| Rule |
Commonly-Used Portions of the Rule |
Where to Find It |
| Rule 10, Cases |
Case name in textual sentence vs. in citations: the typeface is different |
10.2, p. 96 |
| General case name rules: how many parties to list, procedural phrases, proper abbreviations, omitting "the", geographic terms, business firm designations |
10.2.1, pp. 96-99 |
| Reporters and parallel citations: the same case often appears in more than one official source (aka, a case reporter). This rule tells you which reporter is preferable |
10.3.2, pp. 103-104 |
| Court and jurisdiction: how to insert the proper abbreviated name of the court and state/circuit into a case citation |
10.4, pp. 104-106 |
| Date: rules differ depending on how/whether the case was published |
10.5, pp. 106-107 |
| Case parentheticals: adds additional information to Rule 1.5 (see above) that is specific to parentheticals in case citations |
10.6, pp. 107-108 |
| Briefs, court filings, and transcripts: materials associated with a case but that aren't judicial opinions themselves |
10.8, pp. 113-115 |
| Short forms for cases: adds additional information to Rule 4 (see above) that is specific to short forms of case citations |
10.9, pp. 115-118 |
| Rule 11, Constitutions |
Special rules for citing to state, federal, foreign constitutions and their amendments |
pp. 118-119 |
| Rule 12, Statutes |
Statutes currently in force vs. no longer in force: the rules are different if the statute you're citing to is no longer in force |
12.2, pp. 121-122 |
| Official vs. unofficial codes: the federal and state governments all have an "official" version of their code that The Bluebook requires you to cite to. Some official versions are printed by the government itself; some by commercial publishers. Unofficial versions are printed by commercial publishers. |
12.3, pp. 123-124 |
| Year of the code: rules about citing to the most current printing of the official code |
12.3.2, pp. 124-125 |
| Session laws: statutes as they're printed and arranged chronologically in the order that they were passed by legislative session and before they are organized by subject in a statutory code |
12.4, pp. 125-126 |
| Ordinances: local government "legislation" |
12.9.2, p. 130 |
| Model codes, principles, restatements, standard sentencing guidelines, and uniform acts: cited like statutes even though they're not technically primary law like statutes are |
12.9.4, pp. 131-133 |
| Short forms for statutes: adds additional information to Rule 4 (see above) that is specific to short forms of statute citations |
12.10, pp. 133-134 |
| Rule 13, Legislative Materials |
Bills and Resolutions: how to cite to legislation before it is passed by Congress and signed by the President/Governor |
13.2, pp. 136-137 |
| Hearings: citing legislative history in official legislative/public discussion on a topic or bill |
13.3, pp. 137-138 |
| Reports, documents, committee prints: other legislative history materials put out by legislators in the process of getting a bill passed through Congress |
13.4, pp. 138-140 |
| Debates: officially printed records of discussions of the members of a congressional body |
13.5, p. 140 |
| Short forms for legislative materials: adds additional information to Rule 4 (see above) that is specific to short forms of citations to legislative materials |
13.8, pp. 141-142 |
| Rule 14, Administrative and Executive Materials |
Rules & regulations: official primary documents from administrative bodies that generally apply to everyone in the affected area (like statutes) |
14.2, pp. 143-145 |
| Administrative adjudications and arbitrations: official primary decisions from administrative bodies that typically apply only to the parties in the matter at hand (like cases) |
14.3, pp. 145-147 |
| Short forms for regulations: adds additional information to Rule 4 (see above) that is specific to short forms of citations to administrative materials |
14.5, pp. 147-148 |
| Rule 15, Books, Reports, and Other Nonperiodic Materials |
Authors: can be individuals, groups, or institutional (names of which will be abbreviated) |
15.1, pp. 149-150 |
| Title: following capitalization rules from Rule 8 (above) |
15.3, p. 151 |
| Edition, publisher, date: unlike most other writing style formats, legal writing citations do not generally need the publisher but should generally include the year and the edition |
15.4, pp 152-153 |
| Special citation forms: some frequently-used legal books (e.g., Black's Law Dictionary, The Bible, The Bluebook) have special citation formats |
15.8, pp. 155-156 |
| Electronic media and online sources: citation rules for these materials in addition to those in Rule 18 |
15.9, pp. 156-157 |
| |
Consecutively paginated journals: where multiple issues in the same year are part of the same page numbering scheme (e.g., volume 12, issue 1 is pp. 1-302; volume 12, issue 2 is pp. 303-586) |
16.4, p. 162 |
| Nonconsecutively paginated journals: like traditional magazines, where each issue starts back a page 1 |
16.5, pp. 162-163 |
| Newspapers: special rules for citing information in print and online newspapers |
16.6, pp. 163-164 |
| Electronic media and online sources: citation to periodical materials online/in a database in addition to the rules in Rule 18 (below) |
16.8, p. 169 |
| Short citation forms: adds additional information to Rule 4 (see above) that is specific to short forms of citations to periodical materials |
16.9, pp. 170-171 |
| Rule 17, Unpublished and Forthcoming Sources |
Manuscripts, dissertations, letters, memos, press releases, emails, interviews, speeches, forthcoming works, working papers in print and electronic form, along with rules for short citation to them |
pp. 172-177 |
| >Rule 18, The Internet, Electronic Media, and Other Nonprint Resources |
When you should be citing to a resource available on the Internet (instead of print): rules for the particular situations where it's appropriate to cite to a resource on the Internet |
18.2.1, p. 180-181 |
| How to cite to Internet sources: rules for author, titles, main page titles, blogs, social media, URLs, and databases |
18.2.2, pp. 182-186 |
| Films, broadcasts, audio recordings: movies, TV programs, radio, podcasts |
18.6-18.7, pp. 187-188 |
| Short citation forms: adds additional information to Rule 4 (see above) that is specific to short forms of citations to Internet/electronic/nonprint resources |
18.8, pp. 188-189 |
| Rule 19, Services |
Applies to primary and secondary materials that are published/republished within a topical compilation called a "service" (often looseleafs, sometimes bound volumes or their electronic database equivalents). |
pp. 190-191 |
| Rule 20, Foreign Materials |
How to cite to both primary and secondary sources from another country |
pp. 193-199 |
| Rule 21, International Materials |
How to cite to both primary and secondary sources relating to the law/agreements among and between nations and international organizations. |
pp. 200-231 |
