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I. Introduction
Learning the rules of legal citation is a challenge for new and seasoned legal researchers alike. Good instruction and practice are required to master these rules. Think about the first sport you learned to play. Did you master all the rules the first time you played the game? Do most people even read a rale book when learning to play a new sport? Initially, it is a challenge for any player learning the game to follow all of the rules correctly. Generally, only coaches study the rale book. The rules of the game are very important so coaches and players know what is and is not permitted "on the field."
Most rules are disseminated orally and learned through practice. Law professors who teach legal research or supervise legal writing are the coaches in the game of legal citation; they must disseminate the rules to their students. The professors have a duty to stimulate a student's mastery of legal citation rules to meet the proficiency required of legal writing in the profession. Law students who do not master the rules of legal citation are more likely to plagiarize.
II. What Is Plagiarism?
Although plagiarism has plagued law schools for many years and several well-established definitions for plagiarism exist, law schools do not utilize a universal definition of plagiarism relative to academic integrity.1 Black's Law Dictionary defines plagiarism as, "the deliberate and knowing presentation of another person's original ideas or creative expressions as one's own work."2
Plagiarism, which many people commonly think has to do with copyright, is not in fact a legal doctrine. True plagiarism is an ethical, not a legal, offense and is enforceable by academic authorities, not courts. Plagiarism occurs when someone-a hurried student, a neglectful professor, or unscrupulous writer-falsely claims someone else's words, whether copyrighted or not, as his own. Of course, if the plagiarized work is protected by copyright, the unauthorized reproduction is also a copyright infringement.3
Copyright grants a legal exclusive protection to authors against copying and other unauthorized use.4 Copyright law safeguards a person's expression; but it does not protect ideas, concepts, principles, short phrases, general themes and other types of blank forms.5 If a plagiarized work does not damage an economic interest by exceeding fair use, then...