Bluebook Citation Format (US)

Use when formatting legal citations for a US-trained audience using the Bluebook system (Harvard citation style). Covers case citations, statutes, regulations, Restatements, law review articles, and books — including short-form and id. conventions. Apply only when the reader is US-trained; for UK/DIFC audiences use OSCOLA, and for MENA civil-law jurisdictions use the civil-law or MENA citation formats.

Bluebook Citation Format (US)

When to use this

Apply Bluebook format when:

The output is a US legal memo, brief, or law review article.
The reader is US-trained (US law school graduate, US-qualified lawyer, or a document governed by US law).
The document will be filed in a US court or submitted to a US legal publication.

Do not apply Bluebook in MENA, UK, or EU contexts — those jurisdictions use different citation standards (see [[output-citation-format-oscola]], [[output-citation-format-civil-law-fr]], [[output-citation-mena-conventions]]).

Core rules

Bluebook uses two styles:

Law Review style (academic): case names in large and small caps, heavy italics use.
Practitioner style (briefs, memos): case names in ordinary italics or plain text depending on the context.

The examples below use practitioner style, which is the default for legal AI outputs.

Citation formats

Cases

Smith v. Jones, 595 F.3d 1233, 1240 (5th Cir. 2010).

Components:

Case name (italicized): first party v. second party
Volume number: the volume of the reporter
Reporter abbreviation: F.3d (Federal Reporter, Third Series), U.S., S. Ct., etc.
First page of the case
Pin-cite (the specific page cited): after a comma
Parenthetical: (Court abbreviation Year) — include court only if not obvious from the reporter
Period at end

Common reporter abbreviations:

Reporter	Abbreviation
United States Reports	U.S.
Supreme Court Reporter	S. Ct.
Federal Reporter (2d/3d)	F.2d / F.3d
Federal Supplement (2d/3d)	F. Supp. 2d / F. Supp. 3d
State reporters	Varies by state

Statutes

17 U.S.C. § 107 (2018).

Components: Title number, Code abbreviation (U.S.C. = United States Code), section symbol, section number, (year of code edition).

For codified state statutes:

Cal. Civ. Code § 1542 (West 2023).

Regulations

17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5 (2024).

C.F.R. = Code of Federal Regulations. Format: title, C.F.R., section.

For the Federal Register:

Securities Act Release No. 33-11216, 88 Fed. Reg. 44485 (July 12, 2023).

Restatements

Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 90 (Am. L. Inst. 1981).

Components: Restatement (Edition) of Subject, section, (American Law Institute year).

Law review articles

John Smith, The Article Title, 100 Harv. L. Rev. 1, 5 (2020).

In law review style, the title is in large and small caps. In practitioner style, the title is in regular text (or italicized, per local rules). Author name is not italicized.

Components: Author, Title, Volume Journal-Abbreviation First-Page, Pin-Cite (Year).

Common journal abbreviations: Harv. L. Rev., Yale L.J., Stan. L. Rev., Colum. L. Rev., N.Y.U. L. Rev.

Books

John Smith, The Book Title 25 (3d ed. 2019).

Components: Author, Title Page (edition year). In practitioner style, title is italicized; in law review style, it is in large and small caps.

Short forms

After a full citation has been given, subsequent citations to the same source use abbreviated forms:

Situation	Form	Example
Immediately preceding source, same page	Id.	Id.
Immediately preceding source, different page	Id. at [page]	Id. at 1245
Same case, not immediately preceding	[Party name], [vol.] [reporter] at [page]	Smith, 595 F.3d at 1245
Same statute, not immediately preceding	§ [section]	§ 107

Id. is always italicized and always has a period. Use only when the preceding citation is unambiguous — do not use id. if the preceding footnote cites multiple sources.

Footnotes vs in-text

Law review articles: citations go in footnotes only (not in-text).
Briefs and memos: citations go in-text (not footnotes), unless local court rules require footnotes.

Common mistakes

Mistake	Correct form
`Smith v. Jones (5th Cir. 2010)`	`Smith v. Jones, 595 F.3d 1233, 1240 (5th Cir. 2010).`
`17 USC 107`	`17 U.S.C. § 107 (2018).`
Using id. after a string cite	Use the short form instead
Forgetting the pin-cite	Always pin-cite; a first-page cite is not sufficient for a specific proposition

Related skills

[[output-citation-format-oscola]] — UK/DIFC/common-law citation format
[[output-citation-format-civil-law-fr]] — French-style civil-law citation format
[[output-citation-mena-conventions]] — MENA jurisdiction citation conventions
[[output-creac-structure]] — the CREAC structure that uses these citations in legal memos

Last updated: October 13, 2026

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