Using Typefaces in Legal Citations
Applying Proper Bluebook Style to Court Documents and Law Reviews
Apr 29, 2009
Rule B13 in the blue pages and Rule 2 both describe when authors should use underlining, italics, and small and large capital letters in various legal documents. This article summarizes the most important of these typeface conventions.
Bluebook Style for Typefaces in Court Documents
In documents filed with a court, including motions and briefs, the following items should be underlined or italicized in citations:
- Case names (including procedural phrases that introduce case names, such as “in re,” and "v.");
- Titles of published works, including books and treatises;
- Titles of articles;
- Titles of legislative history documents;
- Introductory signals (including see);
- Explanatory phrases that provide prior or subsequent case history (such as "cert. den");
- Explanatory words and phrases that provide related case history (such as “citing” or “quoted in”); and
- Internal cross references (such as "infra," "supra," and "id.").
In textual sentences in these documents, you should also underline or italicize the following:
- Titles of publications, such as newspapers;
- Words italicized in the original of a quotation;
- Words you want to emphasize; and
- Foreign words that are not commonly used.
The following documents should appear in ordinary roman type:
- Statutes;
- Constitutions;
- Restatements;
- Reporter names; and
- Procedural rules
Bluebook Style for Law Review Citations
Law reviews use separate conventions depending on whether the information appears in body text or citations. For citations, most law reviews use one of three typefaces: plain roman text, italicized text, and large and small capitals.
Case Names:
- In full citations, case names should appear in ordinary roman type. Procedural phrases are always italicized.
- If a case name appears in an article title in a citation, it should not be italicized.
- In short citations, case names should be italicized.
Books:In books, authors and titles should appear in large and small capitals.
Periodicals:In periodicals, article titles should appear in italics, while the publication name should appear in large and small capitals. Author names should appear in ordinary roman type.
Signals:
Introductory signals should appear in italics, unless the signal functions as a verb within a textual sentence.
Explanatory Phrases:
Explanatory phrases, such as cert. denied, should appear in italics.
In the main body text, most law reviews use two typefaces: ordinary roman and italics.
Only the following should appear in italics within the main text of a law review article:
- Case names;
- Procedural phrases used with case names;
- Titles of publications;
- Titles of speeches;
- Titles of articles;
- Words emphasized in quoted matter; and
- Words emphasized for style.
Formatting Notes for Typefaces in Bluebook Legal Citations
When underlining is used, it should continue between words that are part of the same phrase.
Punctuation that is part of any of the above elements is italicized or underlined along with the element, but any punctuation that separates the element from other parts of the citation should not italicized or underlined.
If you follow these rules, you will be well on your way to mastering citation using the Bluebook.
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