Legal Studies

The Blue Book: A Uniform System of Legal Citations is one of the most widely used systems for the creation of legal citations in the United States (and much of the western world.) *Please note that the guidelines provided here are intended to provide a broad starting place for legal citations without covering every possible scenario.

The Blue Book  distinguishes between legal documents by dividing them into two broad categories:  

Standard legal documents

Standard legal documents are the documents creating by practicing lawyers.  These include briefs, motions, legal letters and legal memoranda

and

Academic legal documents

This term refers specifically to law review articles.

The main elements of a legal citation in the Blue Book style are:

• Case name

  • The case name is made up of the two main parties involved in the case, connected with a v. (for versus)
• Volume
  • The volume number of the one containing the case
• Reporter Abbreviation
  • The abbreviation for the entity reporting on the case
• First Page
  • The page where discussion of the case begins
• Pinpoint Page
  • The page where the quotation or reference is located
• (Court Abbreviation Year)
  • The year that the case being referenced was decided*

*Note that cases that have not yet been decided or that were unreported have slightly different rules.  Refer to The Blue Book for specifics.

Examples

Arizona v. Hicks, 480 U.S. 321, 329 (1987)

Nix v. Heden, 149 U.S. 304 (1893).