Legal Research and Citation Style in the USA

The format for citations to legal materials is different from the format for scholarly citations to books and periodicals in general. This handout is a terse guide to legal citation in the USA. The generally accepted style manual for legal citations in the USA is the Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, which is published by the editors of four prestigious law reviews at Columbia University, Harvard, Univ. of Pennsylvania, and Yale Law Schools. A copy of theBluebook can be purchased in any law school bookstore. A comprehensive set of rules from the Bluebook is available on the Internet from Peter W. Martin at Cornell Law School. In contrast, this handout here contains a terse set of rules that agree with the Bluebook, but does not contain all of the fine points and options in the Bluebook. Opinions of some courts use a different format from the Bluebook, but these alternative citation formats contains the same information. Be aware that citations in opinions of state or federal courts may not be the correct bibliographic style according to the Bluebook.Furthermore, the proper format according to the Bluebook changes with time, so old sources (both cases and law review articles) do not use the modern format for citation.

Standler, Ronald B. RBS0.com (2000). Reference>Style Guides>Legal

Introduction to Basic Legal Citation

This introduction to legal citation is focused on the forms of citation used in professional practice rather than those used in journal publication. It aims to identify the more important points on which there is divergence between the rules set out in two common manuals and evolving usage reflected in legal memoranda and briefs prepared by practicing lawyers.

Martin, Peter W. Cornell University (2007). Reference>Style Guides>Legal