Legal Citation †Citing Cases with The Bluebook

Legal Citation – Citing Cases with The Bluebook Legal Citation – Citing Cases with The Bluebook The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation has long been used as a legal citation style guide in the US. Other systems have been introduced in recent years, but if you’re a law student you’ll almost certainly encounter Bluebook-style citations at some point. In this post, we provide an â€Å"anatomy† of a Bluebook case citation to make sure you can reference legal sources clearly and correctly in your written work. Basic Citation Format The basic citation format for a legal case in Bluebook referencing consists of four principle elements (the parties’ names, the case citation, the court and the year of the ruling): Parties’ Names Case Citation Court Year of Decision DeBoer v. Snyder, 973 F. Supp. 2d 757 (E.D. Mich 2014). Citations will appear in the main body of your text or in a footnote immediately following the relevant passage (accompanied by a signal where appropriate). In the rest of this post, we’ll look more closely at each of the above elements. Parties’ Names The parties’ names are the title of the case, so should be italicized and separated from the rest of the citation with a comma. The case name should also be shortened using approved abbreviations. Case Citation The case citation usually incorporates the volume number of the report where the case was published, the abbreviated reporter identification and the first page of the case. In DeBoer v. Snyder, the case citation can be broken down as follows: Volume Number Reporter Page Number 973 F. Supp. 2d 757 This indicates that the case is reported in volume 973 of the Federal Supplement, Second Series, starting on page 757. Alternatively, if available, a medium-neutral citation can be given. Court Year The ruling court and year of decision should be included in parentheses after the case citation. The name of the court is abbreviated here (e.g., â€Å"Eastern District Michigan† becomes just â€Å"E.D. Mich†). If you’re using a medium-neutral citation or another form of case citation that already mentions the ruling court and/or year of decision, it isn’t necessary to duplicate it here. Parentheticals Further to the above, Bluebook referencing allows for inclusion of a second set of parentheticals after the court/year to provide additional information. Usually, this will be either substantive information or detail regarding the weight of the authority: 1. Substantive Information Information provided to clarify the relevance of a citation, either via a direct quotation of the passage in question or a brief explanation. Explanatory phrases should begin with an â€Å"-ing† verb. 2. Weight of Authority This concerns the precedential value of the cited case, including factors such as the relevance of the authority (e.g., whether the ruling was en banc, per curiam, etc.) or other cases cited to support the decision.