O'Neill Library Main library. Bapst Library Art and architecture. Burns Library Special collections. Educational Resource Center Curriculum collection. Social Work Library Social services collection. Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies Jesuit studies collection. The most frequently used style manual for citing to Legal Documents is the The Bluebook : a uniform system of citation.
A legal citation is a reference to a legal document such as a case, statute, law review article, etc. Most legal citations consist of the name of the document case, statute, law review article , an abbreviation for the legal series, and the date.
The abbreviation for the legal series usually appears as a number followed by the abbreviated name of the series and ends in another number. For example: Morse v. Universal Citation Guide. Bluebook -style citations currently require the author to refer to page numbers from the paper publications of a specific vendor, such as West. This system complicates matters when the author wishes to cite the same document or the reader wishes to consult the same document as it appears in a different format e.
Popularly referred to as the Maroonbook , this is an attempt to simplify the often obsessively detailed and often arcane rules of The Bluebook. It sets forth very general guidelines and encourages writers to use common sense in applying them to specific situations. The Maroonbook has been around since , but has never quite caught on with lawyers or scholars. Citing Legally, created and authored by Peter W.
Martin , Professor of Law, Emeritus, Cornell University Law School , is a blog concerning the citation of legal authorities by lawyers and judges. The first edition of the citation manual, A Uniform System of Citation , was written and compiled in by the editors of the Columbia Law Review , the Harvard Law Review , the University of Pennsylvania Law Review , and The Yale Law Journal in an attempt to raise money to offset the costs of printing the law reviews.
The Bluebook website hosts PDFs of the 1st edition through the 15th edition for those with a interest in the history of legal citation. See the "Guides and Tutorials" section below for information on the structure of The Bluebook citation system and guidance on how to apply its rules for legal citation. Now in the 5th edition, The Guide to Legal Citation seeks to provide a less complex alternative to the The Bluebook citation system.
The Guide to Legal Citation provides one system for all legal documents. The 5th edition includes free access to the Online Companion website that includes exercises and examples. There are a number of copies of the Guide to Legal Citation , 5th ed. In your legal research and writing classes, and in practice in general, you are going to be required to follow a certain citation format for your work. Most law schools require you to cite using the Bluebook.
The Bluebook can be a bit intimidating when you first use it, but once you get familiar with it, it is quite a handy tool. Many students ask me over and over again why citations matter on a legal writing assignment. My answer is really in two parts:. First, you are likely getting graded on citations. If they are part of your grade, you do not want to give away points by making silly citation errors ones that could have been easily avoided.
Second , careless or missing citations look unprofessional. Remember, most legal writing assignments are graded blind by your professor.
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