LibGuides: UIUC Bluebook LibGuide: Bluepages

Bluepages guide contents

For more information on how to cite different types of materials using the Bluepages, follow these links:

White or Blue?

White Pages
These are for academic legal writing: journals and law reviews
Blue Pages
These are for practitioner legal writing: court documents and legal memoranda

Additional help with the bluebook

Blue Tips
Provides tips on using the Bluebook, from the Bluebook's official webpage www.legalbluebook.com.
Bluebook Guide: Introduction
A LibGuide created by the Georgetown Law Library which introduces The Bluebook and basic concepts of legal citation to new law students.
Cornell's LII: Basic Legal Citation (online) The online book was recently revised in the summer of 2016 to reflect the release of a new, free citation guide, The Indigo Book, and the publication of The Supreme Court's Style Guide. Like all prior revisions this one also included a thorough review of the relevant rules of appellate practice of federal and state courts, and the latest edition of The Bluebook, released in 2015. It is linked to the new Indigo Book. As has been true of all editions released since 2010, it is also indexed to the The Bluebook and the ALWD Guide to Legal Citation.
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Importantly, however, it documents the many respects in which contemporary legal writing, very often following guidelines set out in court rules or style guides, diverges from the citation formats specified by those academic texts. The current online format, released in early 2016, was created with the assistance of a team of students enrolled in a graduate software engineering course at Cornell.

The content of this guide is also available in three e-book formats: 1) a PDF version that can be printed out in whole or part and also used with hyperlink navigation on an iPad or other tablet, indeed, on any computer (Be aware that not all PDF readers allow the user to follow links. You'll want one, like Adobe's, which does.); 2) a version designed specifically for use on the full range of Kindles as well as other ereaders or apps using the Mobi format; and 3) a version in ePub format for ereaders or apps that work with it. To access any of them, select “eBooks” at the top of the page. (Over 50,000 copies of the 2015 edition were downloaded.)

Since the guide is online, its further revision is not tied to a rigid publication cycle. Any user seeing a need for clarification, correction, or other improvement is encouraged to “speak up.” What doesn't work, isn't clear, is missing, appears to be in error? Has a change occurred in one of the fifty states that should be reported? Comments of these and other kinds can be sent by email addressed to peter.martin@cornell.edu. (Please include "Citation" in the subject line.) Many of the features and some of the coverage of this reference are the direct result of past user questions and advice.

Interactive Citation Workbook for The Bluebook : A Uniform System of Citiation by Tracy L. McGaugh, Christine Hurt
Call Number: KF245 .M34 2010
This book, available in the Law Library's Practical Skills collection, will help you learn Bluebook citation. It is especially helpful when used with Lexis' Interactive Citation Workstation.

Lexis+ This link opens in a new window
Lexis provides an interactive citation workshop which can be accessed by selecting the left topmost drop down menu and picking "Interactive Citation Workstation."
This subscription is available by login and password and limited to College of Law students and Faculty.

Recent College of Law faculty publications
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View the most recent accomplishments, including publications and citations, of College of Law faculty in this area of law.

Introduction to the Bluepages

The Bluepages at the beginning of the Bluebook (p. 3) aggregate legal citation rules for legal memoranda and documents submitted to the court. They are geared toward first-year law students, summer associates, law clerks, and practitioners. Unless your professor tells you otherwise, your assignments for Legal Research and Legal Writing will follow the Bluepages.

The rules in the Bluepages are usually abbreviated using the letter B. For example, B1 is the first rule in the Bluepages, it starts on page 3 of the Bluebook.

Where the Bluepages are silent on an issue, you will apply the rules in the Whitepages. For example, B4.1.1 gives the general rules for citing case names, but it does not give the rule for when a labor union is a party. For that rule, you would look to R10.2.1(i) in the Whitepages. However, even when you apply a rule from the Whitepages, you should still follow the typeface conventions in the Bluepages for memos and court documents.

Comparing Bluepages and Whitepages:

Typeface

Bluepages

Whitepages

Italics

Italicize:

Short form case names (ex. Brown)
Titles of articles in periodicals
Titles of congressional committee hearings

Italicize or underscore:

Full and short case names (ex. Brown v. Bd. of Ed. or Brown)
Titles of book, articles, and essays
Titles of legislative materials

Caps

Large and Small Caps are never used!

Large and Small Caps used for authors and titles of books, titles of periodicals

(adapted from B1)

Where do cites appear? Citation Sentences and Clauses

In non-academic legal writing, the purview of the Bluepages, citations appear within the text of the document rather than in footnotes. They appear in one of the following ways, pursuant to B2:

Citation sentence: to cite support for the entire preceding sentence.

Example: The law may not block one group of citizens from access to government assistance. Romer v. Evans, 517 U.S. 620, 633 (1996).

Punctuate like any other sentence.
More than one citation, separate with a semicolon.

Citation clause: to cite support for only part of a sentence.

Example: The Supreme Court once declared separate but equal constitutional, Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), but declared it unconstitutional nearly a century later, Brown v. Bd. of Educ., 347 U.S. 483 (1954).

Set off with commas and do not end with a period unless the clause ends a sentence
Do not capitalize signals