Bluebook 101
Updated Jan. 26, 2010.
The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation is filled with rules, examples, cross-references, and tables. Students and lawyers are often expected to abide by its edicts but find it challenging to figure out just what they're supposed to do. Part of the problem is the Bluebook's thoroughness -- it's just overwhelming. So we have developed some short presentations on discrete topics to help students make sense of it all.
After generations as a print product, the Bluebook is now available in an online version. For an annual subscription, users have access to a searchable text and the ability to annotate it (and to search their own notes). See legalbluebook.com.
Washington practitioners note: GR 14 requires that citations in court documents "conform with the format prescribed by the Reporter of Decisions." Generally, that means Bluebook format, but there are some exceptions (for instance, citing "RCW" instead of "Wash. Rev. Code"). Be sure to look at the Reporter of Decisions Style Sheet.
Bluebook and APA. Sometimes students and scholars from other disciplines want to cite legal materials. The APA Style Guide (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association) refers users to the Bluebook. View the PowerPoint slideshow comparing these citation manuals.
Secondary Sources
Secondary sources are covered in The Bluebook (18th ed. 2005) in
- Rule 15 (Books, Reports, and Other Nonperiodic Materials), pp. 129-37,
- Rule 16 (Periodical Materials), pp. 138-47,
- Rule 17 (Unpublished and Forthcoming Sources), pp. 147-51, and
- Rule 18 (Electronic Media and Other Nonprint Resources), 151-61.
Table T.13 (pp. 349-72) lists abbreviations for hundreds of law journals, as well as abbreviations for words commonly used in periodical titles (for those not listed). The Gallagher Law Library has an online list of periodical abbreviations here. (These are the hundreds of journals indexed in the Current Index to Legal Periodicals.)
Table T.14 lists abbreviations for publishing terms (such as edition, revision, translation) you might need to cite a book.
Here are PowerPoint slideshows that explain the rules and give examples for different secondary sources:
Cases
Cases are covered in Rule 10, pp. 79-99. Several of The Bluebook's tables are helpful for citing cases:
- T.1 (United States Jurisdictions), pp. 193-241, lists the reporters to cite for each federal and state court.
- T.6 (Case Names), pp. 335-37, and T.7 (Court Names), pp. 337-40, tell you how to abbreviate (guess what) case names and court names.
- T.8 (Explanatory Phrases), p. 340, gives you a menu of all the things that can happen to a case, such as affirmance or overruling.
- T.10 (Geographical Terms) tells you how to abbreviate state names in case citations (p. 342).
View the PowerPoint slideshow on cases.
Statutes
The Bluebook (18th ed., 2005) rule for citing statutes is Rule 12, pages 101-13. Jurisdiction-specific abbreviations for statutory compilations are found in Table T.1, pages 193-242.
View the PowerPoint slideshow on statutes.
Signals
View the PowerPoint slideshow on introductory signals.
Foreign Law
The Bluebook has information about citing materials from 36 selected foreign jurisdictions in T.2.
In addition to The Bluebook, you might want to use the online International Citation Manual (ICM) prepared by the editors of the Washington University Global Studies Law Review. Each of the 37 countries it covers has a several-page guide giving an overview its legal system and showing citation formats for different major publications (constitution, statutes, cases, etc.), with lots of examples. Even if The Bluebook covers the country you are working on, you might want to look at the examples here as well.
Here's a list of the countries covered in each guide (as of May 2008):
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Related Information
For more resources on using the Bluebook, see:
- Peter W. Martin (Cornell), Introduction to Basic Legal Citation
- Bluebook Abbreviations of Law Review Titles
- Gallagher guide on Cite Checking & Library Research
- Gallagher guide on Legal & General Writing Resources
- Gallagher guide on Legal Research Sources for the Innocence Project Northwest Clinic, especially the section on Citing Unusual Sources