The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation illustrates hypertrophy in an anthropological sense. It is a monstrous growth, far from the functional necessity of forms of legal citation, that serves the obscure needs of legal culture and its student subculture. [37] Some works, often cited nationally, have their own form of special citation. For the first 50 years of the Bluebook`s history, the Harvard Law Review retained 100% of revenue. [47] In 1974, the editors of Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania Law Reviews and the Yale Law Journal discovered this, apparently due to an indiscretion. [48] They complained that Harvard had illegally withheld all profits from the first eleven issues, which were estimated to total $20,000 per year. [49] After threats of legal action and numerous quarrels, Harvard agreed with them to share the revenues: 40% for Harvard, 20% each for Columbia, Pennsylvania and Yale; Harvard would continue to provide production and distribution services. [12] Another dispute concerns the copyright status of The Bluebook. Proponents of open source argue that The Bluebook is not copyrighted because it is an essential part of the legal infrastructure. [41] Lawyers representing the Bluebook publishing consortium argue that “carefully selected examples, explanations and other textual records” are protected by copyright. [42] California required the use of the California Style Manual. [29] In 2008, the California Supreme Court issued a rule that gave the option to use the California Style Manual or The Bluebook. [30] The two styles differ considerably in the citation of case law, in the use of ibid.
or id. (for idem) and in the citation of books and journals. [31] Michigan uses a separate official citation system issued as an administrative order issued by the Michigan Supreme Court. [32] The main difference is that the Michigan system “omits all periods in citations, uses italics slightly differently, and does not use `small caps.`” [33] As noted above, Texas merely supplements the Bluebook with points specific to Texas courts, such as the citation of cases where Texas was an independent republic,[34] petition and written history,[35] the Attorney General`s opinion,[36] and similar matters. Bluebook Rule 15 specifies the citation format for books, reports, and other non-periodical materials. In general, the citation should include the full name of the author, the title of the book, the page cited, the name of the publisher (if applicable), the edition (if applicable), and the year of publication. David Post commented, “This is copyright nonsense, and Harvard should be ashamed of having lost its legal dogs to distribute in order to protect its (apparently quite lucrative) publishing monopoly.” [45] In general, shortened as much as possible without losing the necessary information. For example, the Blue Book recommends shortening procedural sentences to abbreviations such as “In re” or “Ex parte” and using all commonly understood abbreviations to shorten the names of the parties, such as “Univ.” instead of “University.” In addition, the names of the source and the court are usually abbreviated; In the following example quote, Federal Rules Decisions is abbreviated to “F.R.D.
” and the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania in “W.D. Pa”. Sources and courts tend to have official abbreviations for this purpose, usually provided visibly to anyone who needs to quote them. (1) Cite the full name of the author as it appears in the publication, which includes the initials of the middle name or other designations such as Jr. or III. [Rule 15.1], but not “Dr.” or “Prof.” For two authors, use an ampersand with both full names [Rule 15.1(a)]. If there are more than two authors, you can cite them all or cite the first one followed by et al. [Rule 15.1(b)]. State laws follow a similar structure, but where possible, it is sufficient to cite the appropriate section of the code. Include (1) the volume number, (2) the author(s) of the specific volume, (3) the title of the specific volume, (4) an exact citation if applicable, and (5) the edition/year (and supplement, if applicable). Do not include Massachusetts Practice as a title.
The Blue Book is also affected by disruptions in the legal industry due to legal technology. [51] In 2017, the startup LegalEase[52] launched a legal citation generator that allows its users to create citations in bluebook format. [53] In the abbreviated form of a case, you are free to shorten the name of the case to the first part or even to an abbreviated form of that party`s title. However, if the first party is a State entity, geographical entity or other such creation, this quotation may not be useful. (Since there are so many cases where the first party is the U.S. government, for example, listing a case name like “United States” doesn`t limit it enough to be helpful.) In these cases, quote with the name of the second part instead. Claims about intellectual property made by HLR Association may or may not be false. But regardless of this, the tactics of the lawyer of the HLR association in his relations with Mr. Malamud and Prof.
