The NALT Uniform Format and Citation Guide (also known as NALT's Blue Book) is a standardized format and citation guide for legal research writing in Nigeria. It was developed by the Nigerian Association of Law Teachers (NALT) to provide a uniform approach to legal research writing and citation across law faculties and legal research institutes in Nigeria.

The NALT Citation Guide was proposed at the NALT Conference held at the University of Ilorin in 2013, consolidated and approved at Ebonyi State University in 2014, and finally ratified at the NALT Conference held at Afe Babalola University (ABUAD) in 2015.

The guide was created to address the lack of a uniform approach to legal research writing in Nigeria, which led to inconsistencies in citation styles across different law faculties. It aims to provide a standardized format that is tailored to the Nigerian legal context, unlike foreign citation guides like OSCOLA, MLA, and APA which do not fully address local legal research needs.

The manual is divided into four major parts:

1. Part One: Preliminary information and historical background
2. Part Two: Research preliminaries and approaches to legal research writing
3. Part Three: Citation guidelines
4. Part Four: Guidelines for academic journal articles

The guide is intended for use by law students at all levels (undergraduate and postgraduate), law teachers, legal researchers, and legal practitioners in Nigeria. It is also useful for non-legal researchers in other disciplines, especially in Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities.

NALT uses the footnote style of referencing, similar to OSCOLA, where Arabic numerals are used in superscripts in the body of the text to identify sources, with the full citation appearing at the foot of each page.

For reported cases, provide the name of parties in italics, year reported in brackets, volume number, part number in brackets, and page number(s). For example: Abacha v Fawehinmi [2000] FWLR (Pt 4) 533.

For unreported cases, provide the name of parties in italics, followed by suit/case number, court name, and date of decision in brackets. For example: The State v Airwaves Communications Ltd. (FHC/J/CRC/10/2015, Federal High Court Jos Judicial Division, 17 June 2016).

Cite statutes by their short titles using capitals for major words, followed by the year. For example: Child Rights Act, 2003. If codified, include the chapter number: Evidence Act, 2011, Cap 50.

For the Constitution, first cite it in full as Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), then subsequently as CFRN 1999 (as amended) or the 1999 Constitution.

If a publication is available in both print and online formats, cite the print version. For online-only sources, add the web address in angle brackets followed by the access date. For example: <http://www.example.com> accessed 30 September 2021.

In footnotes, author names appear as in the original source and page numbers are included. In the bibliography, the author's surname comes first followed by initials, page numbers are generally omitted, and entries are arranged alphabetically by author surname.

NALT has abolished most Latin expressions previously used in legal citations (supra, infra, ante, contra, id., op. cit., loc. cit., passim, et seq.), with the exception of "ibid." which is still used to repeat a citation from the immediately preceding footnote.

Use the format (n...) where "n" stands for "note" and the number indicates the footnote where the information was first cited. This replaces the abolished Latin expressions for cross-referencing.

Short quotations (3 lines or less) should be incorporated into the text with single quotation marks. Long quotations (more than 3 lines) should be indented on both sides without quotation marks, with a single-line space before and after.

Use Times New Roman font, size 12, with double line spacing on A4 paper. Footnotes automatically convert to font size 10 but should also use Times New Roman font face.

According to the document, some law faculties and legal research institutes have adopted the format either partially or in full for handling both undergraduate and postgraduate project writing and preparing articles for publication since 2016. However, there are still challenges with universal adoption across all law faculties in Nigeria.

Suggestions, observations, and inputs to improve the document can be forwarded to the NALT's Implementation Committee at: naltguide2015@gmail.com

The guide is published as a monograph by the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. Contact your law faculty, NALT representatives, or NIALS for information on obtaining a copy.

While the guide has been ratified by NALT, its implementation depends on individual law faculties. The document encourages Deans and Directors of law faculties to integrate the manual into their local settings at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.