Primary vs. Secondary Sources
Primary and secondary sources have special significance in signifying authority with regard to the law. Nonetheless, all students and scholars must recognize the origins of a document.
Olson, K. C. (2021). Legal research in a Nutshell. West Academic Publishing
Deciphering Citations to Government Documents
- Basic Statutory CitationIntroduction to The Bluebook and basic concepts of legal citation to new law students, from the Georgetown Law Library. Provides a diagram of a citation to the U.S. Code.
- Basic Case CitationDiagram of a citation to a court case, provided by the Georgetown Law Library.
- Federal Courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. [From the Georgetown Law Library.]Supreme Court cases should be cited from the official reporter, the United States Reports. Citation components include:
Name of the case (underlined or italicized and abbreviated according to Rule 10.2).
Volume of the United States Reports.
Reporter abbreviation ("U.S.").
First page of the case.
Year the case was decided.
Note: Due to the lag time in publication of the U.S. Reporter, readers may see citations to Supreme Court cases from unofficial reporters, such as the Supreme Court Reporter ("S. Ct."), which is more frequently updated. - Legal citation for the U.S. Constitution and state constitutions, U.S. federal regulations, law reviews and academic journals.From the Georgetown Law Library.
The Bluebook and Legal Citation
- Bluebook GuideThe citation style for U.S. legal documents is found in "The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation." The Georgetown Law Library has an excellent guide to the Bluebook.
- Congress.gov: Citation Tool"Congress.gov offers a citation tool that provides support for several citation formats. The supported citation formats include the Bluebook, the American Psychological Association (APA), the Modern Language Association (MLA), and the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS)."