Bluebook Citation Format Guide for Law Students

The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation is a style guide published by the Harvard Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal. First published in 1926, it has been the dominant citation standard in American legal writing for nearly a century.

The Bluebook serves two main purposes. First, it provides a uniform way to cite legal authorities so that any reader can locate the source you are referencing. Second, it communicates information about the weight and type of authority through formatting conventions. A properly formatted citation tells the reader not just where to find the source, but whether it is a case, statute, regulation, or secondary source, and from which jurisdiction.

For law students, the Bluebook matters in two contexts: law review and legal writing courses. If you join your school's law review or journal, you will cite-check articles against the Bluebook extensively. In legal writing classes, professors expect proper citation in memos and briefs. Getting citations right is not optional — it signals professionalism and attention to detail.

The full citation for a case includes the case name, the volume number, the reporter abbreviation, the first page of the opinion, the specific page cited (if applicable), the court, and the year of decision. Here is the general format:

Here are concrete examples:

Note that for U.S. Supreme Court cases cited to the U.S. Reports, you do not include the court name in the parenthetical because the reporter itself identifies the court. For all other courts, include the court abbreviation. For example, a Second Circuit case would end with (2d Cir. 2020).

Case names are italicized in law review footnotes (which is the format most students learn) but underlined in court documents. In law school, follow whichever convention your professor specifies, but the Bluebook default for academic work is italics.

For a step-by-step walkthrough with more examples, see our complete guide to citing cases in Bluebook format. You can also browse Bluebook citation examples for every source type.

After you have given the full citation for a case, subsequent references can use a short form. The short form typically includes one party name, the volume and reporter, and the pinpoint page. This saves space and avoids repetition.

Use the short form when the full citation has already appeared and the reader can easily locate it. If the full citation was many pages or footnotes ago, consider giving it again to avoid confusion.

For detailed rules on short forms, Id., and supra, see our dedicated guide on how to use Id. and supra in legal citations.

Id. is the most common short citation signal. Use it when you are citing the same source as the immediately preceding citation. If you are citing the same source and the same page, use Id. alone. If you are citing the same source but a different page, use Id. followed by "at" and the new page number.

Id. is always italicized and always capitalized when it begins a citation sentence. Never use Id. if the immediately preceding footnote contains multiple sources, because the reader will not know which source you are referring to. In that situation, use the short form instead.

For a complete treatment including supra and a decision flowchart, read our full article on how to use Id. and supra.

While case citations are the most common in law school, you will also need to cite statutes, constitutions, regulations, and secondary sources. Here are the basic formats:

Each source type has its own rules for abbreviation, formatting, and parenthetical information. The Bluebook's table system (T1 through T16) provides abbreviations for courts, jurisdictions, reporters, and periodicals. When in doubt, consult the table for the specific source type.

See our complete Bluebook citation examples page for properly formatted citations across every source type, including statutes, constitutions, regulations, and law review articles.

We cover all of these errors (with wrong vs. correct examples) in our dedicated article on common Bluebook citation mistakes. If you are unsure whether your school uses the Bluebook or ALWD, check out our Bluebook vs. ALWD comparison.