Cecily Zamora
The Bluebook is a uniform system of citation compiled by editors of the Columbia Law Review, the Harvard Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal. It is a guide to legal citation, helping users break apart citations to determine the type of resource and understand jurisdictional resources. The Bluebook distinguishes between consecutively paginated and nonconsecutively paginated periodicals, with most law reviews falling under the former category. The Bluepages section of the Bluebook addresses non-academic citation, providing guidance on citation formats for legal documents such as memoranda, briefs, and court documents. The Whitepages, on the other hand, offers rules for academic legal writing, including law reviews and journals.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Purpose | To provide a uniform system of citation for legal documents and academic legal writing. |
| Compiled by | Columbia Law Review, Harvard Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and Yale Law Journal |
| Published by | Harvard Law Review Association |
| Intended audience | First-year law students and others new to The Bluebook |
| Components | Common citations, examples, and a glossary of terms |
| Citation rules | Rules for citing cases, statutes, periodicals, books, reports, and other legal sources |
| Court documents (Bluepages) | Article title underlined |
| Law reviews | Journal name in small caps, article title italicized |
| Periodicals | Use of large and small caps, abbreviations per Tables T13 and T10 |
| Special citation forms | Student-written law review articles, book reviews, symposia, commentaries, multipart articles |
| Online sources | Rule 18 covers how to cite online sources and other non-print media |
| Record citation | Bluepages Rule B17 covers how to cite to the record |
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What You'll Learn
Citing periodical materials
The Bluebook is a uniform system of citation compiled by editors of the Columbia Law Review, the Harvard Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal. The Bluebook is published and distributed by the Harvard Law Review Association.
The rules for citing periodical materials in the Bluebook are covered under Rule 16. Periodical materials include continuously published materials such as law reviews, journals, academic journals, newspapers, magazines, and newsletters.
The Bluebook distinguishes between "consecutively paginated" and "non-consecutively paginated" periodicals. Rule 16.4 covers consecutively paginated periodicals, which include most law reviews and academic journals. These are organized by volume, and the page numbers continue throughout all issues of the volume. For instance, Vol. 1, Issue 1 contains pages 1-100; Vol. 1, Issue 2 contains pages 101-200, and so forth.
A citation to a consecutively paginated journal article includes the following six elements:
- Author
- Title
- Volume number
- Abbreviation of the periodical name
- First page of the article
- Specific pages cited (if any)
- Year
For example:
Pamela Samuelson, Functionality and Expression in Computer Programs: Refining the Tests for Software Copyright Infringement, 31 Berkeley Tech L.J. 1215 (2016).
Rule 16.5 covers non-consecutively paginated periodicals, which include many magazines and newspapers. These have page numbers starting at 1 for each new issue.
Non-consecutively paginated journal and magazine citations should follow the format:
Author, Title, Journal Name, Date, and Specific Page Cited (if any).
For example:
Adam Satariano, Law Bolsters Copyrights in Europe, N.Y. Times, Mar. 27, 2019, at B1.
If an article has two authors, list both authors connected by an ampersand in the same order as they are listed in the original source:
Yuval Karniel & Stephen Bates, Copyright in Second Life, 20 Alb. J.L. Sci. & Tech. 433 (2010).
If an article has three or more authors, it is permissible to either give the first author's name followed by "et al." or list all authors as they appear in the original source.
Periodical titles should be formatted using both large and small caps. They must also be abbreviated according to Tables T13 (Institutional Names in Periodical Titles) and T10 (Geographic Terms). For example, the fictional "Philadelphia Journal of Law and Order" would be abbreviated as "Phila. J.L. & Ord."
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Citing online sources
The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation has been the go-to guide for generations of law students, lawyers, scholars, judges, and other legal professionals. It provides a systematic method for legal professionals to communicate important information about the sources and legal authorities they rely on in their work.
The Bluebook contains rules that prescribe how to cite a variety of legal documents, including online sources. Rule 18 covers when and how to cite online sources and other non-print sources (e.g. films). It is recommended that you consult Rule 18 carefully, as citation formats to online sources can vary.
There are three general formats for structuring a citation to an online source:
- Cite the same way you would cite to the hard copy print material.
- Combine the print citation with the electronic citation.
- Cite directly to the electronic version.
If the online source is an exact copy of the print version, such as a PDF with page numbers, you can cite it as if it were the hard copy print source. Any online source that shares characteristics with a print source should be cited according to the rule for the print version.
For example, if you are citing an article from an online newspaper, the citation should include the full author's name, title of the article, newspaper title in small caps (abbreviated according to Tables 10 and 13), full date (and time, if there is one), followed by the URL.
It is important to note that the main goal of all citation systems is to make it easy for your reader to find the source you are citing. Therefore, make sure to include enough information for a reader to follow in your footsteps.
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Citing books
The Bluebook is a uniform system of citation compiled by editors of the Columbia Law Review, the Harvard Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal. It is published and distributed by the Harvard Law Review Association. The Bluebook is used to cite a variety of legal documents, including books, reports, and treatises.
When citing a book in a law review article, it is important to follow the Bluebook rules for academic legal writing, which can be found in the Whitepages. The typeface used for books in academic writing is different from that in non-academic writing. In academic writing, the title of the book should be in small caps rather than underlined (Rule 15).
A basic citation to a book includes the following six elements:
- Author
- Title
- Publisher
- Edition
- Year
- Specific page(s) cited
For example:
John C.H. Wu, The Golden Age of Zen (Image Books 1996) (1975).
If a book has been published by the same publisher more than once, you should cite the edition and the year it was published in parentheses, as shown in the example above.
When citing a work that has been published by a different publisher than the original, you should note the publisher, as in the example above.
A book may be cited in short form after it has been cited in full. The use of "Id." and "supra" is appropriate for this type of authority. For example:
Sanford Levinson, Wrestling with Diversity 25 (2003). Roger K. Newman, Hugo Black: A Biography 33 (1994). Id. at 35-36. Levinson, supra note 1. Newman, supra note 2 at 37.
It is important to note that the rules for citing books in a law review article may vary depending on the specific publication and style guide being used.
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Citing in-text vs in footnotes
The Bluebook is a uniform system of citation compiled by editors of the Columbia Law Review, Harvard Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and Yale Law Journal. It is a guide to legal citation and is used for academic legal writing. The Bluebook uses specialized terminology to describe its citations and provides a glossary defining these terms.
The Bluebook differentiates between in-text citations and footnotes. In-text citations are used for court documents, while citation in footnotes is used for law review articles. In-text citations are almost always considered an abomination, and they disrupt the flow of the article. However, they are good for quickly identifying the source and the year of the study. This is especially useful in fields where one is familiar with the prominent names and people in the field of specialization.
Footnotes, on the other hand, are preferred by many as they do not interrupt the flow of the text. They are useful for including information that may be relevant to the reader by extending the scope of the argument or pointing out common misconceptions. They are also beneficial for providing additional context or details that support the argument without disrupting the narrative flow.
The Chicago Manual of Style, another widely used citation style, offers two options for citation: the notes and bibliography system, and the author-date system. The former uses footnotes or endnotes, while the latter employs in-text citations.
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Citation differences between court documents and law review articles
The Bluebook is a uniform system of citation compiled by the editors of the Columbia Law Review, the Harvard Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal. It is a legal citation manual that helps break down the components of common citations and provides examples. The Bluebook is used to cite court documents and law review articles, with some differences between the two.
Court documents and law review articles differ in terms of the type of citation used. Court documents typically use in-text citations, while law review articles use footnotes for citations. Law review articles are considered secondary sources as they analyze and interpret the law, whereas court documents, along with statutes and case documents, are considered primary sources.
The Bluebook's Bluepages section addresses non-academic citation, which is the format for court documents. It provides guidance and examples of citation formats used in legal documents such as memoranda and briefs. In court documents, the article title is underlined.
On the other hand, the Whitepages section of the Bluebook covers academic citation, which is used for law reviews, journals, and other academic legal publications. Law review articles follow similar citation rules as books. The author's name is written as it appears on the document, and the article title is italicized. For example:
> John, "The Freedom of Speech-Conduct." Kentucky Law Journal 109, no. 1 (2020): 81-126.
Law review articles also require specifying the location for non-consecutively paginated materials, such as newspapers and magazines.
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Frequently asked questions
The Bluebook is a uniform system of citation compiled by editors of the Columbia, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale Law Reviews.
The Bluebook is used to break apart and determine the type of resource of a citation. It also provides guidance on how to cite different types of documents.
Bluepages are rules geared toward practitioner documents, whereas Whitepages are rules geared toward academic legal writing.
The article title should be included in full and written in italics, with capitalization following Bluebook Rule 8. The author, title, volume number, abbreviation of the periodical name, first page of the article, specific pages cited, and year are also included.
A citation to a U.S. federal regulation in the CFR includes four elements: CFR title number, CFR (abbreviation for Code of Federal Regulations), publication date, and the section number and/or part number.
