial law clerk, extern(s), externship(s), law school, course, seminar, curriculum, professor, upper-level, elective, student, law student, audience, perspective