Legal Studies: Legal Citation

§ 1-200.

What is "legal citation"? It is a standard language that allows one writer to refer to legal authorities with sufficient precision and generality that others can follow the references. Because writing by lawyers and judges is so dependent on such references, it is a language of abbreviations and special terms. While this encryption creates difficulty for lay readers, it achieves a dramatic reduction in the space consumed by the, often numerous, references. As you become an experienced reader of law writing, you will learn to follow a line of argument straight through the many citations embedded in it. Even so, citations are a bother until the reader wishes to follow one. The fundamental tradeoff that underlies any citation scheme is one between providing full information about the referenced work and keeping the text as uncluttered as possible. Standard abbreviations and codes help achieve a reasonable compromise of these competing interests.

A reference properly written in "legal citation" strives to do at least three things, within limited space:

• identify the document and document part to which the writer is referring
• provide the reader with sufficient information to find the document or document part in the sources the reader has available (which may or may not be the same sources as those used by the writer), and
• furnish important additional information about the referenced material and its connection to the writer's argument to assist readers in deciding whether or not to pursue the reference.

The bluebook : a uniform system of citation / compiled by the editors of the Columbia law review, the Harvard law review, the University of Pennsylvania law review, and the Yale law journal. Cambridge, Mass. : Published and distributed by the Harvard Law Review Association, 2005.
READY REFERENCEE KF245 .B58 2005