Bluebook Citation 101 -- Practitioner Format

The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation is generally the default legal citation manual. It is compiled by the editors of the Columbia Law Review, the Harvard Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and The Yale Law Journal and began in 1926. It is now in its 22nd edition. Other general legal citation manuals include ALWD, and The Redbook. Additionally, each jurisdiction and court may have its own citation rules. Ohio, for example, has its own writing manual.

Bluebook Organization

• Quick Reference:  Law Review Footnotes
• Blue Pages (these are practitioner oriented)
• Blue Pages Tables (these cover court documents and refer to jurisdiction -specific rules and style guides)
• General Rules (R. 1 – 9)
• Specific Source Rules (R. 10-23)
• Tables (T. 1-16)
• Index
• Quick Reference: Court Documents and Legal Memoranda

Changes from the 21st Edition

• New signal – “contrast” – see R. 1.2 and B1.2
• New parenthetical (citation modified) – See B5.3
• Updated B22 and B23
• Updated BT2
• Codification information can now be omitted depending on context – R. 12.4(f)
• New rule for state administrative material – R. 14.4
• New information on citing pen names – R. 15.1(d)
• More special citation forms – R. 15.8
  • Major changes to R. 18:
  • Expansion of what is considered an official version of a government produced source – R. 18.2(a)(iii)
  • Explanation of what “share the characteristics of a printed source” means – R. 18.2(b)(ii)
  • Requirement now that all online content cited or generated by authors be stored in a permanent setting R. 18.2(d) and indicate dates archived 18.2.2(c)
  • New rule for citing AI – R. 18.3,
  • New rule for citing material in electronic storage – R. 18.5
  • Changes to citing films, videos, tv (previously R. 18.6) – R. 18.7
  • Changes to audio media (now includes streaming) (previously R. 18.7) – R. 18.8
  • Changes and expansion to rule for electronic images, photographs, art (previously R. 18.8) – R. 18.9
  • New rule for social media – R. 18.10
  • New rule for hardware and software – R. 18.11
• Revised R. 20.2.4 to include languages that do not use the Roman alphabet
• New R. 22 for Tribal Nations
• New R. 23 for physical archival sources Updated tables
  • T. 1.2 – state
  • T. 2 – foreign jurisdictions revised with 3 new foreign jurisdictions added
  • T. 6 – includes medical journals
  • T. 10 – geographical terms
  • New T. 1.5 for Tribal Nations

A Word About Typeface

The Bluepages B1 state that its examples use underscoring appropriate text but that italics may be substituted as long as you are consistent.The Bluepages B2 states that court documents and legal memoranda only use two typefaces: (1) ordinary type and (2) italics or underscoring. B3 also contains a useful table of key typeface differences between academic and practitioner citation typeface.