Understanding Legal Citations

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Before a researcher can begin to find statutes, regulations, cases, and law review articles he or she neds to know how the information is organized and classified. In the legal field the references to the location of resources are accomplished through citations. You will need to learn how to interpret legal citations in order to do your research.

What is a legal citation?

A legal citation is a standard language of abbreviations for the location of sources of law. The citations in the legal field are used to quote legal authorities and legal precedents. These citations to statutes, regulations, cases, and articles enable the researchers and law practitioners to find this material either online or in print.

Sources for Legal Citation Format

The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, 18th ed. compiled by the editors of Columbia Law Review, Harvard Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and Yale Law Journal. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Law Review Association, 2005. This is the authoritative work on legal citations. It provides general standards of citation format and rules on style for legal writing.
Location: Law Library Reserve
Call No.: KF245.B58 2000

California Style Manual: A Handbook of Legal Style for California Courts and Lawyers, 4th ed., by Edward W. Jessen. San Francisco, CA: West Group, 2000. This manual defines the style used by the official reports of California opinions and adopted by most California lawyers.
Location: Law Library Reserve
Call No.: KFC75.J47 2000

Introduction to Basic Legal Citation (LII 2003), by Peter W. Martin. This is a citation primer based on the 17th edition of the Harvard Bluebook (noted above) and is available on Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute website.

Interpreting Legal Citations

Legal citations are designed to enable you to identify the exact location of a particular source referred to in a document. Legal citations follow standard format for all cases, statutes, regulations and law review articles. Here are the basic elements of legal citations for the most frequently encountered sources.

Cases

• Name of the parties: Miranda v. Arizona
• Abbreviated source statement: volume 348 of United States Reports, beginning on page 436
• Date of decision

Complete citation: Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966).

Statutes

• Name of the statute (optional): Sherman Antitrust Act
• Abbreviated source statement: Title 15 of United States Code, sections 1-7
• Date of most recent publication

Complete citation: Sherman Antitrust Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1-7 (2000).

Regulations

• Name of the regulation (optional): Regulatory Flexibility Act
• Abbreviated source statement: Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations, sections 11.1-17
• Date of most recent publication

Complete citation: 14 C.F.R. § 11.1-17 (2007).

Law Review Articles

• Name of the author
• Title of the article
• Abbreviated source statement: Volume 41 of the Harvard Law Review, beginning on page 29
• Date of the article

Complete citation: Paxton Blair, Federal Condemnation Proceedings and the Seventh Amendment, 41 Harv. L. Rev. 29 (1927).

Posted 1 Oct. 2004; rev. 3 Oct. 2007.