In the last year, ALI's work—including Restatements and Principles of the Law—was cited more than 2,600 times by state and federal courts, including citations in opinions in 12 U.S. Supreme Court decisions in the Court's 2019 Term.
ALI tracks judicial citations to Restatements as an important measure of the value our work provides to state and federal courts. Restatements are specifically addressed to courts and aim to assist common-law judges in the fulfillment of their duty to administer justice. As shown by the citation counts, courts across the country routinely find Restatements useful to their work. Through court citations to ALI Restatements—whether they adopt ALI's restatement of a legal rule, cite the analysis provided in a Comment, or even consider and reject a particular Restatement Section—we can see how our work is serving to clarify, simplify, and improve the law. And judicial citations are only the tip of the iceberg, as Restatements provide an invaluable research tool and educational resource for judges, their law clerks, and the advocates preparing briefs to submit to the court.
Although ALI Principles are mainly geared to nonjudicial audiences, their citation by courts demonstrates the usefulness of these works in a variety of contexts. As the list of ALI Principles topics grows, we expect that courts, legislatures, administrative agencies, and actors in the private sphere will find these volumes to be valuable guides as they address emerging legal challenges and opportunities.
ALI also takes note of citations by the U.S. Supreme Court to other ALI projects, including the Model Penal Code and the Uniform Commercial Code (a joint endeavor of the ALI and the Uniform Law Commission). This past term, as always, the Court continued regularly to reference these ALI works.
View some of the most recent court opinions here.