Research Guides: Researching Secondary Sources in Law: American Law Reports

Overview

American Law Reports contain two kinds of material: articles and cases. Articles cover a topic through cases that focus on a particular point of law. These articles collect the cases from a variety of state and federal courts or jurisdictions and arrange them according to how the courts have ruled.

American Law Reports are great to use for researching narrow topics, doing a survey of existing law, identifying trends in the law, and finding persuasive case law.

The ALR consists of several different series.

Seven address primarily state topics (A.L.R., A.L.R. 2d, A.L.R. 3d, A.L.R.4th, A.L.R. 5th, A.L.R. 6th, and A.L.R. 7th
Three are specific to federal issues (A.L.R. Fed., A.L.R. Fed. 2d, and A.L.R. Fed. 3d)
One is for subjects pertaining to international law (A.L.R. Int'l)

American Law Reports

American Law Reports on Lexis Law students and faculty only. This ALR database contains the full text of the annotations included in the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Federal, Federal Second, and Federal Third Series of the American Law Reports (ALR).
Call Number: Online via Lexis Advance
American Law Reports on Westlaw Law students and faculty only. Full text of articles included in the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Federal, Federal Second, and Federal Third series of American Law Reports (ALR) and the Index to Annotations covering these series.
Call Number: Online via Westlaw
American Law Reports International Law students and faculty only. ALR International, written by U.S. authors and international contributors, is the only all-inclusive analytical title that covers international topics in depth. It analyzes relevant U.S. and foreign cases from English- and non-English-speaking countries on specific legal issues of international import.
Call Number: Online via Westlaw

Finding Tools Within ALRs

ALR Complete Series Index

ALR Quick Index

ALR Digest

ALR Table of Laws, Rules and Regulations

ALR Table of Cases

ALR Article Index

ALR Article Outline

Table of Jurisdictions

Updating

All ALR series continue to be updated, though not on a regular schedule.

ALR - If you are working with the print (our library no longer has), you can search each volume of the ALR Blue Book of Supplemental Decisions
ALR 2d - If you are working with the print (our library no longer has), you can search in the appropriate volume and pocket part of the ALR2d Later Case Service
ALR 3rd - 7th, ALR Fed series - If you are working with the print (our library no longer has), you can search the pocket part of the same volume

Video Tutorials on American Law Reports

CALI Lesson on American Law Reports

Available to Law Students only (see a reference librarian if you do not have a CALI activation code).

American Law Reports (CALI Lesson) Law students & faculty only. See a reference librarian for the College of Law access code. This lesson is an introduction to the American Law Reports (ALR) and is intended for use by students in introductory legal research classes. The goal is to give you an understanding of the features of the resource, the best methods for using it, and an understanding of when to use it. It will take 30 minutes.

Citation Format for American Law Reports

Bluebook

Rule 16.7.6 of The Bluebook (21st ed. 2020) covers how to cite ALRs.

Elements

The citation should contain:

Author
the word "Annotation"
Title (italicized or underlined)
ALR volume
ALR series
Page number
Copyright date of volume

Example

William B. Johnson, Annotation, Use of Plea Bargain or Grant of Immunity as Improper Vouching for Credibility of Witness in Federal Cases, 76 A.L.R. Fed. 409 (1986 & Supp. 2015).

ALWD

Rule 22.6 of the ALWD Citation Manual (7th ed.) covers the citation of ALRs.

Elements

The citation should contain:

Author
the word "Annotation"
Title (italicized or underlined)
ALR Volume
ALR Series (see chart 24.1 for abbreviations)
Page (if pinpoint citing, both the initial page and the pinpoint reference)
Copyright date of volume

Example

William B. Johnson, Annotation, Use of Plea Bargain or Grant of Immunity as Improper Vouching for Credibility of Witness in Federal Cases, 76 A.L.R. Fed. 409 (1986 & Supp. 2015).