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Bluebook Citation: Statutes

This guide covers an overview of Bluebook citations, FAQs, and supplemental material to aid in your legal citations.

Basic Statutory Citation

There is specific formatting of statutory citation dependent upon a number of factors, which are discussed more thoroughly throughout the subheadings of this page. Always consult The Bluebook to ensure that your formatting is correct for your specific statutory citation. 

However, the basic format of a statutory citation look like this:

Elements to a Statutory Citation

The basic format of a statutory citation should contain:

  • Title
  • Code abbreviation (See T1)
  • Section
  • Date of Code Edition

Relevant Rules & Tables

  • Rule 12: governs how to cite statutes; contains formatting instructions and guidance on citing federal and state statutes as well as municipal ordinances, rules of evidence and procedure, and uniform and model laws
    • Rule B12: Bluepage rule discussing statutory citations
  • Table 1 (T1): provides the abbreviated forms of statutory codes, federal and state statutes, and the preferred statutory code for federal and state statutes

Statutory Code vs. Session Laws?

Statutory law is the body of law derived from statutes rather than from constitutions or judicial decisions. 

Session laws are the body of statutes enacted by a legislature during a particular annual, biennial, or special session. Session laws happen at both the federal and state level. 

A statutory code contains the general, permanent laws currently effective in a particular jurisdiction. Federal statutory codes are enacted by Congress, and each state's statutory codes are enacted by that state's legislature. 

There are two important features that differentiate statutory codes from session laws.

  1. Codes are arranged by topic- related laws are grouped together; session laws are published chronologically and in sequential order
  2. Codes incorporate new laws and amendments to existing laws- codes contain the law as it is currently enforced in a jurisdiction; session laws give a snapshot in time of when the law was originally passed

A session law can be incorporated into a statutory compilation or code through codification.

When a session law is codified, its original language is generally kept intact. Parts of the session law may be separated out and integrated into different parts of the code to fit into the topical arrangement scheme of the code. Minor adjustments may also be made to incorporate the language from the session law into the existing code for coherency.