Legal Citation Guides and Abbreviation Lists

Part of doing legal research is citing your authorities properly and tracking down items with unfamiliar citations. The following list contains citation manuals and dictionaries of legal abbreviations to help you with these tasks.

Legal Citation Guides

The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, 18th ed. KF 245.B58 and Reserve, Reference, ILS Reading Room and ILS Reference Desk
Compiled by the Law Review editors of Columbia, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale, this guide is the most heavily relied upon citation manual for law. It prescribes citation formats for most U.S. law sources. Table One lists each jurisdiction's reporters, codes, and other primary sources, providing their citation formats and dates of coverage. For those citing foreign law in U.S. law reviews, The Bluebook is not comprehensive. If The Bluebook does not address a source you wish to cite, use custom and, if possible, parallel citations. When filing legal documents with a court, court rules of citation will apply. Consult court rules to determine whether or not Bluebook format is appropriate.

Bluebook Aids
Introduction to Basic Legal Citation An online guide that explains and reviews Bluebook rules.
User's Guide to The Bluebook, Rev. for the 18th ed. KF 245.D853 at Reserve, Reference and ILS Reading Room
A concise guide that pares down Bluebook essentials to about 50 pages.

1st through 15th editions: The Bluebook: A Sixty-Five Year Retrospective Reference KF 245.U54 1998x

ALWD Citation Manual: A Professional System of Citation, 3d. ed. KF 245.A45 2006 and Reference, Reference Desk, and ILS Reference Desk
From the Association of Legal Writing Directors, this is an alternative to The Bluebook. It closely follows Bluebook-prescribed format but provides more examples and requires more complete bibliographic information for some sources. The associated site is informative and provides useful appendixes, such as primary sources by jurisdiction, court and legal periodical abbreviations, and federal administrative publication abbreviations.

Universal Citation Guide, 2d. ed. KF 245.U54 2004 at Reserve, Reference and ILS Reference Desk
Authored by the American Association of Law Libraries, this guide suggests a vendor-neutral, content-reflective approach to legal citation. The aim is to facilitate the citing of legal materials on the Internet and to end requirements that legal citations reflect the print representation of legal documents. The UCG provides state-approved citation forms for those states requiring universal citation forms.

The University of Chicago Manual of Legal Citation KF 245.U545x at Reserve and Reference
Referred to as The Maroonbook, this manual is edited by the University of Chicago Law Review and the University of Chicago Legal Forum. It is one of the few widely used legal citation guides besides The Bluebook. It was created as a practical alternative to The Bluebook setting forth general guidelines and encouraging people to merely use common sense when devising citations not explicitly listed. This Style Sheet incorporates the Maroonbook and highlights some important rules from the Chicago Manual of Style.

TaxCite: A Federal Tax Citation and Reference Manual KF 245.T39 at Reference
The American Bar Association Section of Taxation and the Virginia Tax Review designed this 100-page tax citation manual which lists the proper abbreviation and citation format for almost all tax-related documents. For those writing on taxation, this tool will come in handy since tax documents are not handled comprehensively by The Bluebook.

Non-U.S. Legal Citation Guides

The Library has many jurisdiction-specific legal citation manuals in addition to those listed below. To locate jurisdiction-specific citation guides, search HOLLIS by the subject "citation of legal authorities--jurisdiction", e.g.citation of legal authorities--france.

Australian Guide to Legal Citation Reference KU 48.A97 2002

Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation Reference KE 259.C36 2002

How to Cite Legal Authorities (Great Britain) Reference KD 400.F74x 1996

Guide to Foreign and International Legal Citations (pdf)

General (Non-Legal) Citation Guides

For research papers in law school, you will sometimes need to cite non-legal publications. If The Bluebook doesn't address a particular type of document, the following guides to citation may prove helpful.

The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed. Reference Z 253.U69 2003 also available online.

MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing Reference PN 147.G444 1998

A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations LB 2369.T8 1996 at Reference and ILS Reading Room

Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. 5th ed. (Not held at the Library)

Electronic Material Citation Guides

The Bluebook has a rule for citing Internet resources, but the following guides are more detailed and may provide additional guidance.

Online! Citation Styles
Provides citation format in a variety of styles including Chicago, MLA, APA for emails, listserv messages, web pages, and other electronic materials.

The Columbia Guide to Online Style
See also the complete, print version at PN 171 .F56W35 1998 at Reference and ILS Reference Desk.

Citing Electronic Resources by the Internet Public Library
Links to many sources that explain how to cite online materials.

Legal Abbreviation Lists

Abbreviations used in legal citation are often completely inscrutable, e.g., 54 F.R.D. 85 or 32 L. Ed. 2d 95. Before you can track down a publication in a citation, you need to figure out its complete title. The following abbreviation lists will help you do this. They are usage oriented and include variants of citations as well as standard forms.

In addition to those listed below, Harvard Law School Library has many other jurisdiction-specific legal abbreviation lists. To locate them, search HOLLIS for the subject "law--country--abbreviations" or "law--region--abbreviations" e.g., law-germany-abbreviations.

Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations
From Cardiff University, this site provides the full title from the abbreviations for legal publications. It covers case reporters and legal periodicals from the British Isles, the Commonwealth, and the United States, including those covering international and comparative law.

Abbreviations and Acronyms of the U.S. Government
From Indiana University, this list covers abbreviations of agencies, offices, and programs of the U.S. government.

Bieber's Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations KF 246.B46 2001 at Reserve, Reference Desk and ILS Reference Desk
The most heavily used list of legal abbreviations, it provides the full name of court reporters, codes, and other legal publications from their abbreviations. Best for legal abbreviations used in the United States, it also includes some publication abbreviations for English-speaking common law countries.

Index to Legal Citations and Abbreviations KD 400.R35 1993x at Reference Desk and ILS Reference Desk
International in scope, this list of over 25,000 legal abbreviations covers the major legal publications of many countries.

Noble's Revised International Guide to the Law Reports K 38.N63x 2002 at Reference Desk and ILS Reference Desk
Covers case reporters only. It provides the full title of the reporter, the jurisdiction, the years covered, and sometimes a useful comment about reprint availability or alternate titles.

World Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations K 54.W67x 1991 at ILS Reference Desk
This looseleaf provides the full name of legal publications from many countries and in many languages. For those doing historical research, there is a useful appendix that contains legal abbreviations used prior to 1607.

General (Non-Legal) Abbreviation Lists

Occasionally you will find an acronym or abbreviation which doesn't stand for the title of a publication, but instead for an association, organization, company, or something else. The following sources will help you find the full name or words from an abbreviation. They cover military, medical, technical, government, and legal abbreviations.

Acronyms, Initialisms & Abbreviations Dictionary 33rd ed. PE 1693.A37x at Reference and ILS Reference Desk

International Acronyms, Initialisms & Abbreviations Dictionary P 365.I57 at ILS Reference Desk

Written by Deanna Barmakian.