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Honors 351: Judging Politics: U.S. Constitutional Law & Moot Court

Information resources for legal and scholarly research

Citation Styles

Select your citation style from the menu below. This will link you to a citation style guide. The citation styles include: 

MLAAPAChicago

AMACSEASA

Legal Citations

The Bluebook is the standard for legal citation. Cornell's Legal Information Institute is a good free resource to learn about basic legal citation.

 

Cases or Judicial Opinions

Elements of citing a case are: Party Names, Case ID (and any parallel citations), pincite (page or pages quoted), year of decision, and deciding court. Best practice for academic writing is to cite the regional reporter of the case.

  • Javins v. First Nat’l Realty Corp., 428 F.2d 1071 (D.C. Cir. 1970).
    • Case name: Javins v. First Nat'l Realty Corp.
    • Case ID: 428 F. 2d 1071
    • Deciding court: D.C. Cir. (District of Columbia Circuit)
    • Year of decision: 1970
  • Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98, 121 S.Ct. 525, 148 L.Ed. 2d. 388 (2000).
    • Case name: Bush v. Gore
    • Case ID: 428 F. 2d 1071, Parallel citations: 121 S.Ct. 525, 148 L.Ed. 2d. 388
    • Deciding Court: Supreme Court (indicated in the parallel citation, no need to repeat).
    • Year of decision: 2000

 

Statutes

Elements of a federal statute citation: Title Code § Section (year)

  • Aid to Families with Dependent Children ("AFDC"), 42 U.S.C. §§ 601–617 (1994).
    • Official Name: Aid to Families with Dependent Children
    • U.S.C. title number: 42
    • Code cited: U.S.C. ("United States Code")
    • Sections: §§ 601–617
    • Date of code edition cited: 1994

 

Administrative Rules and Regulations

Citations are similar to statutes in that they are cited to codified laws, for example to the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.).

  • 7 C.F.R. § 273.15(a)-(q) (2010)
    • Title number: 7
    • Regulations cited: C.F.R. 
    • Section of C.F.R.: § 273.15(a)-(q)
    • Date of code edition cited: 2010

The Wisconsin Administrative Register is the official record of the Wisconsin Administrative Code.

 

Constitutions

  • U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 2.
    • Abbreviation of Constitution cited: U.S. Const
    • Part of Constitution: amendment ("amend.")
    • Number of cited amendment: XIV
    • Section cited: § 2