Legal Definitions - The Bluebook

The Bluebook, formally known as The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, is the authoritative style guide for legal citations in the United States. It provides a comprehensive set of rules for how legal sources—such as court cases, statutes, administrative regulations, and scholarly articles—should be referenced in legal documents. The primary goal of The Bluebook is to ensure uniformity, clarity, and precision in legal writing, allowing readers to easily locate and verify the sources cited.

This guide is widely adopted by most U.S. law schools, federal courts, and legal professionals, making it an essential tool for anyone involved in legal research and writing. While other citation systems exist, The Bluebook remains the predominant standard for academic legal publications and many court filings across the country. It is collaboratively published by several prestigious law reviews and journals and is regularly updated to reflect changes in legal publishing and practice.

Here are some examples of how The Bluebook applies in practice:

• A Law Student's Research Paper: Imagine a first-year law student writing a research memo for their Legal Research and Writing course. They need to support their arguments with references to specific court decisions and statutory provisions. The student consults The Bluebook to correctly format citations like Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), or 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (2018). Adhering to The Bluebook ensures their citations are consistent and clear, making it easy for their professor to find the referenced material and assess the accuracy of their legal arguments.

• A Lawyer Drafting a Court Brief: An attorney is preparing a legal brief to be filed with a federal appellate court. This brief argues why a lower court's decision should be overturned, relying heavily on precedents from the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal circuits. The attorney meticulously follows The Bluebook's rules to cite cases, statutes, and regulations within the brief. For instance, they would use specific formatting for parenthetical information, pinpoint citations to exact pages, and ensure proper abbreviations for reporters and courts. Adhering to The Bluebook ensures the brief meets the court's expectations for professional presentation and allows the judges and their clerks to quickly navigate to the cited legal authorities.

• Editors of a Law Journal: The student editors of a university law review are reviewing an article submitted by a legal scholar for publication. The article contains numerous citations to diverse legal sources, including historical documents, international treaties, and academic commentary. The editors use The Bluebook as their primary reference to verify that every citation in the submitted article is formatted correctly. They check for proper capitalization, italicization, spacing, and abbreviation according to Bluebook rules. This rigorous adherence ensures the journal maintains its academic credibility and provides readers with a consistent and reliable method for tracking down the sources cited by the author.