Bluebook Citation: Rules, Format, and Examples
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0 sourcesBluebook Citation is the standard legal citation system used by U.S. law schools, courts, and law journals. It formats cases, statutes, constitutions, articles, and books in footnotes using strict rules for order, abbreviation, italics, and pinpoint pages.
What is Bluebook citation?
Bluebook citation is the dominant legal citation style in the United States, published by the Harvard Law Review Association with three partner journals. It governs how legal authorities appear in footnotes, briefs, and memos so any reader can locate the exact source.
The Bluebook has two systems. The Bluepages cover practitioner documents such as briefs and memos, where case names are underlined or italicized. The main whitepages govern academic footnotes in law reviews, where author names and book titles appear in LARGE AND SMALL CAPS. Choose the system your court or journal requires.
What does a Bluebook citation look like?
A law review article citation contains five ordered parts: the author, the italicized article title, the source locator (volume, journal abbreviation, and first page), the year in parentheses, and an optional pinpoint page. The example below labels each element.
- Author — full name as printed, followed by a comma
- Title — article title in italics, then a comma
- Source — volume, journal abbreviation (Table T13), first page
- Pincite — specific page cited, after a comma
- Year — year of publication in parentheses
How do you cite a case in Bluebook?
A case citation lists the italicized case name, the volume, the reporter abbreviation, the first page, and a parenthetical with the court and year. Federal cases in the U.S. Reports omit the court because the Supreme Court is implied.
| Element | Rule | Example fragment |
|---|---|---|
| Case name | Italicized; v. abbreviated; first party vs. second |
Brown v. Board of Education |
| Reporter | Volume + abbreviation + first page | 347 U.S. 483 |
| Pinpoint | Specific page after the first page | , 495 |
| Parenthetical | Court (if needed) + year | (1954) |
Supreme CourtMiranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 444 (1966).
Landmark caseBrown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
Lower courtUnited States v. Carroll Towing Co., 159 F.2d 169 (2d Cir. 1947).
How do you cite statutes and the Constitution?
Statutes cite the title number, the code abbreviation, the section symbol, the section number, and a parenthetical year. Federal statutes use U.S.C. The U.S. Constitution uses an abbreviated form with article, section, or amendment and requires no date.
Federal statute42 U.S.C. § 1983 (2018).
ConstitutionU.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1.
Constitution clauseU.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 3.
Use the section symbol § for a single section and §§ for a range. Add a space between the symbol and the number.
How do you cite articles and books?
Law review articles follow the author-title-source-year order shown in the anatomy figure. Books list the author in large and small caps, the title in large and small caps, the pinpoint page, and a parenthetical with edition and year.
Law review articleCass R. Sunstein, Beyond the Republican Revival, 97 Yale L.J. 1539 (1988).
Two authorsDan L. Burk & Julie E. Cohen, Fair Use Infrastructure for Rights Management Systems, 15 Harv. J.L. & Tech. 41 (2001).
BookANTONIN SCALIA & BRYAN A. GARNER, READING LAW: THE INTERPRETATION OF LEGAL TEXTS 56 (2012).
Abbreviate journal names using Bluebook Table T13 — Yale L.J. for the Yale Law Journal and Harv. L. Rev. for the Harvard Law Review. In academic footnotes the author of a book and the book title are set in large and small caps, not ordinary type.
How do you cite a website in Bluebook?
Web sources (Rule 18) list the author, the italicized page title, the website name, a parenthetical with the full date and time if available, and the URL. Cite the print version instead whenever an authoritative one exists.
WebsiteEric Goldman, The Ninth Circuit Rules on Website Terms, Tech. & Mktg. L. Blog (Mar. 4, 2024), https://blog.ericgoldman.org.
Government pageAbout the Supreme Court, U.S. Cts., https://www.uscourts.gov/about-the-supreme-court (last visited July 18, 2026).
What are short forms and signals?
After a full citation, later references use short forms. Id. points to the immediately preceding authority, and supra refers back to a source cited earlier. Introductory signals tell the reader how a source supports the text.
| Device | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
Id. |
Same source as the note just above | Id. at 445. |
supra |
Source cited in an earlier footnote | Sunstein, supra note 3, at 1541. |
See |
Authority supports the proposition indirectly | See Miranda, 384 U.S. at 444. |
Cf. |
Analogous but not directly on point | Cf. Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973). |
But see |
Authority contradicts the proposition | But see id. at 155. |
Bluepages vs. whitepages: which do you use?
Use the whitepages for academic writing such as journal notes and seminar papers, where case names appear in ordinary roman type inside footnotes. Use the Bluepages for practice-facing documents, such as court briefs and office memos, where case names are italicized or underlined and citations often sit in the text.
The substance stays the same across both: the same reporters, abbreviations and order. Only typeface conventions and placement differ. Most 1L legal-writing courses teach the Bluepages first because students draft briefs and memoranda before they write for a journal.
How accurate is this guide, and what are the limits?
This guide reflects the 22nd edition (2025) and the still-common 21st edition (2020), whose core rules match. It cannot replace the full Bluebook, which runs hundreds of pages of tables and exceptions. Verify any citation against the current edition before submitting.
Three caveats matter. First, jurisdiction-specific rules — such as California or federal local court styles — may override Bluebook defaults, so check your court’s requirements. Second, reporter and journal abbreviations come from Bluebook Tables T1 through T13 and change over time. Third, generators automate formatting but cannot judge which authority to cite or whether a signal fits; always proofread by hand.
Frequently asked questions
What is the current edition of the Bluebook?
The current edition is the 22nd, published in 2025. The 21st edition (2020) is still widely used in classrooms and journals, and its core citation rules are the same as the 22nd edition for cases, statutes, articles, and books.
Is Bluebook the same as legal citation?
Bluebook is the most common legal citation system in the United States, but not the only one. Alternatives include the ALWD Guide to Legal Citation and state-specific styles such as the California Style Manual. Many courts and journals mandate Bluebook specifically.
When do I use italics versus small caps?
Italicize case names, article titles, and signals like see and id. In academic law review footnotes, set book authors and book titles in large and small caps. In Bluepages practitioner documents, underlining is an accepted substitute for italics.
What is a pincite in Bluebook?
A pincite, or pinpoint citation, is the exact page you are referencing within a source. It follows the source’s first page after a comma — for example, 97 Yale L.J. 1539, 1541 directs the reader to page 1541 of an article that begins on page 1539.
How do I cite the same source twice in a row?
Use Id. to cite the source in the immediately preceding footnote. Add at and a page number if the page differs, as in Id. at 445. If other citations intervene, use the author’s name plus supra and the original footnote number instead.
Does Bluebook use a reference list like APA?
No. Bluebook citations appear in footnotes (academic) or inline and in footnotes (practitioner), not in a separate alphabetical reference list. Full citations give the first reference, and short forms handle every later reference to the same authority.