Reading Legal Citations

in

 

Legal Citation

By Tom Hemstock, Electronic Services Librarian

Created: May 2010
Printer friendly link at bottom of page
__________________________________________________________________________
Introduction
This is a quick and basic guide to legal citation. Please see the many sources linked below for exhaustive treatment of the intricacies of legal education. Entire books can, and have, been written on the correct use of citation.
Analogy time:
The APA Publication Manual in liberal arts is to The Bluebook in Law School.
 The Bluebook, copies available at the Circulation Desk, covers how to cite almost any imaginable document you will encounter in law school: cases, statutes, regulations, law review articles, books, and even Zambian statutes.
Quick Hints to Using the Bluebook:
  •  All rules and tables are listed on the table of contents on the back cover
  •  New Hampshire material is found on page 218 of the 18th Edition
  •  Abbreviations for case names are found in Table 6
  • The inside front cover contains a quick guide for Law Review style and the inside back cover contains a quick guide for practitioner style.
Books at the Law Library
Links contain information of the location and availability of the books.
Online Guides
There are many excellent in-depth guides on the Bluebook available online: