Research Guides: Citing Sources at UC Blue Ash & UC Clermont: Legal

About

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. 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.

The Bluebook

The Bluebook by Harvard Law Review Association (Compiled by); Columbia Law Review (Compiled by); University of Pennsylvania Law Review (Compiled by); The Yake Law Journal (Compiled by)
Call Number: KF245 .B58 2020
ISBN: 9780578666150

The Indigo Book: A Manual of Legal Citation
The Indigo Book is a free, Creative Commons-dedicated implementation of The Bluebook’s Uniform System of Citation. The Indigo Book was compiled by a team of students at the New York University School of Law, working under the direction of Professor Christopher Jon Sprigman. The scope is comparable to the Bluepages in The Bluebook.

Bluebook Citation 101 -- Academic Format
by Susan Boland Last Updated Nov 13, 2023 8964 views this year
Bluebook Citation 101 -- Practitioner Format
by Susan Boland Last Updated Nov 13, 2023 17881 views this year

Other Manuals

ALWD Guide to Legal Citation by Carolyn V. Williams; Association of Legal Writing Directors Staff (Contribution by)
Call Number: CLER KF245 .A45 2021 or View Online
Garner's the Redbook by Bryan Garner
Call Number: CLER KF250 .G375 2023

The Supreme Court of Ohio Writing Manual Part I, the Manual of Citations, governs the citation format used in Supreme Court opinions and other opinions. It sets forth rules for the forms of citation for cases, statutes, and other sources, provides examples for each category, and explains the use of WebCites. Part II, the Style Guide, provides direction on certain aspects of style used in Supreme Court opinions. Subjects covered include capitalization, punctuation, use of footnotes and headings, captions, and commonly misused words. Part III, the Structure of a Judicial Opinion, is a guide intended to assist writers of judicial opinions. It offers an outline setting forth the basic components of an opinion in the traditional sequence, followed by several examples written in the Supreme Court style.

Helpful Resources

Legal Research and Writing for Paralegals by Deborah E. Bouchoux
Call Number: View Online
Legal Citation in a Nutshell by Larry L. Teply
Call Number: View Online
Learning legal citation is one of the difficult (and sometimes admittedly annoying) tasks that students new to the law face. This book is designed to ease that task. It initially focuses on conventions that underlie all accepted forms and systems of legal citation. Building on that understanding and an explanation of the "process" of using citations in legal writing, the book then discusses and illustrates the particular rules of The Bluebook and the ALWD Citation Manual for citing cases, statutes, and all other major legal sources. Unique appendices provide useful comparative information for these two systems of citation.