Italicized text generally reflects text copied from the. The remainder of the bluebook employs a more complex array of typeface conventions, including ordinary roman type, italics, and l. Law school bluebook basics one of the books that all 1l law students are required to purchase is the bluebook. California style manual for many years, the california style manual has served as the official guide for styling citations to legal materials in documents filed with state courts in california. According to the legal studies program, you should use 12 pt. In academic writing, the case name is in normal type in footnotes and italicized in text.
You should use large and small capitals for book authors and titles. Adds guidance that if the material is available only online, the short form. There are extensive bluebook rules regarding what parts of the party names are to be included, omitted, or abbreviated, depending on several factors. Where the bluepages and local court rules are silent regarding the. If you are using parentheses around your record cites, then you use them with all record cites, including those that contain id. One can either underline or italicize the case name. When citing a source for the purposes of a citing or quoting parenthetical under rule 1. Short forms for cases bluebook guide guides at georgetown. Weird bluebook rules bluebook citations libguides at william s. This is the abbreviation that should always be included in a citation for an affidavit to indicate that it is an affidavit being referenced. Below are examples based on the 18th edition of the bluebook. The fastest way to collect all of the citation information for a case is to highlight the specific text you would like to cite and use the databases copy with citation feature. The bluebook is the most commonly used system for legal citations in the united states, especially for legal scholarship, but also with modifications by local rules in judicial opinions and party briefs this proposal covers citations to united states legal materialsu.
Latin words that have been consistently used in legal writing are considered incorporated into the english language. The bluebook now makes it optional to use parentheses around your record cites. Notice that the period is also underlined when you use id. Rule 4 provides additional information on using id. The bluebook contains additional rules for when it is appropriate to use this format. Table 6 of the bluebook is a list of acceptable abbreviations of common words.
In court documents, the case name is underlined or italicized. Always check the blue pages in the back of the bluebook table 1 to. Citation practices and the bluebook cuny school of law. A uniform system of citation, kept at the reference desk kf 245. However, the following are rules and examples for other types of legal documents that many firstyear law students may need to cite in addition to cases and statutes. Presented by the academic achievement program october 25, 2011. Blue pages are mostly used in briefs, motions, memoranda, and opinions.
Thus, if footnote 24 contains work x, and footnote 25 contains w and x, you must order them alphabetically and use a supra reference for source x. Preceding citation may only contain one authority but ignore authority in explanatory parentheticals. It is found in volume 539 of the federal reporter third series and begins on page. Since the period is part of the abbreviation, you italicize it. Effective january 1, 2008, however, california rule of court, rule 1. Journal conventions vanderbilt journal of entertainment. What i mean is like terms such as en banc and certiorari. The bluebooks abbreviation for constitutionsection or subdivision. The indigo book is a free implementation of the bluebook method, and is the preferred source for paralegal students at rasmussen college.
An affidavit citation should include the affiants last name and the paragraph number where the cited information is found in the affidavit. However, nonenglish words that have been used so much that they have been incorporated into the english language are not italicized. Publications appearing in abovetheline text should be italicized. When writers do not signal a citation, the cited authority states the proposition, is the source of the cited quotation or identifies an authority referred to in. Usually need not worry about this for united states code citations. If, however, the provision cited or quoted has changed since the publication of the source doing the citing or quoting, cite to the version the original cites.
Although it is intended to highlight the bluebook, and not substitute for it, we hope this guide provides a convenient, delawarespecific resource for the superior courts judicial officers, law clerks, interns, externs, and staff. Bluebook citation school of justice studies rasguides. There are a few different types of names, and the type of name will determine format. For proper citation, you should either underline or italicize the case name, depending on where in a document you are placing the citation see rule 2. Nov 05, 2014 latin, italics, and punctuation are more than a little confusing so we will take a little time today to try to make those things a little bit clearer. Underlining also is acceptable and must be used exclusively in the unified writing competition. Citing to the record in briefs marquette university law. Iinclude blank spaces between the words and the case name. The abbreviations, though latin, have been incorporated into the common english language and, thus, are not italicized. How to cite legal materials follow the bluebook style, as closely as you can.
Bluebook case guide bluebook citation generator legalease. You should use ordinary plain text for case names in full citations, except for procedural phrases like ex rel. After a case is cited whether fully or using a short form, use a form of id. Presented by the academic achievement program october. Now, in most instances, you italicize book titles, songs, and other fulllength works like movies. Generally, you would use this format when the case youre referring was mentioned in the preceding citation. Constitution and state constitutions a citation to a constitution includes three elements.
Attribution to identify the source of ideas expressed in the text, and. The central function of a legal citation is to allow the reader to efficiently locate the cited source. According to the bluebook, nonenglish words and phrases are typically italicized. Supra refers to material that has already appeared in the document and it has its own rule at 4. This is a proposed citation style to adapt the bluebook to the unique needs of wikipedia. Raquel ortiz roger williams university law library 2. Typeface conventions bluebook legal citation tarlton law. Italic traditionally, underscoring was simply a way of indicating to the printer that text should be italicized. Blue pages first section of rules for practitioners, organized as. X is used to refer to an earlier citation with a different point page. The case name will appear at the beginning of the citation.
If there is an official name for the act, it needs to go before the title number and must followed by a comma. Underlining may be used instead of italics, but the practice is dying out. Cite to a 2008 case from the third circuit court of appeals between deborah fellner and triunion seafoods, l. Typeface conventions bluebook legal citation tarlton. After 5 preceding footnotes, a full citation is required. Those phrases such as cert denied, introducing a case citation for the action indicated by the explanatory phrase are followed by commas which are not italicized, see rule 2. Back in the day, people taught students to underline the titles of books, magazines, plays, songs, movies, and other titled works. Italicize punctuation only when it falls within italicized material in a citation. Consider that in the best style, the abbreviations e. So long as you are consistent, the bluebook rules allow you substitute italic type wherever underscoring is used.
However, if footnote 25 contained x and y, you could use id. Deciding court, jurisdiction date of decision united states v. For more help and explanations, consult the latest edition of the bluebook. The purpose of this guide is to introduce the bluebook and basic. The bluebook contains rules that prescribe how to cite a variety of legal documents. Bluebook rule 10 covers how cases should be cited in legal documents. Underline case names in text no italics and always give the full case name the first time. Oct 24, 2018 the case name will appear at the beginning of the citation.
Do not italicize the apostrophe or the s following an italicized possessive term e. Times new roman font alongside with oneinch margins. Constitution that says that each state shall have two. There are too many rules for this introductory guide to cover. Id only italicize a word if it was relatively uncommon legal latin. Any punctuation within the citation, speeches and publications, titles of articles, case names, explanatory phrases, latin legal phrases, and introductory signals have to be underlined or italicized. As seen in the example above, the basic elements to a bluebook case citation are. You should only italicize long latin phrases or obsolete words or phrases. If you are citing more than one section, you need to use two subsection characters followed by the sections you are citing. If specific page you cite is the same as preceding citation, just cite as id. Typeface conventions bluebook legal citation tarlton law library.