4.1.

Introduction
NOTE:

Bluebook 21st edition only incorporates minor changes compared to Bluebook 20th
edition. Therefore, most of the content for this module is similar to the last module.
However, we will highlight the changes in comparison to the Module on 21st edition.

Did You Know?

You have already understood the method of providing citations via footnotes. The
shortcut for footnoting a text is Ctrl+Alt+F (Cmd+Alt+F for MacBook users).

Let us understand an important aspect of placement of footnote numbers in the main

body of the text.

Footnote number always comes after a punctuation mark – comma, semicolon, or

period. The exception to this rule are two punctuation marks, i.e. a dash or a colon.

Therefore, footnote numbers will always precede dashes and colons.

Our main focus is on the Whitepages of Bluebook because the style prescribed under
Whitepages is used primarily in academic settings, such as for law reviews, journals,
and other legal academic journal publications.

We also use Whitepages format for citation purposes of moot court memorials.

4.2. Primary Sources

Cases

Let us understand the general citation formats for citing cases from India, United
Kingdom and the United States. After the video, we will understand the specific rules
provided by Bluebook, 21st Edition for citing case laws.
 (The same citation format is followed for Bluebook 20th Edition)

Foreign Jurisdictions

Bluebook provides specific citation formats for 44 foreign jurisdictions including

India. This has been provided under Table 2 of the Whitepages. You can access this
table without subscribing to the Bluebook, as this is available for free access.

Table 2.18 of Whitepages provides for certain citation formats that should be
followed while citing Indian sources.

Points to Note while Citing Case Laws:

 Using short-forms for case names:

Bluebook allows us to use short names for the cases that have been already cited in
your work. Usually, one party’s name or a readily identifiable shorter form of one
party is permissible for using as the short-form of the case. However, this is only done
if the reference is ambiguous.

This short-form used for referring to case laws must be italicised.

Example:

Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579, 585 (1952).

becomes

Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., 343 U.S. at 585.

OR
Youngstown, 343 U.S. at 585.

However, the short-forms should be used only if the full-form of the shortened name
has either been used in the same footnote or it has been mentioned in full (or referred
to by using Id) in the preceding five footnotes.

If one of the parties to a case is the state (Eg. Minnesota, India, etc), then the
shortened case name should not be shortened with respect to the state’s name.

Example:

United States (The United States Case) v. McMohan Brothers, 12 U.S. 123, 125
(1989).

must not be shortened to

The United States, 12 U.S. at 128.

If you want to identify the case by any other short-form, make sure that this is
mentioned in the original case citation as well.

Example:

Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (The Steel Seizure Case), 343 U.S. 579,
585 (1952).

becomes

The Steel Seizure Case, 343 U.S. 579.

 Multiple parties’ names:

All parties other than the first one listed on each side are omitted, and any word that
indicates multiple parties is also omitted.

Example:

Cheng and Broad v. Seinfeld

will not become

Cheng et al. v. Seinfeld

 Phrases like “in the matter of”, “petition of” and similar expressions are abbreviated
to “In re”. Example: In re Will of Holt.

 Apart from the widely known acronyms, the following words are abbreviated in the
main text and footnotes:

& – and

Co. – company

Ltd. – limited

Ass’n – association

Corp. – corporation
 No. – number

Bros. – brothers

Inc. – incorporated

However, these 8 words will not be used in the abbreviated form if they begin a
party’s name.

 “The” is omitted when it is the first word of a party’s name – except when it is a part
of the name of the object of an in rem action, or in cases where “The King” or “The
Queen” is a party.

Example:

Miami Herald v. Sercus [not The Miami Herald]

In re The Clinton Bridge

The King v. Broadrup

 Phrases like “City of”, “County of”, “Village of”, “Township of” are omitted unless
the expression begins with a party name.

Example:

Mayor of New York v. Clinton [not Mayor of the City of New York v. Clinton]

Chandler v. City of New York [not Chandler v. New York]

 When the case cited is not the single, clear holding of a majority of the court (i.e.,
dictum, dissenting opinion, etc.), indicate that within parenthesis:

Example:

Garcia v. San Antonio metro. Transit Auth., 469 U.S. 528, 570 (1985) (5-4 decision)
(Powell, J., dissenting).

NOTE: Method of citing cases under international law have been mentioned
below

Statutes

Under this head, we will understand the citation rules provided by Bluebook for citing
statues from the U.S.A. the U.K., and India. Apart from Indian statutes, we will also
have a look at citation formats for Indian rules, circulars, directions, and guidelines.

The U.S. Statutes

If you can recollect, in the last module, we told you that 21st edition of Bluebook does
not require us to mention the year of the federal code (official or unofficial). This is
not the same for Bluebook 20th. We are required to mention the year for the official
or unofficial federal code. For statutes currently in force, they are cited as per the
current official code or its supplement. The format for citing them is as follows:

Template:

Title number | abbreviation of code cited | § | section number (year).

Example:

42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1964).

National Environment Policy Act of 1969 § 102, 42 U.S.C. § 4332 (1969).

United States Code (U.S.C.) is the official federal code for the United States, and it
should be cited if available. However, if it is not available, we can cite unofficial
federal codes which include the United States Code Annotated (U.S.C.A.) and the
United States Code Service (U.S.C.S.).

Please remember that the same format will be applicable while citing an unofficial
codes.

Indian Statutes

A government publication is preferred over other sources. The Gazette of India,

published by the Government of India, must be the primary source of citation for
central legislation. Each state has its own separate gazette for state legislation.

Please note that Bluebook 20th edition does not provide a template format for citing
Indian statutes. However, it provides us with the following two examples for citing
Indian statutes:

Banking Regulation Act, No. 10 of 1949, INDIA CODE (1993), vol. 15.

lndustrial Disputes Act, No. 14 of 1947, INDIA CODE (1993), vol. 13.
NOTE: India Code in the aforementioned examples refers to a repository of all
enforced central and state acts linked with subordinate data like rules, regulations,
notifications, orders, circulars, ordinances and statutes. Most publishers do not require
you to mention the volume of India Code since they are not updated regularly.
Therefore, mentioning “India Code” and its relevant volume is not mandatory. In any
case, it is advised that you confirm the same from the publisher. If you are mandated
to cite India Code you may visit the following website: https://www.indiacode.nic.in/

The general format for citing Indian legislations (without mentioning India Code and
volume number) is as follows:

Template:

Act name, || No. || number of the Act || of || year of the act, || § || section number ||
(country abbreviation if not evident from context).

Example:

The Consumer Protection Act, No. 35 of 2019, § 6(2)(a) (India).

The National Food Security Act, No. 20 of 2013, § 3 (India).

Indian Rules
There are various official publications [General Statutory Rules and Orders
(G.S.R.O.), Current Indian Statutes (C.I.S.) and Official Gazette of India], but they
are not as accessible or regularly updated as the Official Gazette of India. So as a
matter of best practice, let’s consider citing Indian Rules as per the Official Gazette of
India.

Please note here that since it becomes evident from the citation that the statute is from
India, therefore mentioning (India) is not mandatory. However, we do provide the
date of publication.

Template:

Rule/regulation name, || year of rule/regulation, || Gazette of India || Relevant part and

Section of Gazette of India || (date of publication in the Gazette in format of Month.
Date, Year).

Example:

State Emblem of India (Regulation of Use) Rules, 2007, Gazette of India, pt. II sec.
3(i) (Oct. 4, 2007).
 Oil Mines Regulations, 2017, Gazette of India, pt. II sec. 3(i) (Aug. 14, 2017).

NOTE: The abbreviation for the following codes are mentioned in Bluebook itself:

1. Code of Civil Procedure – CODE CIV. PROC.

2. Code of Criminal Procedure – CODE CRIM. PROC.
3. Indian Penal Code – PEN. CODE

Indian Circulars, Directions, and Guidelines

Template:

Name of issuing authority, | circular/direction/guideline name, |

circulation/direction/guideline number, if available | (Issued on | (country abbreviation
if not evident from context).

Example:

Securities and Exchange Board of India, Master Circular for Depositories,

SEBI/HO/MRD/DP/CIR/P/118 (Issued on October 25, 2019).

Reserve Bank of India, Guidelines for Licensing of “Payments Banks,” (Issued on

November 27, 2014).

U.K. Statute

Template:
Statute short title, where available | year(s), | regnal year(s) for statutes enacted prior
to 1963 | c. | chapter number(s), | §(§) | section number(s), | sch(s). | schedule(s), if any
| (jurisdiction abbreviation if not evident from context).

Example:

Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1925, 15 & 16 Geo. 5 c. 49, § 226, sch. 6 (Eng.).

For statutes enacted after 1963, we can omit the regnal year. For example: Climate
Change Act 2008, c. 27 (UK).

U.K. Regulations

Template:

Regulation name | year of enactment, | publication abbreviation | instrument number, |

art. | article number, | ¶ | paragraph number | (jurisdiction abbreviation if not evident
from context).

Example:
The Certification of Enforcement Agents Regulations 2014, SI 2014/421, art. 3, ¶ 3
(Eng.).

Bills

Under this head, we will understand the citation rules provided by Bluebook for citing
bills from the U.S.A. the U.K., and India.

U.S. Bills

For U.S. Bills, Bluebook provides for two different formats, for Federal Bills and
State Bill.

Federal Bills Template:

Name of the bill (if relevant), | abbreviated name of the house | number of the bill, |
number of the Congress | section (if any) | (year of publication).

Example:

Privacy Protection Act of 1998, H.R. 3224, 105th Cong. § 2(a) (1998).

H.R. 119, 54th Cong. (1st Sess. 1896).

State Bills Template:

Name of the legislative body | number of the bill, | number of the legislative body (or,
if not numbered, year of the body), | number or designation of the legislative session.
(abbreviated name of the state | year of publication)

Example:

H.R. 124, 179th Leg., 1st Spec. Sess. (Pa. 1995).

Indian Bills

Template:

Bill name, | year of bill, | bill no. | bill number | of | year of bill, | § | section number |
(date of the bill) | (country abbreviation if not evident from context).

Example:

The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2013, Bill No. 112 of 2013, §3 (August
5, 2013).
U.K. Bills

Template:

Bill name | session year, | abbreviation of applicable House of Parliament | Bill | [bill
number] | cl. | clause number | (jurisdiction abbreviation if not evident from context).

Example:

Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill 2004-5, HL Bill [17] cl. 2 (Gr. Brit.).

Criminal Justice (Justifiable Conduct) Bill 2004-5, HC Bill [36] cl. 2 (Eng.).

Constitution

U.S. Constitution

Template:

U.S. CONST. | amend. | number of amendment cited | § | section number.

Examples:

U.S. CONST. amend. XIV, § 2.

U.S. CONST. art. I, § 9, cl. 2.

U.S. CONST. pmbl.

Indian Constitution

Template:

India Const. | art. | article number, | cl. | clause number.

Example:

India Const. art. 19, cl. 1(a).

India Const. art. 269, amended by The Constitution (Eightieth Amendment) Act,
2000.

Did You Know?

You must have noticed that Bluebook does not provide the method for citing U.K.
Constitution. This is because U.K. does not have a codified constitution. U.K.'s
constitutional law is mainly derived from the statutes, landmark judgments, as well as
many unwritten conventions which evolved over the years.
International Law Cases

Apart from providing specific citation styles for judgments given by the various
international courts, Bluebook also prescribes the following standard citation format
for citing international law cases:

Standard Template

Name of the case | case number | reporter, if any | nature of decision [judgment,
provisional measures, award, etc.] | paragraph numbers (if unavailable, use page
numbers instead) | (Court [if unclear from the citation], Year) | URL.

International Court of Justice (I.C.J.)

For statutes currently in force, they are cited as per the current official code or its
supplement. The format for citing them is as follows:

Template:

Case name | (Parties’ abbreviated names), | nature of decision [preliminary objection,

provisional measure, advisory opinion, judgment etc.], | volume and name of the
publication | page or case number, | ¶ | paragraph number | (date – Month and Day).
Example:

Military and Paramilitary Activities in and Against Nicaragua (Nicar. v. U.S.),

Judgment, 1986 I.C.J. Rep. 14, ¶ 190 (June 27).

Reservations to Convention on Prevention and Punishment of Crime of Genocide,

Advisory Opinion, 1951 I.C.J. Rep. 15 (May 28).

Note

One might wonder, why the names of parties were not listed in the second example.
The reason is simple- names of parties are not mentioned in Advisory Opinions of
I.C.J.

Example:

Interpretation of Peace Treaties with Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania, Advisory

Opinion, 1950 I.C.J. 65 (Mar. 30).

While mentioning the name of the case, we omit the words ‘the’ and ‘case’ under
Bluebook.

Example:

Continental Shelf

[not The Continental Shelf Case; Case concerning the Continental Shelf; Continental
Shelf Case]

Court of Justice of the European Union (E.C.J.)

For cases lodged before the ECJ since 1989, the case number will be prefixed by “C”;
older cases do not have any such prefix. For cases in the General Court, the prefix “T”
will be used and “F” for the Civil Service Tribunal.

Where the Commission, Council or the EU Parliament is one of the parties, the names
“Commission”, “Council”, or “Parliament” are used respectively.

Example:

Case T-198/98, Micro Leader Bus. v. Comm’n, 1999 E.C.R. II-3989.

Case 58/69, Elz v. Comm’n, 1970 E.C.R. 507. [Prefix ‘C’ not used because it is
before 1989]

The E.C.R. was discontinued after 2011. From 2012 onwards, you have to use
the European Case-law Identifier (ECLI) to cite EU court cases. For online sources of
pre-2012 cases, cite to Curia, the official website of the ECJ.

Examples of cases post-2012:

Case C-434/16, Peter Nowak v. Data Prot. Comm’r, ECLI:EU:C:2014:994, ¶¶54-55

(Dec. 20, 2017).

United Nations Sources

Bluebook does not provide templates to cite U.N. Sources. However, we can
understand the citation formats through various examples illustrated by the Bluebook.

General Assembly Resolutions

Examples:

G.A. Res. 832 (IX), at 19 (Oct. 21, 1954).

G.A. Res. 47/163, ¶ 5 (Dec. 18, 1992).

G.A. Res. 217 (III) A, Universal Declation of Human Rights (Dec. 10, 1948).

Security Council Resolutions

Example:

S.C. Res. 508, ¶ 3 (June 5, 1982).

U.N. Reports

Example:

Comm. On the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, Rep. of the Legal Subcomm. on its
Fifty-Third Session, U.N. Doc. A/AC.105/1067
(2014), https://www.unoosa.org/pdf/gadocs/A_69_20E.pdf.

Press Releases and Memoranda

Example:

Press Release, Security Council, Security Council Takes Up Report on Diamonds,

Arms in Sierra Leone; Expert Panel Says Council Sanctions Broken ‘with Impunity,’
U.N. Press Release SC/6997 (Jan. 25, 2001).

The U.N. Charter

Example:

U.N. Charter art. 43, ¶ 1.

You must have noticed that apart from the method of citing US statutory codes,
there were no changes in the citation formats as compared to Bluebook 21st
edition.
4.3. Secondary Sources
Non-periodic Materials

Periodical Materials

This is for journals, magazines, newspapers and the like. Since all the non-periodical
materials cannot be cited together, therefore we do not have a general template.
Therefore, we shall go material by material.

However, remember to always check if the print version of the material exists before
citing it. This is because Bluebook prefers citing the print version instead of the online
version. If the material is only available online, then the online version can also be
cited.

Consecutively Paginated & Non-Consecutively Paginated.

Let us understand this with an example of a journal.

Consecutively paginated – A journal may be published in various issues under one

volume. If every subsequent issue is paginated in continuation with the preceding
issue, then it is considered as a consecutively paginated journal.

Example: Issue 1 of a Journal is page numbered from 1 to 100, and Issue 2 begins
with page number 101.

Non-consecutively paginated – If every issue of a journal begins with page 1,

irrespective of that issue’s placement in the volume of the journal, then it will be
considered as a non-consecutively paginated journal.

Example: Issue 1 of a Journal is page numbered from 1 to 100, and Issue 2 begins
with page number 1.

Journal/Magazine Articles

Consecutively Paginated Periodicals:

Template:

Author’s name, | Title of the Article, | Volume number | Abbreviated

Journal’s/magazine’s name | first page of the article, | Specific page cited | (Year).

Example:

Edward B. Rock, The Logic and (Uncertain) Significance of Institutional Shareholder

Activism, 79 Geo. L.J. 445, 445 (1991).

If the periodical has no volume number but is still consecutively paginated throughout
each volume, use the year of publication as the volume number and omit the
parenthetical reference to the year.

Example:

Thomas R. McCroy & Barry Friedman, Conditional Spending: Federalism’s Trojan

Horse, 1988 Sup. C. Rev. 85, 99.

Non-Consecutively Paginated Periodicals:

Template:

Author, | Title in italics, | PERIODICAL NAME IN ABBREVIATION | date of the issue [if
not available, write the issue number], | at | first page of the work, | specific page
cited.

Examples:

Barbara Ward, Progress for a Small Planet, HARV. BUS. REV., Sept.-Oct. 1979, at 89,
90.

Damages for a Deadly Cloud: The Bhopal Gas Tragedy Will Cost Union Carbide
$479 Million, TIME, Feb. 27, 1989, at 53.

Did You Know?

There is a separate section in Bluebook which deals with special kinds of periodic
materials, such as student-written articles. While the general format remains the same,
the kind of material is cited in addition. You can find this additional information by
visiting the journal’s website and searching the heading under which the student’s
publication is mentioned.

Note:

You may be wondering if you can find out whether it is a book or a journal article
from only the footnote itself. Here is a trick, if the word “in” is used in the footnote, it
means that it is not a journal – instead it is a collection of works or an edited book.

Example: Kay Deaux & Brenda Major, A Social-Psychological Model of

Gender, in THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON SEXUAL DIFFERENCE 89, 90 (Deborah L.
 Rhode ed., 1990).

This example mentions the word ‘in’ in the citation, hence it is not a journal article,
but an article from a book.

On the other hand, if you see the letter “J” in Small Caps after the material’s title in
the citation, it means that it is a journal, because J is the abbreviation for Journal in
Bluebook. However, some journals like Harvard Law Review are cited without
mentioning the word “journal”. It is always a good idea to look for words like
“Review” in case the letter J is not there. This is not foolproof, so the safest way is to
search for it to confirm!

Newspaper Articles

Points to Note:

 If the name of the newspaper does not clearly indicate the place of publication, it is
written in parentheses after the name of the newspaper.

Example:

Rina Chandran, With Fees and Laws, India Rushes to Save Vanishing
Groundwater, Reuters (Mumbai), Jan. 24, 2019.

 For online newspapers, if the time of posting is available, it is written in parentheses

after the newspaper. A URL may or may not be repeated after a full citation.

Example:

Ajmer Singh, Supreme Court forms committee to draft mediation, sends government,
The Economic Times (Jan. 29,
2020), https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/supreme-court-
forms-committee-to-draft-mediation-law-will-send-to-government/articleshow/
73394043.cms (last visited Apr. 10, 2020).

Internet Sources
 All efforts should be made to cite the most stable electronic version of the source. The
URL should be at the end of the citation and after a comma.

When no author is clearly announced, omit any author information from the citation
unless an institutional author is clearly indicated. If yes, then the institutional author is
to be duly abbreviated.

Example:

W.H.O., The World Health Report – Health Systems: Improving Performance, at 153
(2000), https://www.who.int/whr/2000/en/.

Points to Note:

 If the domain ownership is clear from the website’s title, you need not name the
institutional author.

Example:

Privacy Policy, Zoom, https://zoom.us/privacy (last updated Mar. 29, 2020).

 Titles should be taken from the title bar at the top of the browser or from any clear,
identifying headline on the page.


 If there is no date associate with the specific citation, “last updated” or “last
modified” dates should be written in parentheticals after the URL. Always use the
latest date of update/correction instead of the original online publication date.

Example:

Privacy Policy, Zoom, https://zoom.us/privacy (last updated Mar. 29, 2020).

 If the material is otherwise undated, the date “last visited on” should be mentioned in
parentheticals after the URL.

Example:

Aarogya Setu is now open source, Ministry of Electronics and Information

Technology (May 26,
2020), https://static.mygov.in/rest/s3fspublic/mygov_159050700051307401.pdf (last
visited May 27, 2020).

 If the document is available in both HTML and a widely used format that retains
pagination and other elements of printed work (such as a PDF), always prefer the
later.

4.4. Signals, Quotations and

Miscellaneous
Signals
Signals are important because they indicate how a cited authority relates to the text.
This relation can be supportive, comparative, or contradictory. Signals can also
inform a reader what inferential degree exists between the text and cited source. A
reader can thus determine if a cited source supports or contradicts an author’s
assertion and whether it is necessary to take an inferential step between a cited source
and the text simply by looking at the signal used.

Remember the following in sequence:

A. Supporting Signals

No Signal

There is no need to use a signal when you are directly quoting an authority or when
restating numerical data from an authority. Merely providing the citation is sufficient
in such a case.

E.g.

It is used when the cited authority states the proposition; other authorities also state
the proposition but citing them is not necessary.

See

When the cited authority clearly supports the proposition. ‘See’ is used instead of no
signal when the proposition is not directly stated by the cited authority but obviously
follows from it, essentially linking multiple branches of the same tree.

See also

When the cited authority has additional source material that supports the proposition.
This is generally used when authorities that directly support the proposition are
already mentioned.

B. Comparitive Signals

Compare __, and___, with ___, and___.

Comparison of the authorities cited will offer support for or illustrate the proposition.
In this context, “Compare” has to be used with “with”; the “with” has to be preceded
by a non-italicised comma. The blank spaces in the text denote the authorities with
which you make the comparison.

C. Contradictory Signals

Contra

When the cited authority directly states the contrary of the proposition and is used
where [no signal] is used for support.

Example:

A v B AIR 2000 SC 433; Contra X v Y AIR 2013 SC 322

But see

When the cited authority clearly supports a proposition contrary to the main
proposition and is used where “see” would be used for support.

D. Background Signals

See generally
 Cited authority presents helpful background material related to the main proposition.

E. Order of Signals

You must have noticed that 21st edition has no strict rule for placement of
signals in a particular order. The only rule is that the authorities should be
ordered in a logical manner, with more relevant sources preceding less relevant
sources.

This is substantially different from the 20th edition of the Bluebook. 20th edition
provides us with a proper hierarchy in which the signals will be ordered. Let us know
more:

It is very much possible that you might have to use more than one signal for a given
citation. As per the 20th edition of Bluebook, there is a proper order for placing more
than one signal in a single citation.

The ground rule is that all of the similar signals are to be strung together within a
single sentence and separated by semicolons. However, if signals are of different
categories (supporting/comparative/contradictory), they must be grouped in different
sentences, separated by periods (not semicolons).

Any signal mentioned in accordance with the aforementioned rule has to conform to
the following order as illustrated by Bluebook:

I. Constitutions and other foundational documents in the order of

.
1. Federal (U.S.)
2. State (alphabetically) (U.S.)
3. Foreign (alphabetically by jurisdiction)
4. Foundational documents of the United nations, the League of nations and the
European Union (in this order)
 II. Statutes are cited according to jurisdictions in the following order (see the full
version for a more detailed sequence):

.
1. Federal
2. State (alphabetically)
3. Foreign (alphabetically by jurisdiction)

III. Treaties and other international agreements, cited in reverse chronological order

IV. Cases are arranged according to the courts issuing the cited opinions. Cases
decided by the same court/jurisdiction are arranged in reverse chronological orders.
Here’s the sequence in brief:

.
1. Federal (U.S.)
2. State (U.S.)
3. Foreign
4. International
1. International Court of Justice (ICJ), Permanent Court of International Justice
2. Other international tribunals and arbitral panels (alphabetically by name)

V. Legislative materials are cited (if multiple in the same type, in reverse
chronological order) in the order of

.
1. Bills and resolutions
2. Committee hearings
3. Reports, documents, and committee prints
4. Floor debates.

VI. Administrative and executive materials (details in the full version)

VII. Resolutions, decisions, and regulations of intergovernmental organisations are

cited in the order of
.
1. United Nations and League of Nations, in reverse chronological order by issuing body
(General Assembly, then Security Council, then other organs in alphabetical order)
2. Other organisations (alphabetically by name of organisations)

VIII. Records, briefs, and petitions

IX. Secondary materials, in brief, in the sequence of

.
1. Books and shorter works in a collection of a single author’s works (alphabetically by
last name of author; if none, by first word of title)
2. Journals articles (not magazines and newspapers)
3. Magazine and newspaper articles (alphabetically by last name of author; if none, by
first word of title)
4. Electronic sources, including Internet sources (alphabetically by last name of author;
if none, by first word of title)
5. Cross-references to the author’s own text or footnotes

Internal Cross-Referencing Elements

Supra

When the material has already appeared within your work but does not immediately
precede the footnote where you have mentioned supra.

Example:

If certain cases were cited at footnote no. 22, and you want to cite them all again at
footnote no. 30, it’ll be as:

See cases cited supra note 22.

It usually consists of the last name of the original work’s author, followed by a
comma and the word supra. If it is an institutional author, use the full institutional
name.

Infra

Same format as supra, but infra is used to refer to material that appears later in the
piece.

Example:

If Part III.A. of your research paper deals with user consent, and you want to mention
one assertion from this portion in your introduction, you can use “infra Part III.A”.

Id.

For law review footnotes, use Id. when citing the immediately preceding authority
within the same footnote or within the immediately preceding footnote when the
preceding footnote contains only one authority. Make sure that you indicate where a
subsequent citation differs from the former, such as a specific page number.
The period after Id must be italicised.

Example:

1 Chalfin v. Specter, 233 A.2d 562, 562 (Pa. 1967).

2 Id. at 563.

hereinafter
If the authority is too long to be cited by its full form, or if the shortened form you
choose may confuse the reader, then we use hereinafter.

Example:

5 Chris S. Hyman et al., Interest Based Mediation of Medical Malpractice Lawsuits: A

Road to Improved Patient Safety, 35 J. Health Care L. & Policy 797 (2010)
(hereinafter Hyman).

10 Hyman, at 812-13.

Let us quickly understand two aspects of supra and hereinafter with the following
video:

Quotations

For quotations of 50 or more words, the quotation should be indented on the left and
right without quotation marks, and quotation marks within such a block quotation
should appear as they do in the original.

Note that if you are quoting a sentence but not from its beginning, then the first letter
of the quoted text is capitalized but is written within square brackets.

Example:

The complete sentence originally-

“The court also discusses the related issue of whether Ms. Solomon knowingly and
voluntarily waived her right to a trial of her Title VII claims.”

In your work, you can write it as-

 For understanding the certainty of the claim, the court further addressed the auxillary
issue of “[W]hether Ms. Solomon knowingly and voluntarily waived her right to a
trial of her Title VII claims”.

Italicisation

 The general rule is that non-English words that are not incorporated into common
English usage are italicised. However, here are some words which are not to be
italicised:

i.e.

e.g.

res judicata

quid pro quo

amicus curiae

certiorari

ab initio

obiter dictum

de jure
 prima facie

mens rea

 Individual letters that represent hypothetical parties, places or things should be

italicised and capitalised.

Example:

A went to bank B in state X.

Things to look out for

 Italicise commas, semicolons, and other punctuation marks only when they constitute
part of the italicised material.

Example:

See, e.g., id.; Sabine Towing & Transp. Co. v. Zapata Ugland Drilling, Inc., 553 F.2d
489 (5th Cir.).

[In this example, the comma after See and the periods between e.g. are italicised as
they are a part of the italicised material. On the other hand, the comma after e.g. is not
italicised, as it is separate from the element.]

 Page number(s) should be placed before the bracketed date and without any
abbreviations like “p.” or “pp.” – these are used only in internal cross-references.

Example:

ARTHUR E. SUTHERLAND, CONSTITUTIONALISM IN AMERICA 45 (1965).

 If the page number might be confused with any other detail in the citation, we are
allowed to mention the page number following the word ‘at’. However, remember
 that ‘at’ is not used before a section (§) or a paragraph (¶). The following example of
two footnotes will clarify this rule.

Example:

BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY OF THE GOVERNORS OF THE UNITED STATES 1978-1983,

at 257 (Robert Sobel & John W. Raimo eds., 1983).

Id. § 7. [not Id. at § 7.]

 If an authority is organised by section (§) or paragraph (¶), cite them accordingly.

Example:

15 U.S.C. § 18 (1982).

6 JAMES WM. MOORE ET AL., MOORE’S FEDERAL PRACTICE ¶ 56.07 (3d ed. 1997).

When citing multiple subsections within a single section, use only one section
symbol. However, use §§ if multiple subsections within different sections is cited.

Additionally, make sure to note that there should be a space between ¶/§ and the
numeral for US cases.

Example:

The Registration Act, 1908, No. 16 of 1908, §17(1)(a)-(c).

19 U.S.C. §§ 1485(a), 1486(b).