THE BLUEBOOK: A UNIFORM
SYSTEM OF CITATION
20th Edition
OUTLINE
Structure of Legal Citations
Abbreviations, Numerals, and Symbols
Italicization for Style and in Unique Circumstances
Capitalization
Cases
Constitutions
Statutes
Books and Other Non-periodic Materials
Periodical Materials
The internet
CITATION SENTENCES
Used to relate to the entire preceding sentence.
Begin with a capital letter and end with a period.
Multiple citations to be separated by semicolons.
EXAMPLE –
The U.S. Supreme Court has the power to
invalidate statutes that are repugnant to the US
Constitution. Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1
Cranch) 137, 177-79 (1803); Fletcher v. Peck, 10
U.S. (6 Cranch) 87, 139 (1810).
CITATION CLAUSE
Used to relate to only a part of a sentence.
Separated from the text by commas and immediately
follow the proposition to which they relate.
Do not begin with a capital letter and do not end
with a period, unless it is the last clause.
EXAMPLE –
The Supreme Court adopted a broad reading of the
Commerce Clause during the New Deal, see
Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111, 128-29 (1942),
though in recent years the Supreme Court has reined
in its broad reading somewhat, see United States v.
Lopez, 514 U.S. 549,624 (1995).
TYPEFACE FOR COURT
DOCUMENTS
Italicize (or underscore) the following information in a
citation clause:
✓ Case names, including procedural phrases introducing
case names;
✓ Titles of books and articles;
✓ Titles of legislative materials;
✓ Introductory signals;
✓ Explanatory phrases introducing subsequent case
history;
✓ Cross references, such as id. and supra; and
✓ Words and phrases introducing related authority, such
as “quoted in.”
CAPITALIZATION
Capitalize the following:
✓ Court
✓ party designations such as “Plaintiff”,
“Defendant”, “Appellant”, and “Appellee”.
✓ Titles of Judges - Justices are referred to as
“Justice Chandrachud” and “Chief Justice
Bobde”.
CASES
A full case citation includes five components: (1)
the name of the case; (2) the published or
unpublished source in which the case can be
found; (3) parenthetical indicating the court and
year of decision; (4) other parenthetical
information, if any; and (5) the subsequent
history of the case, if any:
Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 ,430 (1962).
Thompson v. Hanson, 174 P.3d 120,125 (Wash.
Ct. App. 2007).
CASES
Omit all parties other than the first party listed on each
side.
EXAMPLE - Dow Jones & Co. v. Harrods. Ltd.
Not: Dow Jones & Company. Inc.. Plaintiff. v. Harrods.
Limited and Mohamed Al Faved. Defendants
Omit words indicating multiple parties (such as "et al.")
and alternative names (such as "a.k.a.")
Kant v. Bentham
Not: Immanuel Kant. et. al. v. Jeremv Bentham. a.k.a.
The Father of Utilitarianism
Abbreviate widely known acronyms only such as
Company, Corporation, United States, Limited, Number,
PENDING AND UNREPORTED CASES
Cite as follows: (l) case name; (2) case docket
number; (3) database identifier and electronic
report number; (4) star page number; and (5)
court and full date parenthetical.
EXAMPLE – Anuradha Bhasin v. UOI,
WRIT PETITION (CIVIL) NO. 1031 OF 2019,
2019 SCR 47, at *2-3 (SC Apr. 8, 2019).
REPORTER
Cite a reporter by listing: (l) the volume number of the
reporter in which the case is published; (2) the
abbreviated name of the reporter; and (3) the page on
which the case report begins.
EXAMPLE: Prem Singh v. State of U.P., 12 AIR
186,195 (1962).
PINCITES - specific pages related to the case.
✓ Page range: first and last page separated by a dash
(106-112).
✓ the page numbers consist of three or more digits, drop
any repetitive digits other than the final two digits
(102-06; 1020-30).
PINCITES
Multiple pages that are not consecutive, list each
page or page range, separated by commas (103,
106-08, 132).
For a footnote, give the page on which the
footnote appears, "n." and the footnote number,
with no space between "n." and the footnote
number (199 n.4).
EXAMPLE – Prem Singh v. State of U. P., 7
SCR 44, 109-20 n.3 (1962).
STATUTES
Cite as Federal Statutes: (l) the official name of the act;
(2) the published source in which the act can be found;
and (3) a parenthetical indicating either (i) the year the
source was published (used for codes) or (ii) the year
the statute was passed.
EXAMPLE - The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986,
Central Act 29 OF 1986 (1986).
Cite State Statutes as: (l) the abbreviated name of the
code; (2) the cited section number; and (3) the year of
the cited code edition (not the year the act was passed).
EXAMPLE – Maharashtra Rent Control Act, Sec. 67
(2000).
BOOKS
Citation to include: (1) volume number (2) full name
of authors (3) title of the publication (italicized or
underlined) (4) Pincite (5) year of publication or
edition in brackets
EXAMPLE: M P Jain, Indian Constitutional Law 116
(8th ed. 2018).
EXAMPLE: Justice G B Patnaik & Rita Das,
Comparative Constitutional Law 202-211 (2017).
For more than 2 authors use “et al.” – David Hunter
et al., International Environmental Law and Policy
555 (3rd ed. 2006).
ARTICLES/PERIODIC MATERIALS
Cite as: (1) Author/s (2) title of work (underlined)
(3) volume number (5) abbreviated name of the
journal (6) first page of the article (7) pincite (8)
year of publication in bracket
EXAMPLE: Gerhart, Peter M., Slow
Transformations: The WTO as a Distributive
Organization 17 (5) American University
International Law Review 1045, 1073 (2002).
Abigail Sullivan Moore, This is Your Brain on
Drugs, N.Y. Times, Oct. 29. 2014. - NEWSPAPER
ARTICLE
INTERNET
Cite as: (1) Author names (if applicable) (2) title of
the main page of the website (underlined or
italicized) (3) title of the article/page (4) the date and
time in bracket (if applicable) (5) the URL
EXAMPLE: Eugene Kontorovich, Italy Adopts
Supreme Court's View of ICJ Authority, Volokh
Conspiracy (Oct. 28, 2014), http://www. washin gton
post.com/news/volokh-conspiracy /wp / 2014/10/28/
italy-adopts-supreme-courts-view-of-icj-authority/.
If no date is available “last visited on”.
If it’s a PDF source, use the said URL only.
GENERAL GUIDELINES
Cite authorities in this order:
1.Constitutions (first federal, then state, then foreign)
2.Statutes (first federal, then state, then foreign)
3.Federal cases (in order of descending authority)
4.State cases (alphabetically by state, in descending order of
authority within states)
5.Legislative materials (first bills, then hearings, then reports, then
debates)
6.Administrative materials (first executive orders, then regulations,
then proposed rules)
7.Court documents (first records, then briefs, then petitions)
8.Secondary materials (first restatements, then books, then articles,
then Internet sources)
