Skip to main content
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Rethinking Legal Citation: A Bibliographic Essay

Published/Copyright: November 25, 2016
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill
Submit Manuscript Author Information
International Journal of Legal Information
From the journal International Journal of Legal Information Volume 44 Issue 3

Abstract

The easy accessibility of sources via web links and the fluidity of online formats offer an opportunity to revisit the purpose of legal citation and to consider competing citation models from a fresh perspective. This bibliographic article identifies the leading citation guides in use in the United States along a historical continuum and documents selected works that extol, critique, or excoriate—but for the most part continue to recommend adherence to—these guides. Secondary sources are included for the purpose of outlining the scope of the debate concerning which of the many citation guides now in use is preferable, and to help predict the path that legal citation is likely to take in coming years, particularly given the realities of a hyperlinked world and easily accessible source documents. Using these materials as a framework, the article invites the reader to think creatively about the purpose and future of legal citation.

*

© 2016 Charlotte Stichter is Managing Editor of the Law Library of Congress. She holds a law degree from the College of William and Mary and is a member of the Virginia Bar. The opinions expressed in this bibliographic essay are her own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Law Library or the Library of Congress.

  1. 1

    For a discussion of the purposes of legal citation, see, for example, The Bluebook (20th ed., 2015), 1; Martin, Basic Legal Citation, § 1–200; Barger, ALWD Guide to Legal Citation (5th ed., 2014), 2.

  2. 2

    In his Introduction to Basic Legal Citation, Peter W. Martin characterizes a legal citation as “a standard language that allows one writer to refer to legal authorities with sufficient precision and generality that others can follow the reference.”  Martin, Basic Legal Citation, § 1–200.

  3. 3

    The author has purposely excluded a discussion of foreign law citations, which raise unique issues and will be the subject of a later article.

  4. 4

    Cooper, “Anglo-American Legal Citation,” 20–21, citing “Rules for Citations,” American Law Review 30 (1896): 107.

  5. 5

    The term “cited” means “abbreviated” in context.

  6. 6

    Soule, The Lawyers Reference Manual, 345.

  7. 7

    In a recent Minnesota Law Review article titled “The Secret History of the Bluebook,” authors Fred Shapiro and Julie Graves Krishnaswami of Yale Law School challenge the notion that Harvard Law School, and Griswold in particular, created The Bluebook.  They assert instead that Karl N. Llewellyn, then editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Review and later an influential law professor, prepared an eight-page booklet, The Writing of a Case Note, in the 1920s that formed “the embryo that has grown into the 528-page [actually 560-page] behemoth that is the Bluebook 20th edition in 2015” (Shapiro & Graves Krishnaswami, at 1573–1574.)

  8. 8

    A Uniform System of Citation (1926), 1.

  9. 9

    A Uniform System of Citation (1934), Foreword.

  10. 10

    Briefmaking (1906), 8.

  11. 11

    A Uniform System of Citation (1926), 1.

  12. 12

    The Maroonbook (1st ed., 1986), in Posner, “Goodbye to the Bluebook,” App.

  13. 13

    The Maroonbook (2016 ed.), 1.

  14. 14

    Perma.cc, a project of the Harvard Law Library Innovation Lab, allows members to archive legal documents and generates permalinks to such documents for use in legal writing.  Perma.cc, https://perma.cc/. The Law Library of Congress began using Perma.cc for its foreign and comparative law research products in the fall of 2015.

  15. 15

    The terms “universal citation” or “public domain format” are also sometimes used to refer to medium- and vendor-neutral citation.  See, for example, AALL, Universal Citation Guide (3rd ed., 2014), generally; The Bluebook (20th ed., 2015), Rule 10.3.3.

  16. 16

    Martin, Basic Legal Citation, § 1-100.

  17. 17

    Garner, The Redbook, ¶ 123(1).

  18. 18

    Ibid., ¶ 8.4(a).

  19. 19

    The Supreme Court's Style Guide, § 0.2.

  20. 20

    The Indigo Book, Table 3.

  21. 21

    Posner, “Bluebook Blues,” 851.

  22. 22

    Posner, “Goodbye to the Bluebook,” 1344.

  23. 23

    Ibid., 1352.

  24. 24

    Weresh, “The ALWD Citation Manual,” 260–261.

  25. 25

    Paulsen also provides a rather sarcastic critique of the 1991 edition's attempts at “political correctness” and bemoans its lack of understanding of state practice.  Paulsen, “An Uninformed System of Citation,” 1785–1786, 1791–1793.

  26. 26

    Bacchus, “Strung Out,” 255–257, 275–277.

  27. 27

    Salmon, “Shedding the Uniform,” pt. IV(A).

  28. 28

    Ibid., pt. V.

  29. 29

    Berring, Retrospective, vol. 1, Intro., v (citations omitted).

  30. 30

    AALL Universal Citation Guide (1st ed., 1999), ¶ 1 (emphasis added.)

  31. 31

    In his 1995 California Law Review article, Robert Berring also cautions that moving to a “format-neutral” citation system could interfere with the marketplace in legal information, which he cites as the number-one reason for the high quality of the US legal information system, and would also introduce an element of anonymity that could make it difficult to evaluate the reliability of legal information.  Berring, “On Not Throwing Out the Baby: Planning the Future of Legal Information,” 631–632.

  32. 32

    Gallacher, “Cite Unseen,” 36.

  33. 33

    Ibid., 38.

  34. 34

    While Gallacher's proposed solution may have seemed far-fetched at the time he wrote his article in 2007, it is now starting to become a reality as more legal sources are digitized.  As one of several examples, the Harvard Law Library Innovation Lab's “Free the Law” project has the ambitious goal of digitizing and making freely available online all of the official print versions of US case law in Harvard's collection—some forty million pages.  For more on the project, see http://librarylab.law.harvard.edu/projects/free-the-law.

  35. 35

    Martin, “How Structural Features of the US Judicial System Have Affected the Take-up of Digital Technology by Courts,” Conclusion.

  36. 36
  37. 37

    In an earlier article published in the Law Library Journal, “Neutral Citation, Court Web Sites, and Access to Authoritative Case Law,” Martin documents Wisconsin's experience with medium-neutral citation following its 1994 recommendations on the topic and provides an overview of state developments since that time.

Bibliography

Dictionaries and Guides

Abbott Nathan ed. Brief Making and the Use of Law Books. St. Paul: West Publishing Co., 1906, http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002016893.Search in Google Scholar

American Association of Law Libraries (AALL). Universal Citation Guide, 3rd ed. Buffalo: William S. Hein, 2014; 1st ed. State Bar of Wisconsin, 1999.Search in Google Scholar

Barger Coleen M. ALWD Guide to Legal Citation, 5th ed.New York: Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, 2014.Search in Google Scholar

Berring Robert ed. The Bluebook: A Sixty-Five Year Retrospective. 2 vols. Buffalo: William S. Hein, 1998.Search in Google Scholar

Bieber Doris M. Dictionary of Current American Legal Citations. Buffalo: William S. Hein, 1981.Search in Google Scholar

The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, 20th ed.Cambridge, MA: Harvard Law Review Association, 2015.Search in Google Scholar

Bouvier John . A Law Dictionary Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America and of the Several States of the American Union: With References to the Civil and Other Systems of Foreign Law, 15th ed.Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1892 (1839), https://books.google.com/books?id=YCRAAAAAYAAJ&dq=bouvier%20law%20dictionary&pg=PP13#v=onepage&q&f=false.Search in Google Scholar

Dworsky Alan L. User's Guide to A Uniform System of Citation: The Cure for the Bluebook Blues. Littleton, CO: Fred B. Rothman & Co., 1988.Search in Google Scholar

Garner Bryan . The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style, 3rd ed. St. Paul: West Academic Publishing, 2013.Search in Google Scholar

Good C. Edward . Citing & Typing the Law: A Guide to Legal Citation & Style (Based on A Uniform System of Citation, 14th ed. 1986). Charlottesville: LEL Enterprises, 1987.Search in Google Scholar

Griswold Erwin . A Uniform System of Citation, Form of Citation and Abbreviations, 1st ed.Cambridge, MA: ___, 1926.Search in Google Scholar

Martin Peter W. Introduction to Basic Legal Citation, online ed. Ithaca, NY: Cornell, 2015, https://www.law.cornell.edu/citation/index.htm.Search in Google Scholar

Price Miles O. A Practical Manual of Standard Legal Citations. Brooklyn: Alpert Press, 1958.Search in Google Scholar

Prince Mary Miles . Prince's Dictionary of Legal Citations, 8th ed.Buffalo: William S. Hein, 2011.Search in Google Scholar

Rawle Francis . Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia, Third Revision, 8th ed.3 vols. Kansas City: Vernon Law Book Co. & St. Paul: West Publishing Co., 1914, http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.35112103943439;view=1up;seq=19.Search in Google Scholar

Soule Charles C. The Lawyer's Reference Manual of Law Books and Citations. 2d Thousand. Boston: C.C. Soule Law Publisher, 1884.Search in Google Scholar

Sprigman Christopher Jon et al. The Indigo Book: An Open and Compatible Implementation of a Uniform System of Citation. PublicResource.org, 2016, https://law.resource.org/pub/us/code/blue/IndigoBook.html.Search in Google Scholar

Teply Larry . Legal Writing Citation in a Nutshell. St. Paul, MN: Thomson/West, 2008.Search in Google Scholar

United States Supreme Court, Office of the Reporter of Decisions. The Supreme Court's Style Guide. JackMetzler, ed. Washington, DC: interAlias Press, 2016.Search in Google Scholar

University of Chicago Law Review. The Maroonbook: The University of Chicago Manual of Legal Citation, University of Chicago, 2016.Search in Google Scholar

University of Chicago Law Review. The University of Chicago Manual of Legal Citation, 1st ed.University of Chicago, 1989.Search in Google Scholar

Yale Law Journal. Abbreviations and Form of Citation. 1921 & 1924 eds.Search in Google Scholar

Commentary and Analysis

Bacchus Michael . Comment. “Strung Out: Legal Citation, ‘The Bluebook,’ and the Anxiety of Authority.” University of Pennsylvania Law Review151, no. 1 (Nov. 2002): 245, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3313010.Search in Google Scholar

Berring Robert . “On Not Throwing Out the Baby: Planning the Future of Legal Information.” California Law Review83, no. 2 (Mar. 1995): 615.Search in Google Scholar

Cooper Byron D. “Anglo-American Legal Citation: Historical Development and Library Implications.” Law Library Journal75, no. 3 (1982): 1, http://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2747&context=facpub.Search in Google Scholar

Gallacher Ian . “Cite Unseen: How Neutral Citation and America's Law Schools Can Cure Our Strange Devotion to Bibliographic Orthodoxy and the Constriction of Open and Equal Access to the Law.” Syracuse University, College of Law Faculty Scholarship, Paper 2 (Apr. 2007), http://susrface.syr.edu/lawpub/2.Search in Google Scholar

Martin Peter W. “How Structural Features of the US Judicial System Have Affected the Take-up of Digital Technology by Courts.” European Journal of Law and Technology1, issue 1 (2010): ___.Search in Google Scholar

Martin Peter W. “Neutral Citation, Court Web Sites, and Access to Authoritative Case Law.” Law Library Journal99, no. 2 (Spring 2007): 329.Search in Google Scholar

Paulsen James . “An Uninformed System of Citation.” Harvard Law Review105, no. 7 (May 1992): 1,780.Search in Google Scholar

Posner Richard A. “Goodbye to the Bluebook.” University of Chicago Law Review53, no. 4 (Autumn 1986): 1343.Search in Google Scholar

Posner Richard A. “The Bluebook Blues.” Yale Law Journal120 (2011): 850.Search in Google Scholar

Salmon Susie . “Shedding the Uniform: Beyond a ‘Uniform System of Citation’ to a More Efficient Fit.” Marquette Law Review99 (2016, forthcoming): ___, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2654501.Search in Google Scholar

Shapiro Fred & JulieGraves Krishnaswami. “The Secret History of the Bluebook.” Minnesota Law Review100 (2016): 1563.Search in Google Scholar

Weresh Melissa H. “The ALWD Citation Manual: A Truly Uniform System of Citation.” Journal of the Legal Writing Institute6 (2000): 257, http://www.law2.byu.edu/Law_Library/jlwi/archives/2000/wer.pdf.Search in Google Scholar
Published Online: 2016-11-25
Published in Print: 2016-11-01

Copyright © The Author(s) 2016 

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Book Reviews
  2. After the Natural Law: How the Classical Worldview Supports Our Moral and Political Values
  3. The Concept of Military Objectives in International Law and Practice
  4. The Arab Spring: An Essay on Revolution and Constitutionalism
  5. The Self, Ethics and Human Rights: Lacan, Levinas & Alterity
  6. Articles
  7. Administration of State Sponsored Local Justice System: An Appraisal on the Legal Framework of Village Courts in Bangladesh
  8. Rethinking Legal Citation: A Bibliographic Essay
  9. Expansive Legal Research
  10. Finding Out About Indentures
  11. The Constituent Assembly of India: Recollecting Contributions of Sir Benegal Narsing Rau, the Constitutional Adviser
  12. International Calendar
  13. THE INTERNATIONAL CALENDAR
  14. Front Cover (OFC, IFC) and matter
  15. JLI volume 44 issue 3 Cover and Front matter
  16. Back Cover (IBC, OBC) and matter
  17. JLI volume 44 issue 3 Cover and Back matter
  18. Editorial Comment
  19. EDITORIAL COMMENT
https://doi.org/10.1017/jli.2016.37

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Book Reviews
  2. After the Natural Law: How the Classical Worldview Supports Our Moral and Political Values
  3. The Concept of Military Objectives in International Law and Practice
  4. The Arab Spring: An Essay on Revolution and Constitutionalism
  5. The Self, Ethics and Human Rights: Lacan, Levinas & Alterity
  6. Articles
  7. Administration of State Sponsored Local Justice System: An Appraisal on the Legal Framework of Village Courts in Bangladesh
  8. Rethinking Legal Citation: A Bibliographic Essay
  9. Expansive Legal Research
  10. Finding Out About Indentures
  11. The Constituent Assembly of India: Recollecting Contributions of Sir Benegal Narsing Rau, the Constitutional Adviser
  12. International Calendar
  13. THE INTERNATIONAL CALENDAR
  14. Front Cover (OFC, IFC) and matter
  15. JLI volume 44 issue 3 Cover and Front matter
  16. Back Cover (IBC, OBC) and matter
  17. JLI volume 44 issue 3 Cover and Back matter
  18. Editorial Comment
  19. EDITORIAL COMMENT
Downloaded on 18.4.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1017/jli.2016.37/html
Scroll to top button