Chapter 4: Navigating the Bluebook of Legal Citation

[Erin Lain]

Comment 1: DO NOT TAKE THIS LIGHTLY

( Page 40)There is only one class in law school in which you get
weekly graded assignments, and that is legal research and writing. You
will have weekly citation assignments, and if you are very particular
and follow rules to the letter, you will do very well. If you are more
of a “big picture person” instead of a “details” person, then this
class will be the bane of your existence.

When the authors say, “If the Bluebook says there should be a space
between the “S.” and “Ct.” in the abbreviation for the Supreme Court
Reporter, you’d better leave a space or your citation is wrong.” THEY
AREN’T KIDDING. You can lose so many points for making careless
mistakes like this, and although it only seems like a point here and a
point there, IT REALLY ADDS UP!

My advice is to take these assignments seriously. It is busy work that
seems extremely tedious, but it’s not hard, and it could be your best
grade your first year, if you put the time and effort in.

Comment 2:

In legal research and writing you will mainly use ALWD instead of
Bluebook, but you will learn both ways of citation. The book does an
excellent job of showing you the key citations in Bluebook, and below
I’ve detailed how the citations are different in ALWD. I can only
describe them because Google groups doesn’t let me italicize :(

Citing a case: the party names are italicized instead of underlined
in the ALWD format.

Citing a Law Review article: the article name is italicized instead
of underlined in the ALWD format.

Citing a Newspaper: the title is italicized instead of underlined and
the volume number comes before the periodical abbreviation in the ALWD
format.

Citing Books: the title is italicized instead of underlined in the
ALWD format.

Citing a Constitution: both formats are the same.

Federal Statutes: both formats are the same.