Last updated April 19, 2007
Restatements are secondary sources that seek to “restate” the legal rules that constitute the common law in a particular area into a series of principles or rules. They are prepared by the American Legal Institute (ALI), an organization formed in 1923 consisting of prominent judges, lawyers and teachers. The ALI's purpose is to distill the “black letter law” from cases, to indicate a trend in common law and, occasionally, to recommend what a rule of law should be.
There are restatements on a number of subject areas, including Agency, Conflict of Laws, Contracts, Property and Torts. A complete list of the restatements is available below. Each restated subject area is divided into numbered chapters and subdivided into topics and sections.
All restatements go through a number of drafts before they are finalized. You may see references to preliminary drafts, multiple tentative drafts and proposed official drafts before the final form of a restatement is published. To date, there are three series of restatements in some subjects. Some subjects have a third series with no first or second series (e.g., Restatement (Third) of the Law Governing Lawyers). The issuance of a second or third series of the Restatement does not repeal or otherwise affect an earlier version of the Restatement that has been adopted by a court or legislature.
The legal rule is printed in boldface type. Following the Restatement rule is a section labeled “Comments.” Comments are written by the drafters of the Restatement to explain the provision and identify its limitations. The “Illustrations” sections of the Restatement provide examples of how a particular Restatement provision would apply in specific factual situations. Most Restatement provisions conclude with “Reporter's Notes,” which give the history of the provision and cite to the authority from which the rule was derived.
Restatements are not primary law. They are, however, considered persuasive authority by many courts, especially as support for legal arguments that have not been addressed by the courts in a particular jurisdiction. Restatements are heavily annotated with case citations and thus can also be an excellent case-finding tool. Summaries of cases which have adopted or interpreted the Restatement rules can be found in the Appendix volumes which accompany a set of topical volumes or, in later Restatements, in the Reporter's Notes (e.g., Restatement (Third) of Agency). In addition, West topic and key numbers and A.L.R. Annotations will be cross-referenced in the Appendix for the more recent Restatements.
Citation format for Restatements
Restatements should be cited according to Bluebook rule 12.8.5. “Model Codes, Restatements, Standards and Sentencing Guidelines.” For example, Restatement (Third) of Unfair Competition § 3 (1995). Comments and illustrations should be cited according to Bluebook rule 3.4 “Appended Material.” For example, Restatement (Second) of Property, § 2.1 cmt. c, illus. 2 (1977).
Westlaw
The Westlaw REST database provides the complete text of all available Restatements, various drafts and tentative draft-related documents from the ALI Reporters. Restatements are also available in individual topical databases (such as REST-AGEN, REST-PROP and REST-TORT). All series of Restatements are available on Westlaw. Multiple series, as well as selected drafts are combined into one database along with case citations to all of them.
Lexis
Lexis has a database of Restatements as well. It is located in Legal>Secondary Legal> Restatements. Restatements can be searched in a combined file or individually by topic. Rules are searchable separately from case citations on Lexis. The first series of Restatements is not available on Lexis, nor are the various drafts of the Restatements.
What else should I know about Restatements?
* Indicates Restatements still in draft stage as of February 2007
First Series:
Second Series:
Third Series: