"The central function of a legal citation is to allow the reader to efficiently locate the cited source." The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation 1 (Columbia Law Review Ass'n et al. eds., 21st ed. 2020).
Citations in legal writing serve two purposes:
Avoid accidental plagiarism by citing a source for any idea that is not original.
There are copies of the Bluebook on reserve. Ask for one at the Circulation Desk. You can subscribe to the Bluebook online here.
The Bluepages section of the Bluebook addresses non-academic citation. It is citation for practitioners and law clerks. Here you will find guidance and examples of citation formats that you will use when writing your memoranda, briefs, and other court documents. In your first year you will be writing legal memoranda and briefs, therefore you will follow the examples in the Bluepages.
The white pages in the Bluebook address academic citation. This is citation for law reviews, journals, and other academic legal publications. The white pages expand on the rules included in the Bluepages. N.B. The citations in the white pages use large and small capital letters. If you consult the examples here remember that l arge and small caps are used only for stylistic purposes in non-academic citation.
Page 7 has a helpful table that sets out the differences between the typeface used in non-academic and academic citation.
Quick Reference Guide to Law Review Footnotes, which you will NOT be using in the first year. These rules are for academic legal citation. You will use them in your 2d and 3d year of law school for writing your upper level papers and law review notes and comments.
Guide to the Bluepages rules and the academic (white pages) rules and tables.
Includes introduction to basic legal citation for practitioners and rules B1-B21.
These are the rules YOU WILL BE USING in your first year.
Quick Reference Guide to Court Documents and Legal Memoranda, which IS the format that you will be using in Legal Skills this year.
West's Supreme Court Reporter (S. Ct.)
Lawyer's Edition (L. Ed.)
Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 442 (1966).
Envtl. Def. Fund v. EPA, 465 F.2d 528, 529 (D.C. Cir. 1972).
Duren v. Bennett, 275 F. Supp. 2d 374, 377 (E.D.N.Y. 2003).
Includes details on which court decisions are cited in each of the West regional reporters, federal reporters, and N.Y. state reporters.
New York Reports (N.Y., N.Y.2d, N.Y.3d)
New York Supplement (N.Y.S., N.Y.S.2d, N.Y.S.3d)
North Eastern Reporter (N.E., N.E.2d, N.E.3d)
People v. Rosario, 173 N.E.2d 881, 885 (N.Y. 1961).
Appellate Division Reports (A.D., A.D.2d, A.D.3d)
People v. Ray, 527 N.Y.S.2d 864, 865 (App. Div. 2d Dep't 1988).
Miscellaneous Reports (Misc., Misc. 2d, Misc. 3d)
People v. Arthur, 673 N.Y.S.2d 486, 487 (Sup. Ct. 1997).
*The trial level courts in New York include the Supreme Court, Court of Claims, Family Court, Surrogate's Court, County Courts, City Courts, Civil Court of the City of New York, Criminal Court of the City of New York, District Courts of Nassau and Suffolk Counties, and Town and Village Justice Courts. Opinions of the Appellate Term, an intermediate appellate court in the 1st and 2nd Departments, are also published in Miscellaneous Reports.
To summarize: for New York, cite the New York Supplement for all courts except the highest court, the New York Court of Appeals. Cite the North Eastern Reporter for the New York Court of Appeals.
Single page chart of most commonly cited case reporters for New York State.United States Code Annotated (U.S.C.A.)
United States Code Service (U.S.C.S.)
18 U.S.C. § 231 (2016).
18 U.S.C.A. § 231 (West 2015).
18 U.S.C.S. § 231 (LexisNexis 2009).
McKinney's Consolidated Laws of New York) (McKinney)
Consolidated Laws Service (C.L.S.)
N.Y. Penal Law § 120.10 (McKinney 2009).
N.Y. Penal Law § 120.10 (Consol. 2009).
N.Y. Penal Law § 120.10
N.Y. Penal Law § 120.10
Bluebook rule B12 requires the publication date of the print or an authenticated electronic edition in the parenthetical.
If the code is published by West (Thomson Reuters), look in the Thomson Reuters store and very often there will be a TOC with the dates of publication.
| Secondary source | Example (includes pinpoint page or section) | Short form (when you can't use id.) |
| Book (single volume) (rules B15 & 15) | Linda C. Fentiman, Blaming Mothers: American Law and the Risk to Children's Health 55 (2017). | Fentiman, supra, at new page. |
| Book (multi-volume) (rules B15 & 15) | 3 Michael B. Mushlin, Rights of Prisoners § 2.2 (5th ed. 2017). | Mushlin, supra, § new section. |
| Law review article |
(rules B16.1.1 & 16.4, tables T10, T13)
Bennett L. Gershman, Constitutionalizing Ethics, 38 Pace L. Rev. 40, 42 (2017).
17 Am. Jur. 2d Animals § 27 (2018).
Restatement (Second) of Torts § new section.
Torts § new section.
Marjorie A. Shields, Annotation, Snowboarder's Liability for Injuries to or Death of Another Person, 15 A.L.R.6th 161 (2006).
Adam Liptak , Wartime Internment of Japanese Looms Over Tr avel Ban Case, N.Y. Times, Apr. 17, 2018, at A12.
Adam Liptak, Travel Ban Case Is Shadowed by One of Supreme Court's Darkest Moments, N.Y. Times (Apr. 16, 2018),
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/16/us/politics/travel-ban-japanese-internment-trump-supreme-court.html.
Liptak, supra, at new page.
Two page guide to basic bluebooking for case law in legal documents. Includes examples and relevant rules for federal and New York case law. Also includes examples of short forms.
Includes examples and relevant rules for federal and New York statutes, and McKinney's practice commentaries. Includes examples of short forms.
Two page guide to basic bluebooking for the most commonly used secondary sources in legal documents. Includes examples and relevant rules for books (single and multi-volume), law review articles, ALR, Am Jur, CJS, and Black's. Also includes example of short forms.
One page chart of major differences between in-text citation (for court documents) and citation in footnotes (for law review articles). Includes comparison of text with citations in a legal document to the same text with citations in a law review articles. his handout will help you prepare for the law review write-on competition.
