Legal Citation: The Bluebook Format Guide
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0 sourcesLegal citation is the standardized way lawyers and scholars reference cases, statutes, and legal materials. In the United States, the dominant system is The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, which fixes the order, abbreviations, and typeface for every source type.
What is legal citation?
Legal citation is a uniform notation that identifies a legal authority precisely enough for a reader to locate it. Bluebook citations encode the source’s name, its published location (reporter, code, or journal), the deciding court, and the year in a fixed order. Two conventions exist: the Bluepages for practitioners’ briefs and memoranda, and the main Whitepages rules for law review footnotes. This page uses Bluepages typeface, which italicizes case names throughout.
How do you write a Bluebook case citation?
A Bluebook case citation lists the italicized case name, the reporter volume, the reporter abbreviation, the first page, an optional pincite, and the court and year in parentheses. Federal Supreme Court cases use the U.S. reporter and omit the court, because U.S. already identifies it.
- Case name — the two parties joined by v., italicized.
- Volume — the reporter volume number (347).
- Reporter — the abbreviated reporter (
U.S.= United States Reports). - Pages — first page 483, then a pincite 495 to the exact page cited.
- Court & year — deciding court and decision year in parentheses.
Supreme CourtMiranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 444 (1966).
Court of AppealsUnited States v. Hasan, 586 F.3d 161, 167 (2d Cir. 2009).
District CourtDoe v. Roe, 638 F. Supp. 2d 1224, 1230 (D. Or. 2009).
How do you cite a statute?
A federal statute citation gives the title number, the code abbreviation U.S.C., the section symbol with the section number, and the year of the code edition in parentheses. Named acts add the popular name first. The section symbol § takes a space before the number.
Code section42 U.S.C. § 1983 (2018).
Named actAmericans with Disabilities Act of 1990, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101–12213 (2018).
State statuteCal. Penal Code § 187 (West 2020).
How do you cite a constitution?
Constitution citations use the abbreviation Const. with the subdivision cited and no year for a currently effective provision. Articles, sections, and clauses are abbreviated. Amendments use Roman numerals.
ArticleU.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 3.
AmendmentU.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1.
StateTex. Const. art. I, § 9.
How do you cite books and law review articles?
Secondary sources follow their own patterns. A book lists the author, the italicized title, the pincite page, and the edition and year in parentheses. A law review article lists the author, the italicized article title, the volume, the journal abbreviation, the first page, a pincite, and the year.
BookRichard A. Posner, Economic Analysis of Law 45 (9th ed. 2014).
ArticleCharles A. Reich, The New Property, 73 Yale L.J. 733, 737 (1964).
Two authorsGuido Calabresi & A. Douglas Melamed, Property Rules, Liability Rules, and Inalienability, 85 Harv. L. Rev. 1089, 1092 (1972).
| Source type | Bluebook pattern | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Supreme Court case | Name, Vol. U.S. Page (Year) | Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973). |
| Federal statute | Title U.S.C. § No. (Year) | 18 U.S.C. § 1001 (2018). |
| Constitution | U.S. Const. subdivision | U.S. Const. amend. I. |
| Regulation | Title C.F.R. § No. (Year) | 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5 (2023). |
| Law review article | Author, Title, Vol. Journal Page (Year) | See article examples above. |
What are signals and short forms?
Introductory signals tell the reader how a source supports a proposition, and they are italicized. Use no signal when the authority states the proposition directly, See when it supports inferentially, See also for additional support, Cf. for an analogous point, and But see or Contra for contrary authority.
| Signal | Meaning |
|---|---|
| [no signal] | Source directly states the proposition |
| See | Source clearly supports the proposition |
| See also | Additional supporting authority |
| Cf. | Analogous support by comparison |
| But see | Source contradicts the proposition |
| E.g., | Cited source is one of many |
After a full citation, use short forms. Id. refers to the immediately preceding authority, with Id. at 495 for a new page. For an earlier-cited case, use the case name followed by the reporter volume and page: Miranda, 384 U.S. at 467. Secondary sources use supra.
Id. formId. at 499.
Case short formBrown, 347 U.S. at 495.
How accurate is this guide, and what are its limits?
These patterns reflect The Bluebook, 21st edition, and are correct for the most common sources. They are not exhaustive. The Bluebook contains hundreds of pages of jurisdiction-specific reporter abbreviations (Table T1), court abbreviations (T7), and rules for parallel citations, subsequent history, and unpublished opinions that this page does not reproduce.
Two caveats matter most. First, typeface differs by context: in law review footnotes, a full case name is set in roman (not italic), whereas practitioners’ briefs italicize it, as shown here. Second, many states and courts mandate their own rules, such as the ALWD Guide or California’s Style Manual, which override the Bluebook. Always check your court’s or journal’s local rules before finalizing, and verify reporter abbreviations against current tables.
Legal citation FAQ
What citation style do lawyers use?
Most U.S. lawyers, courts, and law reviews use The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. Some jurisdictions instead require the ALWD Guide to Legal Citation or a state-specific style manual, so always confirm local rules.
Are case names italicized in Bluebook citations?
In practitioners’ documents (briefs and memos) under the Bluepages, case names are italicized in both text and citations. In law review footnotes, a full case name is set in roman type, though short-form case names are still italicized.
What does a pincite mean?
A pincite (or pinpoint citation) is the exact page where the cited material appears, given after the first page. In Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 495, the 495 is the pincite pointing to the specific page.
How do I cite a Supreme Court case?
Use the case name, volume, the U.S. reporter, the first page, an optional pincite, and the year: Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973). You omit the court name because U.S. already identifies the Supreme Court.
What does Id. mean in legal citation?
Id. means the citation refers to the immediately preceding authority. Add a pincite for a different page, as in Id. at 499. It cannot be used if more than one source was cited in the prior footnote.
What edition of the Bluebook is current?
The 21st edition, published in 2020, is the current version. It is produced by the editors of the Columbia, Harvard, Pennsylvania, and Yale law reviews and is updated roughly every five years.