The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, prescribes the most commonly used legal citation system for law professionals in the United States. The Bluebook is compiled by the Harvard Law Review Association, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and the Yale Law Journal.
Generations of law students, lawyers, scholars, judges and other legal professionals have relied on the Bluebook’s unique system of citing in their writing.
There are many sources supported within The Bluebook including legal cases, Supreme Court cases and statutes. The way in which citations are formatted depends on which type of source you are citing.
A case citation, for example, includes the name of the case; the published sources in which it may be found, if any; a parenthetical that indicates a court and jurisdiction and the year or date of decision; and the subsequent history of case, if any. It may also include additional parenthetical information and prior history of the case.
It’s important to note that the format in which your source should be cited depends on a number of factors (filed but not decided, unpublished interim order etc.) explained in most detail in the latest version of The Bluebook, Edition 19; alternatively, check with your lecturer if you are unsure.
Looking for a simpler option? Generate your citations using Cite This For Me’s Bluebook citation generator within seconds. Fast, accurate and hassle free, it’s citations made easy.
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Use the following template to cite a book using the Bluebook Law Review citation style.
Place this part right after the quote or reference to the source in your assignment.
Template:
Author Forename Author Surname, Title Pages Used (Year Published).
Example:
- 'There are as many images of an object as there are eyes which look at it; there are as many essential images of it as there are minds which comprehend it...' Edward F Fry, Cubism 125 (1978).
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Use the following template to cite a journal using the Bluebook Law Review citation style.
Place this part right after the quote or reference to the source in your assignment.
Template:
Author Forename Author Surname, Title, Volume number Publication Title Pages Used (Year Published), http://Website-Url (last visited Oct 10, 2013).
Example:
‘the ADR movement reflects a serious new effort to design workable and fair alternatives to our traditional judicial systems’ Harry T. Edwards, Alternative Dispute Resolution: Panacea or Anathema?, 99 Harvard Law Review 668 (1986).
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Use the following template to cite a film or movie using the Bluebook Law Review citation style.
Place this part right after the quote or reference to the source in your assignment.
Template:
Title, (Year Published).
Example:
The financial industry turned its back on society, corrupted our political system, and plunged the world economy into crisis. Inside Job, (2010).
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Use the following template to cite an online image or video using the Bluebook Law Review citation style.
Place this part right after the quote or reference to the source in your assignment.
Template:
Author Forename Author Surname, Title (Year Published), http://Website-Url (last visited Oct 10, 2013).
Example:
Via Pinterest Michael Photographer Moran & Jennifer Designer Post, MODERN DINING ROOM BY JENNIFER POST, http://designfile.architecturaldigest.com/photo/modern-dining-room-jennifer-post-new-york-city-200705 (last visited May 25, 2014).
Use the following template to cite a website using the Bluebook Law Review citation style.
Place this part right after the quote or reference to the source in your assignment.
Template:
Author Forename Author Surname, Title (Year Published), http://Website-Url (last visited Oct 10, 2013).
Example:
English books previously used in fourth class were now used in sixth class. A McManus, Revised Programme of Primary Instruction 1934 Hdape.hiberniacollege.com (2014), http://hdape.hiberniacollege.com/HELMSApr14/Learn/TeachingFoundations/HistoryofEducation/Session1.aspx (last visited Jun 20, 2014).
Use the following template to cite a blog using the Bluebook Law Review citation style.
Place this part right after the quote or reference to the source in your assignment.
Template:
Author Forename Author Surname, Title Publication Title (Year Published), http://Website-Url (last visited Oct 10, 2013).
Example:
User Experience (abbreviated: UX) is the quality of experience a person has when interacting with a specific design UX Definitions, (2014), http://www.allaboutux.org/ux-definitions (last visited Jul 15, 2014).
Use the following template to cite a court case using the Bluebook Law Review citation style.
Place this part right after the quote or reference to the source in your assignment.
Template:
Title, Volume number Document Title/Name Pages Used (Year Published).
Example:
The issues for determination are whether the subdivision and sale of various portions of the taxpayer's former farming property were undertaken as part of the conduct of a business with the result that the profits are assessable under s 25(1) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (``the Act'') or whether the proceeds are assessable under the second limb of s 25A of the Act. Casimaty v FCT, 2nd page (1997).
Use the following template to cite a dictionary entry using the Bluebook Law Review citation style.
Place this part right after the quote or reference to the source in your assignment.
Template:
Author Forename Author Surname, Title Publication Title Pages Used (Year Published), http://Website-Url (last visited Oct 10, 2013).
Example:
"A cultural group within a larger culture, often having beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture" Angus Stevenson, Subcultures Oxford Dictionary of English (3 ed. 2014), http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/subculture?q=subcultures (last visited Oct 9, 2014).
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Use the following template to cite an e-book or pdf using the Bluebook Law Review citation style.
Place this part right after the quote or reference to the source in your assignment.
Template:
Author Forename Author Surname, Title Pages Used (Year Published), http://Website-Url (last visited Oct 10, 2013).
Example:
You can gain the confidence to do this by: - asking and answering questions to help you clarify your ideas. - recognizing where and why you might agree or disagree with someone else's opinions. - learning how to develop hypotheses around issues. - putting forward suggestions and conclusions of your own to support your ideas. Doreen Spiteri & Grace Grima, How to avoid plagiarism：A resource pack for the students of the University of Malta. 3,6,7 (1 ed. 2007), http://www.um.edu.mt/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/95568/how-to-avoid-plagiarism.pdf (last visited Jun 19, 2014).
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Use the following template to cite an edited book using the Bluebook Law Review citation style.
Place this part right after the quote or reference to the source in your assignment.
Template:
Title, Pages Used (Author Forename Author Surname Year Published).
Example:
“Alas, what danger will it be to us (maids as we are) to travel forth so far”… “Were it not better, because I am more than common tall, That it did suit me all points like a man”(1.3.122.96-100) “(Raising Rosalind) Look, he recovers”(4.3.193.155) “bring him dead or living” and “make an extent on his house and lands""(3.1.143.6), (3.1.144.17) “finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones and good in everything”(2.1.115.16-17) As You Like It, (1.3.112.96-100), (4.3.193.155), (3.1.143.6), (3.1.144.17), (2.1.115.16-17) (Michael Hattaway 1 ed. 2000).
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Use the following template to cite an email using the Bluebook Law Review citation style.
Place this part right after the quote or reference to the source in your assignment.
Template:
Author Forename Author Surname, Title (Year Published).
Example:
Solar Frontier SF170-S ---- € 120,50 for 1 piece Gianpaolo Azzarà, Solar Frontier Panels SF-170 Price (2014).
Use the following template to cite an encyclopedia article using the Bluebook Law Review citation style.
Place this part right after the quote or reference to the source in your assignment.
Template:
Author Forename Author Surname, Title Publication Title Pages Used (Year Published).
Example:
ghost in the machine fails in its explanatory task and is logically incoherent, leading to such logical evil Paul Edwards, Ryle, Gilbert The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (7 ed. 1972).
Use the following template to cite an interview using the Bluebook Law Review citation style.
Place this part right after the quote or reference to the source in your assignment.
Template:
Author Forename Author Surname, Title (Year Published).
Example:
"relatively tight" Luke Butler, Case study assignment - interview questions (2014).
Use the following template to cite a magazine using the Bluebook Law Review citation style.
Place this part right after the quote or reference to the source in your assignment.
Template:
Author Forename Author Surname, Title, Publication Title, Year Published, at Pages Used, http://Website-Url (last visited Oct 10, 2013).
Example:
The irony is that someone describing himself as an exhausted artist should still be producing so much. Clive Bell, Soundcheck, The Wire, 2013, at p51.
Use the following template to cite a newspaper using the Bluebook Law Review citation style.
Place this part right after the quote or reference to the source in your assignment.
Template:
Author Forename Author Surname, Title, Publication Title, Year Published, at Pages Used, http://Website-Url (last visited Oct 10, 2013).
Example:
"disgusts me. You trivialize the actions of two murderers and the lives of the innocent." Nick Curtis, "Columbine game disgusts families", London evening standard, 2006, at 14.
Use the following template to cite a podcast using the Bluebook Law Review citation style.
Place this part right after the quote or reference to the source in your assignment.
Template:
Author Forename Author Surname, Title Publication Title (Year Published), http://Website-Url (last visited Oct 10, 2013).
Example:
The mantle bulged up through the crust, its thinner in the northern region, and the mantle just pushed up and formed like continent sized plateaus that are called crustal up-warps Josh Clark, How Mars Works Stuff You Should Know (2014), http://www.stuffyoushouldknow.com/podcasts/how-mars-works/ (last visited Jul 7, 2014).
Use the following template to cite a song using the Bluebook Law Review citation style.
Place this part right after the quote or reference to the source in your assignment.
Template:
Author Forename Author Surname, Title (Year Published), http://Website-Url (last visited Oct 10, 2013).
Example:
Brisbane is a world class city (2014), http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-11/brisbane-to-host-g2o/4123518 (last visited Oct 27, 2014).
Use the following template to cite The Bible using the Bluebook Law Review citation style.
Place this part right after the quote or reference to the source in your assignment.
Template:
Title, Pages Used (Year Published).
Example:
“When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. Exodus 21:22-25, .
Use the following template to cite a TV Show using the Bluebook Law Review citation style.
Place this part right after the quote or reference to the source in your assignment.
Template:
Title, (Year Published).
Example:
"these times of economic uncertainty, high levels of employee engagement is crucial in ensuring the productivity and profitability of an organisation" DAVID MACLEOD THE FOUR ENABLERS OF ENGAGEMENT: A LIVE WEBINAR, (2014).