Bluebook 20th Edition Rule Chart

Rule & Page Description

Rule 1 (p. 57) Form and punctuation for citations; signals (such as e.g. and see) that explain how the cited source supports,
compares to, or contradicts your point; parenthetical information that explains why you’re citing a source.

Rule 2 (p. 67) Typeface conventions (when to use plain, italics, SMALL CAPS).

Rule 3 (p. 71) Citing individual pages, footnotes, volumes, parts, sections, paragraphs, etc. (“pinpoint citations” or
“pincites”); using internal cross references to cite sources already cited elsewhere in your paper (supra and
infra).

Rule 4 (p. 78) Short citation forms, including id., supra, and hereinafter.

Rule 5 (p. 82) Quotations (indicated by “ ”) and omissions (indicated by …). Special rules for formatting quotations,
including using “block quotes” (for a quotation that is more than 50 words).

Rule 6 (p. 87) Abbreviations, numerals, and symbols.

Rule 7 (p. 90) Special rules for italics, including italicizing foreign words and phrases.

Rule 8 (p. 91) Rules for capitalization, including words that should always be capitalized in certain contexts.

Rule 10 (p. 94) Rules for citing U.S. federal and state cases (with tables T1 and T6); includes citation formats for briefs, court
filings, and transcripts.

Rule 11 (p. 118) Rules for citing U.S. federal and state constitutions.

Rule 12 (p. 121) Rules for citing U.S. federal and state statutes (session laws and codified statutes). Includes rules about what
year to use for the U.S. Code; rules about citing U.S. state statutes and local or municipal ordinances that are
published officially online; and rules for citing model codes, principles, restatements, standards, sentencing
guidelines, and uniform acts.

Rule 13 (p. 135) Rules for citing U.S. federal and state legislative materials (bills, resolutions, committee hearings, reports,
documents, debates, etc.).

Rule 14 (p. 143) Rules for citing U.S. federal and state administrative and executive materials (including regulations and
administrative adjudications); specific rules for citing the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) and the Federal
Register.

Rule 15 (p. 149) Rules for citing books, reports, and other non-periodical materials, including book chapters and shorter works
in collection.

Rule 16 (p. 159) Rules for citing periodical materials: print and online newspapers, consecutively paginated journals [these
continue the page number order of the previous issue, and this is generally the format of U.S. law reviews],
and non-consecutively paginated journals and magazines [these start over with a new page number each
issue]). Includes special rules for student-written law review articles and symposium and colloquium issues.

Rule 17 (p. 172) Rules for citing unpublished and forthcoming sources (including dissertations/theses, letters, email
correspondence, listserv postings, interviews, speeches, working papers, etc.).

Rule 18 (p. 178) Rules for citing internet and electronic sources; also includes rules for citing microform, film, videos, audio,
and looseleaf services. IMPORTANT: This section has the main rules for citing any online sources, and
includes references to other rules for additional information about citing specific types of materials. (Overall
rule regarding electronic sources: The Bluebook requires the use and citation of traditional printed sources
when available, unless there is a digital copy of the source that is authenticated, official, or an exact copy of
the printed sources.)
Rule & Page Description

Rule 20 (p. 193) Rules for citing foreign (non-U.S.) legal materials. Special rules: jurisdiction in parentheses, translation rules
and guidance, non-Roman-alphabet language (including special rules for Chinese), discussion of both primary
and secondary sources.

Rule 21 (p. 200) Rules for citing international legal materials: treaties/agreements, international law cases (ICJ, ECJ, ECtHR,
IACtHR, ICC, etc.), arbitration materials, UN materials, EU/COE materials, IGO materials (includes WTO,
IMF, and others), NGO materials (with table T3).

Bluebook 20th Edition Table Chart

Table & Page Description

T1 (p. 233) Citation formats for U.S. federal and state primary materials (cases, statutes, etc.). There is an entry for each
state.

T2 (p. 307) Citation formats for primary materials for selected foreign jurisdictions: Argentina (p. 307), Australia (p. 310),
Austria (p. 318), Belgium (p. 323), Brazil (p. 328), Canada (p. 332), Catholic Church (p. 341), Chile (p. 341),
China (p. 344), Colombia (p. 349), Czech Republic (p. 351), Egypt (p. 354), France (p. 356), Germany (p.
362), Greece (p. 368), Hong Kong (p. 370), Hungary (p. 373), India (p. 376), Iran (p. 379), Iraq (p. 382),
Ireland (p. 384), Israel (p. 387), Italy (p. 390), Japan (p. 393), Kenya (p. 402), Lebanon (p. 404), Mexico (p.
406), Netherlands (p. 424), New Zealand (p. 429), Nicaragua (p. 434), Nigeria (p. 436), Pakistan (p. 439),
Philippines (p. 441), Roman Law (p. 444), Russia (p. 444), South Africa (p. 451), South Korea (p. 454), Spain
(p. 457), Sweden (p. 460), Switzerland (p. 464), Taiwan (p. 469), U.K. (p. 472), Zambia (p. 489). Note: if your
jurisdiction is not included, follow the rules for a jurisdiction with a similar language and legal system as
closely as you can.

T3 (p. 491) Citation formats for IGOs: United Nations, League of Nations, European Union, European Commission of
Human Rights, European Court of Human Rights, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Inter-
American Court of Human Rights, International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, and selected others.

T4 (p. 494) Citation formats for treaty sources.

T5 (p. 495) Citation formats for arbitral reporters.

T6 (p.496) Abbreviations for case names and institutional authors in citations, as required by rule 10.2.2 (for example:
Association = Ass’n; Commission = Comm’n; Foundation = Found.; International = Int’l; Public = Pub.;
System = Sys.)

T7 (p. 498) Abbreviations for court names, as required by rule 10.4.

T8 (p. 500) Explanatory phrases used to indicate prior or subsequent history and weight of authority in judicial decisions,
as outlined in detail in rule 10.7.

T9 (p. 501) Suggested abbreviations for legislative documents (for example: Committee = Comm.; Debate = Deb.;
Legislature = Leg.; Resolution = Res.)

T10 (p. 502) Abbreviations for graphical locations used in case citations (rules 10.2.2 and 10.4), names of institutional
authors (rule 15.1), periodical abbreviations (rule 16 and T13), foreign materials (rule 20.1) and treaty
citations (rule 21.4.2). Includes U.S. cities and states, as well as foreign countries, regions, and territories.

T11 (p. 509) Abbreviations for titles of judges and other officials, as outlined in rule 9.

T12 (p. 510) Abbreviations for months.

T13 (p. 510) Abbreviations for periodical titles

Table & Page Description

T14 (p. 517) Abbreviations for publishing terms outlined in rule 15.4.

T15 (p. 518) Abbreviations for services outlined in rule 19.

T16 (p. 522) Abbreviations for subdivisions outlined in rule 3.