For each of the below rules, please find an explanation of any major changes to the rule between the 21st and 22nd editions of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Legal Citation.
Each rule change will be explained in a chart like this:
| Rule | Rule Subject |
Change |
Explanation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
In the "Change" Column, you'll see a symbol noting the type of change. Here is a key to those symbols:
📚 TERMINOLOGY Change
🆕 NEW rule added
💡CLARIFICATION or new clarifying example of an existing rule
☠️ REMOVAL of a rule in the 21st edition
🔗 CROSS-REFERENCE update of which writers should be aware
| RULE 10 CHANGES IN 22ND EDITION | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10.2.1 | Case Names: General Rules | 💡 | Examples clarified & refined | Several examples and abbreviations were modernized or clarified. For example, party names with foreign or multi-part surnames received more nuanced examples. However, core rules remain unchanged. |
| 10.2.1(a) | Case Names: Actions and Parties Cited | 💡 |
Using turned commas instead of apostrophes for old case names |
Clarification of common typographical error whereby an apostrophe " ' " is used in a party's name in older cases. Instead, this rule requires the use of a "turned comma", " ʻ ". |
| 10.2.2 | Case Names: Additional Rules for Case Names in Citations | 💡 | No need to repeat case name in citation when it's stated in full in the text | In situations where the writer uses the full name of a case in a textual sentence, the related footnote does not need to include the name of the case. |
| 10.4(a) | Case Names: Federal Courts | 💡 | Changed abbreviation for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, et al. | Previously abbreviated as "FISA" and "FISA Ct. Rev.", the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and its Court of Review are now abbreviated "F.I.S. C." and "F.I.S. C.R." |
| 10.8 | Cases: Special Citation Forms | 🆕 | "LX" now appropriate short form for LexisNexis | Incorporation of LexisNexis' 2024 alternative short form for its name in document citations "LX" into acceptable abbreviations for citations to Lexis documents. |
| RULE 11 CHANGES IN 22ND EDITION | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Constitutions: Nongovernmental Entities | 🆕 | Abbreviation conventions for constitutions of nongovernmental entities | Non-governmental entity constitution titles should be abbreviated according to T6. |
| 11 | Constitutions: Foreign and Tribal Rules | 🆕 | Foreign and Tribal rules override Rule 11 | The 22nd edition explicitly states that foreign and tribal constitutions have specialized rules which supersede the dictates of Rule 11 and directs users to Rule 20.4 and Rule 22.2.1, respectively. |
| RULE 12 CHANGES IN 22ND EDITION | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | Statutes (General Structure) | 💡 | Rule 12 Expanded and reorganized | The 22nd edition streamlines the introductory material, clarifies scope, and introduces better internal references. Adds digital citation examples and explicitly integrates modern platforms and citation formats. |
| 12.4(f) | Statutes: Session Laws | 🆕 | Codification parenthetical rule now more permissive | A new sentence was added to the rule about adding information for instances when citing to a session law and the writer knows that the session law is likely to be codified in a specific place. Previously, the rule required the writer to give the new codification location parethetically. New rule clarifies that this requirement is "context dependent" and that codification information can be omitted "if the statute is not being cited for its present application." |
| 12.5(a) | Statutes: Commercial Electronic Databases | 💡 | Example errors fixed and now include both the publisher and the name of the database | Previously, the examples in this rule erroneously omitted an entry for the publisher and included only the database name. Corrected examples demonstrate that when citing to a statute on Lexis or Westlaw, the writer must include the publisher "LexisNexis" or "West", a comma, and then the name of the database and currency information. |
| 12.7.3 | Statutes: Amendment | 💡 | Relaxation of requirement of amended date | Amendment date is now no longer required if the subsection the writer is citing to was not amended, even if other subsections in the same statute were. |
| 12.9.4 | Statutes: Uniform Acts and Model Codes | 🆕 | New abbreviation of American Law Institute's name | "Am. L. Inst." in previous examples in this part of the rule has now been abbreviated to "A.L.I." Institutional author abbreviations in Rule 12 refer writers to rule 15.1(c), which then refers readers to 15.1(e). Since 15.1(e) advises that one should "[a]bbreviate the name of an institutional author only if the result will be completely unambiguous," one can assume that the new abbreviation of A.L.I. is a reflection of the Bluebook editorial staff determining that it is completely unambiguous to change abbreviate the institutional name of the American Law Institute. |
| 12.10 | Statutes: Short Forms for Digital Statutes | 🆕 | Statutes available only online should be short form cited according to electronic materials short form rules | Previous edition stated that the normal short form appropriate for the source should be used if the material was "available online." New version adds the word "only" to the phrase--"available only online." The implication here is that if the materials are available in print, the short form citation should follow print rules. |
| RULE 13 CHANGES IN 22ND EDITION | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13.1 | Legislative Materials: Basic Citation Forms | 💡 | Minor updates to examples | Names of speakers in examples updated (e.g., “Rep. Hutchinson” to “Rep. Asa Hutchinson”; “Rep. Pease” to “Rep. Edward Pease”), but citation formats unchanged. |
| 13.3(a) | Legislative Materials: Federal Committee Hearings | 💡 | Abbreviations of names of individuals providing statements should follow additional table guidance than previous rule | Clarified that abbreviations for individuals providing statements at federal legislative committee hearings can now come from Tables T6, T9, and T11 (previously just T11). |
| 13.4(f) | Legislative Materials: State Materials | 💡 | Rule restructured and clarified | The 22nd edition now explicitly says to include the title and author (if available), and gives clearer step-by-step instruction for citation construction. |
| 13.7(b) | Internet and Online Sources | 💡 | Parenthetical guidance added | In the 22nd edition, example citations for online sources now include the parenthetical “(on file with author)” to reflect changes made throughout the new edition. |
| RULE 14 CHANGES IN 22ND EDITION | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 (general) | Rules, Regulations, and Other Publications (Overall Structure) | 🔗 | New subdivision added | Rule 14.4 is now State Materials (was not a distinct subsection in 21st edition). As a result, subsequent subsections were renumbered (e.g., old 14.4 → new 14.5; old 14.5 → new 14.6). |
| 14.2(b) | Rules, Regulations, and Other Publications: Proposed Rules | 🆕 | Expanded scope | The 22nd edition adds guidance for citing petitions for rulemaking, including format, agency naming, and persistent links. |
| 14.3.1(a) | Rules, Regulations, and Other Publications: Administrative Adjudications: Names | 🆕 | New guidance for handling citations to agency adjudication documents when there are multiple layers of adjudication | New rule explains how to handle adjudication documents deriving from agencies where there were multiple layers of adjudication, with a couple of new illustrative examples/ |
| 14.4 | Rules, Regulations, and Other Publications: State Materials | 🆕 | Entirely new subsection providing helpful clarity on how to handle administrative materials from state agencies | Provides full guidance for state-level administrative rules, reports, and adjudications, including use of state-specific abbreviations and online databases. |
| RULE 15 CHANGES IN 22ND EDITION | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15.1(a)-(b) | Books, Reports, and Other Non-Periodic Materials: Multiple Authors | 🆕 | Reworking of previous rule, now (a) encompasses works where there are "two or three" authors, (b) is now for "more than three" authors | Previously, if there were more than 2 authors of a book, only the first author's name was listed with "et al." to cover any additional authors. The new rule requires that works with up to three authors should list the names of all three authors. Only works with four or more authors will use the "et al." shortening convention. [Alena's comment: this is a relatively minor change that has the potential to have a big impact on the visibility of the names of co-authors who aren't listed as first author.] | ||||||||||||||||
| 15.1(d) | Books, Reports, and Other Non-Periodic Materials: Authors: Pen names | 🆕 | New rule for handling authors using pen names | Adds guidance on quoting aliases, including how and when to omit them (e.g., “Mark Twain” need not be cited as “Samuel Clemens”). | ||||||||||||||||
| 15.1(f) | Books, Reports, and Other Non-Periodic Materials: Authors: Tribal affiliation | 🆕 | New rule for the option of adding an author's tribal affiliate to their name in a citation | Permits listing an author’s tribal affiliation in parentheses after the name and provides guidance about how to uniformly do so. Example: Ned Blackhawk (Western Shoshone). | ||||||||||||||||
| 15.2(c) | Books, Reports, and Other Non-Periodic Materials: Editor or Translator | 🆕 | New rule providing guidance for books with multiple volumes edited by different people | States to only list the editor(s) of the specific volume cited. | ||||||||||||||||
| 15.4(b) | Books, Reports, and Other Non-Periodic Materials: Dates | 🆕 | New rule for the date for books where there are multiple volumes with different publication dates | Directs users to cite the date of the cited volume, not the full series. | ||||||||||||||||
| 15.5.2(b) | Books, Reports, and Other Non-Periodic Materials: Collected documents (unpublished) | 🔗 | When certain documents appear in a published collection but were previously unpublished, use Rule 23 | For letters, speeches, manuscripts, diaries and other similar works that have been published in a collection but which were not published at the time of their creation, the rule now refers writers to the new Rule 23 and removes all language other than the cross-reference from Rule 15. | ||||||||||||||||
| 15.8(b) | Books, Reports, and Other Non-Periodic Materials: Special Citation Forms | 💡 | "Star Pagination" becomes "Special Pagination" | Previous rule referred only to well-known works using "star pagination." new rule expands this concept to encompass all well-known works using "special pagination" and expands the list of well-known works. Both Aristotlian and Shakespearean works added to the list of examples | ||||||||||||||||
| 15.8(c) | Books, Reports, and Other Non-Periodic Materials: Special Citation Forms | 🆕 | "Other Named Works" section becomes more expansive and deletes Shakespeare |
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| RULE 16 CHANGES IN 22ND EDITION | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16.8(b) | Periodical Materials: Internet and Online Sources | 💡 | Digital Object Identifiers guidance | If a resource has been assigned a unique Digital Object Identifier ("DOI"), that identifier may be appended to a periodical citation in brackets. [Alena's comment: DOIs make online resources far easier to locate and identify. This is a great step in the right direction!] |
| RULE 17 CHANGES IN 22ND EDITION | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 (general) | Unpublished Materials: Rule Title & Scope | ☠️ | Scope narrowed by addition of Rule 23 to apply only to materials that have never been published | With the new addition of Rule 23 regarding archival materials, Rule 17's scope is now more clear. When it refers to "unpublished" materials, it is referring to materials that are "not scheduled for publication" (which was language in the previous edition) but refers writers to Rule 23 for works that may not have been scheduled for publication when they were written but which have since been made manifest either digitally or physically in a specific archive. |
| 17 (general) | Unpublished Materials | 💡 | New examples added throughout | When juxtaposed with new examples in Rules 18 and 23, the new examples in Rule 17 provides writers with the ability to decide which rule applies by not only following each rules' tenets but also by trying to match cited resources to each rule's examples. |