LLM Legal Research

In legal writing, you are expected to support your arguments with authority, and you must include appropriate citations for all the authority on which you are relying. The Bluebook establishes the most commonly used format for legal citations.

We will review the following BB rules in class:

• Introduction, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6, B7, and B8
• B15 and B16
• B12.1.1, B12.1.2, and B12.2
• BB: B10
• BB: B1, B13, B14

The Bluebook establishes separate citation formats for citations in legal documents, such as court filings, and citations in law review footnotes. Accordingly, when crafting citations, it is important to rely on the correct Bluebook rules for the type of document you are writing. The Bluebook is divided into Bluepages and Whitepages--the former being a guide for citing authority in non-academic legal documents--and a series of tables.  Where the Bluepages and local court rules are silent, defer to the Whitepages. See p. 3 in The Bluebook for further discussion of the applicability of the Bluepages and Whitepages. 

The popularity of The Bluebook among law students and legal professionals has resulted in a new term: Bluebooking. Bluebooking is the process of editing legal texts to ensure that assertions are supported by citations that conform to the rules in The Bluebook.

There are a number of copies of the current edition of The Bluebook on reserve in the Law Library for use in the Library. Just ask for it at the Circulation Desk.

When working with the Bluebook, the following sections may be particularly useful:

• Inside front and back covers. The inside front and back covers are "Quick Reference" guides providing numerous citation examples.  The front inside cover provides citation examples when drafting law review footnotes, and the back inside cover provides examples for citations in court documents and legal memoranda.

• Outside back cover. The outside back cover identifies the citation rules and the page within the Bluebook where the discussion of each rule starts.

• Bluepages. The Bluebook provides the rules for citing authority in both academic publications (i.e. law reviews) and court documents. While bulk of the Bluebook (the Whitepages) focuses on the former, there are specific rules for citations in court documents which are collected and highlighted near the front of the book in a section called the “Bluepages” (pp. 3–56).  You may refer to the Whitepages to supplement a corresponding Bluepages rule. 

• Index. The index at the end of the Bluebook can be used to look up specific sources and citation elements.

• Basic Citation Forms. Tables with examples of the most commonly used citation forms for each type of document being cited are offered for cases (R10, p. 95); statutes (R12, p. 120); legislative materials (R13, p. 135); administrative and executive materials (R14, p. 143); periodical materials (R16, p. 159); unpublished and forthcoming sources (R17, p. 172); the internet, electronic media, and other nonprint resources (R18, p. 178); and international materials (R21, p. 200).

• Table 1 (T1). T1, beginning on page 233, provides the abbreviations and citation conventions for each jurisdiction within the United States -- federal and state.

• Tables 6 - 16. Tables 6 through 16 provide the required abbreviation conventions.

For more information, see the other materials identified in the "Citation Guides" box on the right.