Understanding and Mastering The Bluebook
Understanding and Mastering The Bluebook A Guide for Students and Practitioners Linda J. Barris Carolina Academic Press Durham, North Carolina
Copyright 2007 Linda J. Barris All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Barris, Linda J. Understanding and mastering The Bluebook : a guide for students and practitioners / by Linda J. Barris. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 13: 978-1-59460-365-5 (alk. paper) ISBN 10: 1-59460-365-0 (alk. paper) 1. Citation of legal authorities--united States. 2. Annotations and citations (Law)--United States. I. Title. KF245.B37 2007 808'.027--dc22 2007016474 Carolina Academic Press 700 Kent St. Durham, NC 27701 Telephone (919) 489-7486 Fax (919) 493-5668 www.cap-press.com This book is published as a guide to the rules of legal citation set forth in The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, Eighteenth Edition, copyright 2005 by The Columbia Law Review Association, The Harvard Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and The Yale Law Journal. The Bluebook is published by The Harvard Law Review Association, Gannett House, 1511 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138. Printed in the United States of America
Contents 1 Getting Started 3 Bluebook Organization 4 Practitioners Style 5 Typeface Conventions 6 Citation Placement Rules 9 Is a Citation Necessary? 9 Where to Place the Citation 11 Citations in Citation Sentences 12 Embedded Citations 13 Citation Clauses 13 Splitting Embedded Citations in Textual Sentences 15 Spacing Rules 16 2 Cases 17 Assembling a Full Case Citation 17 Case Name 20 Actions & Parties Cited 20 Procedural Phrases 21 Abbreviation of Party Names 21 The in Case Names 22 Descriptive Terms 23 Geographical Terms 23 A Non-Governmental Entity Is a Party 23 The United States Government Is a Party 24 A State or Commonwealth Is a Party 24 A City, Town or County Is a Party 26 Given Names or Initials 26 Business Firm Designations 27 Unions 27 Commissioner of Internal Revenue 27 Common Name Differs from Name in Reporter 28 Publication Information 29 Volume 29 Reporter Name (Abbreviated) 29 Beginning Page Number 31 Pinpoint Page Number (aka Pincite) 31 v
vi CONTENTS Court 31 Year 34 Short Form Case Citations 34 Id. 34 Case Name Short Form 35 Additional Case Citation Rules 38 Parallel Citations 38 Citing Multiple Pages 39 Quoting and Citing Parentheticals 40 Citing Dissents or Concurrences 40 Subsequent History 41 Weight of Authority 42 Citing Cases from On-Line Sources (Star Paging) 42 Unpublished Cases 44 Public Domain Citations 46 3 Statutes 49 State Statutory Citations 50 Code Name 52 Section [ ] 53 Section Number 53 Publisher (if Applicable) 55 Supplements (if Applicable) 55 Code Year 56 Federal Statutory Citations 57 Named Statutes 58 Citing Multiple Statutory Sections 59 Spanning Consecutive Sections and Subsections 59 Skipping Sections and Subsections (Non-Consecutive Sections) 60 Short Form Statutory Citations 60 Id. 60 Repeating Statute Number 61 4 Constitutions 65 5 Secondary Sources 67 Treatises and Books 67 Periodicals (Law Reviews & Journals) 71 Legal Encyclopedias 74 Legal Dictionaries 75
CONTENTS vii American Law Reports (A.L.R.) Annotations 76 Restatements 77 6 Procedural and Court Rules 79 Federal Rules of Procedure & Evidence 79 Local Rules: State & Federal Courts 80 Court Issuing Rule Bluebook Form 81 Abbreviation for Court Rule Bluebook Form 81 Rule Number Bluebook Form 82 7 Litigation Documents and Record Citations 83 Abbreviated Title of Document 84 Pinpoint Citations 86 Date 87 8 Signals and Explanatory Parentheticals 89 Signals 89 Explanatory Parentheticals 91 Combining Signals, Parentheticals, and/or Authorities 93 Combining Signals 93 Combining Signals with Parentheticals 93 String Citations 94 Multiple Signals for Multiple Authorities 97 9 Quotations 101 Form of Quotations 101 Block Quotations 101 Short Quotations 102 Alterations 102 Omissions 104 10 Capitalization 107 General Capitalization Rules 107 Capitalization in Court Documents 109 Courts 109 Parties to a Legal Action 110 Titles of Court Documents 110 11 Numbers, Numerals, and Symbols 111 Numbers and Numerals 111 Ordinals 112 Symbols 113
viii CONTENTS Appendix Citing Cases from On-Line Sources 115 Index of Bluebook Rules 119 Subject Index 121